Craft breweries as hermit crabs: Adaptive reuse and the revaluation of place

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the relationship between craft breweries and adaptive reuse processes in small town Ontario, Canada. Drawing together semi-structured interviews, site analysis, and secondary newspaper and planning sources, this paper illustrates that, despite a diversity of structures and locations, there is a consistency in interior design and aesthetics across small town breweries. The visual symbolism and spatial references, included as part of the internal décor, produce a new story of place within the buildings. We argue that these repurposed sites should be valued regardless of age, location, or building type: their interior adaptation signals a revaluation and revival that spills over beyond the shell.

KEYWORDS:

• Craft beer
• small town
• place
• adaptive reuse

Introduction

Celebrated for their ability to initiate economic development through beer tourism (Mitcheli & Vanderwerf, 2010), craft breweries have acted as agents of change and catalysts of “the (re)volution of places in decline” (Myles & Breen, 2018). While brewers have shown a strong preference for adaptive reuse, or the repurposing of abandoned or underused structures into new uses (Reid, 2018), there is no research investigating the adaptive reuse strategies of craft breweries across small Canadian towns.¹ The flexible adaptation and occupation of existing buildings by craft breweries conjures up images of a hermit crab, a crustacean known for seeking out abandoned shells and repurposing them as a new home. Like the hermit crab, craft breweries demonstrate the potential to revitalize and revalorize existing spaces. Building on an emerging body of work on craft breweries in smaller communities (Eberts, 2014; Feeney, 2017; Talmage et al., 2020), this research traces how craft breweries in small town Ontario adapt artisanal craft production in the global cultural economy to local architectural and planning parameters. The Canadian beer sector is currently undergoing exponential growth rising from a few dozen breweries in the 1980s to 1210 in 2020 (Beer Canada, 2021) with a leading 34.4% of Canadian breweries located in the Province of Ontario (Statistics Canada, 2020), and one third of this total located in small towns between 1,000 and 29,999 people. The vast majority of craft breweries located in Ontario are adapting existing buildings making the province an appropriate site to examine how craft breweries activate place-making through adaptive reuse practices and how they are helping to counter decline and demolition in small towns. This paper seeks to understand the development of former industrial, commercial, residential, and institutional locations as signature features of re-invigorated landscapes, and how redevelopment associated with craft beer is shifting the meaning ascribed to aging structures in small town Ontario. Our study highlights how the reuse of existing spaces by a transformative sector leads to a revaluation of place.

Literature review: Craft beer production and adaptive reuse

The role of craft beer production in the transformation of urban historic landscapes is an emerging sub-field of urban geography (Mathews & Picton, 2014; Reid et al., 2020). Research has demonstrated how the historic architecture of craft breweries creates a sense of place and place attachment within host communities (Fletchall, 2016; Holtkamp et al., 2016; Rojak & Cole, 2016) and acts as a catalyst for architectural and spatial rehabilitation (Nilsson & Reid, 2019). There is a conceptual fit between historic buildings and craft beer production (Mathews & Picton, 2014; Murray & Kline, 2015) with the “quest for authenticity” fueling “the economic argument for preserving historic buildings” (Kickert, 2021, p. 194). Unique heritage buildings, long abandoned, are revitalized and transformed into vibrant, mixed-use community hubs (Lynch, 2022). Craft breweries have shown an adeptness in experimenting with the adaptive reuse of a wide range of building types including churches, fire stations, cinemas, store fronts, stables, jails, mills, and factories (Reid et al., 2020). As Zukin (1991) argued, distinct place-identities are created by capitalizing on built heritage and culture/entertainment, and craft breweries are using language that references a building’s history in their products to create an “authentic” link to the past. Reid et al. (2020) refer to the memory of a building’s previous use as part of its contemporary architectural language. As they posit, “The original use and physical characteristics of a heritage building provide a ‘vocabulary’ with which the building speaks – each with its own unique text, identity, and story. Through adaptive reuse we contend that the original text is edited to provide an updated version of the narrative while retaining some of the original vocabulary” (Reid et al., 2020, 4087). Underutilized historic industrial and commercial locations provide innovative and creative spaces for craft breweries to activate place promotion and emotional attachment rooted in place as part of their brand identity (Holtkamp et al., 2016; Schnell & Reese, 2014; Zimmerman, 2008). Spatially, the practice of revalorizing heritage built form – as “pioneer” artists living in New York’s SoHo area in the 1960s did with old warehouse structures – has expanded beyond international cities into more peripheral locations (Mathews, 2019).

However, this emphasis on heritage structures as unique venues for craft beer production and consumption diverts attention from the ways in which craft breweries deliver linkages to place regardless of the age of the building that houses them. As we will argue, every existing building from the high street and the commercial downtown, to a host of other locations such as old highway commercial sites and institutional buildings, contain a “vocabulary” or architectural language. The reuse of any building holds the potential to create a sense of place and a rootedness with the local. Adaptive reuse is no longer confined to prestigious and monumental buildings (Bullen & Love, 2011). Buildings with “vernacular origins,” such as “old office buildings, auto repair shops, or retail stores” (Reid et al., 2020), also contain heritage value (p. 4086). The unique experience crafted through using a repurposed heritage structure as a brewery is also possible in nondescript, mass-produced structures that contain a “narrative” speaking to their story as a mall, department store, school, and so forth. Craft breweries should be recognized for their ability to reclaim existing built form for everyday use, especially those structures which face difficulty transitioning into new uses given their age, location, previous use, and/or exclusions that remain on title. These mass-produced structures become distinct locations with a sense of place when they are transformed into craft breweries. As Jane Jacobs (1961) remarked, “Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings” (p. 188). Urban centers require different types and ages of buildings to accommodate a diversity of uses and income levels. Existing buildings, especially everyday architecture, including those that are mass-produced and non-descript, provide craft brewers with lower land costs, the flexibility for creative experimentation, and perform an important recycling function. Not only traditional main streets, but increasingly, as our research will show, old malls, former institutional spaces and residential units are being adapted by craft breweries, offering new vibrant, familiar, and desirable spaces. During the process of adaptive reuse, a building is modified to another purpose while retaining its historic, environmental, social, and economic value. Quite simply, adaptive reuse extends and/or responds to the life of buildings. Reuse minimizes energy use, decreases raw materials, and lowers emissions, and by preventing possible demolition, it diverts waste from landfills (Itard & Klunder, 2007).

