Now that beer is being sold in supermarkets, craft brewers are turning their sights to farmers’ markets as the next frontier.

Locally made beers would be a perfect fit with Ontario VQA wines and hard ciders already cleared for sale alongside market tables heaped with fresh produce, meats and more, says president John Hay of Ontario Craft Brewers.

“We’re having more and more Ontario ingredients so it makes a lot of sense,” adds Hay, noting there are about 30 hop farmers in the province.

“It would be fabulous for the smaller brewers. I can’t see the public not liking it.”

While bigger beer makers have the scale to sell through the Beer Store, LCBO, grocery stores and their own breweries, it’s the tiny ones that could benefit most from exposure in farmers’ markets, says Victor North of Garden Brewers in Hamilton.

North is a “contract brewer,” making his beers at Niagara College Teaching Brewery and Black Oak Brewing Co. in Oakville. By law, he can only sell kegs to bars and restaurants for their draft taps.

North, who has also taught brewing at Niagara College, made 270 kegs last year. That’s 8,100 litres.

“One of our biggest hurdles is we don’t have any contact with our customers. We’re essentially invisible,” laments North, who is a one-man brewing, sales and marketing force as he runs the business with help from his wife, Sonja, who has her own full-time job elsewhere to balance the family’s income.

North is trying to build the business to a point where he can raise enough capital for his own bricks-and-mortar brewery, opening the door to sales of bottles, cans and growlers of his beers, including Green Thumb, an India Pale Ale infused with ginger root to pair with glazed salmon and sushi.

A growler is a 1.89 litre resealable jug.

For now, North is pushing for reforms that would permit small brewers to take kegs of draft to the nearest farmers’ market to sell growlers to thirsty customers.

That’s already something beer lovers can do as part of a pilot project at the LCBO’s Summerhill store on Yonge St. in Toronto.

Other brewers would like to sell bottles and cans in farmers’ markets, too, with about 80 per cent in favour, Hay says.

“I don’t think it would cause social breakdown or chaos. People may be wondering why they can buy VQA wine at a farmers’ market and not beer,” says North.

He’d also like to see Ontario follow New York state’s lead and allow people to fill growlers at pubs to drink at home, where most beer is consumed.

“It would be great for our personal connections with customers and also for our margins,” adds the former brewing teacher from Niagara College, who now frequents craft beer festivals like the recent Albino Rhino event in Ridgeway, near Fort Erie, to pour samples and build brand awareness.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa says North’s vision is not in the cards, for now, even though British Columbia and Nova Scotia allow craft beer sales at farmers’ markets.

“At this point, we haven’t considered making that change, but we’ll see how it proceeds,” Sousa told the Star, noting that craft brew is now the fastest-growing beer category in LCBO stores.

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“What we want is for these guys to do well.”

He’s awaiting a report on the LCBO’s growler program, as well as on the first two years of VQA wine sales in farmers’ markets. That wine report is expected this summer.

Sousa said the province has already taken major steps to modernize alcohol retailing, with beer eventually going into as many as 450 supermarkets across the province.

North applauds those reforms but says selling through the Beer Store or LCBO requires navigating a “massive bureaucracy.” In addition, the canning, bottling and packaging costs at his small level of production are prohibitively expensive.

Even a larger operation like 30-year-old Wellington Brewery, whose beers are widely sold, applauds the idea of using farmers’ markets as a new sales channel.

“It can fit for a lot of small craft breweries to sell locally,” says president Brent Davies, estimating a five to 10 per cent increase in sales if Wellington could get into the four or five farm markets in the Kitchener, Waterloo and Guelph areas.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to grab some fresh produce and fresh beer? It would be great for local brewers and add to the community feel.”

Davies said Wellington would likely just sell cans and bottles, but agrees with North that growlers are worth exploring.

An obstacle for brewers getting into farm markets has been that wines and ciders are considered more of an agricultural product.

Many cider makers are already holding down spots at markets to sell Ontario apples and other fruit, says Thomas Wilson of Spirit Tree Estate Cidery in Caledon.

But Wilson, who is also president of the Ontario Craft Cider Association, said he has no problem with craft beers getting access as well.

“In my books if you’re a small-scale craft producer why shouldn’t you be able to sell at a farmers’ market?” says Wilson, who soon will be selling and sampling his ciders at the farmers’ market in Brampton.