- Tonight on "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories," MacKinnon Brothers Brewery in Bath, Ontario boasts a heritage spanning more than two centuries, and stands as a testament to the MacKinnon family's enduring legacy.

And the New Horizons Band of Northern New York opens its doors to aspiring adult musicians of all abilities.

All you need is the desire to learn to play.

Plus, Constable Hall in Constableville, New York, is one of the oldest homes in the North Country.

Discover this historic mansion's surprising connection to a very famous poem.

Your stories, your region, coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories."

(gentle music) - [Announcer] "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories" is brought to you by... - [Narrator] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26, across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and healing close to home when you need it most.

- [Announcer] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports-related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center, and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us, North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Narrator] We are the North Country, where protecting one another like family is who we are, and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country strong at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- [Announcer] Additional support is provided by the estate of Evelyn Peckham.

- Good Tuesday evening, everyone, and welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly Inside The Stories."

I'm Michael Riecke.

MacKinnon Brothers Brewery in Bath, Ontario, is the initiative of brothers Ivan and Daniel.

Located on ancestral farmland, with a heritage spanning more than two centuries, the brewery stands as a testament to their family's enduring legacy.

The brewery is committed to using locally-sourced ingredients whenever possible, reflecting a dedication to sustainability and the local community.

"WPBS Weekly's" Gail Paquette takes us there.

(gentle orchestral music) (indistinct chatter) - [Gail] Founded by brothers Ivan and Daniel, MacKinnon Brothers Brewing is situated on their family farm in Bath, Ontario, a farm that has been operational for over two centuries.

This deep-rooted connection to the land is reflected in their commitment to producing high quality, handcrafted beers, using locally-sourced ingredients - In the late '60s or early '70s, my grandfather and then my father started the seed operation.

So we grow corn, soybeans, wheat, oats, and barley.

Everything other than the corn is grown for seed.

So when we came back to the farm, it was almost as big as it is right now, and we made the decision when we started the brewery to try and, you know, maintain the farm operation as it is, not try and grow it a huge amount, and then start the brewery kind of in parallel to the farm.

We were already, the knowledge base was already there on how to grow barley on the land, and how to grow barley that, you know, with the seed, you're focused on very similar things to the malting.

It needs to be, you know, highly pure.

You need to maintain good germination, good quality at harvest, you know, all very similar stuff.

So it really gave us a leg up when we were trying to grow malt and barley.

So that was what really allowed us to do our first brew that was 100% from the farm, back in 2017, the Harvest Ale, so that was one of the ones that I'm the most proud of is all the hops and all the barley came from our farm.

- [Gail] MacKinnon Brothers offers a diverse lineup of beers, ranging from classic styles to innovative brews, inspired by their surroundings.

Whether it's their flagship Crosscut Canadian Ale, or their seasonal releases, each beer reflects the cultural identity and culinary heritage of their community.

- Well, the idea is that we wanna use ingredients from our farm or other local farms in all the beer.

We find it makes the beer more unique.

We like to make beers that are kind of malt-based, like malt centric, I guess, whereas a lot of people in the last 10 or 20 years, craft breweries, have focused a more on hops.

But we like, we're grain farmers first, so it's like, it's nice to focus on the malt side of the ingredients.

For specialty beers, we'll use grains from the farm, oats or wheat, like for some of our summer seasonals.

Yeah, we've got one beer with beets in it that we get from some farmers in Ontario as well.

In the winter, we make a stout with wild peppermint.

It's fun to make new stuff too, but we're also busy making the other stuff.

So yeah, you try to balance that.

- [Gail] Many craft brewers are deeply rooted in their communities, and are committed to promoting and preserving local beer culture.

By supporting each other, they contribute to the growth and success of the craft beer movement in their region.

- [Ivan] I was amazed when we started the brewery, how open doors it was.

We toured a number of different breweries at the start, and then we toured some bigger ones, before we built the expansion in 2019, and everybody was just super, super helpful.

And so, you know, we started relatively early, I guess, compared to a lot of the later wave craft breweries in Ontario.