Building renewal in the craft brewing sector can be seen as an extension of previous waves of construction and abandonment in the retail and industrial sectors. While main streets have felt the pull from auto-oriented chain store configurations built on the outskirts, the same could be said about the shifting structure of new retail landscapes. Canadian malls built on the edges of urban centers in the 1960s, as well as in downtown locations, today are “vulnerable to big box retailers that have dramatically reduced the profit margins throughout the retail sector” (Hernandez & Simmons, 2006, p. 467). These shifting sites of retail leave behind a trail of refuse. As Patchett and Shields (2012) highlight, “Now into the second decade of the twenty first century, local malls, especially small-scale strip malls, are rarely of interest or attachment, undercut in cost by auto-oriented ‘big box,’ ‘power centers’ and ‘regional and super regional malls’” (p. 12). The revival of outdated commercial sites (shopping, strip, and light industrial malls), once disparaged for their aesthetic form, promises to “build and support an identifiable, durable place to which people will be attracted” (Dunham-Jones & Williamson, 2011, p. xxviii). Similarly, abandoned industrial brownfield sites that once played a critical role in the development of cities now lie dormant and inactive (Nilsson & Reid, 2019). Innovation and adaptation of outmoded forms (whether contemporary or historic) is neither simple nor easy. It requires a shift in the utility of a site, and often a new set of associations. For Patchett and Shields (2012) this means a shift away from “convenience-oriented commercial” to “niche services” and products (p. 13).

The physical forms and locations of retail, commercial, and industrial firms have shifted dramatically in the past decade. Recent trends in consumer habits show a renewed preference for unique, local, ethical, sustainable, and brick-and-mortar retail experiences (Maltais, 2017). Firms are selling experiences as they are selling goods or services (Pine & Gilmore, 1998). As counterparts to increasingly global retail (and virtual) chains, small local retailers offer personalized service, physical interaction with novel merchandise, instant gratification, and opportunities for social exchange (Kickert, 2021). Spatially, walkable storefront destinations on traditional main streets provide residents “with destinations to walk to, places to meet friends and strangers, and strengthen a sense of community” (Kickert, 2021, p. 159). Evoking the work of Oldenburg (1989), Rojak and Cole (2016) document the role that breweries play in establishing “third places” (places between home and work) in their community and their ability to foster attachments to place. In this realm, craft brewers act as “community fixers” by “bringing community-oriented forms of consumption back to the High Street,” often by taking over vacant shops in struggling town centers (Hubbard, 2019, p. 763). Retail, food services, and local food systems, including breweries, are well suited to take advantage of this consumer desire for new community places (Mars, 2015; Rossi et al., 2020). Craft breweries are rewriting the script of post-industrial locations, revalorizing historic architecture, and imbibing cities with a renewed sense of place (Mathews & Picton, 2014).

Breweries play a distinct role in the urban experience by aligning property interests with community place-making. Municipalities are recognizing these advantages by offering tax incentives or grants to landlords to encourage revitalization of historic buildings. Indeed, as Kickert (2021) highlights, recognition of the success associated with “‘maker ecosystems’ of shared production, education, distribution, and sales facilities” has led to the elimination of planning challenges that would threaten inclusion of this experiential retail sector across cities (p. 164). Part of what happens with existing (underused and/or vacant) buildings is a shift in the perception of the value of built form. These undervalued spaces, given their embeddedness within communities, are likely to hold labor, social, and/or personal memories for the community. If heritage is typically commodified within processes of urban change, where it satisfies a consumer desire to indulge in the aesthetics of historic buildings, additional research is needed to identify how heritage is used to change the value of place in small towns. Moreover, how does the perception of value shift in contemporary structures that hold a different type of stigmatization based on aesthetic form or abandonment, or in placeless spaces that lack any kind of association with the surrounding community such as mass-produced buildings that once housed chain stores or industrial firms? Both Holtkamp et al. (2016) and Talmage et al. (2020) call for further analysis of how and why breweries deploy neolocal strategies, including the revitalization of old buildings, in small urban centers. Our study identifies the rationale for adaptive reuse by craft breweries and investigates how the building repurposing has implications for local planning and development.

Study methods and locations

Our assessment approach builds on existing scholarship on craft brewing and place. Following Feeney (2017) and Talmage et al. (2020), we inventoried a large range of locations and structures and subsequently selected a set of breweries for further analysis on specific locational and building attributes. We built our initial pool of breweries from the Ontario Beverage Network directory, a comprehensive listing of all craft breweries in the province, to determine the geographic location of each brick-and-mortar craft brewery in Ontario (n = 283). Each of the 283 breweries was categorized according to population size using Statistics Canada’s population center classifications: dissolved municipality, small population center, medium population center, and large urban population center. A total of 89 (31%) of the craft breweries met the criteria of small population centers (1,000–29,999) from our initial sample of 283.

