To be clear, this is a list of OUR FAVORITE breweries in Ontario, sorted by county, with a few exceptions: areas with dense cities are referred to by city name, a few areas have been omitted due to our unfamiliarity with respective area, and Toronto being split up into East & West.
Updated - October 2020*
Durham | Second Wedge
Located in Uxbridge, Second Wedge reliably offers a variety of solid core beers and well-balanced seasonal small batch brews.
Grey | Collingwood
Offering a steady lineup of readily available beers, they also have a couple of seasonals and one-offs that they call their “Freestyle Series.”
Guelph | Elora Brewing
Beautiful downtown Elora holds one of our favourite breweries in Ontario. Their flagship Pale Ale is hands down the best in the province. Their rye/wheat lager is unparalleled, and they always have a couple of great seasonals.
Hamilton | Fairweather Brewing
Among many great breweries in Hamilton, Fairweather remains our favorite (with many curation features), we also recommend driving down the street to Grain & Grit!
Huron | Half Hours on Earth
Huron county has some of our favorite breweries in all of Ontario but Half Hours remains our favorite. Serving up a fantastic amount of unique brews and a beautiful online shop; they’ll take care of any farmhouse or sour craving you may have.
Kingston | Stone City
They make a huge variety of beers and have a sweet bar with even more styles available on tap. The Kingston and Frontenac county has a solid beer scene, but Stone City was an easy pick for the area. #2 on this list would have to be MacKinnon out in Bath.
London | anderson craft ales
A family owned craft brewery producing perfectly crafted easy drinking beer.
Muskoka | Sawdust City
In the heart of Gravenhurst, stands Sawdust City Brewery. Open everyday, they produce an abundance of beers, both year round and seasonal. You can have your pick from a light Kolsch to an imperial stout with berries.
Niagara | Oast House
This one’s nearly a tie with The Exchange (only 10 minutes away from Oast). You can find some beautiful bottle conditioned beers at Oast, along with an abundance of on tap growler fills and their core Barn Raiser Ale and Dry Porter both in cans. A beautiful spot, making some of the best beer in Canada - a must visit.
Norfolk | New Limburg
A Belgian style brewery making ales just as well as any Belgian brewery. The brewery is a converted school with a wonderful patio in the back.
Northern Ontario | Sleeping Giant
Located in Thunder Bay, they’re producing some of the best standard and unique seasonals out there. Notably unique was their Spruce Tip infused ale.
Ottawa | Dominion City
Despite the abundance of great Ottawa breweries, this one was a no-brainer. Dominion City is consistently pumping out quality brews, with their “Sunsplit” being one of the best Vermont style IPA’s.
Peel | Badlands
Farm brewery in Caledon, producing some of the best hazy IPAs anywhere.
Prince Edward County | Signal Brewing
The bay of Quinte area has an abundance of breweries but standing out amongst them all is Signal brewing, located in Corbyville’s Distillery District. Yes, Signal is technically part of Hastings county, but there aren’t enough breweries to give Hastings its own title.
Simcoe | Redline
Located in Barrie, Redline is producing 4 easy drinking core beers and a consistent amount of seasonals which often return annually. Our favorite IPA from them? Rainbow in the Dark, their winter rye IPA.
Toronto East | Godspeed
We can’t say enough good things about Godspeed, located near the Danforth area. The Japanese inspired brewpub creates some of the most unique beers in Ontario. Most notably, their Ochame green tea IPA and constant array of floral saisons.
Toronto West | Burdock
OK, this was a tough one… There’s no question that the west end of Toronto is making some of the finest beer in the country, but we could only pick one as our favorite. Burdock consistently makes innovative beers, with their wine hybrids being some of the most interesting.
Waterloo | Barncat
Barncat is our favorite brewery… ever. They make the best hazy IPA’s in Ontario and always have 2 or 3 fantastic bottle conditioned brews; ranging from imperial stouts to honey infused sours. Block 3 being the easy second in this region.
York | Rouge River
Located in Markham, Rouge River is constantly making delicious seasonal beers and having an abundance of well-rounded sours. We also love Market brewing up in Newmarket but Rouge River has been absolutely killing it lately.
Again, this list is simply our favorites and by no means are we ignoring the great work of many other breweries in their respective regions.
We’d love to hear your favorites in the comments below!
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