It’s day two of our Canadian beerventure and we figured what better way to start the day that with a real authentic Canadian breakfast before we get to the beer!
Timmy’s
Tim Horton’s (colloquially referred to as Timmy’s) is Canadian fast food chain; and a quintessential part of Canadian life. If you pass a Timmy’s be sure to stop and get one of their amazing breakfast sandwiches; specifically the Belgian waffle, sausage, egg and cheese. This calorie loaded monstrosity is similar to the McDonald’s McGriddle, but instead of pancakes for buns it’s buttery, crispy Belgian waffles. Mouthwatering I know. I sucked down four of these things during our short trip away and I have zero regrets.
The Tim Horton’s coffee on the other hand is not part of a breakfast of champions. It’s weak; really weak. So weak in fact that the Canadians behind the counter seemed either shocked or annoyed that I ordered my coffee black. Apparently, a true Timmy’s coffee is taken with milk and sugar. If you don’t want to stand out, be sure to use the proper Canadian lingo:
- A regular coffee = 1 milk, 1 sugar
- A Double-Double = 2 milk, 2 sugars
- A Triple-Triple = 3 milk, 3 sugars
The Triple-Triple sounds terrible, but I imagine that it makes a lot of sense because the coffee was missing a significant portion of flavor.
Even if the coffee was weak, I still needed it because we were about to pick up our favorite, energy filled 3rd wheel from the airport- Kait. If you’ve followed our adventures before, you would have seen her pop in and out every couple of posts. For those of you just tuning in, imagine feeding a puppy cocaine and you more or less have Kait’s energy level.
CAMERON’S Brewing Company (Oakville, ON)
Like MERIT Brewing, CAMERON’S Brewing Company of Oakville, Ontario is also spelled in all caps. Love it, hate it? I can’t do anything about it. But what we can do is drink there at the ungodly hour of 9am – and we did just that. The bartender knew right away that we were not locals because locals don’t drink at 9 in the morning on a weekday.
Being it was our first stop of the morning, and we had just picked up a fresh drinking buddy with a sturdy liver, we decided to go full HAM. We drank all 8 drafts on tap plus a couple of extra pours courtesy of the brewers on the production floor. So it was like 10 or 11 in total, but lets talk about our favorite 3.
- In 3rd place for the favorites group was the Dark & Sticky India Brown Ale. Not entirely a brown, and not entirely a IPA, this beer drinks like a black IPA but has a bit more on the malt than a black IPA. Honestly, being described as Dark & Sticky pretty much nails the profile. It made our favorite list purely on it’s own uniqueness and is certain to be a coin toss for your own mouth.
- In 2nd place was the Cameron’s Haze Across the 7 Cs. This oat + wheat bodied IPA comes backed with a fair amount of NEIPA flavor, and yet despite being described as “juicy”, we feel this brew is far from a juicebomb. If juicebombs are too fruity for you, this Canadian attempt at a NEIPA might be for you.
- In 1st was the Hazy with a Chance of Hops. This was one of the beers pulled from the production floor, and judging by the Untapped reception we can only imagine that something wait awyre in the kegging and bottling phase. Sitting at a bland 3.33/5, this beer by far was our number 1 pick sitting at a 4.5/5. The Black currant flavor (at the time of consumption) was anything but subtle, and the body of the pale ale was extremely creamy. Sad to see that the exquisite flavor profile was so short lived. So for Hazy with a Chance of Hops – drink it ASAP.
With the exception of the 3 above, most of CAMERON’S beers fell between a 2.5 and a 3.5. Even including our 3 favorites above, there wasn’t a whole lot of snobbery going on in this shop to warrant a stop for those of you looking to find a truly unique craft. However for the rest of us, CAMERON’S is open early and is sure to be a fun stop for that ever important brewery body count. CAMERON’S earns a 3.5 “I DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE YELLING ABOUT” out of 5.