To determine whether a given craft brewery transformed an existing structure or constructed a new build, we drew on a combination of Google Street View archives, brewery websites, and local newspaper sources. Given concerns over using Google Street View as a stable method of analysis (Power et al., 2013), we used this data set as one component in a multi-method approach to determine whether building reuse was present (including brewery website and news analysis for discussion on the prior function and/or age of the building). Of the 89 breweries that fit our criteria based on population size, 74 breweries transformed existing buildings into their current brewery space (83%). This level of building reuse is high, demonstrating the need to understand the extent and effect of these transformations. The conversion of historic buildings into craft brewing sites was significant; however, our findings highlighted the presence of craft breweries in buildings from a range of construction periods. The age of the buildings ranged from newer units in strip malls to historic main street commercial spaces, and from boxy industrial structures to former big box store locations.² Of 74 adaptive reuse locations for craft breweries in small town Ontario, 37 were classified as holding former commercial uses, 14 industrial uses, 9 institutional uses, and 8 residential uses .³

Once the number of breweries engaged in adaptive reuse in small towns were identified (74), we selected our list geographically by focusing on central and eastern Ontario and in particular narrowing in on brewing locations at least 45 minutes away from a large population center (>100,000). We further narrowed our site selection to reflect a variety of different contexts (land use, building type, building age). This left us with a study area of 23 geographically concentrated craft brewing sites (see Figure 1). We visited each of these sites and completed detailed observations using a site analysis template that examined locational characteristics (e.g. highway location, main street, topography), surrounding land uses (e.g. industrial, commercial, residential, institutional), building use (e.g. patio, restaurant, gallery), approximate age of the building housing the brewery (e.g. historic, contemporary), and design and renovation features (e.g. architectural elements, styles, materials). We recorded our observations with fieldnotes and, with permission, took photographs as visual markers of how processes “ground themselves on the landscape” (Sanders, 2007). These site analyses provide a rich set of details concerning the place and context for each brewery in the study.

Figure 1. Map of study area in Ontario highlighting land use across small town craft breweries.

Map produced by Jeffrey Powell.

Site visits were complemented with semi-structured, open-ended interviews with brewery owners, brewmasters, and managers in 2019–2020. This combination of fieldwork with on-site meetings with brewery representatives allows craft brewing researchers to explore more complex themes (Myles & Breen, 2018). Of the 23 brewery sites that formed our site analysis stage, 14 agreed to participate in the interview component. The majority of our interviews were conducted at the brewery, with several occurring via phone and e-mail. Interviews lasted between 20 minutes and one hour and focused on location, building selection, urban planning, and place-making. All the interviewees agreed to be named in the research. As a result, the brewery and the small town where the brewery is located are also identified. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and sorted according to emergent themes identified during case study preparation (Cope, 2010). Interview material is incorporated into the piece to highlight the decision-making process behind location and building selection, the transformation process, and the shifting perception (and valuation) of the site. We highlight how the buildings are transformed into distinct sites in the interests of the brewery as they attempt to construct a sense of place as part of the consumptive experience.

Filling shells: Adaptive reuse in small town Ontario, Canada

The small-town breweries we studied demonstrated an adaptiveness to reconstructing built form, creating new vocabulary and new narratives for existing buildings. Several breweries made use of buildings that have sat vacant for years, highlighting the potential for this sector to transition difficult sites in less competitive real estate markets. Most individual breweries that we interviewed considered and/or preferred a purpose-built facility; however, the associated building costs and the time required to find and build on a suitable location made this option unfeasible. Instead, the majority of craft breweries (83%) opted to reuse an existing building, often preferring locations in which they could control the interior layout. The repurposing of existing buildings often requires significant or complete renovations. As one owner remarked, “we gutted it right down to the empty box” (Nick Pruiksma, personal communication, 15 June 2019). A complete gutting of the interior was a common theme, as was a desire for customization: “There were no central/downtown locations available in our town that would be amenable to a new build without tearing down an existing building. We purchased our current location, gutted the inside, and re-built every aspect of the space save for the outside walls and concrete floors. In that regard, it is a purpose-built space within a preexisting shell” (Meag Durkin, personal communication, 30 June 2019). Several breweries communicated that they selected a building that offers scalability, allowing them to expand their production over time by filling out the space, and allowing a flexibility in form. In the subsequent sections, we profile the range of location types and previous uses for craft breweries in small town Ontario. Given the lower conversion rate of former institutional and residential buildings into craft breweries, we offer only a brief analysis of these two categories. Instead, we focus on the two land-use classifications most frequently used by craft breweries, commercial and industrial, before turning to an analysis of why and how they are transforming these sites. Adaptive reuse of institutional spaces included churches, schools, firehalls, and train stations, with many of these sites holding significant cultural and historical value and/or collective memories for their respective communities. Their conversion into craft breweries allows these memories to be anchored in place (albeit in altered form where their vocabulary is updated) and to be protected from the fate of demolition. An example of this type of conversion is the Mudtown Station Brewery and Restaurant in Owen Sound. Opened in 2018 and located in a former Canadian Pacific Railway train station (see Figure 2), the structure received heritage designation in 1996 owing to its architectural value as one of six stations built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1940s and as a local expression of postwar modernism. The owners of the Mudtown Station Brewery transformed the vacant site, respecting the value of the form without its commodification as a caricature: “This building has been abandoned since the 1990s, so there was quite a bit of renovations to be done. We could have found a lower cost option but we really liked the building … We had the idea of keeping most of the heritage features anyway and because we put the dining room in the heritage area of the building it made it fairly easy to maintain the features” (Morag Kloeze, personal communication, 2 July 2019). Having first encountered the site during a heritage event which grants public access to historic properties, the brewery found a building that aligned with their vision. Adorning the walls are historic posters, news articles, and advertisements of the town and the railway station highlighting the value of the building to the community.

Figure 2. The Mudtown Station Brewery transformed a former Canadian Pacific Railway train station in Owen Sound, Ontario. The conceptual fit between craft beer and heritage designated sites is well documented in the craft beer literature. Photograph taken by authors.

