If you find yourself in Peterborough, make sure to make a stop at the German beer-garden styled 100 Acre Brewery, run by Bentley Vas and his family.

Bentley’s dad used to rent the front of the building for Jack & Jill or Stag & Does, weddings, you name it. The old barn and surrounding 100 acres of greenery had developed a bit of notoriety in the city of Peterborough for being an event space.

A brewing degree at Niagara College and serendipitous time spent as a brewer at the Muskoka Brewery when filling in on sick leave, helped give Bentley the confidence to fully complete the site’s transformation after 4.5 years.

The 100 Acre Brewing Co. is now thriving thanks to Bentley and his team’s passion. Trips to Germany and Belgium gave him the inspiration to focus on saison and Geueze-style barrels that blends 1-3 years of aging.

The beer cans are adorned with naturalist-book style watercolour animal illustrations by Lauren Baker with names like Snapper IPA, Minnow Light Lager, Ivy Terpene IPA (you can really taste the terpenes derived from hops, not cannabis) and the Perennial, a fruit ale made from local Haskap berries. Theres also a raspberry and current hard seltzer made from berries from the McLean Berry Farm, that’s tart and fruity like a sour beer, but it’s 100% gluten free.

The brewery’s now thriving and the 100 acres of rolling green hills are 100% licensed with families and friends sprawling out on lawn chairs, picnic benches and the brewery’s main patio. Soft and pillowy sourdough pizza, sandwiches and shareable apps are made on site by Lowlands Fire Food and their live wood-burning oven. 

Line dancing, a cornhole league, singing bingo (or singo) and blacksmithing demos make up just some of the activities they host at the brewery and parking lot space is their only real barrier to success at the moment, and that’s not a bad problem to have at all.