Mono Centre Brewing Co.

My wife and I have a routine that has hardened into law: hike Mono Cliffs, then drive five minutes down the road and sit outside at Mono Centre Brewing until the legs stop complaining. We are not remotely original in this. On a good Saturday half the patio has trail dust on their boots.

How it got here

Zach Gammage spent nearly sixteen years teaching elementary school. Brewing started as a hobby with his brother-in-law, Paul Wratten — the two of them making beer in Zach’s basement, the way most of these stories start and almost none of them finish.

This one finished. They broke ground around 2020, right before the world shut, and opened in 2022 on Zach’s family’s 56 acres.

That last detail is the whole difference. Most breweries end up in an industrial unit off a bypass. This one sits on a wooded rural property with a pine backdrop, a fenced field beside it and a gravel lot that fills with muddy hatchbacks.

What it’s like to actually be there

Indoors there’s a taproom with a long harvest-style communal table. Outdoors is where you’ll end up: patio, picnic seating, lawn games, fire pits, trees.

Families, cyclists, hikers, dogs — all fine, all normal here. Zach is often about, and will talk to you about the beer for as long as you want him to.

The one honest complaint anyone makes is that cell service out there is dreadful. The brewery, sensibly, has Wi-Fi. Consider the dead zone a feature.

When we last checked, it was sitting at 4.9 out of 5 from more than 200 reviews. That is a very hard number to hold, and it isn’t an accident.

The beer

Small batch, approachable, and rotating — usually fifteen or more on at once, changing with the season.

The clever one is the Back Forty Session Series: same base beer every time, different hop variety. Order two side by side and you can actually taste what the hops are doing, which is the sort of thing you normally need a brewer to explain to you.

Plenty of the names come off the local map — Island Lake, Mono Hills, Splitrock, Lookout Trail, Relessey.

Beer	Style	ABV
Island Lake Pale Ale	American pale ale — citrus, melon, strawberry, unfiltered	4.5%
Mono Hills Hallertau Blanc IPA	Unfiltered IPA brewed with maple syrup	4.8%
Mono Breakfast Stout	Coffee-forward, chocolate notes	5.3%
Splitrock Sour	Wheat sour — citrus and rhubarb	3.6%
Relessey English Brown Ale	Chocolate biscuit, roasted coffee	5.0%
Block Light Lager	Light-bodied and crisp	4.1%
Dirkensteiner Pilsner	Pilsner	5.0%
Lookout Trail Lager	Mexican-style corn lager, sweet finish	5.3%
In The Pines	West Coast IPA — pine, 57 IBU	6.1%
Blind Pig	Pre-Prohibition Kentucky Common	4.5%
Headwaters	Italian-style hopped pilsner	—

Seasonals rotate through — Cliffside Wheat Ale, Highpoint IPA, and whatever’s next in the Back Forty series.

If you want the short version: Island Lake Pale Ale if it’s hot and you’ve just walked eight kilometres. Mono Breakfast Stout if it’s November.

Food — set expectations

This is a brewery, not a restaurant. Day to day it’s Bavarian pretzels, all-beef hot dogs, chips, butter tarts, cookies and coffee, with the occasional meal deal.

But most weekends they bring in food trucks, guest chefs and specialty vendors, and that’s a different proposition entirely. Check what’s on before you decide whether this is a snack stop or dinner.

Events

Live music, food truck weekends, beer releases, seasonal parties, patio evenings. The calendar is a real part of the business rather than an afterthought, so it’s worth a look before you drive out — a quiet Wednesday afternoon and a Saturday with a band on are very different visits.

Make it the second half of a day

The brewery is deliberately positioned for people already out here, and it works:

• Mono Cliffs Provincial Park — five minutes away. Book your day permit in advance
• The Bruce Trail, Dufferin Hi-Land section — the 8.8 km Mono Cliffs Park Loop finishes near enough
• Island Lake — the pale ale is named after it
• Mono Cliffs Inn — a few minutes on, and they pour Mono Centre beer

What we’d tell you before you go

• Hike first, brewery after. In that order. The reverse is a worse hike.
• Check the events page — live music and food trucks change the whole feel of the place.
• The patio is the point in warm weather. Get there early on a sunny Saturday.
• Bring the dog. Outdoor area, no fuss.
• Weekends are much busier than weekdays, because of the hikers. A Thursday afternoon out there is close to perfect.
• Closed Monday and Tuesday. People get caught by this.