The historic and cultural value associated with residential buildings (prior to their conversion into nonresidential uses) are likely to be more personal/private as opposed to public, yet the retention of these buildings provides a similar repurposing of the shell with new usage. The partitioning of houses into separate rooms allows different design concepts to be applied within a single brewery location, with distinct rooms offering privacy and comfort. Landmark housing is often built in close proximity to commercial land uses in small towns, allowing breweries to make use of centrally located residential spaces with a historic pastiche. As an example, the Tobermory Brewing Co. converted a former residential space overlooking the harbor into its brewing and restaurant space. The surrounding buildings include additional residential to commercial conversions, alongside residential spaces that have continued their original function. In the interior, the brewery makes use of portioned out rooms to create different seating areas, retaining the historic character with hard wood floors and a fireplace as a focal point. A wrap around deck completes the space, allowing consumers to imbibe in a “down to earth” atmosphere.

Downtown commercial reuse

Commercial sites make up the majority of building reuse among craft breweries across small town Ontario (50%). Craft beer enterprises are adaptively reusing a variety of sites (historic landmarks, units in malls or strip-malls, waterfront properties, main street locations), including buildings that have sat vacant and/or underused for long periods of time. In the case of the latter, many of these sites have been difficult to transition into alternative uses. Opened in the fall of 2019, Fenelon Falls Brewing Co. is an example of a historic waterfront building adapted to meet the desires of the craft brewing consumer. A livery stable built in the 1800s and refitted as a blacksmith’s shop in 1901, the building subsequently housed several commercial retail businesses, most recently a women’s clothing shop. Situated at the epicenter of the town’s waterfront amenities (greenspaces, benches, walking paths, boat moorage, picnic areas), the brewery is aligned with locks on an inland canal and with the Official Plan which commits to development along the waterfront (City of Kawartha Lakes, 2012). As with other locations, the upper-level direction provided by strategic planning policies and financing has enabled the location of a waterfront brewery and lubricated investment in the built environment.⁴ In downtown or main street locations, the revival of underused buildings draws interest and consumption inward, while also engaging with the significance of walkability for these establishments. The Grey Matter Brewery in Kincardine, opened in 2018, adaptively reused a 10,000-square-foot former furniture/department store location on a main street of the downtown core. The transformation of the interior and exterior has animated the street. To encourage interest and interaction, the brewery retained the floor to ceiling clear glass windows on the building frontage, allowing views into the interior space at the pedestrian scale. To accommodate the height of the brewing tanks, a hole was cut into the upper level from the basement: “We did a significant renovation on the building as no work/maintenance had been done for decades prior to our purchase. We created an atrium overlooking the brewhouse and cellar [in the basement] to allow patrons in our taproom a full view of the production area. We kept the central staircase as an architectural feature and replaced some small windows along the West facing wall with a large garage door and Juliet balcony to allow clientele to feel connected to the lake and enjoy the Lake Huron sunsets” (Meag Durkin, personal communication, 30 June 2019). Following creative interior design techniques and large-scale renovation, the space is reproduced as a hub for community exchange.

Strip malls and suburban commercial

Despite the emphasis on the relationship between heritage buildings and craft beer in the literature (Nilsson & Reid, 2019), craft breweries are transforming a diversity of commercial spaces including various mall-based structures. As an example, Smith Falls saw its first brewery choose a disused commercial location. 4 Degrees had planned to open in an old c.1950 collegiate institute; however, the owners instead decided to transform a mall space previously occupied by a mothballed big-box retail store in the region’s largest (and declining) mall. For co-owner Nick Ritchie it was a better location and a more flexible layout: “It’s a more visible space. There’s just natural traffic that goes there… It’s a blank canvas. That’s the beautiful thing about it” (Must, 2017). It was not only a significant change for the brewery, but also the community. The previous owner, a large commercial real estate trust, had announced that the mall, built in 1975, would be closed and demolished. When a local developer purchased the land and building, it saved an important social space from potential closure. Breweries are also reusing units in strip malls, reflecting the changing retail structure of small-town Ontario. Humble Beginnings, an “extra-small,” completely non-automized operation, has managed to create a unique narrative for its brewery from a 1960s strip mall location in Ingleside, Ontario (see Figure 3). As part of the radical transformation of the landscape/waterscape associated with the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway (a major shipping lane created to serve Canadian and American industry) in the 1950s, new town layouts were imposed that abandoned the long and narrow grid design of hamlets spread along the waterfront. Having just celebrated its 60th anniversary, the mall is, according to the brewer, “pretty much as old as it gets” (Duncan Cowie, personal communication, 17 July 2019). Previously a pharmacy with a Sears catalog outlet for over 60 years, the leased retail space was re-adapted, mostly through DIY efforts and capital on the part of the owners. The ceiling was ripped out, flooring was removed, the space was opened up, a cold room and bar were put in, and a beer garden was constructed using old pallets (Pierre Doucette, personal communication, 17 July 2019). Lastly, breweries are reviving commercial spaces that have sat empty and shown little promise for reuse. The Sawdust City Brewing Co. in Gravenhurst took over a former Canadian Tire location (a general goods retail company) that had sat vacant for years due to a title caveat that excludes any competitive enterprise. As the brewery owner noted: “You can’t do automotive, you can’t do hardware, you can’t do garden supplies. It even excluded furniture … But they don’t do beer so we were kind of the perfect buyer and we ended up getting it for a really good price” (Rob Engman, personal communication, 18 June 2019) (see Figure 4). The Canadian Tire was a landmark in the community, a space that people frequented regularly; the revival of this space, according to Engman, has reoriented the value of the area and attracted further retail ventures. The craft brewery recently completed an event space with a capacity for 350 people in the former automotive bay to attract visitors into the small town, with a section of the taproom dedicated to local community events.

