In 2011, two brewers took over an old Ossington garage, filled four fermenters, and changed Toronto beer. Fourteen years later, they are still loving that life-changing decision.

Troy sits down with Mike Clark and Luke Pestl, co-founders of Bellwoods Brewery. A would-be doctor stuck three years on a med school waitlist and a biochemical engineer who fled a pulp-and-paper lab - they met brewing at Amsterdam Brewery, hatched a plan between brews, and opened on a $640K shoestring budget.

Bellwoods became one of Ontario’s original hype breweries: lineups down Ossington, bottles gone in minutes, RateBeer accolades, and some 60 international collabs. Then came the Dupont saga, the pivot to Hafis Road, an LCBO listing weeks before lockdown, and now their biggest-ever capital investment - all while leading a team of 100+ without ever naming a brewmaster. What’s in this episode:

• From med school waitlists and grad school labs to Amsterdam Brewery - and the location that started it all
• The hype years: lineups, bottle releases, and why they never manufactured scarcity
• The Dupont saga - the showcase brewery that never was, and how Hafis Road became Plan B
• A full packaging overhaul, a tunnel pasteurizer, and the push into non-alc
• Protecting culture, sharing creative control, and why there’s no brewmaster at Bellwoods

Thank you for tuning into the #BetweenTwoFermenters podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on whichever platform you get your podcasts at and be sure to follow GreatLakesBeer on all social channels. greatlakesbeer.com. Supporting local never tasted soooo good!Hosted by Troy Burtch, Between Two Fermenters, a podcast brought to you by Toronto's Great Lakes Brewery where craft beer and conversation collide - straight from the tanks to your ears.

In 1933, the Sleeman name vanished from Canadian brewing. Fifty-one years later, an aunt John hadn't spoken to in 15 years showed up with a recipe book, an old bottle, and one demand: bring it back.

Troy sits down with John Sleeman, the Founder and Chairman of Sleeman Breweries, founder of Spring Mill Distillery, and 2022 appointee to the Order of Canada. But this isn't the story you've heard. Before the brewery, John was a 16-year-old runaway who tried to buy an English pub with no money, built one in Oakville with a skill saw and a $50K loan, then talked the LCBO into letting him import draft Guinness when none of it was legal. Only then did he learn his family were privateers, brewers and Prohibition-era smugglers. In 1988 he revived Sleeman in Guelph - and within a decade it was Canada's third-largest brewer. This is PART ONE of his story - legacy.

What's in this episode:

• The pre-brewery years: a pub, a rugby club, and cold-calling UK breweries to become their Canadian agent
• Hauling Guinness, nitro cylinders and kegs down pub basement stairs at 3 a.m.
• Pirates, live chickens and Al Capone: the family history John didn't know until 1984
• Why cream ale, why a clear bottle, and why the recipe on page 64 won
• Stroh's, Okanagan Spring, Unibroue, Pabst - and the Upper Canada deal he admits he got wrong
• The $400M Sapporo sale, and why protecting his people came first

Thank you for tuning into the #BetweenTwoFermenters podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on whichever platform you get your podcasts at and be sure to follow GreatLakesBeer on all social channels. greatlakesbeer.com. Supporting local never tasted soooo good

Hosted by Troy Burtch, Between Two Fermenters, a podcast brought to you by Toronto's Great Lakes Brewery where craft beer and conversation collide - straight from the tanks to your ears.

Everyone else is dry-hopping the heck out of everything. Brandon Judd is still asking whether it's drinkable.

Troy sits down with Brandon Judd, Brewmaster at Avling Brewery - Toronto's brewery, restaurant, and rooftop farm all under one roof in Leslieville. Brandon's path to beer ran through freelance journalism, restaurant bartending, and Toronto's early craft scene at Indie AleHouse before a personal-challenge move to VLB Berlin, one of the world's most respected brewing institutions. From there it was off to Godspeed Brewery for their startup before finally landing at a new brewery, Avling, in 2018. He's spent seven years at Avling, building traditional lagers, barrel-aged mixed fermentation beers, and rooftop-grown ingredients like marigolds and pineapple sage into beers designed to work as hard at the dinner table as they do on their own.German techniques, North American beers - and a brewer still chasing the beer he hasn't made yet.What's in this episode:

• The road from freelance journalism and Indie AleHouse to VLB Berlin, and why “tradition is a good guide, but it shouldn't be a religion”
• What German brewing school really changed: less an engineering degree, more a new way of solving problems
• Assisting in Godspeed's beer program from poured concrete up, and the brew day that convinced he could go out on his own
• Avling's rooftop farm: brewing with marigolds and pineapple sage, and the limits of “100% Ontario”
• A year into new ownership at Avling, and a deep dive on his beers
• Rapid Fire: the business decision he'd redo, his favourite beer he's ever brewed, and what he's still trying to prove to himself after all these years

Thank you for tuning into the #BetweenTwoFermenters podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on whichever platform you get your podcasts at and be sure to follow GreatLakesBeer on all social channels. greatlakesbeer.com. Supporting local never tasted soooo good!Hosted by Troy Burtch, Between Two Fermenters, a podcast brought to you by Toronto's Great Lakes Brewery where craft beer and conversation collide straight from the tanks to your ears.