Join us To Launch Canada’s Largest Craft Beer and Cider Region!

February 17, 2017

Media Release and A Special Invitation: Join us To Launch Canada’s Largest Craft Beer and Cider Region!

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the The Bay of Quinte Craft Association – Canada’s largest rural craft beer and cider region.

The Bay of Quinte Craft Association is made up of brewers, cider makers, and producers in the Bay of Quinte Region which includes Brighton, Quinte West, Prince Edward County, Napanee, Tyendinaga, Campbellford, and Bath, Ontario, just 2 hours east of Toronto, and 3 hours west of Montreal on Lake Ontario.

A new website, www.quintecraft.ca showcases the newly formed Bay of Quinte Craft Region which includes 10 established breweries and 8 breweries in development, 4 established cider makers, and 2 in development for a total of 24 craft beer and cider makers in the rural region.

“It is a million dollar industry for the region, employing a few hundred people,” states QuinteVation chairman, Ryan Williams.  “We are happy to support this industry in its development as a region because it is an industry we feel has a lot of growth to do in the region.  It is also, now as organized, the largest rural craft beer and cider industry in Canada.”

The new association is made up and lead by local brewers, cider makers, and producers, including Wild Card Brewery, Church Key Brewery, County Road Brewery, Barley Days, MacKinnon Brothers, Signal Brewery, and producers such as Barn Owl Malt, and Pleasant Vallley Hops.  The association is open to any brewer and cider maker.

QuinteVation acted as a facilitator with the industry, hosting events and collaboration within the industry to launch the new website, and the new Bay of Quinte Craft Association.  The new Quinte Craft Association includes breweries, cider makers, and producers in the Bay of Quinte Region.

Vicki Samaras, owner of County Road Brewery in Prince Edward County, says it has paid off:  “This is a great, growing area.  We are one of the newer brewers but have seen the benefits already of working with the entire industry to be the best rural example in Canada.”

Craft beer accounts for 9% of beer sales in Ontario, and is growing.  Craft beer, specifically, has been growing in share rapidly over the past year.

New breweries coming online this year include Prince Eddy’s in Picton, Signal Brewery in Belleville, and Apple Falls Cider at Campbell’s Orchards on Rednersville Road.

Not only is Bay of Quinte craft beer and cider made in the region, but a lot of the ingredients are as well.  Hops are grown in the region, as are barley and grains, and there have been several businesses that have cropped up to support the industry.

For instance, MacKinnon Brothers brewery, located in Bath, launched earlier this summer a beer made entirely on their farm.  The brewery, opened in the spring of 2014, launched their Harvest Ale made 100% from ingredients from their 230 year old family farm.

The association will also be bringing back the Bay of Quinte Craft Beer Festival, with the date slated for Saturday, September 30 in downtown Belleville.