Figure 3. Humble Beginnings transformed a 1960s strip mall location in Ingleside, Ontario into a brewery space. A number of breweries in small town Ontario are making use of units in strip malls and malls. Photograph taken by authors.

Figure 4. Sawdust City Brewing Co. adaptively reused a former Canadian Tire site in Gravenhurst, Ontario. The large boxy form provided ample space for the brewery to grow. This hard to transition space is used to produce a sense of place for the community. Photograph taken by authors.

Industrial reuse

Many of the industrial locations in our study tend to be geographically restricted to peripheral sites outside of the core, where they sacrifice walkability for size, adaptability, and ease of renovation. In the case of Prince Eddy’s Brewing Co. in Picton, locational choice was based on the size and cost advantages of situating their firm in an industrial park. By moving beyond the busy downtown of the quaint tourist town, they were able to use the large lot size to build a volleyball court, create a large patio, and house ping-pong tables (Aaron McKinney, personal communication, 4 July 2019). Adaptability was also an advantage for the Muskoka Brewery which took over a former Alcan aluminum factory constructed in the 1960s in Bracebridge, a space it shares with Gravenhurst Plastics:

For the square footage that we needed, our options were really limited and to just buy a piece of land and build from scratch we thought it would be probably a two-and-a-half-year process … The good thing about this building is we took over space initially and then twice we’ve been able to add to that … so the latest expansion last summer was another 31,000 square feet so we’re now about 81,000 square feet. (Todd Lewin, personal communication, 17 June 2019) (see Figure 5).

Figure 5. The Muskoka Brewery in Bracebridge, Ontario reused an industrial location on the periphery. Using design techniques, they have transformed the visual identity of the consumer spaces of the site (patio and merchandise area) with a cottage aesthetic. Photograph taken by authors.

This was the second location for the Muskoka Brewery, having originally opened in downtown Bracebridge in 1994 during the early stages of craft brewing in Ontario. Ultimately, the brewery needed to expand its operations to add more fermenting tanks, a bigger brew house, and a bigger tap room: the original location “was so tight that you actually couldn’t walk between the fermenting tanks … we were growing at that point 35% to 40% annually and we needed to find a new home” (Todd Lewin, personal communication, 17 June 2019). Despite the nondescript industrial shell of the new location, Muskoka Brewery has designed the interior taproom and merchandise area with a cottage aesthetic. They added a patio out front with Adirondack chairs and picnic tables. The design details in the consumptive spaces disguise the extensive industrial operation in the brewhouse that boasts an output of 70,000 hectoliters per annum. The brewery made a conscious decision to mask the industrial aesthetic to create a connection to the local: “in the 60’s when it was built, it was an aluminum plant so it felt really industrial; so how do you give it that Muskoka vibe and feel and we’ve done that through the tap room and the patio and the wood … even in the offices we’re trying to be conscious of that in terms of how we’ve kind of remodeled and redecorated” (Todd Lewin, personal communication, 17 June 2019). In the case of the Muskoka brewery, the connection to place is established not through the history of the building itself as a site of industry, but through a remodeling of the interior using a cottage aesthetic.

Located in a former factory in the immediate periphery of the town’s main street, Port Perry’s Old Flame Brewing is a location one might expect from niche or specialized retail. Built in 1884 for the Ontario Carriage Factory, the building subsequently housed a shoe and boot factory, a farm implements dealership, and a knitting mill which supplied sweaters and socks to the original six National Hockey League teams. After a fire in 1951, a lumber store moved in, and finally, from 1975 to 2013, the Port Perry LCBO (Ontario’s government-owned liquor retail monopoly) was located there. During the fire, the second floor was burnt down, and then rebuilt, covering up the burnt timber. Serendipitously, during renovations the charred windows and posts were exposed: “I was here with a partner – we’re standing on scaffolds and we were ripping down the ceiling. And my one partner ripped down a big section and all this soot fell on him. And he was like, ‘We’re fucked. They’re going to shut us down. They’re going to condemn the building. It’s all burnt.’ Because like, it was seriously charred. And, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? We’re called the Old Flame. This is beautiful’” (Jack Doak, personal communication, 2 October 2019). In this case, the brewery makes explicit use of the vocabulary of the site to situate its present usage.

Locational choice

While there is considerable range in the location, design, and effects of the individual breweries profiled above, there is significant overlap that warrants discussion. The motivations behind the decisions over where to locate within and between individual communities lend insight into how breweries approach availability and the connection to place. Returning to our metaphor of the hermit crab, breweries seek out a variety of building shells that are appropriate to their needs (size, location, scalability, vision). Building requirements help determine the geography of craft breweries in small towns: breweries entering into commercial spaces are typically located along main streets or waterways, whereas breweries entering into industrial sites are more peripheral, owing to the need for greater space and the patterns of industrial land use. The decision over where to locate emerges through overlapping considerations that are difficult to untangle such as foot traffic, customer experience, production space, or ownership considerations. Several respondents indicated that the brewery was established where it was because the owners already had possession of the building or were presented with a favorable leasing opportunity. For example, Beau’s Brewery, one of the largest craft breweries in the province based on output and employment, converted an industrial site that they already owned that was previously a leather factory (Tim Beauchesne, personal communication, 10 June 2019).

From our interviews, we learned that the current location of brewers was not always their first choice. There are also cases of “accidental reuse,” breweries that ended up with their location in part by happenstance or circumstance. In Port Perry, Jack Doak the founder of Old Flame Brewery had another location in mind but had unexpected contamination issues on the first site. The next day Doak Googled “Port Perry commercial buildings for sale” and the first building that popped up piqued their interest. That same day Doak made a trip to the town, met with local officials and began the process of acquiring rights to the property (Jack Doak, personal communication, 2 October 2019). In the case of Humble Beginnings, the brewery owners would have preferred an old fire hall or an older building, however unable to find one, as the owner put it, they “kind of found Ingleside and found an opportunity … the presence of where this storefront is, is right in the middle of the center of the community” (Pierre Doucette, personal communication, 17 July 2019). In a town with only one licensed restaurant, the brewery’s location near the post-office, local bank branch, and its visibility from the highway made Humble Beginnings a stopping and meeting point. The accidental adaptive reuse established a new community space within Ingleside’s designated and planned commercial sector. These examples highlight how the development of a sense of place at a particular location is produced by breweries in their interests.

