Toronto Craft Beer Bonanza 2014: The New Brews

A summery guide to Toronto’s micro-beer scene

By Emily Landau, Robin Levinson and Reanna Sartoretto | Photograph by Daniel Ehrenworth

Just when you think Toronto’s craft beer obsession has peaked, a new collection of artful bottles appears on LCBO shelves. There are now 25 breweries and counting in the GTA—including soon-to-open operations that announce their hyper-localness in their names, like Muddy York (a small-batch brewery in East York), Lansdowne (a new brewpub at College and Lansdowne) and Kensington (which should be up and running in the market some time this year). Droves of earnest young men (and a few women) are swapping engineering degrees for a certificate from the Niagara College Teaching Brewery. Toronto restaurants now treat beer like wine, with curated lists and tasting notes. And in a slew of bars, our most inventive ’tenders are using local brews to add fizz to fruity summer cocktails. Our resident beer geeks set out to find the most exciting craft brews to drink now and the best places to revel in all that malty, hoppy goodness.