King Brewery has hopes for new creations on the horizon
By Jon Yaneff

Co-owner of King Brewery, Phil DiFonzo swirls the pilsner beer during a tour of the brewery earlier this month. Photos by Jon Yaneff

King Brewery has been in King for about eight years and as an organization it strives to become more involved within the community.

The King Township Historical Society had the opportunity to tour and explore the Nobleton facility last Sunday. They learned about the brewery's different brands of beers, such as their Czech-style pilsner and German-style dark lager.

"Tours are a fun opportunity for me that allows me talk about beer, which is the best part of the job," said brewmaster Phil DiFonzo, who is a certified beer judge. "We liked to be associated with the community more, such as being a larger part of the horse community and the historical society. We'd also like to support the Township offices with fund-raisers."

For the future, King Brewery is considering a more versatile location within the township in order to facilitate a more eventstructured restaurant atmosphere where tourists can come and enjoy themselves.

DiFonzo pours the seasonal pilsbock beer directly from the vessel. Pilsbock is half pilsner and half bock.

"Maybe a beer gardens venue, where people can get schnitzel or sausage and have your freshly poured beer right from the brewery," said DiFonzo. "I think that environment would be god for beer drinkers, as well as King Township."

DiFonzo is a co-owner of the brewery with his brother Chris and a few other business partners, including Mike MacNeal.

"As a home brewer I won numerous awards across Canada for national competitions," he said. "That's what really spurred us to make a commercial company. We felt Ontario was ready for different beers, as our audience is guided towards the import drinker and people who enjoy the finer things with more flavour."

King Brewery products are featured on draft in many local establishments, including, Doctor Delaney's in Schomberg, Hogan's Inn in King City, the Terra Cotta Inn and many beer trendy establishments in downtown Toronto.

"We recently got a new account called Terror Restaurant in Thornhill, which we only received because they were switching to Ontario products," stated DiFonzo. "They found out we were the closest brewery, so we brought in samples, they liked them and put us on tap."

For the past three spring seasons King Brewery has made a Pilsbock beer, which is a half-pilsner and half bock.

"Bock is a celebration event beer with higher alcohol and a Germanstyle," he said. "With the pilsner side of the beer we use pilsner ingredients and together it is our fun beer creation. We have other beers we want to experiment, such as a bach for every season."

The pils-bach usually last about four weeks into the spring and is only sold at the brewery store. Eventually they plan to sell the pilsbach in beer stores and liquor stores, along with their original pilsner and dark lager.

Those beers can be found at 52 The Beer Stores and 63 LCBO around Ontario, including in Schomberg.

For more information on King Brewery, visit their Web site at www.kingbrewery.ca or call them at (905) 859-KING (5464).