Renfrew, Ont. craft beer festival growing the Ottawa Valley brewing industry

It's becoming tradition in the Ottawa Valley that when the leaves start to fall from the trees, craft beer begins to pour in Renfrew.

The town hosted its sixth annual craft beer and food truck festival Saturday, showcasing 10 craft brewers from the Valley and eastern Ontario.

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"It's what this is all about," said Victoria Charbonneau, Renfrew's manager of economic development and customer services.

"We're looking to grow their industry, grow awareness of maybe the brands that won't you won't see in our local LCBOs."

Craft beer enthusiast Aaron Gregoire attended on a wet Saturday, making the trip from Ottawa.

"The story is why, and you get to meet the people that make the beer," Gregoire said when asked what he loves about craft beer.

"You get to try stuff that's not necessarily your run of the mill beer, so you get a lot of different flavors and you get to feel the effort that goes behind it and the stories behind it as well."

Stories like Dog House Brewing Company's, who brew out of Petawawa in support of the local military community.

"I was being posted to the UK - I'm still in the military," explains Dog House Brewing co-owner Brady McNish.

"I was being posted over the United Kingdom for three years. And on the way to the airport, my parents dropped me off. My dad and I always had this bug to want to brew. We've been homebrewing for a few years at that point, and my mom just said, you know, just stop talking about it and just do it."

This year's festival is McNish's second as a microbrewer now. Despite the nine other vendor tents surround his own, McNish says the real competition are the big beer brands.

"It's not actually a competitive market. It's more of an industry where you help each other out," McNish said. "The more of you there are, the more tourists come in, the more people want to come and do things like the brewery tours."

Also in attendance were some of the Valley's bigger names in beer, like Whitewater Brewing, which has been attending the craft beer festival since year one.

Whitewater Brewing Company cans at the craft beer and food truck festival in Renfrew, Ont. Oct. 21, 2023. (Dylan Dyson/CTV News Ottawa)

"When we first started out, there was maybe one or two in this whole area, and now it's grown a lot bigger," says Ryan Whetung, Whitewater's brand experience manager and sales.

"There's almost a craft brewery in every town and things now, so it's great to have that kind of community."

Hosted in Renfrew's town square in front of the town hall, Charbonneau says the plan is to expand next year's festival to more vendors, utilizing the town's main street.

The Ottawa Valley is known for its history in the logging and timber industry. Charbonneau sees craft beer as the region's next big thing.

"It's a niche and we're looking to build and grow in that niche."