Innocente Brewing Company
What happens when you combine a PhD in Molecular Biology and a Post Doctoral Fellowship studying yeast, with a brew making obsession for hopped up beer? You get Steve Innocente, the madabout- hops scientist who turns beer making into an art form.
In 2004, Innocente moved with his family to Scotland where he did his post-doc at the University of Edinburgh studying Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewing yeast) as a model system. While he had brewed on and off in Canada, he didn’t get into brewing again until he was expecting child number four and there wasn’t as much time to get out to the local Edinburgh pubs.
For professional feedback on his beers, Innocente started to enter local competitions. In January 2012, he joined and entered two beers into the Scottish Craft Brewers Competition. One of them won the category and was voted best in show. That beer has evolved into Bystander. Later that year he entered another competition hosted by the Institute of Brewing and Distilling at Heriot Watt University which won the ‘People’s Choice’ award! This got him thinking he might be on to something.
Contract Brewing at Alechemy Brewing, Innocente started the Innocente Brewing Company and his first beer “Innocente Bystander”, a 4% ABV, 125 IBU American pale ale took local pubs by storm! Additionally a premium lager (Lost) and an IPA (Conscience) rounded out his repertoire.
Now back in Canada, the Innocente Brewing Company is excited to be part of the renaissance putting ‘craft’ back into ‘craft beer’ by adding to this flourishing beer scene which is slowly and surely converting Canadian palates.
In the summer of 2015, Innocente Brewing Company took home a gold medal for Best Porter at the Canadian Brewing Awards in Niagara Falls with their Charcoal Porter. This is the same beer that won a silver at the Ontario Brewing Awards and brewed as an exclusive for the Charcoal Group of restaurants, including Beertown locations in Waterloo Region (Waterloo and Cambridge) and London. This past summer of 2016, Innocente Brewing Company took home yet another gold medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards in Vancouver, but this time for Best Imperial IPA with their Two Night Stand.
This Porter style of beer has its roots in the working-class streets of London in the 18th century. Meant to be a meal for energetic porters, it was often a mix of aged beers and younger beer, used brown malt and was fairly hop-heavy and is still closely related to stout beer.
Proud to be a part of the fabric of Waterloo, Innocente Brewery invites you to make a date for a tour or Sample some of their beguiling beer. One thing the brewery loves are those curious about something only Innocente can answer.
Please call or stop in during Hours of Operation (Monday – Wednesday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. Thursday – Friday: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. – Saturday – Sunday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.). Innocente Brewery is located at 283 Northfield Drive East, Unit 8, Waterloo, Ontario. You can call 519.725.1ALE (1253) or visit them online at www.innocente.ca