And so we've always tried to pay that forward a little bit as well.

We were so lucky with that, and it's just such a great feeling to walk into an industry like that, where everybody's so helpful, and everybody's got a different story, and a different brand image, and you know, you're not really worried about taking market share, you're worried about helping everybody else.

- [Gail] A distinctive feature of MacKinnon Brothers Brewing is their commitment to sustainability.

They cultivate their own barley and hops on the farm, employing both traditional and eco-friendly farming methods.

Additionally, they have recently implemented carbon capture equipment, significantly reducing their carbon emissions.

- When you talk about sustainability, the biggest thing for us, you know, that we really focused on right off the bat was trying to keep things as local as possible, you know?

Try and keep the supply chain as short as possible.

We move about 85 to 90% of our beer within, I think it's a 40-kilometer radius of the brewery, so that corridor from kind of Trenton to Gananoque is the only place that we sell draft beer, so kegs to bars and restaurants are only sold in that area, and then obviously we distribute to LCBOs and grocery stores, and anybody else in the local area that can sell beer.

And then we distribute to LCVO stores outside of that corridor across the rest of the province as well, but the focus has always been on the local market.

You know, my cousin Ben and Andrew, they do a really good job making those connections with local bar owners.

They're owners in the company.

They're the ones delivering those kegs every day, and if you need anything, you know, they're the guys that you talk to.

So they've done a really good job of forging those relationships, and I think that's really benefited us.

- [Gail] With their emphasis on sustainability, local sourcing, and innovation, MacKinnon Brothers is a vibrant community hub, where locals and visitors alike can come together to enjoy great beer, and celebrate the rich agricultural heritage of the region.

- One of the reasons we started the brewery was to kind of diversify the farm and make it, you know, a bit more resistant to the shocks and agricultural commodity prices, and we didn't wanna see the farm turn into, like, just a big subdivision or something like that.

So yeah, my kids, or Ivan's kids, or my sister's kids wanna work here someday, or take it over, that would be great.

- [Gail] For "WPBS Weekly," I'm Gail Paquette.

- The New Horizons Band of Northern New York has more than 50 aspiring adult musicians.

They believe every person has musical potential that can be developed to a level that will be personally rewarding.

As WPBS Producer Guy Carlo discovered, it doesn't matter what your ability or experience is, all you need is the desire to learn to play.

(gentle orchestral music) (indistinct chatter) - [Guy] The Crane School of Music in Potsdam is home to the New Horizons Bands of Northern New York.

We sat in on their weekly practice to learn about this unique symphonic experience.

- I'm Ron Berry, I am director emeritus of the New Horizons Band of Northern New York.

I did put the organization together back in 2009.

So one summer evening, I attended a concert on the Norwood Village Green.

And at break time, I talked to a couple of the brass players, asking if they knew anything about opportunities, like band camps, for beginning musicians, and one of them mentioned the name of New Horizons.

So I chased that and found out that there was a camp in Michigan for adults in this New Horizons organization, and I went, and I was hooked immediately, just to have fun playing with adults who had been a bit rusty over the years.

And I came home and said, "I can't keep this to myself.

I need to do one here."

In the meanwhile, I attended at least two other similar band camps.

I came back home, talked to a faculty member here that I was familiar with from another venue, and told him the idea, and he said, "Fabulous.

Go get the people, I'll take care of everything else."

- [Guy] Clarinetist and New Horizon's board of directors member, Kathy Calcagno, expounded on their organization's fellowship and the benefits of participation.

- When I was approaching retirement, one of the things I wondered was how I was gonna spend my days, and I wanted some structure.

I've always loved music, played the viola in high school, but never a wind instrument.

So when I found New Horizons, I thought, "This is a learning opportunity, a chance for me to explore a new instrument, meet some new people on the way."

And so I picked up the clarinet, and the rest is kinda history.

I've really come to love the band.

One of our fellow band members calls Friday the best day of his week, and I think a lot of us feel that way, and it truly is a time we look forward to.

