Craft beer market coming to Hintonburg

Hintonburg is preparing to host a new type of beer event on this weekend: The Brewery Market.

An event that started in Toronto last year is expanding to Ottawa and will be held at 1000 Wellington St. and could become a regular event in the Ottawa craft beer scene.

The brewery market is inspired by farmers markets, where local producers get to show off their product and meet consumers.

“We bring together different breweries, usually in a unique setting during the day, and they get to showcase their beers and people can meet the brewers behind each brewery,” says Cass Enright, who came up with the idea and created the event.

“It was really a way of creating a different kind of beer event. One that is family friendly, that is very relaxed and casual.”

The Ottawa craft beer scene is growing with new microbreweries opening up.

According to Enright, that makes it the perfect moment to introduce the brewery market concept in Ottawa.

“I have been doing things in the beer world for over 10 years and once upon a time Ottawa didn’t have a whole lot of craft beer,” he says.

“But these past few years there’s been a new renaissance for beer in Ottawa. It’s really an exciting time for beer there.”

The Ottawa inaugural event will be the largest brewery market yet, showcasing 10 different local breweries including Beau’s, Beyond the Pale, Clocktower and Big Rig Brewery.

Big Rig is one of the newest microbreweries in Ottawa and brewmaster Lon Ladell is excited to be taking part in the event.

“It’s a creative way to introduce people to new products and I think there is a demand for it,” he says. “I’m going to bring three different beers to the market and I will bring samples of our ingredients.”

The Ottawa Brewery Market is an an opportunity for established and new breweries and to cometogether in the same place, says Patrick Fiori, the brewmaster and manager of the Clocktower pubs.

“The more other breweries come up, the more exposure people get to craft beers and the more people want to try ours and vice versa with other brands. We kind of feed off each other that way,” he says.