Beer! Hogtown Brewers Launches in TO

One of my favourite things to ask people is to tell me a story. So when I heard that five rugby playing buddies had started making their own craft beer, I wanted to know more. Hogtown Brewers, has recently entered the market as one of Toronto’s newest brewers, and it all stemmed from a desire to make a local beer that they wanted to drink.

For cute rugby boys, they’re pretty smart too. All of them kept their full time jobs, they’re renting brewing space, (instead of dropping serious money on their own right off the bat) and most importantly, they’re listening to customer feedback.

(A little tease of Hogtown Brewers at the Toronto Underground Market)

I first met some of the Hogtown Brewers crew at the TorontoUnderground Market back in November. They were proudly, (if not slightly shyly) pouring pints of their Hogtown Ale and genuinely inquiring what people thought of it.  They welcomed comments and suggestions via an online form as well so that people who were too nice to criticize in person, could still give their opinion.

Then, their master brewer took what they had learned from the public and actually made changes. The goal was to create a craft beer that was flavourful but wouldn’t alienate people.  At the Toronto Underground Market, enough tasters commented that the beer was a bit too bitter that they decided to rejig the formula.

At the official Hogtown Brewers launch party at The Duke ofDevon they had made the necessary adjustments and the response from the public was overwhelmingly favourable. The beer was great, servers were decked out in Hogtown t-shirts and even the hors d’oeuvres paid homage to Hogtown with little pastry pigs on top of meat pies.

For now you can find Hogtown Ale on tap at The Duke of Devon, but keep your eyes open as they’re looking to expand to other restaurants and pubs in the city soon. 

Cheers boys!