A garage rock approach to brewing: Founders of Harmon’s Craft Brewing chart new path from alc to non-alc

When he hit the “reset button” on his relationship with alcohol, Steve Abrams started down a frustrating road looking for great-tasting non-alcoholic beer in Canada. But it was a trip with his family to San Diego in 2019 that inspired him to start Harmon’s Craft Brewing with two friends, Rob Doyle and Mike Cuch.

“In November 2019 I quit drinking,” said Abrams, co-founder of Mill Street Brewery, one of Canada’s iconic craft breweries. “My sobriety lasted nine months … I love beer, so completely giving it up was difficult at times. There were all those trigger moments: walking past a patio, sitting on a dock, seeing live music.”

During that fateful trip to California, he found a lot of alcohol-free craft beers at the local liquor store. He bought one of everything and spent the next few days “freaking out at how delicious they were,” said Abrams. “After returning to Toronto, I couldn’t stop thinking that this was opportunity smacking me in the head.”

The first and only brewer he reached out to was Doyle, former Head Brewer at Mill Street, currently a brewing professor at Niagara College Canada. Doyle started researching and experimenting on his home brew kit in his garage. 

“I have an interest in anything brewing — the process, the technical aspects,” said Doyle, who co-owned High Road Brewing Company for years. “Making non-alcoholic beer, especially the way we have tried to tackle the challenge, is tricky. I have always been an avid homebrewer, and that’s provided me with a great way to test techniques, ideas and figure out this non-alc beer.”

While chatting with the three founders over Zoom, they describe the venture as a “garage rock” approach to brewing: no budget, just a cool idea, and a desire to see if they could make it work without any of the fancy technology that big breweries have.

Their non-alc beer dreams started March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown. They had the time they needed to start creating recipes, as well as adapting and updating methods used by generations of small brewers to create an innovative way to make non-alcoholic beer. The partners connected virtually and met regularly at a retail parking lot to try Doyle’s latest batch.

“This wasn’t a perfect process. There was a lot of bad beer,” admitted Doyle. “There were and continue to be many adjustments in our non-alc world, but we’re still talking about technique, quality, and flavour — the sweet and bitter elements balanced with the yeast and ester characters and so much more. The beer has to be greater than the sum of its parts.”  

It took them the better part of nine months before they felt the beer was ready to be put into cans and given to other people to taste. Harmon’s current offerings are a testament to that traditional brewing approach. Lunchbox Lagered Ale pours a clear cooper with refreshing notes of fruit, a slight malt sweetness and a hint of hop bitterness. Jack Pine Pale Ale is full of crisp citrus and hoppy pine flavours that pours a mellow opaque orange. Their upcoming Half-Day Hazy IPA is pitched as full of tropical citrus flavours in the New England style.

Coming up on two years, the partners are very happy with what they have managed to produce on a small scale working with professional equipment. They have more recipe ideas, different techniques, and see opportunities for improvement. 

They were keen on not doing anything weird. “We wanted to make great beer, but how do we fit it into the traditional beer-making process,” said Doyle. “We faced some limitations, so technique, process, and recipe design come into play. The minutiae, although tricky, was key.”

Harmon’s doesn't use “fancy equipment or special technology” to remove the alcohol after fermentation, just clever recipe design and attention to detail. “Making non-alc beer is very difficult,” said Doyle, especially when brewing beer to 0.5% alcohol. “How do you tie all the flavour elements together when alcohol is usually the ‘ether’ that does that in beer?” 

They are not moving too far away from the traditional brewing process. Their beer is brewed like a regular 5% lager or ale, but on the extreme lower end of the beer-making fringe. “It drinks like regular beer, it’s fermented like regular beer, just 0.5% alcohol or less,” said Abrams. “We hope to share it with people and get liquid to lips.”

Harmon’s takes a sustainable approach to brewing: They use an eco-friendlier process than other methods that create a waste stream. They ensure all their organic ingredients are sustainably sourced from farms that don’t use pesticides, GMOs, or inorganic waste. Their packaging is designed to reduce cardboard waste.

“Our job is not just to make the best non-alc beer, we believe it needs to be brewed sustainably and with quality ingredients,” said Abrams. “Craft beer has to be approachable. We are three easy-going guys, so our beer needs to be fun and entertaining. There is no reason why non-alc beer can’t be fun and entertaining.” 

Beyond quality, flavour, and sustainability they wanted to avoid sobriety messaging and invite everyone to drink their beer. “It’s none of our business — the beer has to taste good, but you can’t be dogmatic about it,” said Cuch. “We don’t take ourselves too seriously and we know who our audience is — beer lovers. Whether it’s one night or the rest of your life, whatever your reason for choosing a beer that doesn’t have alcohol, kudos to you. Hopefully we can be part of your life by providing delicious non-alc beer.”