The band is more than just playing music, we're a family.

We socialize together, we learn together, we laugh together, we cry together.

Music has been found to do so much for seniors, reduce social isolation, enable people to keep on that learning curve, to keep those brain cells active.

And we just enjoy each other's company so much.

In our band, we have people probably as young as maybe in their 50s or 60s, and we have people in their 90s.

You're never too old to pick up an instrument or learn.

That's part of the New Horizon's philosophy.

- [Guy] Founder Ron Berry's successor, Music Director Diane Mathie, leads the band with passion, and creates an inclusive, welcoming atmosphere for musicians of all skill levels.

- We have three bands, and one of them is a, it's called a clinic, and it's for those people who need extra help, wanna go at a slower pace.

Then there is the concert band that I conduct, and then there is the jazz band, called The Swing Ambassadors.

We are currently trying to get another group together of beginners, and that will commence probably in September.

We will be having a meet and greet in August.

So if anyone would like to join on our organization, has never taken an instrument before, or feel that they don't remember what they did before, we can deal with that in the beginning ensemble.

The people who have joined New Horizons, most of them are retired, but some of them have a flexible enough schedule so that they can come and meet with us between 10 and 12.

I never would've met these people if it had not been for Ron asking me to come and substitute for him.

These are the best people ever.

If anyone would like to join the New Horizons Band, all they need to do is contact me at newhorizonsnny@gmail.com, and we will get you an application.

We will invite you personally to come to listen in the band, usually I suggest that, and then we'll get you all set up with instruments, music, you name it.

- [Guy] From The Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York, I'm Guy Carlo.

- You can see the New Horizons Band perform this weekend at the Potsdam Summer Festival.

For more information, visit newhorizonsbandsnny.org.

Well, Constable Hall in Constableville, New York, is one of our region's oldest historic homes.

Now a museum, the mansion is open for tours and events.

The house has a surprising connection to the poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," probably better known as "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Penned by Constable cousin, Clement Clarke Moore, WPBS Producer Samantha Keaney has more.

(gentle orchestral music) - [Speaker] It's mind blowing to me that we have this piece of history literally in our backyard.

- [Samantha] Constable Hall is considered the hidden gem of the North Country.

Filled with rich history and breathtaking scenery, this historic house museum is over 200 years old.

It begins in the late 1700s, with William Constable Sr, also known as The Purchaser.

- [Peter] William Constable Sr., we kind of think of him as the big man behind the picture.

He never lived here at Constable Hall.

In fact, he never visited Constable Hall.

But he was the very important man that was behind the Constable family.

He ended up purchasing, with his two Irish partners, four million acres of Upstate New York.

New York State was bankrupt at the time, or near bankrupt, and needed money, needed money very quickly, and they put these land up for sale, and William Constable and his partners grabbed it for a good price.

- [Samantha] That good price was just eight cents an acre.

- He died young, unfortunately, he was in his early 50s when he died.

- [Samantha] The land purchased by William Sr. was inherited by his son, William Constable Jr., also known as The Builder.

- When William Constable Jr. decided to build the Hall, and at this location, that was around 1810.

Constable Hall's building phase completed around 1819.

He also put in, we believe, the garden, and it's a formal garden that's adjacent to Constable Hall.

We have a book in the library signed by the man himself that's on garden design.

So we are quite firm in our belief that the garden was put in in the approximate location and form that it is today, which would make it one of the oldest continuously-gardened gardens in North America.

Tragically William Constable Jr. was injured in the process of laying the front stone on the porch patio, and he eventually succumbed to that injury two or three years later.

- [Samantha] After William Jr.'s death, his wife, Mary Eliza, was often visited by her favorite cousin, Clement C. Moore.

It said that over his visits to the Hall, Moore got the inspiration for one of the most famous pieces of literature in the world.

- Family legend says that the Hall was actually the inspiration for the poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," or as we know it today, "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

There are several things in the Hall that kind of uphold this theory.

There is a passage in the poem that always bothered me as a kid, "He tore open the shutters and threw up the sash."

