Tunnels of Neustadt

Neustadt, Ontario (birthplace of John Diefenbaker, Canada's 13th Prime Minister) was founded in 1856 by David Winkler who promptly dammed Meaux Creek in 1857 and erected a sawmill, gristmill and flour mill.

Two years later in 1859, German immigrant, Henry Huether constructed a brewery which burned down ten years latter in 1869. Huether, not to be deterred, then invited 40 stonemasons from Germany which began construction over a natural spring, which still flows through a network of caverns beneath the brewery today.

Back during the reconstruction, Heuther rebuilt using fieldstone brought in by local farmers in exchange for beer . . . this in my books is a decent deal ! Local villagers used yeast from the vats for baking and malt residue for cattle feed and so the great circle of beer continued.









Mr. Huether also kept carriages and six teams of horses in the stables on the lower floor and maintained a hotel on the north end of the long structure. There is also small stone building to the north of the brewery which was originally a customs and excise office where the officer would check the barrels of beer going out full and coming in empty to calculate taxes due.










The brewery was closed in 1916 due to prohibition but found a use as a creamery, egg grading station, town hall and a dance hall for several years. The structure eventually fell out of use in 1972 and remained empty until 1997, when the brewery was reopened as Neustadt Springs Brewery. The current owners Val and Andy from the UK purchased the building and within 10 months restored it to its former glory and revived the brewery operation. They currently brew 4 brands of beer and have an on-site retail store (website link HERE).













The owners provide a one-hour tour of the original caverns below the brewery on weekends only. These dark caverns, laying approximately 30 below street level are accessible by sloped ramps and are protected by an army of albino spiders. There is a tunnel which connects the brewery caverns to Heuther's house across the street as well as another one which runs under the old customs & excise office to the Co-Op feed mill which now houses a large antique store which is currently walled up. There are rumours that this tunnel may have seen clandestine use during the prohibition years.

I Get Around

I get around . . . One of the characteristics of a passionate urban explorer, is simply that he or she explores. This means that no matter how cold, or hot, how much precipitation in its many wondrous forms is draining from the skies down the back of your neck, there is a drive to constantly interact with one's environs.

Here's an aggregation of how I saw my world through my lens over the last 72-hours. My apologies in advance - not really 'UrbEx' per se, but still encompassing the essence and spirit of exploration.

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Another Downtown Fire
Yet another tragedy downtown. Thank-fully nobody was hurt in this latest string of fires. The first incident I spoke about took place 7/08/2007 (Earth & Sky Connection) with the second one on 12/06/2007 (Five Points), both leaving many unfortunate tenants homeless.


The latest fire occured on Tuesday 20 May at 98-104 Dunlop Street East (Bedrock's Smoothie & Pita and Janet Kemp Ladies Fashion), but I only had an opportunity to poke around just now. The Office of the Fire Marshal has labeled the incident as suspicious - a mattress leaning against a gas meter at the back of the building caught fire and spread to the commercial spaces at street level and apartments above.

Although the building looks fairly intact from the street, there was heavy interior smoke and fire damage. The Owner has been ordered to engage a structural engineer to assess the damage and report on recommended remedial work necessary to make the building safe again.

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Robert Simpson Brewery
Directly across the street from the fire-damaged Pita joint lies the wondrous Robert Simpson Brewery. This brewery is named after a master brewer who was also happened to Barrie’s first mayor. Mr. Simpson founded Simcoe Brewery in 1843. Back then, it was healthier to drink beer than water they may have been pulling out of the lake or shallow dug wells.

Brewmaster Gordon Slater, together with owner Peter Chiodo, have spent years developing and evolving their Confederation Ale. Gordon and Peter craft their batches 'o' brew according to the 'Reinheitsgebot' or Bavarian 'Beer Purity Law'.









Robert Simpson and his brewery was in great demand as every small hamlet in Simcoe County paraded economic inducements to have him locate his business in their community. A measure of success for these early settlements was to be able to demonstrate a list of industrial entrepreneurs working and living in their forward-looking municipality.


Fortunately (or unfortunately), Robert Simpson had one of the best-burning breweries in Ontario. Fire struck his brewery in the Village of Kempenfelt (1836), and Tollendal Village before he finally settled on the Marry Street location in Barrie in 1849. Each time incentives were offered to Mr. Simpson to relocate to their community.

