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The Ontario craft beer guide PDF

347 Pages·2016·4.7 MB·English
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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.

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Forget wine tours! This is the comprehensive guide to Ontario’s craft-beer revival and the brewers behind it.The renaissance of craft beer that has swept North America over the past thirty years has transformed the Ontario landscape, leaving over two hundred breweries, great and humble, dotting th
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