In the craft beer world, opinions about the merits of contract brewing are pretty varied.

Without wading into the debate (again), I do want to discuss one thing that I think virtually everyone takes a disliking too, and that’s when a contract brewer or brewing company attempts to be dishonest about where it is that their beer is actually made.

Frankly, I don’t know why people think it benefits them to claim they own an actual brewery when they don’t (whether they claim this explicitly or implicitly), but there is a trend as of late for some “brewers” to be shady about where it is that their malt actually meets water before they slap a label on the beer and try to sell it to the world. Most brewing companies are, of course, happy to tell you where their beer is made (I asked a lot of them for this article and they answered me), but there are still some that are less-than-forthcoming about it. Given that I’m a big proponent of transparency when it comes to the brewing, production, and marketing of beer in this province, I thought I’d add simply a little more clarity to the issue today.

In collaboration with Chris Burek, the artist formerly known as Mom n’ Hops who runs the highly informative website Ontario Beer Network, I’ve created the chart below that lists all of the province’s active contract brewers, along with the “host” brewery where they actually brew their beer. I don’t think this should be all that contentious, frankly, because people simply like to know (and should be easily able to discern) where the beer they’re drinking is actually brewed.

So, for those of you who didn’t know, now you do.

Host Brewery Contract Brewers Cool Brewing Co. Liberty Village Brewing Co.

Longslice Brewing Co.

Hogtown Brewers

Ontario Beer Co.

Spearhead Brewing Co.

Woodhouse Brewing Co.

Kensington Brewing Co. Wellington Brewery Double Trouble Brewing Co.

Arch Brewing Co.

Sweetgrass Brewing Co.

Stouffville Brewing Co.

HogsBack Brewing Co.

Junction Craft Brewing* Great Lakes Brewery Triple Bogey Brewing Co.

Cheetah International Breweries Inc. Black Oak Brewing Co. Cheshire Valley Brewing

Radical Road Brewing Co.

Garden Brewers

Snowman Brewing Grand River Brewing Bamboo Beer Co. Nickel Brook Brewing Collective Arts Brewing

Bush Pilot Brewing Co.

Brux House Innocente Brewing Co. Shacklands Brewery

Clifford Brewing Co. Big Rig Gongshow Beauty Beer

Old Tomorrow Ltd.

HogsBack Brewing Co.

Church-Key Brewing* Niagara College’s Teaching Brewery Shillow Beer Co.

Outlaw Brew Co. Durham Brewing C’est What Stratford Brewing Draft Dodgers Brewery Broadhead Brewing Company Turtle Island Brewing Co.

HogsBack Brewing Co. Hockley Valley Midland Beer Works Forked River Brewery Beer Lab London Railway City Brewing The Hamilton Brewery

Descendants Beer & Beverage Co.

Underdogs Brewhouse Inc. Trafalgar Brewing Company Black Creek Historic Brewery*

*these breweries brew some of their beer at other sites but also have their own breweries

Photo credit: Jesse Milns