Ontario Agritourism

Community of Neustadt

Neustadt, Ontario: A Rural Community Shaped by Settlement, Brewing, and Agriculture

Neustadt is a small rural village in Grey County, located within the Municipality of West Grey. Set amid rolling countryside between Hanover and Durham, Neustadt has long served as a quiet service and settlement point for the surrounding agricultural area.

Welcome to Neustadt

The community was established in the mid-1850s, primarily by German-speaking settlers who brought with them strong farming traditions and a close-knit approach to rural life. The name “Neustadt” translates to “new town” in German, reflecting both optimism and the immigrant roots that shaped the village’s early character.

General Store

Though small, Neustadt developed the essential institutions common to Ontario’s rural villages, churches, schools, mills, and trades, supporting farm families spread across the surrounding countryside. Today, Neustadt remains firmly rural in scale and spirit, with a village core that reflects its heritage and long-standing community ties.

Neustadt Community Centre

The Local Agricultural Landscape

Neustadt is surrounded by productive farmland typical of southern Grey County, where agriculture has long been the backbone of the local economy. The landscape supports a mix of livestock farming, dairy operations, and field crops such as corn, soybeans, and forage, shaped by the area’s soils and climate.

Inn

Family-run farms dominate the countryside, many operating across generations. Agriculture here is practical and resilient, supported by local agri-services and rural infrastructure that connect farms to nearby towns and markets. Seasonal farm activity, planting, haying, and harvest, remains a visible and defining feature of life around Neustadt.

Neustadt General Store

For agritourism visitors, the area offers an authentic rural Ontario experience, where working farms, quiet back roads, and long-established agricultural traditions create a strong sense of place.

Antique Store Display

And Here’s the Rest of the Story…

Every community has a few stories that don’t always make the guidebooks—this is one of them.

Neustadt is home to Neustadt Springs Brewery, one of Ontario’s oldest continuously operating breweries. What many people don’t realize is that the brewery was founded in 1859, originally to supply beer to local farm workers and settlers, at a time when brewing was often safer than drinking untreated water. The brewery’s longevity quietly mirrors Neustadt’s own story: a small rural community where tradition, craftsmanship, and agriculture have been closely intertwined for more than a century and a half.

Neustadt Springs Brewery Restaurant