Sleeping Giant Brewing Co.

The good people at Sleeping Giant Brewing Co. in Thunderbay, Ontario were awesomely kind enough to let me get a behind the scenes look at what they had cookin only a week after a grand opening this past summer.  Becoming Thunderbay's first micro-brewery, they have lots of hoops to jump through with provincial regulation and general market adaptation in a place that sells case upon case upon case of something called Laker Lager (of "Mak'er a laker, eh!" fame).

 Their setup so far includes all the necessaries to produce three different brews, and what I'm seeing now on their website is a new Skullrock Stout which sounds pretty fantastic.  I sampled all three of their offerings and was pleased with each one.  They have a standard setup in a factory style building with the taproom in the front and the shop in the back.  Output so far is only in growler and keg sales.  As far as the cost for bottling and restrictions on sale in LCBO's, it sounds like the trend for alot of upstart breweries.   

Brewmaster Kyle showed me around the place and talked about all the potential for expansion they have in the building.  All depends on what the response is.  It's those frantic times and thoughts that give me nightmares when it comes to making the transition from wizened peon to full brew master. Getting to see him do some of the sugar refraction and talking about yeast made it all seem so feasible, but this is the dream after all.  I walked out with a growler of the Belgian style ale which was their rotating seasonal.

Here's to hoping they succeed in finding that demographic of beer drinkers who want something different.  I think the proximity to Duluth, which has an ungodly proportion of fantastic beer per capita should make this transition a bit easier than expected.
Thanks SGBC!