FAQ

Many large breweries, and some small ones, filter their beer, which can strip the beer of vitamins and minerals. At Muskoka, we prefer for our beer to be as natural as possible, which is why we leave these important sources of nutrients in your beer.

In 2013, we purchased a Centrifuge, one of the first breweries in Canada to do so. The centrifuge spins the beer at a high speed so large sediment can settle to the bottom – similar to a washing machine, or the Gravitron at a local fair. This is the way beer was traditionally made, up until the macro breweries wanted their lagers to be clear, and free from sediment. When beers are filtered, it removes vitamins and minerals that enhance the flavour and aroma of your beer. By keeping our beers unfiltered, this results in more flavourful beer that’s also better for you – a win-win in our books.

Gary McMullen and the late Kirk Evans founded the brewery in 1996. Our flagship beer, Cream Ale won Best Beer in Canada the same year. In 2008, partner Bob MacDonald and his family joined our team as part owner, and in 2017, Gary transferred the role of president to our former VP of Sales and Marketing, Todd Lewin.

Yes, Muskoka Brewery has been independently owned since 1996 and plans to stay that way!

We made the move from Taylor Road to Muskoka Beach Road in 2012 in order to increase our capacity. This means more beer for you – and that’s a good thing, right?

We export and sell our beer in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Check out our Beer & Spirits Locator to find out more info.

We’re always discovering and learning more about beer. Our Moonlight Kettle Series promotes brewery education, and allows us to experiment with new styles. We determine new seasonal and full-time styles based on industry research, and what our brewers excel in brewing. Got a style you think we should try? Send us a message, or better yet, drop by the Brewery with a few bottles and prove it to us!

Although Gin is a white distilled spirit, it’s a natural extension to our lineup due to the similarities in ingredients to our Legendary Oddity beer, which contains juniper, heather tips and orange peel. As we celebrate our 21^st year of brewing, it’s important for us to always tie back to our roots.

Much like great beer, gin also allows for some creativity outside of the style guidelines.  Gin must have the presence of juniper berries as the dominant ingredient, but can also feature other natural botanicals.  These guidelines allow our distilling team the flexibility to add unique ingredients, like hops from our Legendary Oddity beer, to make a true Muskoka spirit.  As consumers tastes evolve, spirits and gin specifically are becoming more popular as the drink of choice.  To support this movement in the industry, our gin recipe allows us to offer a unique, one of a kind, premium spirit as our first Muskoka Spirits release.

Our team partnered with Junction 56, a craft distillery out of Stratford, Ontario to help develop and perfect our recipe.  Through late 2016 and early 2017, Junction 56 helped us learn about the distillation process and subtleties of distilling gin. After ten iterations of gin, we found our perfect fit: recipe #10, now known as Muskoka Legendary Oddity Gin!

Our signature cocktail is our Muskoka G&T; with mint leaves, cucumber slices, tonic water & Legendary Oddity Gin – check out the recipe on our Gin page. You can also use Legendary Gin for classic cocktails and do a Gin Caesar or Gin Martini!

Legendary Oddity Gin falls under the London Dry Gin style. Hendricks, Dillon’s Dry Gin, Sipsmiths and Whitley Neill are all examples of great Dry Gins.

Our gin is available for sale in our taproom, online Hop Shop as well as over 100  LCBO locations, and you can also order through LCBO Online.

We’ll be ramping up production to satisfy more LCBO locations in the future. Join us on our social media channels, as we’ll also be releasing which bars and restaurants will be featuring Legendary Oddity Gin

As with our beers, we take our time developing new recipes and releases.  We’re always curious and thirsty for new adventures.  Our distilling crew is experimenting with new recipes and when we have something perfect, we’ll be releasing it for you to try.

Legendary Gin shares the majority of its ingredients with our Legendary Oddity brew. These ingredients are all produced in North America.  We are looking at future developments to source locally, however, with seasonal restrictions to harvest, we are limited.

At Muskoka, we make sure that the ingredients we use in our beers are the best products available, and they sometimes cost more than lesser quality ingredients. Our Moonlight Kettle beers often use specialty ingredients – oysters, tequila barrels, vanilla beans – which makes them more expensive to brew.

We also want to ensure you receive your Moonlight Kettle Series beers intact and fresh, which means we charge all our subscribers an average flat shipping rate to make sure you get them quickly. We always want to keep our costs low to you, our fans, but shipping straight to your door from our Brewery in Bracebridge can sometimes be expensive.

At this time, there are complicated laws limiting where we can ship beer – something we hope will be made easier in the future. Shipping beer outside of the province is also much more expensive, and we want to make sure the Beer Club is as affordable as possible for our subscribers. If you’re ever at a party with Justin Trudeau, put in a good word for the beer industry.

Absolutely! You can add your Little Dipper or Big Dipper to your cart just like any other item, then continue shopping, and checkout when you’re done.

If you aren’t home when Canada Post brings by your package, you will get a notice to go pick it up from your closest Canada Post office. You will also receive shipping and delivery notifications via email.

When we say we have a beer for everyone, we mean everyone legally allowed to enjoy our beverages. We require Canada Post to obtain a 19+ ID and signature from you to receive your package.

If you don’t already have a draught unit, the Canoe is for you! The Canoe comes with a draught unit for your home or cottage, while the Kayak doesn’t include a kegerator for dispensing your beer, and is great if you already have a beer-pouring set-up.

The draught unit is yours to keep forever. Perhaps you can pass it down to future generations, and have it live on forever?

If you would like to get a fridge you already own retrofitted, please contact us and we’ll put you in contact with a third party who can help. Once your fridge is retrofitted to be able to pour beer, the Kayak package will be just what you’re looking for.

Yes, it can. However, it should be treated as you would any electronic appliance. We recommend you keep the draught unit covered (ie. under a roof) and in a place where you can keep it plugged in at all times. If the unit is in your boathouse or under a roof in an outdoor bar, it should be fine, and the beer fresh and ready to enjoy! Note: It’s recommended that you don’t leave the fridge in direct sun for long periods of time, as it can cause the fridge to work overtime.

No. It is important to keep your draught unit plugged in at all times to ensure that the beer doesn’t get warm.  However, you should always be turning your C02 off while you are away.

Yes. Any kegs that you order must be kept cold in either ice or a fridge to ensure the best quality and minimal foaming.

No – there is no minimum order required. You can order every week, every other week, once a month, or whatever works for you.

You can order between Monday at 9:00am and Thursday at 5:00pm to receive delivery that weekend.

Unfortunately we are unable to deliver to cottages that are only boat access at this time. To be eligible for this program you must have a road access cottage or home.