Life Stories Markham - Jordan Mills

Life Stories Markham - JORDAN MILLS

As a long-time resident of Markham since the age of 4 years old, Jordan Mills is proud of his roots which is why he chose to establish Markham’s first Craft Brewery in 2016. In this episode of Life Stories Markham, Jordan tells us how he left the security of a job at one of Canada’s more successful breweries to pursue his dream. The result is Rouge River Brewing Company - a multi award winning brewer of small batch, hand-crafted ales, lagers and many other types of beer. 

You will hear Jordan tell us how he first started brewing beer in the very same space where Rouge River now resides – even though that was several years prior to Rouge River ever being dreamed of. This ignited Jordan’s dream of crafting his own brews which took him into his parent’s garage and then eventually into the current location of Rouge River. 

Despite his modesty, we get Jordan to talk about his journey to be an Advanced Ciceron. Many of us know about Sommeliers and how it relates to wine, but did you know that beer has its own title known as Ciceron. Jordan tells us how he is one of a small number of Cicerons in Canada that have reached the third of four levels and he describes just how incredibly difficult is to reach the final pinnacle.

In his typical down-to-earth manner, Jordan describes the essence of being an entrepreneur – from recipe development to brewing and even to the canning and packaging of the beer. True to his roots, Jordan even employs a local artist to come up with the artwork for his beer can labels. 

If you like a story about a local resident who followed his passion in an uncompromising way, then you will love the Life Stories Markham episode featuring Jordan Mills. Whether or not you like beer, you will feel an affinity for Jordan and how he has stayed true to his beliefs while building a unique and vibrant space within our community.