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.