Now, to me, I thought, "Well, that's backwards.

Shutters aren't on the inside, they're on the outside."

But in this house, there are 32 sets of interior shutters.

You know how I know that?

I have to open and close them every day (laughing).

- [Samantha] Four Constable generations later comes John Constable, nicknamed The Preservationist.

- Well, John Constable had just come back from World War II.

He had four young children, and the house just became too much to manage after a while.

- So he faced a crossroads of what to do with Constable Hall.

So he decided to sell it to the Lewis family, on the provision that they would restore it, and turn it over to the Constable Hall Association for tours and interpretation.

- [Samantha] This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Hall being opened as a historical museum.

But it's the love for the history and the culture that have kept it alive for all this time.

- [Peter] It's not only historical, but it's a house.

It represents a family, and in our case, it's the Constable family.

- [Loraine] People coming here don't really realize what a national and international impact this museum has.

Behind me, you see this beautiful formal dining room.

We have artifacts like this, this is Napoleon Bonaparte's family china.

We have, there's a beautiful library with books.

If you're a fan of the outside, we have the Adirondack Room, which showcases different games and sports of the time.

Our 17 acres on the grounds here, we have walking trails, so even if you just want to sit and look at the beautiful garden, or at the pond, Constable Hall is where you should be.

- [Samantha] In Constableville, for "WPBS Weekly," I'm Samantha Keaney.

- Check out constablehall.org for more information and to plan your visit.

Well, that just about wraps it up for us tonight, but before we go, we highlight another local music group.

They are Bread & Circuses of Henderson Harbor, fans of Alice in Chains and Neil Young may connect with this band of talented musicians.

(gentle music) - Constant, from within.

("Forecast" playing) ♪ Send me on my way ♪ ♪ To another northern town (indistinct) ♪ ♪ I'm talking ol' wisdom old pal ♪ ♪ Sent on a thing (indistinct) ♪ ♪ I'm just getting clueless as the (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Another time I'll (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Time so let it pass me by ♪ ♪ Second chances won't come raining ♪ ♪ Down in this forecast ♪ ♪ Life is like a mirror ♪ ♪ Take another step ♪ ♪ Reach behind the stars ♪ ♪ To remind you you are real (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Screaming at the sky ♪ ♪ What the hell am I ♪ ♪ Another (indistinct) in the dark ♪ ♪ Another time I'll (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Let it pass me by ♪ ♪ Second chances won't come raining ♪ ♪ Down in this forecast ♪ ♪ And it's okay too ♪ ♪ That's all right (indistinct) ♪ ♪ I've got no faith in (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Till my shadow (indistinct) ♪ ♪ By the time I'll be (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Let it pass my by ♪ ♪ Second chances won't come raining ♪ ♪ Down in this forecast ♪ ♪ By the time I'll (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Let it pass me by ♪ ♪ Second chances won't come raining ♪ ♪ Down in this forecast ♪ - Yeah.

- Woo.

- That does it for us this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for a fresh look inside the stories.

Get to know the students involved with the nationwide Eclipse Ballooning project, a program at SUNY Oswego with the mission of understanding what causes a total solar eclipse.

Also, Zoo New York at Thompson Park has been around for over 100 years.

Discover where it all began and how they plan to go forward after months of uncertainty.

Plus, kick up your grilled steak a notch by adding a sauce made with bourbon, whiskey and raspberries.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we'd love to learn more.

Drop us an email at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for tonight, everyone.

We'll see you soon.

Have a great night.

(upbeat electronic music) - [Narrator] WPBS Weekly Inside the stories is brought to you by... - [Narrator] When you're unable to see your primary care provider, the Carthage Walk-in clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most.

- [Announcer] North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us.

North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- [Narrator] We are the north country where protecting one another like family is who we are, and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the north country strong at claxtonhepburn.org today.

- [Narrator] Additional support is provided by the estate of Evelyn Peckham.

♪ Second won't come raining ♪ ♪ Down in this forecast ♪ (melodic orchestral music)