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Ardagh Accident
I was coming back home on Friday night (from an undisclosed location) when I rolled up to a police road block near to where I live. Inquisitive as I am, I popped out to talk with on-lookers and take pictures (as my camera always seems to be about my person).

Here is the Police blurb . . . Barrie Police are reporting that a serious motor vehicle collision occurred this evening just after 8:00pm. Police report a Buick Regal was driving westbound on Ardagh Road, east of Ferndale Road, at a high rate of speed. The vehicle lost control on the crest of a hill and veered across the east bound lanes of Ardagh Road, mounting the sidewalk and striking a female pedestrian walking eastbound. The 36 year old female pedestrian has serious injuries and was flown to Sunnybrook Hospital. The 21 year old male driver has been arrested for Dangerous Driving Causing Bodily Harm. The Barrie Police Service Traffic Unit and Identification Unit have been called in to investigate. Police are asking citizens to avoid the area for now.

I am trying hard not to pre-judge here but from what I saw the accident reconstruction officers doing, it appears this idiot really laying it down hard and fast over the hill and lost it, skidding out at least 200 metres before finally coming to rest on the sidewalk.

Feel free to provide comments about what you think is wrong with this driver.

Until next time, Happy & Safe Exploring,
. . . and watch out for idiot drivers.

The Coffee Conundrum

I hooked up with fellow explorers 'syn' and 'zong' (aka 'makewiththebits') to conduct a further exploration of my favourite abandoned brewery. Although this was my fourth such trip into this massive complex, I still have yet only explored less than half of the facility.

As syn and zong were running a tad late, I decided to document their approach into the facility from the roof-top . . . I was fairly impressed how well the fellas blended into the background while in super-ninja-stealth-mode.


As I had not yet toured through the brewery's hospitality centre (read: beer tasting room!), I made it a point to explore this area first. This space was, I'm sure at one point, beautifully appointed to host countless thirsty guests after their tour of the brewery. The room features natural stone and wood materials.








Shown here is a lovely rock waterfall and the impressive stone hearth / fireplace. Equipped with a hot hostess, many would have considered this place back in the day 'beverage nirvana'.


Much of the hospitality centre has been ripped apart by contractors recovering material for re-use so it now appears a ghost of its former glory. Speaking of glory, no golden barley-water was to be found at the bar . . :-(








Of particular note regarding the very strategic location of the tasting room - it is sited directly below the former corporate offices. Coincidence? - I think not.

Behind the tasting room bar are conveniently located washrooms. The natural stone theme is carried through here as well. Very disturbing however, is the horridly garish choice of ceramics.

Toothpaste and tooth brushes were found in the Tasting Room fugly-a$$ washroom confirming my suspicion that the corporate managers occasionally spent the night at the bar.

As the crew pushed on to yet-unexplored areas of the facility, we took some time to photograph the gutted room where I suspect the bottling operation was housed.










For some reason today, I just could not get enough steel girders / 'H'-beams. Perhaps it is simply an iron deficiency.



One end of the bottling room contained a shallow lake. Since it had been raining intermittently for the last several days, I conclude that there may be a leak in the roof somewhere.

When I look at this image, I imagine Gollum climbing to the top of an island in an underground lake . . . weird !

Lone chairs seem to be ubiquitous with these larger abandonments. As no exploration is quite complete without taking one of these 'di rigeur' camera shots, I have included one here.



This was a really nice chair by-the-way. I could only wish to have such a chair for my desk at the Office.

Since I'm feeling like some more black & white images after that lovely chair-shot, I present here an old-skool dolly and a pipe-threader all found (very!) close to the occupied portions of the facility.













The team finally pushed into a yet-unexplored portion of the facility. This large room was rather dark with the exception of a hole in the roof which provided some interesting lighting effects for this small wooden pallet of material.

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I should hope that some of the blog readers out there(you average almost 800 per month to this blog)are starting to wonder why the the title of this post is "The Coffee Conundrum". Well, I shall get to that now.

Within the ill-lighted room mentioned previously, one of the first pieces of equipment encountered was this dusty machine used to bag coffee. Some may recall that 'Aurora Beverages' along with 'National Roasters' still occupy leased space here.

As we further explored this space, we identified numerous other pieces of equipment and machinery present all in a similar state of dis-use. Although there had to be several short years of dust and debris on the equipment, an entire coffee process line was operating here; roasting, grinding and packaging coffee.

