From hobby to booming brewery: Dawson Trail Craft Brewing brings another choice to growing craft beer scene.

• Date: 01 January 2019
• Author: McKinley, Karen

For a few years, Thunder Bay was home to only one brewery.

Then George Renner and Jon Kivinen decided to take their home brewing passion to the people.

Thus, Dawson Trail Craft Brewery opened its doors in late 2016.

The brewery has been amassing a following, attracting fans to its Copper Crescent headquarters to sample its India pale ale, red ale, stout and seasonal offerings. Their creations can also be found in local restaurants and pubs.

"For me and Jon, it was a lot of experimenting," Renner said. "We had been home brewing for about six or seven years and we wanted to explore different things we could do with different equipment."

That led them to acquire bigger equipment and make larger batches. Eventually, the partners decided they could turn their passion into a moneymaker.

"It turned into a bit of a rabbit hole," Renner joked. "We talked about it and thought we could do this...