To say that Toronto’s craft beer scene is on fire is an understatement. New breweries, brands, festivals and brew pubs are announced weekly. Craft beer is no longer a niche it’s a paradigm.
Amidst all the acceleration and pink-cheeked chatter surrounding the city’s (and on a far greater scale, Ontario’s) ballooning beer scene, it gets difficult to assess what the hell is actually going on.
A year ago city councillors broached the idea of Toronto’s becoming the future beer capital of the world. A proposed Brewery District in the west end never came close to getting off the ground. Beer only became available in grocery stores four months ago, remember? Sometimes baby steps are more prudent than fast and frantic grasps at lofty turf.
Is it too much too soon? What about the half-asses cashing in on the craft trend with well-branded tallboys of unremarkable quality? Are they going to create shit for everybody? How many beer festivals can a single city, even a large one, possibly sustain? Does our beer scene have a collective identity? Does it need one?
Most importantly, how do we keep our promising beer scene grounded as it grows, guiding it toward a graceful coming-of-age?
I suppose we start by celebrating and building on what we’ve already got.
“When I started brewing in 1999, there were a handful of breweries in Ontario, and the most adventurous beer in the market was a weisse beer,” says Iain McOustra, brewmaster at Amsterdam, (245 Queens Quay West, 416-504-1020 , amsterdambrewhouse.com), Toronto’s oldest craft brewery, founded in 1986. “Now a new brewery opens every month in Toronto, and we have every style imaginable on the market. The biggest change, though, are the people drinking beer. Now they’re open to trying big, flavourful beers and new styles. It’s an amazing time for beer in Ontario.”
Not only do our local brewers have a huge and thirsty audience, but they also have Toronto’s trademark diversity.
“All the brewers have their own take on styles and what a great beer is to them,” remarks McOustra. “As soon as you have a collective identity, all that individuality goes out the window. I love the beer culture in Toronto, and it’s the variety that makes it interesting.”
Variety – of styles and brews, and more and more places to drink great beer, whether neighbourhood brew pubs or large-scale brew bars, trendy restaurants or cozy pubs – doesn’t mean base competitiveness. The craft beer community in Toronto and Ontario is extremely tight knit and mutually supportive.
“The strength of Toronto’s brew culture really lies in the strong and friendly community of brewers who always lend a hand with a missing malt, a unique hard-to-procure hop or technical advice,” observes Chris Conway, brewer at the recently established Folly Brewpub (928 College, 416-533-7272, follybrewing.com). “We talk to each other a lot. Now that we’ve got a good number of us, the directions those conversations take will lead to a stronger identity for Toronto as a beer city.”
As big as Toronto’s local beer scene may get, it has a solid community backbone and no lack of creativity. Pragmatism and consistency are bound to bring the scene to maturity, though sometimes it feels like a sloppy teenager.
“As long as local breweries keep pushing forward trying to make the best beer they can, there’s no reason why we can’t be a world-class brewing city within five years,” says McOustra.
Keep it fresh, Canada
Driftwood Fat Tug IPA
Rating: NNNN
Hailing from Victoria, Canada’s small but mighty craft beer mecca, Driftwood’s Fat Tug is such a solid IPA that you should probably just buy a case and stick it in your fridge. If you don’t drink it all, your friends will. A righteous balance of punch and mellowness.
Price $6/650 ml
Availability LCBO 441782
Great Lakes Brewery Octopus Wants To Fight IPA
Rating: NNNN
Why Great Lakes has a way with American-style IPAs, and this one, with its aggressive drunken octopus mascot, is no exception. Crisp, herbaceous and remarkably crushable for an IPA that doesn’t identify as a session beer.
Price $3.25/473 ml
Availability LCBO 458273 and at the GLB retail shop and around town on tap. greatlakesbeer.com
Cheval Blanc Double Blanche
Rating: NNN
Why Belgian Tripel fans will likely get down with this Quebecois brew more than committed hop-heads will. Mild, wheat-driven and bittersweet on the palate, well balanced and not at all challenging.
Price $5.65/750 ml
Availability LCBO 441923
What we’re drinking tonight
Lindemans Cuvée René (Gueuze)
Should you spot it out in the wild, don’t hesitate to cram this spectacular Belgian sour into your shopping cart and into your face. If the speed with which it’s evaporating from shelves and fridges isn’t proof enough, consider the work that goes into making it and its aging potential. (This bottle can be cellared for years to come.) A blend of young and aged lambics, this wild-fermented, bottle-conditioned brew is super-dry and funky as fuck – the highest praise in my books.
Price $4.95/355 ml
Availability LCBO
