Unique Muskoka August
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>Muskoka</strong> Brewery founder Gary McMullen, owner Bob Macdonald and Todd Lewin, vice-president of sales and marketing, raise a glass outside their<br />
Bracebridge facility.<br />
says Smith. “Those types of events can be a<br />
great way to gauge people’s reaction to new<br />
beer styles that are coming out.”<br />
Sawdust City Brewing Company in<br />
Gravenhurst is becoming well-known for<br />
combining good brews and live music on a<br />
weekly basis. The brewery hosts live music<br />
events every Thursday, Friday and Saturday<br />
in addition to bingo nights, trivia nights<br />
and more.<br />
“We’ve had a great reception from the<br />
locals, the visitors to Gravenhurst and the<br />
cottagers, as well,” says Corbeil, who started<br />
the brewery five years ago before moving it<br />
home to his <strong>Muskoka</strong> roots in 2014. “It has<br />
been fantastic.”<br />
Corbeil mentions Sawdust City’s Funkfest<br />
event, which was held on the Canada Day<br />
weekend, as an example of how the craft<br />
brewers came together to support each other.<br />
It brought together brewers from Ottawa,<br />
the Kitchener-Waterloo area, Toronto,<br />
Sudbury and more to share their concoctions<br />
alongside live funk bands, food trucks and a<br />
juice bar.<br />
“It’s not about us selling lots of beer. It’s<br />
about showing off the great beer Ontario is<br />
producing,” he says.<br />
McMullen says part of the support comes<br />
from the fact the beer industry is, at its<br />
essence, a social industry.<br />
“There was a propensity to band together<br />
for protection against the big brewers,” says<br />
McMullen.<br />
“To this day, craft breweries in Ontario<br />
represent only seven or eight per- cent of<br />
the market . . . It makes a lot of sense for us<br />
to co-operate together to grow craft beer as a<br />
space and a mindset among consumers as<br />
opposed to fighting with each other.”<br />
Craft brewers are continually creating<br />
new flavours and collaborating locally and<br />
beyond to spread good cheer to beer<br />
aficionados everywhere – and giving people<br />
another reason to love <strong>Muskoka</strong>.<br />
<strong>August</strong> 2016 UNIQUE MUSKOKA 55