3 Brasseurs | 3 Brewers – Oakville (Oakville, ON)
This Montreal (QC Canada) brewpub chain has 19 locations; very successful by brewery chain standards. As with all (most?) brewery chains, the beers are usually catered to those who are just looking for a beer that isn’t a macro but also isn’t some crazy concoction. Such is the case with 3 Brewers – Oakville. Was the beer bad? No, but they only offered one unusual beer.
Our flight of 6 offered a standard IPA, DIPA, Brown Ale, Amber/Red ale, Blonde; and one unusual spiced beer. The standard 5 beers were good, but nothing worth noting. The Carrot spiced pale ale on the other hand was unusual to say the least. I don’t think I’ve ever consumed anything that was dry hopped with carrots before. Slightly hoppy, slightly carroty, overall not a bad beer; just weird.
3 Brasseurs is your standard brewpub chain that only offers the basics. If you can squeeze in the stop, you might as well, but if you can’t don’t worry. And if you get the chance to try the carrot beer let us know what you thought. 3 Brasseurs earns a 2.75 out of 5.
Old Credit Brewing (Port Credit, ON)
Some breweries love the basics. Do one or two things, and do them well. Old Credit Brewing in Port Credit, ON was our next no-frill brewery. This brewery doesn’t have an official tap room, instead it’s just a little bar to sample the merch before you grab a few cans. According to untappd, they officially make three beers and only one of which was available at the time.
The Pale Pilsner – their flagship beer – is a light and refreshing pilsner with not much else going on. It’s sweet and mild and, well, that’s all I got for you here. If you can swing time for the stop or detour, and are only in it for the brewery body count you should check out Old Credit.
Due to the lack of tap diversity, and the fact we could only sample one of the three beers, we’re going to forgo rating this brewery. If you’ve had all three from Old Credit – let us know your score; I’m really curious about their Holiday Honey. It sounds delicious.
Black Oak Brewing Company (Etobicoke, ON)
After the short stop that was Old Credit, our next two breweries were back to back residing in industrial parks across the street from each other. Industrial parks are pretty plain Jane, and even more so in this part of Canada it seems; so it’s up to the brewers to attract foot traffic via good liquid at reasonable prices. Black Oak Brewing Company of Etobicoke, ON does not appear to have any issue in getting the foot traffic through the door.
Founded in 1999, Black Oak Brewing Company is considered one of the elder breweries in the Ontario provenance. With their age, it is clear that the master brewers have perfected their craft over the 20 years in operation. Their prevalence in the surrounding community can also be felt as their calendar seems to be full of events every single week.
Lucky for us, Black Oak Brewing happens to enjoy crafting unique experiences through liquid and flights. As it’s only the day after Halloween, Black Oak was still running their special Spooky Flight: Beer & food pairing.
- Beat the Heat Witbier & Spicy Potato Chips
- Major Oak Barrel Aged Sour & Sour Gummy Peaches
- Nut Brown Ale & Chocolate Peanut Squares
- Oaktoberfest & Pretzels
From least to most enjoyed we had the Oaktoberfest, Nut Brown, Major Oak and Beat the Heat. The Oaktoberfest in our humble opinion was weak and watery. We’ve had several well made Octoberfests over the fall, and Black Oaks was just not up to par. The Nut Brown was a traditional chocolate and hazelnut ale that paired perfectly with the peanut chocolate bites.
Things got a little interesting with the Major Oak Barrel Aged Sour. The beer was aged for 10 months in Rioja Barrels (Spanish wine), and fermented with Brett. The Untappd reviews are all over the place on this beer but we can assure you that if you’re into farmyard funk this will not disappoint, and the oak flavor is very sturdy in the profile. Last up and my personal favorite was Beat the Heat. There is no better way to pair something spicy than with something refreshing. This orange zested Belgian at a low 4.5%, easily quenched the mouth fire from the spicy chips.
