Meet the duo behind Counterpoint Brewing Company

What do you get when you combine an opera singer with a contractor? It seems like an odd combination, but this singer-contractor duo formed one of latest newcomers to Waterloo Region’s craft brewery scene.

At the helm of Counterpoint Brewing Company is Graeme Kobayashi and Rich Hrytzak. Eight years ago, they met by chance during a squash game and they’ve since partnered to create Counterpoint.

Hrytzak is the opera singer, he’s a musician by trade and he also plays a dozen different instruments. Kobayashi discovered the rich world of brewing through Hrytzak, who is quite the accomplished homebrewer himself. After a few years of experimenting with batches of beer, the two decided it was time to take their hobby and develop it into a business.

“Opening up a brewery always starts off as a bit of a joke,” Kobayashi said. “People have dreamed about it or talked about it, but we decided to go forward with it. We started with some notes on paper about what we’d like the brewery to feel like, look like and what kinds of beers we’d like to serve.”

Creating the perfect beer recipe is a painstaking process, but with nearly a decade worth of homebrew experience, Hrytzak had already perfected many of the beers that the pair wanted to bring to market. It didn’t take much to convince Kobayashi to encourage his friend to take their small-batch beers and brew them for a larger audience.

“His recipes and his beer were a huge key factor in being confident enough to say, “Hey, let’s try putting this on the market and scale it up a little bit,” Kobayashi said. “I believed in him and us and we worked together to formulate this plan.”

Thanks to Hrytzak’s musical background, the theme is prevalent throughout the brewery. From the instrument-inspired names of their beers to the logo itself, which resembles two piano keys, to the Counterpoint name.

“We chose that name because it has to do with playing two melodies together,” Kobayashi said. He likened the name of the brewery to the combination of ingredients in beer. “When it comes to our frame of mind with brewing, it’s playing around and finding great, new ways to introduce new ingredients to each other. These things are truly coming together and creating something amazing.”

Kobayashi said the most rewarding part of watching the brewery come to fruition was being able to serve their beer to the community. “Our goal was to have people in here and share our beer with them,” Kobayashi said. “It’s such a good feeling to be able to host people and be hospitable and share this finely crafted small batch of beer on a commercial scale.

With a tap list that’s constantly rotating, there’s always something new to try at Counterpoint. Kobayashi said he and Hrytzak are always experimenting with new flavours and have hundreds of options to draw from Hrytzak’s Rolodex of homebrew recipes.

Counterpoint has a simple yet effective tier system which helps introduce new or experienced craft beer drinkers to their offerings. Tier one beers are approachable and easy-drinking, while tier three beers are far more adventurous and challenging for beer drinkers.

Their newest recent release is “The Red Violin”, which is a raspberry sour gose aged on raspberries that’s bright ruby-red in colour.

Counterpoint Brewing Company is now open at 935 Frederick Street in Kitchener at the corner of Frederick Street and Victoria Street. Check out their website to see what’s on tap this week.