When it was announced in 2017 an Asian food distribution centre would be turning into the city’s newest craft brewery, Queen East got excited to welcome yet another beer destination.

Though Avling Brewery was pegged to open in summer 2018, it’s now coming up on summer 2019 and the doors are still closed. According to a blog post on the brewery website signed by founder Max Meighen, a string of construction snags are to blame.

Apparently Avling ran into an immediate six-month delay due to the size of the project, which necessitated a Committee of Adjustment hearing. From there, they had to lobby with Toronto Hydro for three months to find an alternative to installing large, dangerous, expensive hydro vault equipment.

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A post shared by Avling Kitchen & Brewery (@avlingto) on Feb 14, 2019 at 5:01pm PST

By that point, the start of renovations in earnest had already been pushed from February 2017 to January 2018. That’s when inordinate levels of groundwater were discovered below the brewery. 

As if that weren’t bad enough, contracts to ship and install brewing equipment were also broken. 

Opening any new business in Toronto always seems to come with its fair share of headaches, but constructing a basement, rooftop farm, brewery, and a restaurant with a kitchen headed up by Suzanne Barr is an exceptional challenge.

All these snafus aren’t making it any easier, but according to Meighen, “For now, the battle (and the construction), carry on!”

Avling confirmed it's aiming for a late May opening at this point, but was hesitant confirm a date seeing as contractor deadlines have not been met in the past.