The Pilgrim Brewer
Introduction
There is a long tradition of describing the making of beer in verse, using allegory to infuse a straightforward process with depth of meaning. Canada’s breweries, both large and small, highlight a disjunction between this poetry—as exemplified in Robbie Burns’ The Ballad of John Barleycorn—and their built forms. This poem is a lyrical account of the craft of brewing, whereas typical breweries are largely unimaginative sheds, serving only to protect the machinery from the elements, and giving nothing to stir the imagination.
It is commonplace to see otherwise interesting processes, embodying their own architectural logic, trapped in unimaginative containers. Even when the containers are more interesting, such as in KPMB’s Jackson Triggs winery at Niagara on the Lake, the processes are not expressed. Must every housing be an industrial shed?
Crafting beer involves a sequence of steps where the ingredients are manipulated. This journey, which starts with malt and ends with finished beer, embodies many evocative actions, such as crushing, mashing, boiling, screening, cooling, swirling, and finally waiting. Armed with the combination of the story of John Barleycorn and the honest process of beer-making, this thesis endeavours to develop a language that is more expressive of this craft.