Admiral Beez, in the last 5-10 years Ontario has had a exponential surge of craft beer and cider culture.Toronto alone has, in my opinion, at least ten brewers who are better than Mill St/Steamwhistle/Amsterdam. Those being ; Indie Ale House, Bellwoods Brewery, Left Field Brewery, Great Lakes Brewery, Liberty Village Brewer, Kensington Brewery, Lansdowne , Black Oak , Duggans and Granite Brewery.
I would recommend Indie, Bellwoods and GLB as Toronto's best and that you should go out to try as many of them as you can. If you can't make it to the brewer, there are bars who specialize... just a few off the top; The Only Cafe, Bar Volo, Bar Hop, Beer Bistro, Tequila Bookworm and Tall Boys.
Overall, there has been a trend of beer sales declining (It peaked in the mid-late 80's) and wine/hard liquor has taken over. However, in the past 15-20 years, craft beer has had a louder voice. Ontario has over 250 craft brewers alone. in the U.S. they have over 3000 micro breweries, and last year collectively outsold Budweiser for the first time in history.
Big Beer has seen this as a threat and is slowly buying up some breweries who are looking to make a quick buck or retiring soon.i doubt however that they could buy them all out, especially as they keep multiplying year over year.
Ex, Blue and 50 have very similar taste, mainly because they are all mass produced lagers. Most craft beer is based on Ale Yeast, which is a top fermenting strain and takes less time to make (4-6 weeks) as opposed to bottom fermenting lagers (2-4 months.) Also Ales have been around forever...Lagers only since refrigeration (300ish years)
I would highly recommend going out to a pub near you who specializes in craft, start off with something basic but good (Beau's Lugtread) and before you know it, you'll be relishing in wine barrel aged beers, blackberry/strawberry IPA's or super smokey coffee stouts.
I would argue beer is the most flexible of any alcohol, just depends on where your imagination leads you!
Cheers.