Sassy Britches is Brantford’s newest brewery, taking the place of the former Mash Paddle in the Cordage Heritage District.
Owner Tracey Shaw said the brewery aims to be “a place where people can come and be comfortable and have a positive experience and just have fun, just let their cares go by the wayside.”
Shaw grew up on a farm in Mount Pleasant and worked as a travel agent before getting into the hospitality business. She owned three restaurants in Brantford between 2005 to 2017, after which she started working for a friend at Bell City Brewing Company.
Working at Bell City, she “fell in love with the beer people,” Shaw said. “Craft beer people, they’re just really fun.”
Bell City eventually closed down, and Shaw went to manage Mann’s Distillery, Brantford’s first craft distillery.
She loves the local aspect of craft, and when Mash Paddle came up for sale last year, Shaw and her partner “snapped it up.” They quickly launched a rebrand and opened Sassy Britches Brewing in March 2024.
They’ve kept three of the Mash Paddle beers, the Citranatti Bengal IPA, New Girlfriend IPA and Unnamed Pale Ale, while going up to 13 offerings on tap. New beers have included the Inappropriate Conversation, Jalapeño Hottie and Cheeky Lass.
The rebrand has also included a change in aesthetic in the taproom. The casks are still there, but it’s less oak barrel, more rhinestone-studded couches. They’ve also been running numerous events over the last year, with everything from comedy nights to candle making to a Christmas pop-up market.
“Everyone had kind of forgotten through COVID how to relax and to be social,” Shaw said. She describes herself as a social person, and missed the connection with people during the pandemic. “I really needed to build that bridge again, and that’s what we’re doing here,” she said. “We just want people to be comfortable and let their hair down, experience life.”
The name ‘Sassy Britches’ itself came from Shaw’s grandmother, who used the term. “I always thought that was cute,” Shaw said. While at a trade show in Iowa, she heard somebody call his wife ‘sassy britches,’ and that brought the name back to the front of her mind. “I like the vintage, and I like the retro stuff,” Shaw said. “It’s just fun.”
There are challenges, of course, to opening a new brewery. “The beer industry right now is kind of recessing. Taxes are so high on the products we make,” Shaw said. “At one point, there were so many [breweries] coming up… but now we’re just seeing who’s settling in.”
Despite the challenges, Shaw thinks that there is “absolutely” space for this brewery in the Brantford community. “The thing is, you can’t stay stagnant,” Shaw said. “You’ve got to keep evolving those ideas and be creative in your brews and in your craft itself.”
