Shortly before Christmas in 1997, residents of Neustadt in Western Ontario lined up to participate in what was a historic occasion for the village. For the first time in 82 years, they could sample beer made in their local brewery. For Andrew and Val Stimpson it was the culmination of two years of hard work and extensive preparation since immigrating from Great Britain to Ontario. They surmounted some formidable obstacles before they got their brewery up and running.

"We've had everything that Canada could throw at us," laughs Val Stimpson. It started on their arrival when their furniture, shipped to Halifax, Nova Scotia for the journey to Ontario was lost for six months. Andrew was laid up with a broken ankle that first year and suffered blood poisoning in the other leg after dry walling fell on him while helping a friend construct a basement.

"We decided Ontario was the place for us."

Then, there was the challenge of the brewery - a magnificent stone structure founded by a German immigrant in 1859. It closed with prohibition in 1916 and the building was converted into a creamery and egg-grading station. It hadn't been used for anything in about two decades when the Stimpsons bought it in 1997. They are still renovating as the business expands.

The journey that led them to Neustadt actually began a decade earlier when they visited Canada with two friends. The Stimpsons enjoyed their initial visit and returned the next year to tour the Rockies and the Canadian West. It was the beginning of the kind of thorough research that is common to successful business immigrants. "By then we realized that if we could, we would immigrate," Val explains. "We came back twice in the following year and decided Ontario was the place for us."

They brought with them more than 20 years of experience in the brewing business. Their last business venture in Britain was operating two public houses, similar to pubs, in North Wales, so their original business plans for Ontario included something in the hospitality industry. The Stimpsons decided that you couldn't duplicate the atmosphere of a British-style pub in Canada so they thought that opening a micro-brewery was an alternative. The idea was boosted by Andrew's own tastes. "I couldn't find a beer that I liked," he says, "not one that would suit my palate." He decided to brew his own.

The next stage was another part of the preparation the Stimpsons consider essential to setting up a successful new business - finding a suitable facility and an available market; both actual and potential. They searched Ontario for a potential site but were unable to find anything that suited them until an equipment manufacturer tipped them to the abandoned brewery at Neustadt.

The Stimpsons brew a traditional Scottish-type ale called Neustadt Heavy and a Belgian-style lager. They are brewing at about one-third capacity with an eye to expanding further into the huge Toronto market. Their targeted production level is more than 9,600 bottles a week.

They invested about $1.2 million in their brewery but have no doubts about the market for their product. The first historic batch sold out in five hours and they've attracted beer lovers from all over Ontario and parts of the United States.

For Andrew and Val Stimpson, the business future is built on breathing new life into an old brewery.