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Tasting through some recent local offerings for this weekend’s Uncorked column got me thinking about the decade of local craft beer since the big boom of 2016.
Once upon a time, Half Pints, Fort Garry and Farmery were the only craft breweries in our fair province. Following some regulatory changes in 2015 that reduced the red tape of opening a brewery, 2016 saw a number of breweries and brew pubs open in quick succession — first Peg Beer Co., which opened in March 2016 (and closed in 2018), followed by One Great City, Barn Hammer and Torque. (Maybe not in that order… I can’t recall.)
The Manitoba beer scene was off to the races. Longtime Pembina Highway eatery The Round Table shuttered, replaced by Brazen Hall Kitchen and Brewery. Stone Angel Brewing Co. opened further down Pembina, with Kilter Brewing Co. and Devil May Care both operating in the same space. (The latter two went on to open their own respective breweries — Stone Angel closed in 2024). For a time even the German Society of Winnipeg had a brewery, Bernhard Wieland Brewing, in the basement of the society’s Charles Street clubhouse.
Paul Clerkin, an owner of Stone Angel Brewing Co., sits inside his brewery and tap house in 2020. (Jesse Boily / Free Press files)
The boom expanded beyond the city’s borders to Winkler, Brandon, Dauphin and Steinbach. Brewing operations in the province, including breweries, brewpubs and contract brewers* now number about two dozen.
(*A contract brewer is a beer brand without a brick-and-mortar facility of its own — Bookstore Brewing Co., for example, brews at Oxus Brewing Co.’s Sanford Street facility).
A few potential projects never came to be — the folks behind contract brewer Winnipeg Brew Werks (now defunct) had plans to open across from the Canada Life Centre. And that brewery slated to be built at The Forks Market? Never happened.
With the craft-beer boom having plateaued (or, arguably, waning), many breweries have expanded their offerings to lure a wider range of palates to their wares. There are now plenty of locally made light beers, lagers, lime-infused “cerveza”-style brews out there, with the hopes that typical non-craft beer drinkers can be enticed to drink local.
Many craft breweries have also taken to hosting non-beer-centric events in their taprooms — think paint nights, craft or record sales, cribbage tournaments, comedy showcases, live music, food truck visits, movie nights, book clubs, erotic bingo (!!!), etc. These get butts in seats and beer in glasses at a time when the novelty of the craft beer boom has worn off — just being a craft brewery isn’t enough of a draw anymore.
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This year should see Dastardly Villain Brewing Co. open on Osborne Street South in the coming months, and Nonsuch Brewing Co. opening a second location, also in South Osborne. Other than that, there’s not much else brewing in terms of new breweries — at least to my knowledge.
It’s more likely we’ll see at least a minor contraction in the number of breweries in the next few years — pioneering brewery Half Pints, for example, has been for sale for some time, and there have been whispers about others being unofficially on the market.
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