Collective Arts Brewing

Combine creativity and craft beer at Collective Arts Brewing. This Ontario-based grassroots brewery seeks to bring art, music and beer together by providing a unique opportunity for artists and musicians to get their work into the hands of beer-lovers everywhere.

In 2013, Matt Johnston and Bob Russell founded a grassroots craft brewery to bring together the things they were most passionate about: art and beer. Collective Arts Brewing has two breweries — in Hamilton and Toronto — and their brews are available throughout Canada.

The Collective Arts Brewing company mandate is to fuse the creativity of craft beer with the inspired talents of emerging artists and musicians. Johnston and Russell established two core guiding beliefs. First, that creativity fuels creativity, and second, that creativity in turn yields delicious pints.

For up-to-date information and details on Collective Arts Brewing, we recommend you visit their website. For information about other places of interest to explore nearby, keep scrolling to see what Destination Ontario recommends.

Accessibility Features

Wheelchair accessible

Unobstructed path through public hallways that are wide enough to allow people using wheelchairs and other mobility devices to move easily through the building.

Support persons welcome

Support persons are welcome to provide services or assistance with communication, mobility, personal care, medical needs or access to facilities. Please check with the organization about entry fees, if applicable.

Service animals welcome

Service animal can be identified by visual indicators (guide dog or other animal wearing a vest/harness); or documentation available from a regulated health professional to confirm the animal is required due to a disability.

Information available in alternative format

Accessible formats (e.g. for menus, brochures, etc) and communication supports are provided in a timely manner upon request at no extra charge in consultation with the person making the request.

Accessible washroom

An accessible washroom stall has adequate manoeuvring room for mobility devices. Includes grab bars, transfer space, accessible door latch, sink with knee clearance, and lever handles or automatic sensor faucets.

Accessible drop-off location

Passenger drop-off is available by an accessible entrance.

Accessible transportation

Accessible public transportation and/or accessible shuttle buses serve the site.

Accessible seating

Reserved space with a clear view of the event/activity for someone who is seated, good sound quality, and adequate manoeuvring room for a mobility device.

Accessible parking

At least one identified, reserved parking space with a safe, clearly marked accessible route from the designated parking area to an accessible building entrance.

Accessible entrances/exits

A sufficiently wide, hard surfaced, unobstructed path, no steps or equipped with ramp connecting to a public entrance or exit and identified by signage. Automatic door openers, adequate manoeuvring room in front of door.

Wheelchair and/or mobility devices available

Wheelchairs and/or mobility devices are available, free of charge, or for rent.

More about Collective Arts Brewing

As a brewery, Collective Arts seeks to increase creative awareness through the social experience of sharing and drinking craft beer. Along with their core lineup, every year, Collective Arts produces new annual craft brews along with a handful of seasonal flavors.

The most well-known brews in their core lineup are “Life in the Clouds,” a rich IPA with a juicy tropical flavor, and “Ransack the Universe,” an IPA with a light malt body mashup with hints of mango and citrus. Their “Stranger than Fiction” porter won the bronze award at the 2016 World Beer Cup, and the full lineup includes ciders, ales, lagers, sours, and other brews.

But along with a bold, original flavor, each Collective Arts Beer comes with something other brews don’t: art by an emerging art or musician.

Every Collective Arts label or can features a limited-edition work of art submitted through one of the brewery’s art initiatives. To date, over 700 artists and musicians from over 40 countries around the world have had their work displayed on a Collective Arts beer. The featured artists are chosen by guest curators and retain the full copyright to the artwork. As a result, the cans and labels are striking and distinct.

The artwork and artists displayed on their beer cans is as diverse as the flavors of their brews, a relationship in which one element informs the other and vice versa. One bottle may feature the bright imagery by Maia Faddoul, another the lush backgrounds by Catherine Hélie-Harvey, or the brooking darkness by Linus Edman, or sweeping atmospheric scenes by Cody Muir. Founders Johnston and Russell also believe that surrounding brewers with art aids in the creative brewing process.

In the summer of 2020, Collective Arts Brewing also announced the creation of a scholarship for a student in Niagara College’s Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program who hails from an under-represented background.

Beer isn’t the only thing Collective Arts Brewing has dabbled in, though. Coffee, gin, sparkling hard teas and maple syrup are among the other products available from this brand.

The company may be expanding to cities around North America, but Collective Arts Brewing is truly at home in Hamilton, where the flagship brewery is located. Guests can make a reservation for the beer garden on their website, taste different flavors in the taproom, or hang out on the patios by the shore of Lake Ontario.

Craft beer lovers in the Toronto area should pay a visit to their second location in the city, which features a full menu of tacos, empanadas and fried chicken.

Last updated: August 18, 2023