What was highly unusual about this abandoned production space was the large volume of abandoned stock. There were numerous pallets of un-roasted (or green) coffee beans everywhere.








Several bags had been split open 'spilling the beans' perhaps by accidental movement of the product, by highly caffeinated rodents, or by O.P.P. Tactical and Drug Enforcement Officers back in 2004.

If I had to guess, I would estimate there to be the following volumes of coffee stock (all approximate of course):

• 120 x 60 Kilogram sacks, and
  
• 20 x 900 Kilogram 'supersacks'

This would give us approximately 25,200 Kilograms of green coffee beans. At approximately 80 cents per kilogram (whole-sale import), there would have been just over $ 20,000 of inventory. Given $6.00/1 Kg tin, I would peg the 'street value' (read: grocery store aisle) at just over $ 151,000. Them is a lot a beans - and we haven't even considered the value of all the process equipment yet.

So - I'd like to hear from the readers - what reason(s) do you think someone would walk away from so much investment ?
Please comment here on the post (or eMail me if you must) to discuss your theory.

Additional bit'o'information - Vince DeRosa (who has several properties to his name in T.O. and the Hammer), is C.E.O. of Fercan Developments, the company which purchased the former Molson Brewery. Vince also happens to own National Roasters, the coffee company, and Aurora Beverages who lease portions of the building. After the marijuana bust in 2004, Justice of the Peace Sue Hilton issued a non-communication order between the accused just released on bail and Vince DeRosa.

Molson Brewery 3

This is the third exploration into the former Molson brewery in Barrie.
For the first two adventures, look here and here.

From Left to Right in the Pipe Gallery -
CrossFire, JFK and yours truly.
UrbEx Barrie's very own JuicyFruitKisses and our good friend CrossFire from UEKW were in attendance today, both of whom had expressed a deep desire to explore the brewery. Having already put two explorations through a limited portion of the facility, one may suggest that perhaps I start an Urban Exploration adventure tour company.

I have already thought of that but could not think of a creative way to describe the nature of my illegal trespassing business within the business license application. Anyway, its always a pleasure to socially interact with other explorers , pick up on useful tips and perhaps find something very interesting overlooked previously.

Here, JFK, like a ghostly apparition, flows down the hallway to the boiler room.

Portions of the facility not previously explored that were covered today included the barley storage silos and the dimly-lit basement housing various process equipment.




JFK hamming it up for the camera.
Apparently there may a 'un-natural' gas hazard present in this room.

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I am always fascinated by gauges, levers, pulleys, and dials at an industrial abandonment. I visually attempt to recreate the manufacturing processes by following the process piping and studying any labels still attached to equipment.

I could not determine what this lever did but if I were the process engineer, I would have it spring a trap door in the lobby.

From the boiler room area, stairs led down into an absolute blackness. This is the moment where I remember that I wanted to pick up an LED flashlight and chuck my little mag-lite out. Fully descended, we discover that the basement is basked an eerie glow from fluorescent tube lighting in. This room has not seen anyone from the maintenance department for quite some time.

Highlights of this exploration for Crossfire and JuicyFruitKisses were definitely discovering evidence of the former marijuana grow operation. Watering and fertilizing schedules were scrawled on the converted brew vats.

Not the best shot to say the least but my only one showing our exploration of the barley silos. There are three rows of four silos, all connected via passageways to allow access to the drain valving. As the thick walls provide structural support for the silos above, the doorways resembled those on a battle ship or submarine. Very nautical, without the smell of seamen.

In this large room is where I imagine where the bottling equipment may have been installed. All has now been removed by the contractors working on decommissioning the facility and preparing for the ethanol operation.
With no handrails, aggressive pigeons, open holes and a good drop from this second floor catwalk, this is no place for a complacent explorer.

One could almost hear the equipment rust in the boiler room here. Again, my interest is captured by the valves, pulleys and chains.

It is my wish that one of these days, I find an operational pneumatic tube system in a building to send rotten eggs to an unsuspecting explorer in the next room.

Reception on this old television was quite terrible . . . curious. There are quite a few TVs of all sorts, sizes and ages in these two or three adjoining rooms.

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As I mentioned, this is my third trip to the brewery. You may have noticed that we have already posted shots very similar to these previously. I just can't help myself, I had to take another set.









A lonely bus seat near the boiler room, removed from its vehicle still parked in the bay.

Another shot of the 'pipe gallery' in the boiler room.