Carl Pratt – Riding the Waves, Beaches Brewing

Not every brewery closure is a eulogy. Sometimes it's just a brief intermission... but rarely.

Troy sits down with Carl Pratt, Co-Founder and brewer behind Beaches Brewing Co, the brewery that spent over a decade as a fixture on Queen Street East in Toronto's Beach neighbourhood. Carl's an accidental brewer - a self-described map nerd who traded a GIS career for weekend homebrew batches, then talked himself into opening a brick-and-mortar brewery just months before COVID hit. For years, he ran nearly every role himself: brewer, GM, and everything in between.

In December 2025, after watching the numbers for over a year, Carl made the call to close the doors for good and wrote a heartfelt, unfiltered public letter to the community explaining why - one that got the craft beer world talking. But the story didn't end there: months later, Beaches Brewing reopened under a new ownership group with a new menu, a new look, and Carl still behind the kettle, brewing every batch.

What's in this episode:

• Carl's path from a Mississauga map nerd to a homebrewer building Beaches Brewing from scratch
• Contract brewing, chasing the LCBO, and the reality of running every role solo for years
• Opening weeks before COVID, a landlord lockout, and the toll of doing every job at once
• The December 2025 closure and the “Peace Out Homies” letter that had the industry talking
• What the letter really meant to those that read it
• Beaches Brewing's rebirth: new ownership, a French-Indian-Southeast Asian menu, and a whole new look

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Hosted by Troy Burtch, Between Two Fermenters, a podcast brought to you by Toronto's Great Lakes Brewery where craft beer and conversation collide - straight from the tanks to your ears.