toronto beer

Beer named after Toronto streets and neighbourhoods

Toronto breweries are using the old marketing trick of weaving relatable stories and iconography into their products. It's for this reason there are a number of local breweries named after Toronto neighbourhoods and streets. No matter which end of the city you're in, there's a brewery that will give you a taste of nostalgia with your brew.

Here's a round-up of Toronto breweries named after Toronto streets and neighbourhoods.

THE JUNCTION
Tom Patterson of Junction Craft Brewing is a big history nerd, and founded his brewery to hearken back to pre-1997, when The Junction was a dry district. Their non-descript warehouse has an entire wall adorned with an old map of the neighbourhood - then called West Toronto. As a manufacturing community, the Junction relied heavily on the railroad, which the brewery uses as the basis for their branding.

HIGH PARK
One of the newest breweries on this list, High Park Brewery started selling beer at the Junction Night Market. As their Twitter states, the brewery consists of "4 hockey buddies from High Park committed to creating exceptional small batch Ontario craft beer using natural ingredients and traditional brewing methods." Stay tuned.

LIBERTY VILLAGE
Liberty Village Brewing's beer is available at local bars or you can buy their 504 Pale Ale - named after the streetcar route - in tall cans at the LCBO. Though they have yet to brew in their namesake neighbourhood, you can catch up with their latest releases via their Twitter feed.

KENSINGTON MARKET
Sometimes known as Brewery in Progress on Twitter, Kensington Brewery has been under construction in its namesake neighbourhood for a while. In the meantime, their beer is available in many local bars, the LCBO and The Beer Store. Keep up with their progress on their Twitter.

THE DANFORTH
Danforth Brewery is still very mysterious and not yet selling beer, but it has a current Twitter presence and a write-up and is apparently bottling beer, so it might be legit. Right now the public's main concern seems to be about the font of their logo - which is all we have for now.

LANSDOWNE
Jeremy Coghill of Lansdowne Brewery became so fed up with Ontario's prohibitive liquor laws that he opened up his own brewpub. It's not brewing beer just yet but you can still have a meal and sample beer from other breweries for the time being.

BELLWOODS
Have you ever seen the Wizard Wolf in Bellwoods Park? Have you drank Wizard Wolf at Bellwoods Brewery? Both experiences are equally magical, and not far from one another. This makes it possible to drink Bellwoods in Bellwoods. Soon it will be possible to drink Bellwoods in a new location, which they are on the verge of building.

MILL ST.
The only brewery in The Distillery since 2002, Mill St. Brewery helped establish Toronto's craft beer community consciousness. They've been using nearby Balzac's Coffee in their Coffee Porter for years, and were the first Canadian brewery to brew an organic beer. They have since expanded, though the brewpub on Tank House Lane will always be an impressive flagship.

BLACK CREEK
Located in Toronto's Pioneer Village, the Black Creek Historic Brewery brews beer using the recipes, techniques, tools and equipment used in the 1860s. Back then there were over 155 breweries in Ontario, all operating with no electricity. Visit the brewery to enjoy the beer authentically - at "cellar temperature".

And there you have it. Still up for grabs: Beaches, Toronto Island, The6 (though you may have to ask Drake). Not sure if Parkdale Brewery, which has been posting photos since 2010, is under copyright, but they appear to be trollin'. Shoutout to Hogtown Brewers, the only brewery named after the entire city.

What did I miss? What are your ideas for Toronto-centric brews? Let us know in the comments.

Evelyn is interested in everything beer related, and sometimes writes about it on Beer Is God. Follow her on Twitter @ccprmaven.


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