Greetings, Breweries of Ontario.

Autumn is in the air and changes are occurring here at The Growler Ontario. Going forward, we’re going to be switching from the magazine you’ve become familiar with in taprooms around the province to an online only format. Although the small, friendly tome is a perennial favourite for road trippers around the province, it has to go. 0701 will have been our final print issue. This move is a long time coming, and should help reach an expanded readership across the province of Ontario. 

Printing a magazine twice annually means that the writers and editor have to come up with evergreen content that’s as relevant in Windsor as it is in Ottawa over the course of six months. In the beer world, that’s a long time. Long enough in fact, that as editor, I had to write documentation to remind myself how things worked.

When the magazine was quarterly, we were able to cover events in a more timely manner. With an online format, we not only have biweekly updates for news and an online events calendar, but also the ability to provide fresh content on an ongoing basis instead of repurposing material from the magazine. One of the things that has been missing in Ontario is basic coverage of the craft beer scene. For a while, everything got a little too inside-baseball and we were only talking to people who were already on board. 

Our hope is to provide more consequential coverage of Ontario’s craft beer scene in a timely fashion. In aid of that, we have plans to update the website with a new look, and convert brewery listings from the magazine into an online format. We’ll retain some favourite columns with recipes, interviews, style guidelines, and lists. Who knows? There might even be a podcast in the coming months with some familiar voices.

We hope to see you here soon.