Black Oak Brewing Company has something for everyone; with maybe the exception of Beersnobs. While we overall enjoyed our experience here, most of the taps present a tried and true formula. It’s probably how you stay in operation for 20 years so we’re not going to fault them for that. Black Oak Brewing Company is a solid 3.75 wine barrels out of 5.
Von Bugle Brewing (Etibicoke, ON)
Across the street, and apparently having their soft opening that afternoon was Von Bugle Brewing. This massive facility is home to – ONE Beer. Well, two beers if you count the unfiltered version of their pride and joy, the Von Bugle Munich Lager.
The Von Bugle Munich Lager is as traditional as traditional German lagers can get. The 5% dunkel carries a malty flavor to the palate, and not much else. If you like traditional German style beers this will certainly quench your thirst but for those looking for a bit of adventure, this stop probably won’t satisfy you. Even the unfiltered version, while a bit hazier and slightly more robust, wasn’t anything too uncharacteristic of a traditional lager.
On a more positive note the space is brilliant and still half-completed at the time of our visit. And there are bowls of Bugle chips at every table. Like Old Credit, I think we’re going to take a pass at rating this brewery as they really only have one option. If you’re looking for body count and just hit Black Oak, you might as well take a walk across the street and visit this One & Done brewery. Also, there are people in white coats in some sort of lab, so science is definitely happening here.
Great Lakes Brewery (Etobicoke, ON)
Not to be confused with Great Lakes Brewing Company (Cleveland, OH), Great Lakes Brewery of Etobicoke, ON has its own claim to fame; they are Toronto’s Oldest Craft Brewery. This dive bar looking brewhouse is home to some of the more exquisit beers we had on our Toronto excursion.
Naturally I’d love to tell you about the 10 beers we had here and every unique characteristic of the beer but lets select our top 3. For a baseline, these top 3 were difficult to select because everything that touched our lips we rated over a 3.75 on Untappd.
- Starting with a traditional IPA; Octopus Wants to Fight IPA is one of the more meticulously crafted IPA’s we’ve had all trip. The brewer initially attempted to brew an 88 IBU IPA with 8 different hops and 8 varieties of malt but came up with something a bit more refined than an unrefined salute to the number 8 in honor of their 8-legged creature. This is no juice bomb, and it’s not a pine tree but it’s something that is reminiscent of IPAs long forgotten.
- Being big into funk, we could not pass up the No Chance Miranda Saison. While some of you would probably hope for more sour in their saisons there are several of us that enjoy the smooth floral notes and slightly barney funk and bitter of the style. Miranda brings the proper amount of sour, with a light fruity finish together in a bottle.
- Not sure we loved it for the name, or for the contents but Harry Porter & the Pedantic Plum tickled our muggle senses. The heavy roasted malts produced rich chocolate and coffee flavors that were as sharp as the sword of Gryffindor on the front end, but the plum stood on its own merit on the back. We’re actually positive this is the first time we’ve been a fan of plum – who actually likes plums? It’s just waiting to be a candied prune for my grandmother afterall.
Great Lakes Brewery is this posts do-not-miss brewery. There will be something to appease all here (including the beer snobs of the group). Great Lakes Brewery of ON Canada earns 4.5 Great Lakes out of 5.
Saulter Street Brewery (Toronto, ON)
We’ve finally made it back into Toronto proper and we’re here to drink some beer. Starting off with Saulter Street Brewery which is hidden in a residential section (Toronto Studio District), this brewery is what you would call a local watering hole. There were several tables playing jenga, board and card games and we couldn’t help but to notice that we were the youngest people in the brewery.
All of the beers we had at Saulter, and from what we can tell on Untappd, are pretty standard brew representations; again, think local watering hole. We selected four of the local favorites and ended up with a wit, golden, pale and a pilsner. Pilsners always seem to spark joy in our hearts – something about the cleanliness and mild hop profile is just always a refreshing pleasure. Marie Kondo would be proud.
