Since The Beginning
Our Story
From a garage brew setup to the most decorated homebrew club in the country — this is how two Ontario homebrewers who love beer ended up making Canadian homebrew history.
Chapter One
Where It All Started
It started the way most good things do — slowly, and without a business plan. Ed Koren had been homebrewing for over twenty years when he heard about an opening at Black Creek Pioneer Village. They were looking for someone to run a historic brewery — Ontario's only working one, in fact — and Ed's local brew club pointed him toward it.
He got the job. And for years, he brewed beer the way it was done before Confederation: copper kettles, wooden fermenters, no electricity. Everything by hand. He'd walk through the village gardens picking roots, herbs, and fruits — the same way Ontario brewers did in the 1860s. Learn more about Ed's brewing background and BJCP credentials.
Most of the ingredients were locally sourced. No artificial additives, no preservatives. That constraint forced creativity — Ginger Beer, Simcoe Hopped Ale, Barrel Aged Beer — recipes that came from paying attention to what the land offered each season.
Ed also ran the brewery's apprenticeship program, offering one-on-one educational brew days where people could learn to make beer the historical way. His recipes were good enough that Trafalgar Brewery in Oakville produced Black Creek beer labels for the LCBO.
Black Creek Historic Brewery
Ontario's Only Working Historic Brewery
Black Creek Historic Brewery sits inside Black Creek Pioneer Village in Toronto. It wasn't a museum piece — it was a working brewery where Ed served as Brewmaster, handcrafting historically accurate Ontario ales with 1860s-era equipment. Copper pots. Wood-fired heat. No thermostats, no digital controls. Just skill, patience, and a lot of stirring.
The work drew attention. Ed and the brewery were featured in the Toronto Star, Le Gourmet TV, Ontario Craft Brewers Blog, and Yonge Street Media. Ed left Black Creek in August 2018 — but the lessons from that old brewery are baked into everything BeerShack brews. See the full press coverage and media features.
Chapter Two
Building BeerShack
BeerShack started as a homebrew club — a place for Ed and Lou to brew together, push each other, and enter competitions. It wasn't meant to be a record-breaking operation. They just wanted to make the best homebrew beer they could.
But the medals kept coming. First a few, then a steady stream. Regional competitions, national championships, international stages. BeerShack members were winning everywhere they entered — across every major BJCP style category.
The milestone that still stands: BeerShack is the only club to win both the National Homebrew Competition and the Great Canadian Homebrew Championship in the same year. No other club — before or since — has pulled that off in Canadian homebrewing.
By the time the count passed 100 medals, the record was clear. No other club in Canadian homebrewing history had won as many national medals in as short a time.
Chapter Three
Competing & Judging
Ed and Lou don't just brew — they judge. Lou has served on judging panels at major Canadian brewing competitions, including the Best of Show panel at the 2010 Canadian Brewing Awards. That kind of seat on the BOS panel is earned, not given.
Lou's competition entries speak for themselves. At Brew Slam 2019 — Canada's largest homebrew competition with 819 entries from 281 brewers across 9 provinces — his "Brown Brawler" English Brown Ale took 1st place in the English Brown Ale category. See the full list of awards and competition results.
The judging and competing work together. When you sit on a BJCP judging panel tasting 50 beers in a category, you learn what separates good homebrew from great homebrew. And when you bring that knowledge back to your own brew kettle, the results show up in the medals.
That cycle — brew, enter, judge, learn, brew again — is the engine behind BeerShack's record. It's not a secret formula. It's just consistency, curiosity, and a refusal to cut corners on quality.
Today
What BeerShack Is Now
BeerShack isn't a business. It's not a brand trying to scale. It's what happens when two Ontario homebrewers who genuinely love making beer spend decades getting better at it. We still brew the same way — clean process, good ingredients, no shortcuts in fermentation or conditioning. Over time, that consistency becomes the house character.
We're still entering homebrew competitions. Still judging. Still tinkering with recipes and talking about what works and what doesn't. The medals are nice — but the real reward is the next batch. Explore what we're brewing right now.