Given the recent surge of new, local craft brewers in the city and the accompanying upswing in interest from various Toronto-centric lifestyle publications (ahem), you're probably inclined to think of the existence of craft beer in this city as a fairly recent trend. You might be surprised to learn, however, that this year the city's oldest craft brewery is actually a quarter of a century old.

Great Lakes Brewery, founded in 1987, was purchased by the Bulut family in 1991 and, in a craft beer market that has changed considerably since, they've managed to remain independent and grow the company into one of the largest microbreweries in Ontario.

Thursday night, 33 brewers from across Ontario gathered at the Six Pints Beer Academy (75 Victoria St.) for the 9th Annual Ontario Brewing Awards. The brewers were vying for top prizes in 24 different categories, including Beer of The Year and Newcomer of The Year.

As co-organizer and host Roger Mittag of Thirst for Knowledge Inc pointed out, the evening wasn't about "micro vs. macro," but rather about people who love beer being recognized for their talents.

Last weekend I had the chance to escape the city for my in-laws cottage on Lake Huron. Since the nice weather and scenic landscape were perfectly suited to drinking, I brought along a well-stocked cooler that included two summer beer offerings from two great Toronto breweries, Great Lakes Brewery's Orange Peel Ale and Amsterdam Brewery's Oranje Weisse.

I decided to compare them side by side to settle the age-old debate as to which one takes the crown as Toronto's champion orange beer. (It seemed much more epic at the time. Did I mention I was drinking?).

Michael Prue, the NDP MPP for Beaches-East York, has announced on his website this week that he plans to reintroduce Private Member's Bill 144, an amendment to The Employment Standards Act, 2000, to prohibit restaurant owners and managers from taking servers' tips.

The Protecting Employees' Tips Act aims to make it illegal for any foodservice employers to demand any portion of the gratuities earned by their staff.

Barry Stein and Barry Bernstein, co-founders of Still Waters Distillery, are playing a waiting game. Because Canadian liquor laws require that Canadian whisky is aged at least three years before it can be sold, the duo, operating a small micro-distillery in Concord, Ontario, are patiently waiting for the day that their single malt, rye, and corn whiskies will be ready for sale.

Their oldest whiskies, casked in late 2009, won't be ready until the end of this year, so until then, they wait. In the meantime, however, the duo has hardly been sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

In other cities it's the first robin. Maybe the first tulip. But here in Toronto, we rely on other signs to let us know that spring is in the air. We start to sense it when the fixies come out on Ossington, when the cherry trees blossom in High Park, and when the smell that wafts up from Toronto ravines gets just a little more earthy and pungent, but really, there's only one true sign that spring has in fact arrived in this fair city: the opening of the patios.

It's a special time in the city when after-work pints turn into late dinners and pub crawls, barbecues at friends' backyards turn into parties, and Saturdays become an excuse to start drinking at noon. It's also a time when we put away the porters and stouts and opt for something a little easier to drink in large quantities. It's a time for crisp, refreshing summer weather beers suited to warm days and long nights.