The role of craft beer in redeveloping historic commercial and industrial buildings is well documented; however, the locational preference of breweries has shifted as craft brewing expands into mainstream retail. Our findings indicate a more complex pattern in the current expansion of breweries, especially in the small towns we surveyed as part of our research. Locational decisions are not restricted by existing zoning. Across our sample, breweries are not applying for rezoning of individual sites, but are either selecting sites that are already consistent with zoning regulations in their given municipality, and/or municipalities are broadening current classifications to accommodate breweries. Flexible zoning, financial incentives, and local political interest facilitated the location of the brewery. In some jurisdictions, beyond enabling adaptive reuse, planners and municipal decision makers are working to attract breweries as they witness their ability to regenerate new economic activity. A few municipalities even set up a booth at the Ontario Craft Brewers conference and solicited brewers with the intention of attracting them to locate and invest in their commercial downtown (Jack Doan, personal communication, 2 October 2019). In these instances, municipalities act as pro-active enablers.

Brewery design and the perception of value

Across our analysis of 23 brewing sites, renovations on existing buildings ranged from complete overhauls, leaving only the shell intact, to tailored customization for brewing equipment including changing ceilings, structural work on the floors to incorporate drains, foundation work to support the heavy brewing equipment, and improvements to water pressure. In some cases, special customized tanks were used to “fit” the limits of the space where other major transformative work was not feasible. Across diverse sets of renovations, land use, and building envelopes for the breweries in our study, there is consistency in interior design elements: most breweries draw in a combination of rustic furniture (textured wood seating and tables with black metal or chrome accents), historic detailing (old photographs and posters, wooden soda crates, handcrafted blankets, antique sports equipment), with a touch of minimalism and industrial flare (string lighting, shiny concrete floors, sheet metal) (see Figure 6). Many of the breweries we visited featured an open concept layout, often with large garage door-style windows designed to open during warmer weather effectively converting the interior spaces into an open-air patio. What this signifies is that the building shell itself matters less than the design elements used to reconstruct the interior and the exterior. The “conceptual fit” for brewing has shifted beyond the historic industrial building to incorporate a series of shorthand visual cues that breweries incorporate in an attempt to express “authentic” production. Craft breweries are curating a set of objects and materials to associate the brand to place. The cultural production of small-town brewing is tapped into an interior aesthetic that directs the perception and experience of craft beer culture. Interiors are remodeled to fit shells.

Figure 6. There is a consistency in the interior design techniques utilized across small town breweries. The Beau’s Brewery in Vankleek Hill, Ontario reflects many of the techniques used to create social exchange and to manufacture a connection to place. Photograph taken by authors.

Craft breweries may share a similar sense of design, but as Klassen (2016) argues “amid the many superficial similarities lie design subtleties that – unnoticed at first – add up to establish the vibe of each brewery and reflect the surrounding community” (n.p.). This was confirmed in our site visits: there is something distinctively unique about the design elements in the small town breweries that were part of our on-site research. Rather than seeing the interior design decisions in small town brewing sites as a reproduction of big city trends, it is important to recognize both the similarities across breweries in small towns (as well as their distinction from big city breweries), and their rootedness to place. Whereas craft breweries in big cities may take on particular elements of local history or identity in their marketing strategies, small town breweries tend to present a more comprehensive lens into the stories, past and present, that characterize the town. Tradition and heritage are often reflected throughout the décor, design, and/or architecture of breweries. This is the case for the Fenelon Falls Brewing Co. Despite extensive renovation, the brewery maintained the original exterior stonework, façade, and legacy décor. Historical photographs and maps act as visual connections to the community’s roots as a logging town, as does the original wood flooring affixed to the ceiling above the brewhouse with an exposed stone wall bookending the west side. Installing the stable floor on the ceiling turned the building upside-down, a unique addition and a metaphor for the brewery itself. The interior design of Fenelon Falls, like many breweries, is a fusion of retro and modern finishes. Natural stone walls and wooden floors and furnishings, shelves adorned with beer kegs, branded growlers, and retro-style artifacts (e.g. mason jars, wooden crates, scales) are starkly contrasted by white painted walls, pseudo-industrial finishes such as exposed ducts, suspended Edison lights, and wood plank shelving with iron pipe framing, and chrome brewing equipment.

Building community and social spaces

There was a consistent pride in each brewery by the representatives that we spoke to, both its transformation and transformative potential in the community, including a conscious decision to use intimate seating or long tables to encourage social interaction and community building. The function of craft breweries as third places in small towns fills a need for sites for social exchange: “I think the cool thing about this saloon is that you see the demographics here – everything from newborn to geriatric, and everything in between. Families, dogs, everybody’s welcome” (Rob Engman, personal communication, 18 June 2019). The breweries offered examples of how they give back to the community by activating their spaces with a range of events: food trucks, pop-ups, live music, weddings, art parties, volleyball tournaments, political fundraisers, library fundraisers, and Chamber of Commerce meetings. In part, these activities stem from a reliance on the local population as a customer base, especially in periods of low tourism, but it also speaks to the mutual pride that is produced between the brewery and place. These contributions benefit the brewery by establishing brand identity via an association with the community. They benefit the town through increased tourism and place promotion, employment, and the development of social spaces. The impact of small breweries has been such that “they sort of follow this business model – they have become sort of a very welcoming environment for all the community” (Jack Doak, personal communication, 2 October 2019). Shifting the social value of these sites into third places is tied to the animation of the space and the overall success of the brewery.

