Northern microbrewers serve up suds in Sudbury
Small-scale brewers from across Northern Ontario will be in Sudbury this weekend to show off their products at the Northern Ontario Microbrew Festival.
The northern brewers will convene on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. at The Grand Nightclub in Sudbury's downtown. The event was organized by Sudbury's Stack Brewing.
Sudbury's first homebrew champion will also be crowned from those who entered a contest with their basement brew, said Shawn Mailloux from Stack Brewing.
"It's pretty top secret," Mailloux joked.
With limited distribution networks, festivals like this one are the only way to taste other small brewers in the north without travelling to microbreweries in another cities, Mailloux said, adding it is a small step to growing the industry in the north.
"Who we are all fighting against are the macro breweries, the real big guys, so people that have an interest in beer, craft beer, flavourful beer, is good business for me," he said.
This event will showcase several Northern Ontario craft breweries including OutSpoken Brewing from Sault Ste. Marie, Highlander Brew Co.from South River, Lake of the Woods Brewing Company from Kenora, Sleeping Giant Brewing Co. from Thunder Bay, Rheault Distillery from Hearst, and Lake of Bays Brewing Company from Baysville.