Craft beer has come a long way in Ontario during the last decade. In around 2003, according to Hay, the province had around 20 breweries, with even fewer “making much money”.

“But tax incentives allowed people to change their fortunes, expand, and with provincial government input for promotion, combined with the local food movement and a desire for change, helped it get going. It took from about 2003-2010 for it to really germinate. But during the last couple of years it has really exploded. The consumer was really ready for it,” he says.

Hay is firm in his drive, and belief, to double or triple job creation through the opening and expansion of more breweries in Ontario. “We are about 5% of the sales but about 35-40% of the jobs, so this can only improve.

“One of our main objectives is to have a brewery in each town or city. A few years ago it was in 40 communities, now 70. But we want that to change. Once you put a small brewery in there is a huge economic boost from that.

“Our challenge is to keep a broad enough footprint, keep enough new entrants coming in, keep it local, keep it approachable. And we always want to improve quality each and every day, staying close to the community and maintaining that closeness.”

One such new entrant to the brewery market is Mike Laba, the co-founder of established drinks importers and agents The Craft Brand Company. Alongside his co-founder, Chris Goddard, they have founded Brunswick Bierworks.

Pitched as a a partner brewing facility, located in the East York neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, the company is open concept brewery that will produce beers from local and global brewery partners.

“It provides our brewery partners an ability to access to National and International markets with fresh product brewed to their exact specifications under the supervision of their own Brewmaster. Our facility provides a variety of packaging options as well as the ability to distribute directly from our brewery. Our model allows brewers to expand their distribution without the capital costs of building a new brewery and without the incremental costs of import freight,” explains Laba.

Goddard adds: “Our open concept brewery consists of a 50 HL brewhouse for larger production and a 20 HL pilot system for recipe development, one-off brews and smaller batch seasonal beers. The brew house and all production equipment has been manufactured NSI, one of the finest manufacturers of beer equipment in the world.