Daytrippin’: Creemore
This is the first in a weekly series exploring the perfect day trips within 200 kilometres of Toronto. This week, beer lovers will find Creemore goes beyond mere suds.
Mention Creemore to a co-worker or neighbour and you’re likely to start a conversation about beer.
But the zero-stoplight village just south of Georgian Bay is a real place, surrounded by farmland, forest and rolling hills, its streets lined with century-old red brick mansions. It’s all very classic, quaint southern Ontario. The main street has the requisite art gallery, several cafés, a specialty food shop, a book and curiosities store. But the nowfamous Creemore Springs Brewery dominates, sprawling over an entire block. A sign outside pays homage to founder John Wiggins, former Torontonian and “the man who put our village on the map.” In fact, most of Creemore itself is dominated by the brewery, the largest employer with more than 100 staff in this municipality of 1,300.
It also sponsors community events and groups, and is the main draw for tourism outside the hiking/fly-fishing/skiing crowd. Even those activities are quietly influenced by the brewery. In 1996, original silent partner Donald Mingay donated 81 hectares of land to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, with the stipulation the brewery could continue to access the nearby natural springs that give the beer its name and character even as visitors enjoy the trails and trees.
And Creemore Springs — the original lager, the pilsner, the India pale lager, the German brown ale — is what’s on tap at the restaurant across the street and the pub down the road.
The town was settled in the 1940s with a small mill on the Mad River, and the most visible historical vestige is proclaimed “North America’s Smallest Jail” — or drunk tank, if you prefer — which was erected in 1892 near a former railway line.
It was less a jail than a temporary holding cell for hobos and drunkards, local historian Chris Raible says.
“They were held there till they quieted down or sobered up,” he says.
The three-cell stone structure is open for tiny tours during the summer.
It sits next to a preserved log house belonging to an original settler, and near a community centre modelled after the original rail station, all revived in the last 20 years as Creemore attracted more visitors. Small venue, big sound Creemore beer is the only thing to drink during concerts at the Avening Hall, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, nondescript venue a five-minute drive down Airport Rd. But the beer is what enables the small hall to continue attracting big Canadian names such as Joel Plaskett, Basia Bulat, Hawksley Workman and Jason Collett, despite a standing-room-only capacity of 220. The shows sell out in minutes.
Beer sales keep the doors open and the lights on, says Sara Hershoff, publisher of the Creemore Echo weekly newspaper and board member at what’s officially called the Avening Community Centre and affectionately known as the “ACC North.”
“We’ve had performers who’ve said, ‘Creemore, I didn’t know it was a place,’ ” Hershoff says.
“When you say you’re from Creemore, the next thing out of your mouth is, ‘Yes, like the beer.’ ”
It’s also the small-town, welcoming vibe — volunteers greet everyone at the door and chatty emails say don’t bother bringing a ticket, your name’s on the list — that allows the venue to “hit above our weight” in terms of performers, Hershoff says.
An annual fundraiser for Toronto’s the Stop is held at Creemore’s the New Farm, and has drawn names as big as the Tragically Hip, Stars and Sam Roberts Band.
History keeps brewing Though Creemore Springs was bought by Molson Canada in 2005, the original brewing process remains more or less intact.
The beer is still brewed on-site in a four-step process involving the copper kettle that gives the original lager its “brilliant, gem-like, copper, honey look,” according to Karen Gaudino, director of marketing.
The same strain of yeast has been used since the brewery opened 30 years ago.
All of that can be gleaned during a free tour through the pristine brewing facility, where visitors can wander among the 15,100-litre tanks and watch bottles chug along a conveyor belt.
“Day-to-day operations are the same,” Gaudino says.
And that’s good for the town as well. Besides the brewery, the main street is free of the chain businesses that can stifle local communities.
“Creemore has that small-town Ontario experience,” says Jackie Durnford of the local Business Improvement Area. “It’s not hurried, all the shops are independently owned. Ironically, Creemore Springs is not, but they still operate in a way that allows them to be involved in the community.” Beer, cider, more beer The brewery tour ends, as all good tours do, with free samples of the six beers on tap. But the tasting doesn’t have to end there. Just outside Creemore, the rich agricultural area has given rise to wineries and cideries. And it’s becoming a regional hub for craft beer.
About 30 minutes north of Creemore lies Collingwood, Ont., with three major breweries, including the Collingwood Brewery, Side Launch Brewing Company and North Winds Brewery.
If there’s time — and a designated driver — it’s possible to hit them all in one day. Overnight accommodations are limited in Creemore, but plentiful in Collingwood. Next week: Amy Pataki ventures to an Indigenous educational site, and tells why you should visit Crawford Lake this summer.