Our Story
Every brand has a ‘story’ and Al Truistic’s Beer Bread Bakery story is compelling. They are a social enterprise whose goal is to support Ontario Parents Advocating for Children with Cancer (OPACC) using some revenues from wholesaling and retailing their Craft Beer Bread products. They currently have two unique Do It Yourself Craft Beer Bread kits for those who love baking from scratch and have started to introduce Frozen Craft Beer Bread Dough so those who aren’t sure of themselves baking bread from scratch to enjoy the wonderful aromas of Craft Beer Bread wafting through their home without much fuss.
OPACC’s focus is on Peer Support; at a time when a parent has to be strongest for their child they’re being torn apart inside. This is a lived experience for AL Truistic’s owner, Dave Munro and he wants to ensure other parents have support. OPACC currently has an in hospital Parent Liaison program at The Hospital For Sick Children, one of five treatment centres for childhood cancer families in the province and has helped develop community based support groups modelled after the successful community based program hosted by Candlelighters Simcoe. A childhood cancer journey is never ending for parents.
One of the kits was based on Dave’s Grandmother’s Porridge or Oatmeal Molasses Bread recipe that morphed into the Oatmeal Stout Bread kit. Although it’s named an Oatmeal Stout kit it will work with most other maltier, darker beers like Porters, Dark Lager, Brown Ales, Dunkels and Marzens as Stout was the first dark beer he’d thought of. Dark IPA are frowned on as this is a sweet bread and the bitterness of the hops may clash with the sweetness of the recipe. This recipe then has now morphed into our Apple Pie Brown Ale Bread although not a kit as the recipe uses a perishable ingredient.
The other kit, Honey Garlic Ale Bread, is a versatile mix and bakes well with more paler, not so malty brews like Blonde Ales, Cream Ales, Golden Ales, Pilsners, Lagers and Wheat Beers all bake tasty loaves. Different styles of beer will bring slightly different tastes to the bread!
Al Truistic’s has thirteen exciting and delicious Craft Beer Bread recipes than just the two Do It Yourself Craft Beer Bread kits, nine recipes use a perishable ingredient. Market research told Dave that millennials loved the Do It Yourself experience so used two recipes that don’t use perishable ingredients to start producing Do It Yourself kits and start bringing the delicious bread to the market.
He had a facility in Gravenhurst and had the two kits ready to go to market the day Ontario closed it’s doors because of the oncoming global pandemic and plans of breaking bread with brewers in marketing the kits were stopped before they began. Two years into the pandemic he closed the doors of the shop but has persevered and started retailing the kits at markets and events. As the province opened up he worked with the Health Unit to ensure he could safely sample the breads, a valuable practice that will continue in the name of public safety. When he had his shop he had started to introduce Frozen Craft Beer Bread Dough and is working to re-introduce them.
Through a chance meeting an opportunity came around that could lead to getting my Craft Beer Bread products on the shelves of a grocery store, in particular the Frozen Craft Beer Bread Dough!
Al Truistic’s is currently using two different inspected commercial kitchens, one to package the components of the DIY kits in and the other to produce the frozen dough and bake commercially. This is not a sustainable situation but they can use these for now to start getting their Frozen Craft Beer Bread Dough into this retail location. In order to grow and expand Al Truistic’s needs their own kitchen to work out of and equipment. Interested in helping with a financial contribution with delicious rewards …
History
Dave Munro started making bread again after his Mom passed away and he found the bread machine she used to make bread with about 10 years before. He was surprised when he opened the lid to find that his Grandmother’s Oatmeal Molasses recipe he and his Mom had adapted for the bread machine was inside. He looked around the kitchen and saw he had all the ingredients except yeast so he ran out and picked some up. He made the first loaf of Oatmeal Molasses bread he had in a long time, a bread he remembered making with his Mom when he was a child.
Why OPACC
Dave’s life changed about a year and a half after his daughter was born. When she was eighteen months old he heard devastating words, “Your child has cancer.” He and his daughters Mom didn’t have time to grieve or even think as they had to learn so much in a matter of days and they had to take care of their little girl. There were new words, there were tests and scans, there were meetings with doctors, there were consent forms. They were swamped.
Future
Like any entrepreneurial journey it’s never smooth sailing. The pandemic has been hard on everyone and sadly my small business for a couple short sighted visions from the governments we’ve had no support and we’ve struggled through.
We’re growing and had a pretty good season at the Gravenhurst Community Market the summer of ’21, had a booth in the Bala Cranberry Festival that proved to be great exposure as well as the great markets we were in leading up to the holiday season.