The Canadian Brewing Awards & Festival is Ontario's premier beer festival — hundreds of craft beers from across the province, brewer meet-and-greets, beer education sessions, and food pairings. Toronto also hosts the Waterfront Beer Festival each July at Ontario Place, with 300+ Ontario craft beers over two days.
Neighbourhood: Ontario Place / various · Address: Ontario Place / Exhibition Place, Toronto, ON · Hours: July annual — check torontobeer.com · Price Range: $$ · Editorial status: Not yet verified
Try more than 300 Ontario craft beers in one weekend, meet local brewers face-to-face, and discover new favourites at curated tasting sessions right on the waterfront.
Unlike most beer events in Toronto, CBTF actually brings breweries from all corners of the province—so you’ll find rare, small-town beers that never hit downtown taps. Educational workshops, tasting competitions, and guided food pairings make this festival a genuine deep dive into Ontario beer, not just another buzzy beer garden.
Ontario Craft Beer Week (typically running in late May or early June, for 10 days across the province) is the annual celebration of Ontario's brewery industry — the 300+ licensed craft breweries operating in the province that have developed from a handful of pioneers in the 1980s (Upper Canada Brewing, Wellington Brewery) to a mature, diverse industry producing every beer style from Kolsch to barrel-aged stout. Toronto's events during Ontario Craft Beer Week concentrate at the city's craft breweries, specialty beer bars, and the dedicated Ontario Craft Beer retail shops.
The medal-winning Ontario IPAs are the appropriate starting point for OCBW exploration — the Ontario Brewing Awards (held annually, with results published in the lead-up to OCBW) identifies the best performers in each category, and the IPA category typically includes the most commercially successful as well as the most technically impressive entries. Flying Monkeys, Nickel Brook, Mill Street (now AB-InBev owned but producing consistent product), and the crop of newer small producers who've won regional medals are the names to follow.
Ontario sour ales have developed rapidly in quality over the past decade — the tradition of wild fermentation (Brettanomyces and Lactobacillus bacteria producing sour, funky, complex ales) has found proponents in Ontario breweries that have invested in the equipment and the patience that spontaneous or mixed-fermentation ales require. Collective Arts (Hamilton), Rainhard (Toronto), and Burdock (Toronto) produce sour ales in this tradition.
The food pairing dimension of OCBW events — chefs pairing multi-course meals with Ontario craft beers, brewery tasting rooms partnering with food trucks and restaurants for special menus — reflects the industry's maturation from a bar drink to a full dining-compatible beverage category.
Ontario Craft Beer Week is an annual 10-day celebration of Ontario's craft brewery industry, typically running in late May or early June. Events include brewery open houses, special releases, beer dinners, and the Ontario Brewing Awards that recognize the best beers in each style category.
Ontario has 300+ licensed craft breweries as of the mid-2020s — a dramatic expansion from the dozen or so that existed in the early 2000s. Toronto alone has 50+ licensed craft brewing operations, ranging from large production facilities to small taproom-focused nano-breweries.
Sour ales are brewed with lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus) or wild yeasts (Brettanomyces) that produce tartness and complex secondary flavours. Ontario sour ales from producers like Collective Arts, Burdock, and Rainhard have won recognition for their technical quality and creative flavour development.
LCBO's craft beer section stocks a broad range of Ontario producers. The Bar at Burdock and various craft beer bars (Bar Hop, Bellwoods Brewery, left Field Brewery taprooms) serve rotating Ontario taps. The Ontario Craft Beer Week events map (published each year by Ontario Craft Brewers) identifies specific events during the celebration period.
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