Ontario Beer: A Heady History of Brewing from the Great Lakes to the Hudson Bay

Beer historians and writers Alan McLeod and Jordan St. John have tapped the cask of Ontario brewing to bring the complete story to light, from foam to dregs. Ontario boasts a potent mix of brewing traditions. Wherever Europeans explored, battled, and settled, beer was not far behind, which brought the simple magic of brewing to Ontario in the 1670s. Early Hudson's Bay Company traders brewed in Canada's Arctic, and Loyalist refugees brought the craft north in the 1780s. Early 1900s temperance activists drove the industry largely underground but couldn't dry up the quest to quench Ontarians' thirst. The heavy regulation that replaced prohibition centralized surviving breweries. Today, independent breweries are booming and writing their own chapters in the Ontario beer story.

Alan McLeod has been writing about beer for more than a decade. He lives with his family in Kingston, Ontario, where he practices law. Through his work, he has explored the heritage and history of his corner of Ontario. Alan is one of the founders of the Albany Ale Project, a collaboration that explores the roots of Ontario's New York Loyalist traditions through the lens of a beer glass.

Jordan St. John is Canada's only nationally syndicated beer columnist. He is the author, with Mark Murphy, of How to Make Your Own Brewskis: The Go-to Guide for Craft Brew Enthusiasts. He holds the rank of Certified Cicerone and periodically brews beer with breweries around Ontario. His family has been in Ontario since 1817 and has its own cemetery in Uxbridge. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.