Wellington Brewery 

Wellington Brewery is one of Canada’s original craft breweries known for producing award-winning beers with a focus on quality, sustainability, and creativity. Founded in 1985 in Guelph, we are creatively transforming Ontario’s brewing culture to stand for people and planet. Join us and Try A Welly On!

Land Acknowledgement

Wellington Brewery honours First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people in our community with the terms they wish to be identified. As a brewery, our acknowledgement of the land is our responsibility to value and respect the land that many of our ingredients are grown upon as well as the water, plants, animals, and ancestors. We acknowledge the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation of the Anishinaabek Peoples, on whose ancestral and treaty lands we conduct business, teach, learn, and live. Wellington Brewery recognizes and supports the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, as we work to apply these recommendations to our work in the craft beer industry.

Our Values

Since 1985, we’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of a thriving craft beer community in Ontario. At the heart of our success has been our commitment to the values that helped build our brewery and have helped us thrive:

Diversity & Inclusivity - We lead by example in helping build and promote a more inclusive and equitable craft beer industry that welcomes everyone. 
Independence - We’re proud to be an independently owned brewery and we’re deeply connected to the community of beer lovers who’ve been with us over the years.
Sustainability & Climate - We stand for our planet through our approach to circular brewing, our sustainability initiatives, and climate projects. 
Quality - As one of Canada’s original craft breweries, we know what goes into brewing consistent, high-quality beers made from the best ingredients possible.
Community - We’re committed to giving back and supporting charities and local community organizations that work to make our world a better place.
Creativity - Creativity is a driving force in everything we do, from beer recipes, to can artwork, to marketing materials, events, and everything in-between.
Beer Education -  We’re beer people, and we want to share our love of craft beer and our knowledge through samplings and beer education.

Climate change

Climate change is one of the most urgent issues of our time. As brewers we rely on clean water and hospitable growing conditions for quality malt and hops. For the future of beer and our planet, we’re committed to taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint. In January 2022 we launched the Welly Climate Future Fund, a capital fund that will be used to invest in projects at our brewery that will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. It’s the first of many steps that we’re taking to help fight climate change in the years to come.

Sustainability

As one of Canada’s original craft brewers we’re committed to sustainable craft brewing practices. We have a responsibility to continually improve the ways we use water, energy, and raw ingredients in ways that reduce waste and promote circularity. 

Our brewery sustainability team meets regularly to track our environmental goals and look for ways to constantly improve our sustainability practices. Here are just a few of the key areas where we’ve taken action to help minimize our environmental impact:

• Local Ingredients - 35% of our hops are locally sourced from hop farms in Ontario and 95% of our malt is grown in Canada. 
• Water - We use a state-of-the-art water Voltea Deionization Water Treatment System that has a 75% yield, saving us almost 49 million litres compared to using a Reverse Osmosis system. We also save water by utilizing a closed loop boiler system and using a centrifuge instead of clarifying our beer using plate filters. 
• Waste - 98% of all spent grains we use are diverted from the landfill. These spent grains are sent to local farmers to use for animal feed and some yeast and spent grains are creatively used by partners for upcycled bread, insect food, and other products.
• Energy - Our world class NSI brewhouse and Krones packaging line are energy efficient, reducing losses on the ‘hot’ (brewing) and ‘cold’ (filtration and packaging) side of our brewery. We’ve also transitioned our production facility to using 100% LED lighting.
• Community - We support local environmental charities and not-for-profits through fundraising beer releases and other initiatives to help support the vital work they do.
• Packaging - We are transitioning all consumer packaging to be recyclable as well as ensuring that we reuse trays and other materials in our shipping. We’ve also made the switch to using biodegradable E6PR holders on all of our 6-packs and 4-packs.

When we opened our doors back in 1985, Wellington Brewery was part of a first wave of independent microbreweries that opened when provincial laws were changed to allow small brewers to operate in Ontario. The original vision for brewery founder Phil Gosling was to bring English-style cask-conditioned “Real Ale” to Ontario. Back in the mid 1980’s, this was a bold vision that meant introducing Ontario beer drinkers to full-flavoured traditional style beers made with high quality ingredients and produced locally at our brewery in Guelph, Ontario. 

Our brewery was creating traditionally inspired, flavourful beer using all-natural ingredients long before the term “craft beer” existed, back when folks called it “microbrew”. And in those early days, we had an uphill battle in selling local, independent microbrewery beer to an Ontario market dominated by large macro breweries. Gradually, our hard work and commitment to brewing high quality beer helped us gain a loyal following of beer drinkers who shared our vision and wanted something more out of their pint.

Over the years, our brewery saw many changes as we gained momentum, won national and international awards, and the demand for locally brewed craft beer grew. We added tanks, welcomed new people, introduced new packaging formats, changed beer labels, and even replaced our entire brewhouse and packaging line. And in the whirlwind of all of these changes, the one constant has been our passion for brewing flavourful, well-balanced beers that bring people together. 

To this day, many of our original recipes remain in our core brand lineup including Special Pale Ale, County Brown Ale, and Arkell Best Bitter. These classic English-style ales join a wider family of beer styles and a constantly rotating selection of small-batch and seasonal beers that showcase the creativity of our brewers. 

From our humble beginning as one of Canada’s first craft brewers to where we are today, thanks to everyone who’s been a part of our journey so far, cheers!