In addition to crafting inventive craft beers, Cindy Blair and Harold Kuret have been successful in creating a one-of-a-kind guest experience at Steel Wheel Brewery since its founding in 2018. This experience includes multiple dining options, educational courses, and an opportunity for guests to immerse themselves in farming and agricultural history. 

The couple would later shift their focus, having first bought their Brant County property in 2005 and entering the hop farming industry in 2015. Blair clarifies. Before retiring, Blair spent thirty years working for the Region of Waterloo in the emergency preparedness and health and safety departments.

“We wanted to be busy in retirement and decided that we were going to be hop farmers. [but after some time] we didn’t want to do this so we asked ourselves ’What’s plan B?’ We were home brewers and craft beer drinkers [and now had experience] as hop farmers. We thought that it was a natural segue to opening a craft brewery in retirement,” explained Blair. “We approached the county with the idea of [opening] an on-farm brewery. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get there, including a zoning change and lots of permits to change the building…It was almost two and a half years for us to get everything together before we opened.”

Read the full story (by Brian Trota) HERE.

SOURCE: Brant Beacon
PHOTO CREDIT: Steel Wheel Brewery