Among a number of breweries, there was an idea that their investment in adaptive reuse was about countering industrial and commercial decline and contributing to community revival. As one brewery owner noted, they contributed to local development by “beautifying a building that was used as a warehouse previously and which now features a hops-covered pergola and deck space. We are regularly told that Split Rail has spurred the local economy and helped drive more people to the town, and geographic region” (Andrea Smith, personal communication, 18 July 2019). There is a consistent sense of pride for brewery owners and representatives for their perceived role in transforming or reviving space. As another interviewee noted, “when we opened up…it was like turning the page for Gravenhurst. And you could see changes on the main street, some of the tired older stores fell by the wayside and new innovative retailers came in. It gave people hope that there was a future for Gravenhurst” (Rob Engman, personal communication, 18 June 2019). The connection to the local is expressed as a source of pride in the product: “In the same way that we’re proud of the art that gets made around town, this craft brewery is another piece of Bancroft that’s now getting made and is now getting out into the world. Everybody wants the brewery to succeed, everybody wants it to do well, so it’s a nice piece of the town that everybody can rally behind” (Ryan Wellwood, personal communication, 16 June 2019). This emphasis on the linkages between product and place is premised on developing a sense of belonging for the brewery itself within the community.

Building community-based entrepreneurship

Community-based entrepreneurship was the business philosophy of many of the craft breweries interviewed. During our interviews, brewery representatives talked about the craft beer product as a reflection of the community and an attempt to place their town on the map. By locating within a former factory site, or train station, or big box retail store, the building and by extension the town, become part of the story of the brewery. Some breweries take the task of ambassador for the town very seriously as noted by one brewery owner: “everything [in the brewery and from the brewery] has a tie to the community and is meant to inform the visitor about the history of this area [Gravenhurst], not just as it pertains to beer but, you know, how this community was built” (Rob Engman, personal communication, 18 June 2019). Adaptive reuse transforms the physical location, the building, its architecture, its décor, but the building’s meaning in place also gets re-used, and contributes to the recirculation of local memory. In the example above, the building is transformed from a large retail space into a specialized brewery, but the imprint of the retailer remains somewhat visible and the local memory of the site is retained in a way that is not possible following demolition. This is consistent with the analysis by Reid et al. (2020) of how adaptive reuse edits the “narrative while retaining some of the original vocabulary” (p. 4087). In the small towns that we visited craft breweries consciously drew in local references to establish their brand. Across interviews, brewery representatives pointed to names, can designs, and interior aesthetics that referenced the area, from history and geographic features to design aesthetics and local figures. As one representative noted, “all of our beers are named after local things. Our Black Quartz – we’re a mineral capital. Our Prospector’s Ale, because we’ve got prospectors in the area … Our Rusty Husky for sled dogs and huskies around here. Sawmill Lager, because we have a sawmill outside of town” (Ryan Wellwood, personal communication, 16 June 2019). As another brewery representative notes: “our flagship beer 35 & 118, that’s just a description of where we’re located right here [a reference to two highways]. Another beer is called North Country – almost all of [the beer] is somehow kind of cottage country-related. It’s small batch high quality made in this Halliburton Highlands area” (Tony Mathews, personal communication, 17 June 2019). The location of these breweries within these small towns is a necessary part of the construction of a unique brand identity. Sawdust City brewery, located in a former Canadian Tire retail store, references the history of the town in its brand name and product line. Sawdust City loses its referents if it is moved from this location to a different urban center. Similarly, Mudtown Station Brewery in Owen Sound is embedded in the history of the town and the building, a former CP Rail Station. These examples highlight the extent to which craft breweries in small towns produce connections to the local in constructing a brand identity and sense of place. The associations with place extend to collaborations and partnerships with cultural producers and a reliance on the land in the production of beer. All of the breweries that we visited have formed partnerships with small makers (most of which are located within the same town or region) for promotional purposes. As one brewery representative notes, “that soap is made from our beer…Some of the glasses that we have are made from old beer bottles; a local glassblower does it for us. There’s a local place that does our embroidery … The tap handles that we use that’s part of our brand that has a paddle on it, that’s made by the Halliburton Forest Woodshop, so that’s sustainably grown wood grown right in the Halliburton Forest, and on and on. So that’s part of … the brand is synergy with local businesses and as much local stuff as we can do” (Tony Mathews, personal communication, 17 June 2019). Over half of the breweries described their reliance on the land to grow some of the ingredients needed for different beer varieties. As one brewery owner notes, “we do like to source our ingredients [locally] wherever possible. We’ve just acquired eight pounds of spruce tips for a spruce beer we’re going to be doing sometime late summer, early fall” (Nick Pruiksma, personal communication, 15 June 2019). Several breweries highlighted the importance of the local water as a key ingredient in their production process. Small town breweries form collaborations and partnerships to solidify their relationship with a community and harvest ingredients and rely on the land in a way that is not possible for big city breweries. The very shift in urbanization and globalization that led to previous waves of empty shells in manufacturing sites has spurred additional rounds of refuse. The rise of big box stores on the outskirts of town has pulled business from the main streets as well as central malls. Population loss, especially young people, as well as maintenance, has made it seem unaffordable to retain some public institutions as intended. Craft breweries are entering into a range of existing buildings in small towns that once played a vital role in the structure of urban society: churches, schools, industrial plants, main streets, train stations, and fire halls. They are filling these spaces with images, aesthetics, names, and products that reference the local and as a result are revaluing these sites. The collapsing use and abandon of these sites and functions is a reflection of accelerating urbanization and globalization, but their remainder, as empty shells, is a reminder of the potential for differing systems of exchange and value that is present as a standing reserve in small towns.

