Dragon’s Breath lures brothers across Atlantic

Brothers Dave and Roy Nor-wood know good beer when they taste it. And they’re willing to travel more than 5,000 kilometres to get it.

The pair, regulars at the King-ston Brewing Company, the city’s famed microbrewery and pub, live in Teddington, a suburb of London, England. The brew-loving brothers visited Kingston for the eighth year in a row, relishing their ideal vacation – a week drinking beer in a Kingston pub.

“We like Kingston,” said 59-year-old Roy, the talkative one. He and his 64-year-old brother first came to the Limestone City in 1992. “We’ve seen all the tourist areas in Kingston, so now when we come we naturally gravitate to the brew pub,” said Roy. “We have a few beers.”

On a midweek afternoon, Dave and Roy sat at the bar drinking their first pints of cranapple ciders for the day. They watched the television in the corner in between chatting with the staff and other customers. The brothers began their vacation in Toronto and, after a few days, came to Kingston. Dave is a computer analyst programmer while Roy quit his job as a bartender about five weeks ago. “It’s two weeks of relaxation to wind down from a year’s work,” explained Roy. “We’re then ready for another year of work. For us, this [coming to the brew pub] suits us fine.”

Their daily routine this year began with a few pints of cider before moving onto a few pints of the pub’s Dragon’s Breath Real Ale. Roy and Dave are slow drinkers. They arrive at 1:30 p.m. and are only on their second pint of cider at 4 p.m. The two vary their schedule. “We’ve been known to be knocking here at 11 a.m.,” said Roy. It’s not unusual for Dave and Roy to hang out at the brew pub for as long as 10 hours. “We generally leave before we become a nuisance,” said Roy. Though they spend time there, they don’t spend a lot of money. The two spent $80 last Monday, which included two meals. Dave likes Thursdays at the pub – East Indian curry day. Roy prefers the chicken pot pie.

While in Kingston this time, the brothers made only one other venture: a motorcycle tour around Kingston with Wally High, Dan Aykroyd’s road manager. The brothers met High at the brew pub a few years ago, and though the friendship has grown, the ride won’t likely be repeated. Dave – pointing to his protruding stomach – found it uncomfortable. Day and night, the brothers aren’t far from a pub. Instead of booking a room at a hotel, they bed down in the apartment above Ben’s Pub where they know the owner, Paul Timmers.

Any drinking they do at Ben’s is done in the evenings. Roy and Dave tend to drink Alexander Keith’s beer there, though they prefer English-style beers. “We can drink the Canadian beers, but after a while they get gassy for us,” said Roy. Brew pub manager Alison Healey, while chatting with Roy and Dave, said she’d only known them for a week, but had heard of them before. “I just heard that there’s two weird blokes who fly all the way over from England out of their pub and into ours to drink beer. “I find that rather bizarre,” she said, laughing. “Unique and bizarre.” “Weird. Yea,” added Roy. “I take it as a huge compliment,” said Healey. “If you’re going to leave the country of beer to come all the way over to Canada and drink our Dragon’s Breath, well, hey that’s a good thing.”

Roy and Dave also bring gifts for the brew pub. They brought many of the beer taps hanging there, taps for English beers such as Adnams, Spitfire and Smiles. Healey had brew pub gifts to give the brothers but would only say, in front of Dave and Roy, that they are special edition paraphernalia. Peter Snell, the brewer, showed Roy a preview of the hemp beer in the brewing room behind the bar. “It smells gorgeous,” said Roy as he came out. The brewer isn’t surprised to see Roy and Dave each year. “I didn’t bat an eye when I saw them,” said Snell. “They’re our longest-distance regulars.”

The brew pub displays a framed photo of Dave and Roy that was taken in the pub eight years ago.