With the recent growth of craft beer in Toronto and the rest of the province and the inherent delays that come with opening a brewery, it can be tough to keep track of just when all the announced new breweries are actually opening. That said, 2015 promises to be a banner year for craft breweries in the city, as new operations arrive on the scene and old favourites expand to new digs.
Here's a list of five Toronto breweries to watch out for that will (likely) be opening
their doors next year.
Left Field Brewery
It's somewhat weird to think that we're still waiting for Left Field Brewery to open. Owners Mark and Mandie have essentially become the media darlings of Toronto brewing as they've chatted with virtually every news outlet that's shown an interest in their fledgling brewery and so given their beer is good and the fact that they're actually swell folks, the opening of Left Field Brewery's Leslieville digs is easily the most anticipated Toronto beer event of 2015. Once the doors open, they've hinted they'll sell cans of their core brands, Eephus Oatmeal Brown, Maris Pale Ale, and 6-4-3 Double IPA, but will use their expanded capacity to brew more one-offs and experimental offerings.
Bellwoods Brewery's second location
In an effort to keep up with the growing demand for the great beer they've been making on Ossington, this year Bellwoods announced that they had acquired the former home of Hamilton Gear at 950 Dupont to build a larger production brewery. The larger space will allow Bellwoods to supply their beer to considerably more bars and restaurants and while their hope is to include a retail space, a potential legislative snafu currently makes the fate of a second Bellwoods bottle shop uncertain.
Kensington Brewing Company
Despite its geographic ties, KBCo has thus far operated as a "contract brewery," leasing space from breweries like Wellington Brewery and Black Oak Brewery in order to brew their beer. This year they seem destined to finally actually represent their namesake 'hood when they'll open the doors on a brewery at 299 Augusta, where they'll make Augusta Ale, FishEye PA, Watermelon Wheat, and, with their increased capacity, a variety of saisons, session brews, and more unique offerings.
Lansdowne Brewery
The development of the brewery at the corner of College and Lansdowne was delayed for a while as owner Jeremy Coghill negotiated with the city's committee of adjustment in order to build his brewery in the first floor of a multi-use building. Aside from a collaboration with Station Cold Brew Coffee Co., news from Lansdowne Brewery has been a bit scant given that Coghill has been too busy starting a brewery to even talk to lowly beer writers, but I'm hotly anticipating Lansdowne Brewery if only for the precedent it might set for breweries setting up shop in the first floor of other under-used buildings in Toronto.
Reinhardt Brewery
Now that the stockyards has a full blown mall, replete with a Target, Winners, and a Homesense, a craft brewery seems a welcome addition to the area for those times when you say "What the hell am I doing at a mall? Let's go get a beer." Jordan Reinhardt, who has been slogging along on his 3200sq/ft brewery, event space, and tasting room hopes to open soon and will flood the neighbourhood with what he says will be really hoppy beers. All the better to cleanse the palate of the taste of mall parking.
Ben Johnson also writes about beer over on Ben's Beer Blog. Follow him on twitter at @Ben_T_Johnson.
by Ben Johnson via blogTO
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