The Ontario craft beer guide

347 Pages·2016·4.7 MB·English

by  Robin LeBlanc

Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Top Breweries in Ontario
Ontario’s Craft Beer History
Buying Beer in Ontario
Ontario Craft Breweries
Recommended Ontario Craft Pubs
Glossary
Breweries by Region
About the Authors
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Twenty-odd years ago, what you are holding in your hands would have been
little more than a pamphlet. When I published the first edition of my Great
Canadian Beer Guide in 1994, Ontario boasted a mere thirteen
“microbreweries” and twenty more brewpubs, the latter group being then
licensed to sell their beer only on their premises.
That situation scarcely improved over the balance of the decade, with many
breweries closing, selling, or otherwise changing course, and the total number of
brewpubs actually declining by the time the second edition of the Guide hit, in
2001. What’s more, while there were some very good beers on the market, the
range of styles they represented was limited for the most part to pilsners and pale
ales, “dark ales” and “golden lagers.” As unlikely as it might seem today, the
sighting of an actual IPA was then considered a rare and exciting thing.
Brewery tasting rooms, growler fills, brewpub bottle shops, and the Ontario
Craft Brewers association? Double IPAs, barrel-aged imperial stouts,
doppelbocks, and saisons? All but dreams, still years away from realization.
However, sometime well after the dawn of the new millennium there
occurred a seismic shift in Ontario craft beer and the shock waves were many
and far reaching. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, beer drinkers were spoiled for
choice, with local brewers cranking out beers in any number of styles and
strengths, from nuanced takes on the German kölsch style to generously hopped
IPAs and unapologetically powerful barley wines. And just when we thought we
had seen it all, those same brewers discovered yeasts and bacteria that could
deliver bold, tart, and fruity flavours, and the excitement started all over again.
Today, of course, we live in the promised land of beer, or at least some sort
of government-regulated, made-in-Ontario version of it. While we do remain
saddled with the beer-retailing behemoth known as the Beer Store, we have also,
thanks to the recent explosion of small breweries and the government’s tentative
steps into grocery-store beer sales, more brands in more styles than perhaps this
province has ever before seen, and more venues from which to buy them.
Simply, it is a good, if occasionally confusing, time for beer drinkers in
Ontario.
It is that second part, the confusing side, which makes this book so valuable.
With such a plethora of breweries at hand and still more in development all the
time, it is a challenge for even a full-time beer specialist to stay on top of things.
Add in an endless stream of seasonal brews, special one-off editions, and inter-
brewery collaborations, and you have a state of affairs that is as maddening to
track as it is rewarding to sample.
What you hold in your hands is a snapshot of the Ontario beer landscape at
the start of 2016, written by two of the most knowledgeable and keen observers
of that scene. It is not the first word on Ontario beer and neither will it be the
last, but it is an excellent jumping-off point for a richly satisfying journey of
beer discovery. Your guides are ready, and the beer awaits, so grab your glass
and get started!
Cheers!
Stephen Beaumont, Toronto, 2016
Author of The Beer & Food Companion and co-author with Tim Webb of The
World Atlas of Beer
Introduction
Until very recently, Ontario’s craft beer scene was a fairly manageable affair.
The explosion of small breweries that has taken place since 2007 means that it
has become very difficult (even for beer writers covering the province) to keep
track of what exists, let alone how everything fits together. While it is excellent
to have an up-to-date list of breweries from across the province, it became
apparent to us in mid-2014 that additional context and information was required
if anyone was going to be able to navigate the huge amount of choice that
currently exists in the marketplace.
So, in a climate where new breweries are popping up at the rate of one a
week, the most frequent question we were asked when writing this book was,
“How did you know when to stop?” We chose to make the cut-off point for
inclusion two weeks before we had to hand in the manuscript of this book:
approximately November 15, 2015.
The second-most-frequent question, and perhaps one of the more loaded
ones, was, “How are you defining what makes a craft brewery?”
As you may know, there are a lot of definitions out there, from making small
amounts of beer to being independently owned to being community focused. In
this book we have included just about any brewery that might be considered
“craft,” which means breweries, brewpubs, and contract breweries. In all cases,
we have denoted the difference in type of business for the sake of clarity.
Because contracting is sometimes used as a first step by a brewery before
moving into its own facility, some are listed as transitional.
In cases where a brewery has been purchased at some point in the past by a
large multinational company, we have included it but made a note of the
ownership. Breweries like Creemore and Mill Street have not transitioned yet to
become national brands. They are still brewed locally and the historic context
they’ve provided for the craft beer scene in Ontario cannot be ignored.
The purpose of this guide is to assist you in navigating Ontario’s craft beer
market and finding something that you might like to drink. Each brewery’s entry
is composed of its contact information and co-ordinates, a brief biography to
help give a sense of the brewery’s identity, and a series of tasting notes and
ratings for the beers that it has on offer.
In producing tasting notes and ratings, we have strived for fairness. That
being said, we have offered brewers every opportunity to put their best foot
forward by directly consulting with them to see which beers (usually capped at
eight examples) they feel best celebrate who they are. In the majority of the
entries, we’ve used samples directly from the brewery itself, avoiding any
potential problems that might arise from tasting the beer, from dirty tap lines in a
bar or pub or from bottles or cans that have gone stale as a result of languishing
too long on the shelves of a retail establishment.
A Word About the Rating System
In producing ratings, we have been mostly interested in three things: whether the
beer has objective flaws; how well the flavour profile works; and how well the
beer accomplishes what it sets out to do, i.e., the extent to which it is what the
brewer claims it to be.
Beer preference is subjective. You may like a certain style of beer more than
another for just about any reason, and you’re not wrong to feel that way.
Brewing quality is not subjective. Beer frequently has technical flaws or
undesirable qualities that can leave an unpleasant impression. In the case of
flavour defects, these might include the presence of diacetyl (which smells like
buttered popcorn, leaves a slick, butterscotchy mouthfeel, and causes
hangovers), dimethyl sulphide (an aroma of creamed corn, canned vegetables, or
tomato sauce), acetaldehyde (overwhelming green apple), butyric character (blue
cheese or baby vomit), inappropriate phenolic character (smoke, burnt plastic, or
Band-Aid), or just a lack of conditioning resulting in a rough, unpleasant
mouthfeel. The beer may be inappropriately carbonated or under attenuated
(containing residual sugars that ought to have been fermented).
We have taken into account stylistic convention. The Beer Judge
Certification Program style guidelines are a helpful tool in doing exactly that
and, combined with context, experience, and the knowledge that it is possible to
push the envelope a little, they have helped form the backbone of our rating
system.
We have been pleased to reward brewers for balance of flavours. A frequent
criticism of websites for beer geeks is that they tend to reward the extreme,
favouring beers with higher alcohol and in-your-face flavours. We’ve tried to
eliminate this bias from our thinking, focusing on how balanced a beer is, its
progression of flavours, and the overall impression that it leaves. Whether
considering a beer in a simple style done well or a complex behemoth that
somehow manages to attain balance, we’ve done our best to treat them similarly.