Brews News: Dundas and Sons tap out after good run (2024)

Dreams come true, dreams die. Dundas and Sons, the microbrewer in London’s Old East Village has taken the ride.

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Opened in 2019, Rob Dundas’s place was a unique take on small batch beer, neighbourhood building and hospitality.

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Dundas and Sons closed in April. Its demise follows the closing of Curley in Hyde Park. Curley managed to survive the pandemic and revised its business model only to fall to a redevelopment plan.

In a video posted to social media, Rob Dundas lamented closing his brewery. Located around the corner from the old Root Cellar location that incubated the now successful London Brewing, Dundas and Sons seemed to be filling a gap when London Brewing moved to a bigger location a few blocks away.

“It’s been a good run though,” Dundas said in the video. “Not the end of the world. (Will) still make beer, be harder for you guys to have some. There’s lots of beer out there, maybe I’ll make another thing happen one of these days.”

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Dundas was in a motorcycle accident in 2022, adding to the challenge of keeping things running.

“Walking away from my dreams and stuff, that sucks a lot,” he said. “I just don’t have it in me anymore. Too many things happened that didn’t go well. There was divorce, construction. I think there was a global pandemic or something.”

The beer board was constantly revolving and evolving and once included beer made with hops grown on Dundas’s porch. Sours, spiced beer, a saison with elderberry and honey — Dundas was into experimentation but also leaned into popular beer styles. All the while depending on draft sales.

All very unusual stuff for a usual little brewery that’ll be missed.

NEW AND NOTED

Is London’s 4est Brewing looking for new beer recipes that fit its Forest City and Reforest London themes? There’s an idea waiting to be emulated in Alton, where a brewery has an unusual beer made using maple sap. GoodLot Farm and Farmstead Brewing Co. has Tree Hug Wilder Sap Ale. It uses sap harvested this spring from Terra Cotta Conservation Area on the Niagara Escarpment in Halton Hills. It’s $3.76 for a 355 ml can, 6.5 per cent alcohol, and supports the Credit Valley Conservation Foundation.

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Long weekends and lagers always pair well. Storm Stayed has a sale on Keets, its marquee craft lager. Twelve packs are $24. Downtown, the Denim Brothers at Beerlab London loaded up with rice for a draft-only 4.2 per cent alcohol American lager christened Stolen Table. Anderson has its Gold which is also sold as the season starts at Slo-Pitch City in Dorchester. The lager of choice at Toboggan Brewing, which just marked its ninth year, is Holy Roller, the homage to the nearby tank of the same name. In St. Thomas, Caps Off has Hog Head L&PS, an American lager named as a nod to the old London and Port Stanley Railway which used to have a station within a stone’s throw of the brewery. If Lake Huron beckons, the lager to quaff is the 4.3 per cent alcohol, hint of citrus Navigating Lieutenant at Bayfield Brewing or No Dog’n Lit (not lite or light) Lager at Bad Apple Brewing near St. Joseph.

Wayne Newton is a freelance journalist based in London.

BrewsNewsTravels@gmail.com

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