Fully Ontario-sourced beers en route from Ontario Beer Co. this November

The Ontario Beer Co., a joint venture between two Toronto brewers and three Ontario hop cultivators, today announced the November release of two new 100% Ontario-sourced beers through its 100 Mile series.

“…for the first time in over a century, offer beer drinkers in Ontario a 100% locally sourced and made product”, expresses the Ontario Beer Co. “The recent resurgence in hop farming in Ontario is largely what has made this project possible. The 100 Mile beers represent a return to the day when brewers would source all of their ingredients locally from within the community and are a return to sustainable brewing practices.”

The new brewery is an alliance between Michael Duggan of Duggan’s Brewery and Brad Clifford of Get Well Brewing working with Hugh Brown of Heritage Hill Organics in Barrie, ON, Daniel Sabourin of Nation Hops in St. Bernadin, ON and Hugo Desrochers from Tribal Hops in Iroquois, ON.

The 100 Mile series, launching this November in LCBOs across the province, includes 100 Mile Lager, a European-style lager hopped with Ontario-grown Nugget and Hallertauer hops at 5% ABV and 100 Mile Ale, an Amber ale utilizing Ontario-grown Chinook and Cascade hops at 5.4% ABV. Both will be available in 473mL cans.

“The project was first conceived with hops being planted in 2007 and the first small scale commercial brews were served in Toronto in 2009. To produce a large scale brew though required more hop acreage and equipment that had been lost to Ontario decades ago. More hop farmers, brewers and maltsters came into the fold over the next few years and the goal of making the 100 Mile beers slowly inched closer to reality. Hop acreage was expanded to meet the demands of producing a local beer on this scale and specialty malts were specifically malted and developed as Ontario made equivalents simply did not exist when the project began.”