From one 1985 brewery to a whole neighbourhood of them

Toronto's Craft Beer Scene

A city that drank mostly big-brand beer for most of the 20th century now supports more than 70 independent breweries — the modern craft scene traces back to a single 1985 opening.

Steam Whistle Brewery at Roundhouse Park in Toronto — Steam Whistle Brewery, Roundhouse Park — Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons licensed

Toronto drank mostly the same handful of big national beer brands for most of the 20th century. That changed starting in a single year — 1985 — and hasn't really stopped since.

The craft renaissance starts in 1985

The modern rebirth of small independent brewing in Toronto is generally traced to Upper Canada Brewing Co., which opened in 1985. A wave followed quickly after: Amsterdam Brasserie and Brewpub (1986), C'est What (1988), and the Granite Brewery (1991), each pushing further from the mass-market lagers that had dominated for decades.

Steam Whistle and Mill Street

Two names now synonymous with Toronto craft beer: Steam Whistle Brewing, founded in 1998 and based in the historic John Street Roundhouse at Roundhouse Park near the CN Tower, and Mill Street Brewery, founded in 2002 in the Distillery District's restored Victorian industrial buildings — both choosing genuinely historic industrial spaces as home rather than generic retail units, which became something of a pattern for the scene.

Where it stands now

Toronto is now home to more than 70 independent breweries, one of the highest concentrations of any Canadian city, spanning everything from Bellwoods Brewery's inventive sours in Trinity Bellwoods to large-scale operations like Amsterdam's Leaside facility. It sits alongside the wider food scene guide as one of the more visibly changed parts of Toronto's culture over the last two decades.

Sources

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