The Bar Towel

It is pretty staggering that the stretch of Mississauga, Oakville and Burlington has well over 1 million in population, but only a literal handful of breweries. Stonehooker (which is barely across the border from Toronto), Old Credit, 3 Brewers (technically I guess), Cameron's, Nickel Brook, Burlington Brewery. Big Rig has a location but they don't brew there. That's it (I think). You could group in Brampton too which I don't think there is one. There's a few beer bars (Beertowns in Oakville and Burlington), but pretty sparse otherwise. Bru was a nice spot in Downtown Oakville but was a victim of the pandemic.

Why is there so little there?

I suppose there's an argument for the price of land but that would apply around the GTA.

I guess you could also say there's no market for beer, but there are breweries in other Toronto suburbs (two just north in Milton incl. Third Moon, one in Georgetown) and many on the east side of Toronto (Town, 5 Paddles, Little Beasts, etc.) I live in Oakville and I see with my own eyes how busy Beertown has been since it opened a few years back. There are people out here that enjoy beer, at least from what I can tell.

Any suburbanites on the board have an opinion?

Oh you suburbanites … you want it all … you've already got the big houses, wide roads that have bike lanes on them that don't either randomly end or are interrupted by construction or some a**hole parked in the bike lane ever block and a half… you've got cushy go trains with wifi and bathrooms to get into the city on and an awesome bar to sit at in Toronto while you wait for said go train… now you want breweries and good beer bars???!!?!??!!?

(I jest of course… kinda )

I do wonder if it's partly demographics, especially Mississauga where a lot of the population might be people from backgrounds that don't typically consume much or any alcohol, or craft beer anyway. That wouldn't explain Burlington and Oakville quite as much, but perhaps people get their fix between Toronto and Hamilton breweries.

I live in Durham and I'd say the region reflects your traditional craft drinker demographically, and indeed we have more breweries from a per capita and absolute perspective. Now, I intend to bring this up without generalizing, certainly people from many backgrounds enjoy craft beer, but it might be a factor.