Other than the pilsner, we really enjoyed the witbier; Sublime. Light wheat flavors, light lime zest and a dash of spice and herbs earned the beer its name. The other two on our flight were good, but very unmemorable.
Saulter Street Brewery is a locals spot that serves up high quality beer, at good pricing but alas if you’re a Beerventurer or Beersnob there really won’t be anything here to surprise you. Saulter Street Brewery earns a slightly above average 2.75 out of 5.
Touristy Things – CN Tower
Sampling the local culture isn’t just about drinking the local beers. It’s about seeing the local sights and doing all those mostly lame touristy things. Our trip to the CN Tower was one of those mostly lame experiences. Nested in the top of a tower in downtown Toronto is a restaurant with large windows on a rotating platform. The cool aspect of this experience is that you can really see the entire city; as long as it’s not cloudy out. Naturally being on a lake, and being that far North, there is always weather to be had during the winter months; so our view was mostly obstructed. The cost of the restaurant is also rather prohibitive even with the weakened Canadian dollar. The food was average at best and certainly not worth the price tag if you’re looking for a romantic night out. Interestingly enough, a ride to the top of the tower is just as expensive as dinner and for the extra $20 or so bucks, you get food. Unless the day is clear, I would put the CN tower on my skip list for both a lack of ‘wow’ factor, and mediocre food.
Brickworks Ciderhouse (Toronto, ON)
Every now and again, we need to break up the cycle of beer. Cider, mead and spirits are great ways to shake up the palates and we were informed of this great cidery a block away from our next stop – Eastbound Brewing Company.
This ciderhouse has a massive 16 tap setup, and enough fancy cocktails to keep you busy until you go broke. If cider isn’t your thing, just grab a Manhattan and place an order of poutine with a side of some amazing, freshly baked pie. Who’s not a cider fan you ask? Kait – Kait was not impressed. But don’t let that deter you from visiting what was easily one of the most interesting & delicious cideries we’ve ever visited.
Eastbound Brewing Company (Toronto, ON)
The last brewery of the night, just a block away from the Ciderhouse was Eastbound Brewing Company of Toronto, ON. This brewpub is built to be more of a bar than brewery; it’s super long and doesn’t have a whole lot of width to navigate when packed. Which it was certainly packed for last call. And since it was last call and we’re just a short uber ride away from home we decided to go all out and try all 10 taps.
Since we’re not going to ramble about all 10 beers, lets talk about our favorite four. The Racing the Sunset, Full Dunkel Jacket, Fresh Start: Idaho 7 and Revealed Constellations.
- Racing the Sunset Witbier was a whole lot of coriander and only a miniscule amount of orange or citrus flavor; despite the description. Being that we enjoy spiced beers, we didn’t find this off-putting but if you ordered expecting more of a citrus profile you will probably end up a bit disappointed.
- As you would have expected, Full Dunkel Jacket is of course a Dunkelweizen. The dark and potentially bitter profile is masked by the sweetness of the hefeweizen strain. The coco notes, and a thinner body work perfectly with the banana characteristics of the yeast.
- Fresh Start: Idaho 7 and Revealed Constellations were essentially tied for first; and really depends what you’re looking for in a beer. If you’re a Mosaic kind of person – grab Revealed. It’s a single malt, single hop, 4.4% IPA that makes a perfect fridge beer. If you’re about the fruits and less traditional flavor profiles try the Fresh Start Idaho 7 – or really any other of the dozen or so Fresh Start beers. I believe they work on the same (or extremely similar) base beer and play with a variety of alterations in the hop profiles.
Eastbound makes for a perfect nightcap, as long as you have the right beers selected. The other 6 on our flight were in the 2-3 range on untappd. The four listed above were all 4+ in our opinion – so you will have to cut through a few drafts to find the Beerventure or Beersnob pour that you’re looking for. Eastbound earns a solid 3.5 out of 5.
