One last good pour for Sleeping Giant Brewing Company

Thunder Bay’s oldest and largest craft brewer will run its taps dry for the final time later this month. Sleeping Giant Brewing Company announced it will be shutting down after 14 years at the end of March.

In a press release, the company said the decision to close comes amidst a rapidly changing industry landscape, that has been plagued with heightened costs of aluminum and declining beer consumption over the past year. 

The local brewery was founded in 2012, and over the next few years grew to provincial and national prominence. In 2016, the company won gold in the Ontario Brewing Awards’ American Pale Ale category, and a bronze at the 2018 Canadian Brewing Awards in the American Style Amber/Red Ale category.

In 2016, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was even photographed wearing a Sleeping Giant Brewing Co. Northern Logger t-shirt.

But despite the national exposure, the company remained fiercely loyal to the northwestern Ontario city that rallied around the company from the very start, sponsoring charities like “Craft Cares” and the Staal Foundation.

“This place began with beer, but it became a gathering place,” said Kyle Mulligan, one of Sleeping Giant’s co-founders, in the company’s release. “We’ve watched friendships form here, milestones celebrated and a craft beer culture really take shape in this city.”

The company has also been a leader when it comes to raising support and awareness for the city’s 2SLGBTQ+ community, including partnering with the Rainbow Collective to launch the annual summer raspberry sour beer, “love equals love.”

“That partnership was really the beginning of this long, fruitful relationship over the past five years with Rainbow Collective,” said Jason Veltri, Rainbow Collective’s co-founder. “We saw Sleeping Giant as a true community partner with Rainbow Collective that were doing the work to ensure a safe and welcoming community facility for all.”

Veltri says Sleeping Giant was amongst the first businesses in the city to take Rainbow Collective’s gender and sexual diversity training.

He is hopeful that other local businesses will continue to take cues from Sleeping Giant going forward, working to be positive allies for the region’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Being the oldest craft brewery in Thunder Bay, Sleeping Giant was a pioneer in what has since become a growing industry in northwestern Ontario. According to Hilary Hoogsteen with the Canadian Craft Brewers Association, the company was at the forefront of bringing the taste of craft beer to the city.

“They create jobs in their local communities, they contribute to small communities like Thunder Bay as community hubs,” Hoogsteen said.

Despite the closure, Hoogsteen says there is still growth to come in the industry, and that craft beer is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Sleeping Giant says they are crafting a final beer in honour of the brewery and the local community. It will be called "Good to the Last Drop."