Up until a short time ago, the BrewHa! craft beer festival that sold out Thunder Bay's waterfront over the weekend could never have happened.
That's not because Northern Ontario is set in its ways of drinking heavily while it clings to its domestic brand favourites.
It's because up until a short time ago, none of these brands existed.
Since the turn the decade, microbreweries hare popped up in Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay and Kenora.
Industry-wide, microbreweries are growing 15 per cent each year but Thunder Bay's Sleeping Giant Brewing Company has experienced 100 per cent growth, year-over-year since the company was launched in 2011. Although it has yet to post a profit, it's grossing $1 million this year.
That's a local trend that calls for a celebration like this.
"I think it's an evolution in our culinary tendencies," says Sleeping Giant owner, Matt Pearson. "People have demanded more choices. They seek out the local restaurant. They seek out that local product. This whole farm-to-table mentality we've adopted in the last 15 years goes beyond food."
BrewHa! co-host Jon Hendel points out all the money spent at this weekend's festival stays in Northern Ontario. The draw to locally-brewed beer is tapping into a new consumer ethic.
"I think we're really understanding we need to go back to our grandparents' generation, in terms of the economy," he explains.
"I think everyone's starting to question where things come from and how they're made. Look at the Farmer's Market. It's packed. It hasn't been packed like that, previously. Now you're seeing people asking those questions."
The answers to those questions are prompting some wild experimentation with local flavour.
Sudbury's Stack Brewing sourced beans from their local coffee shop and ran them through a blonde ale, aged on chipotle peppers. "Grano-piquante" was brewed to be released on Cinquo De Mayo.
From blueberry, orange or strawberry and rhubarb beer in Kenora to pumpkin beer in Sault Ste. Marie, microbreweries can make small enough batches to take chances -- if their audience identifies with the idea.
In between his table and his "Taste of the North" T-shirt,, Stack Brewing's sales manager Rob Majury pours a Saturday Night, a fitting drink moniker for taking a stomp through Sudbury. It's an eyeful of branding that illustrates the way these companies embrace local culture and help their customers feel ownership over their beer.
"It was a community that wasn't necessarily knowledgeable about craft beer -- anything past the spectrum of lagers," he says.
"It was quite a bit of work educating, to bring that kind of craft beer to Sudbury, to that kind of market. But it's been so well received."
In Baysville, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Kenora, the breweries have outlets in their downtown cores.
Lake of the Woods Brewing Co. is branded after the lake known as a wilderness escape. The nostalgia of Kenora's summer residents matched with the romantic appeal of nature allows the company to ship its product from Brandon, Manitoba all the way to Southern Ontario.
But for its homebase, its owners converted a century-old fire hall into a brewpub and that has bought them an unshakeable connection with the local population.
"I think more and more people are getting proud of the brand we've got and the recognition we've got," says Lake of the Woods Brewing Co. vice president of operations Gord Downey.
"The local community is really coming behind us in that and they can say, 'this is Lake of the Woods. This is our beer.'"