Conclusion

Amid their exponential growth over the past two decades, craft breweries have routinely transformed historic buildings (often industrial architecture) into craft brewing sites. This “cookie cutter approach” has now shifted beyond historic built form to include a plethora of building styles and ages (Flack, 1997, p. 49). The “niche production and marketing of beer associated with the historic theming of place” (Mathews & Picton, 2014) has taken on new styling that remains connected with place but which produces a sense of value beyond the architecture itself (p. 353). Our research contributes to literature on adaptive reuse in the craft beer industry (Reid et al., 2020) through an analysis of the microgeographies of building reuse in small towns. Specifically, our focus of the interior spaces of craft breweries challenges the emphasis on tangible heritage as the preeminent marker of placemaking. All of the breweries in the study reference the local in their branding and marketing through naming, collaborations and/or interior aesthetics, irrespective of the age, style, or location of the building. Breweries are also entering into failed visions and sites from the more contemporary era such as strip malls and large-scale retail stores that are difficult to transition. Adaptive reuse by the craft beer sector has helped to preserve the forms while offering a corrective to economic, cultural, and social decline. Quite simply they have re-anchored these sites within their community by producing distinctive locations, and they have established a pull back toward the center. By documenting the substantive number of craft breweries in small towns across the entire province of Ontario, of which 83% have reused an existing building, our research shows how the diversity of structures housing craft breweries has morphed to incorporate historic and contemporary forms, both on peripheral and central sites, while also demonstrating a consistency in interior design techniques and aesthetics. This suggests that the building itself matters less to breweries than the series of signifiers (e.g. local materials, names, and images) brought in to craft an image of “authenticity” in beer production and consumption. The emerging landscape of the craft beer industry in small urban locations, while locally situated and branded, ultimately taps into a set of values/aesthetics that are marketed to consumers across sites of cultural production: a local, unique, “authentic” experience of product connected to and rooted in place.

Not unlike hermit crabs, craft breweries inhabit a diversity of (building) shells, and display flexibility in their interior adaptation of form. In our research, there were examples of breweries trading in their existing shells for larger, more appropriate spaces as they expanded. As the majority of the breweries in our study were recently established (<5 years), we anticipate that growth in production will result in further evidence of breweries discarding their former shells in search of more appropriate spaces. Building reuse satisfies an important need for affordability and location options for brewers and provides ample opportunity for flexible and creative experimentation. Breweries entering into an existing building can save considerable time compared to constructing a new build and shorten delays for restarting operations. When existing buildings are retained and reused, the benefits extend beyond the structure itself and contribute directly to sustainable development. While there is a growing body of research highlighting the role of breweries to preserve and/or conserve historic built form, in this research we highlight the importance of broadening this analysis to include both historic and contemporary buildings, those that are worthy of rescue based on their aesthetic or historic importance as well as those that are worthy of reuse based on their embodied materials and energy, and/or their presence and signification within a community. In this new vocabulary, strip malls, big box stores, and nondescript industrial buildings now join heritage industrial buildings as conceptual fits for breweries (see Reid et al., 2020). The buildings undergoing adaptive reuse contain memories of a different kind for their community, and their revival extends beyond the individual site. Small towns may lack the competitive real estate markets of large metropolitan centers, but the revival of existing buildings, especially those that have sat vacant for large periods of time, signals a revaluation of aging structures with anecdotal evidence of spillover effects for surrounding sites, a process in which local states often function as active facilitators.

Dispersed along the urban hierarchy, the Ontario craft beer sector is rehabilitating buildings across land uses, zoning areas, and building types. Our research confirms the positive contributions craft brewers make to local development (see Talmage et al., 2020) and demonstrates how building repurposing contributes to local vitality in small towns. Newly rebuilt interiors are giving existing building shells a new vernacular and a new purpose while also preserving, and enhancing, historic, social, environmental, and economic values within local communities. As craft brewers mediate the social dimension of place and locality, they are valorizing multiple dimensions of place and locality – beyond capital accumulation (Sjölander‐lindqvist et al., 2019). Our study reinforces the importance of conducting research at the parcel/building scale. Comparative research on how land-use and zoning bylaws direct adaptive reuse could provide additional insight into the potential for this sector to transform, while also anchoring, place. New findings on the effects of zoning would advance our understanding of how craft breweries influence local development and provide important insight into how breweries are engaged in larger processes of urban change in villages, towns, and small cities.

Acknowledgement

We’d like to thank the craft breweries that participated in this research during the interview and site analysis stages. In addition, we’d like to thank the undergraduate students from GEOG 3760: The Geography of Beer at Trent University and GEOG 396AN: The Place of Craft Beer at the University of Regina for their engagement and conversations. Jeffrey Powell made the map outlining the location and land use for the breweries in our study. Alexandra Kuhne and Alexis Zederayko provided research assistance in the preliminary stages of the project. This research received funding through SSHRC IDG Grant #430-2019-00172 and the TriAgency Cohort Program at the University of Regina.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [430-2019-00172].

Notes

1. In this paper we use the term craft brewery to represent small scale, independently owned, local producers that embody uniqueness, community and environmental responsibility (OCB, 2020; CCBA, 2020; Garavaglia & Mussini, 2020).

2. For the purpose of this study, we classify buildings constructed before 1971 (50 years ago) as “historic.”

3. We classified the 74 breweries according to the primary function of the site as constructed. In other words, if a school was utilized as a restaurant before becoming a brewery, we classified this space as institutional. A small number of breweries (4) had made use of a former agricultural land use, typically a secondary structure on a farm.

4. The authors would like to thank the engaged students from Geography 3760-W-2019 at Trent University for their site visits and insight into this particular brewery.