Canadian Beerventures: Part 3

The Outskirts

Because there are still 17 unaccounted for breweries from our trip and our posting is behind we’re going to do this next part a bit abbreviated.  The Outskirts are the breweries that we hit while traveling back to Toronto after a wonderfully rainy trip to the Zoo.  A follow up post will be the Best of Toronto proper where will be listing our top 5. 

The Toronto Zoo is rather far outside of Toronto proper – you will need a car.  Like our trip to the CN Tower, our trip to the Zoo was also marred by crappy weather.  The Zoo itself is well kept and hosts a wide variety of exotic animals making a fun detour from drinking.  Not to mention that you will certainly get your walk on and burn those beer calories because the Toronto Zoo is quite massive in comparison to previous beerventuring zoos.  We really didn’t have any complaints about the zoo except for the blistering cold and the lack of open snack stands that could have also provided temporary shelter from the elements; but that’s probably just a winter complaint.

Best Animal of the excursion was obviously Penelope; the baby Pygmy Hippo.  This plump little creature was shyly hiding under a bridge and not even her mother could coax her out of the hiding spot.  But we saw her and that’s all that matters.

If you’re a pint half full kind of person you will probably note that the best part of visiting zoos in the colder Fall/Winter months is the lack of children.  Zoos naturally appeal to younger audiences, and the absence of kids (and crowds in general) was an enjoyable experience at the zoo.

Amber Brewery of Markham Ontario was our first stop on the way back to the city center, of course after stopping at a Walmart for some fresh socks, and Wendy’s for some quick bites (ruining all the walking we just did).  We noticed that this small brewery was more of a distribution shop and less of a tap room; judging by the frequency of customers popping in and out for cans and kegs at noon. As a matter of fact this brewery seems to do a pretty good business catering to the local flavor and they’ve done so for the past 20 years.     

I’d imagine most of the locals are big hockey fans because of the beer naming convention, labels and tap handles – they are instantly recognizable hockey art.  Also we’re in Canada.  The beer itself was standard lagers and ales without any unique characteristics. The four we had were good, but nothing we would buy in excess unlike the patrons buying cases and kegs every few minutes.  We don’t believe a Beerventurer or Beersnob would find anything crazy here, but this business seems to be doing well without the need for crazy unique crafts.

Common Good Beer Company of Scarborough Ontario is a bunch of picnic tables in a full scale production brewery.  The scale is so large that they are actually a contract brewery at heart, and dabble in their own beers per information from the bartender.  Keeping in line with our standard flight of four, we had three of their “Small Batch” series beers and their standard pilsner. The Sociable Pilsner was good by any definition of a pilsner, but just wasn’t as crisp as the top pilsner on the trip (Steam Whistle).  The Small Batch Dry Hopped Pilsner was a step in a more flavorful direction. Hopped with Mosaic, the Small Batch Pilsner has a bit of a citrus bite.

The Small Batch Brown and the Small Batch Russian Imperial Stout were a tad more inspiring.  The Brown was actually my favorite of the flight, while the Imp Stout was more aligned to Melissa’s and Kait’s taste buds.  The Brown did win a Gold medal at the Ontario Brewing Awards in 2018, but we feel it was also a little less flavorful than other browns we’ve had on this trip.  Common Good Beer has some good beer, but we feel that they didn’t offer anything of an uncommon characteristic. Like Amber Brewery, if you’re a Beerventurer or Beersnob you can probably skip this brewery unless you’re in it for the body count.

Muddy York Brewing Co. of East York Ontario brought in some more interesting content not found in either Amber or Common Good.  This smaller scale brewery has a hodgepodge, Australian airplane hanger/steampunk motif. If you check it out, you will understand what I mean.

Making for fun can art, Cerbeerus Wet Hop Pilsner with Triple Perle sounded delicious in theory, but fell through in our expectation.  It was entirely too hoppy for a Pilsner; it might as well just been labeled an IPA. Cervisia Saison with Guava was a fruity experience with some, but not too much, funk.  The saison was a great beer rich in guava flavor, but even more flavorful was the Fox Hunter Sour with Kiwi. The tart, crisp and clean sour was ripe with kiwi; which is rare of that fruit because it’s a hard one to master.  

Beerventurers will find a delicious experience at Muddy york, but we can’t guarantee that a Beersnob will find what they’re looking for here.  Either way we recommend the stop if you’re on your way back from the zoo.

Brunswick Bierworks despite saying it’s in Toronto, it isn’t really close to Toronto so we’re still going to flag it as an outskirts brewery.  Brunswick Bierworks is a self-described collaboration facility which in plain English as far as we can tell is just a fancy term for contract brewer.  Despite being a very large contract brewery, their own offerings are extremely limited; only 12 of their own beers.

The top two beers we had at Brunswick was the 360 Collaboration with Hopsteiner and Ora Et Labora collaboration with Bierbroweij De Koningshoeven.  Yeah, that second one was a mouthful. 360 is a single hop showcase Helles Bock; and for a traditional German Lager this showcase was anything but traditional.  The huge citra notes were extremely uncharacteristic of the traditional Helles but we weren’t complaining. The Ora Et Labora, a doppelbock, is a homage to the La Trappe Monks and translates to Work & Pray.  The rich and sweet body was a stark comparison to the Helles but both of these beers showcased a good craft.

Brunswick Bierworks was a good, but not a great stop.  While they may be capable of making fantastic collabs and contracts, their own beer didn’t do much to wet our adventurous apatite.  The plus side to drinking at a contract brewer is the fact you can sample a whole lot of collab beer; not that we had the time this trip 🙁      

Rainhard Brewing Co. of York Ontario is back to the more traditional industrial park feel.  The large, dark brewery was currently streaming episodes of the Twilight Zone (O.G. version) on a large projection screen.  We pulled up seats at the bar and ordered the standard flight of four. Rage & Love, Nosbeeratu and SMARCH WEATHER were the three brews that scored higher than average marks.

Rage & Love is a traditional fermented sour (not kettle sour) that had been heavenly dry hopped with Citra and Mosaic.  And it wasn’t terribly sour! Nosbeeratu is the house black IPA; and the 2016 Silver Medal winner at the Ontario Brewing Awards.  More malt, and more IPA – nothing to hate but if you’re not a fan of murky beer this probably won’t be your favorite. Last up was the SMARCH WEATHER, a bright, clean marzen that screamed purity (Reinheitsgebot)!  Despite only holding a 3.5 on untappd; we can assure any German lager fan that this beer is worth your coin and that half of untappd didn’t know what they were drinking.

Rainhard made some good beers but really only the Rage & Love provided a sense of uniqueness.  If you’re in a body count quest, certain stop here as there are three breweries within 100 feet each other.  Shacklands (next) and Junction Craft (not visited due to a wedding…).

Shacklands Brewing of York Ontario, and literally 100 feet away from Rainhard, is a special place.  The chaotic decor is reminiscent of a Woodstock enthusiast garage and the owner also had displayed several Woodstock characteristics; he was a genuinely friendly fellow.

We grabbed the standard flight of four and even ended up getting a few more pours and staying a bit longer than planned – a rarity for us because time is an expensive commodity in our line of work.  Our flight was immediately split down into two lines: Sours vs not sour. And again, a surprising victory in the sour department. I’m thinking that sours in Canada aren’t as sour as people try and make them stateside and I really appreciate it.

While both the Passionfruit Wit and Tripel were good by their own standards, they just didn’t compare to the bountiful fruit plethora in the sour, but not so sour – sour beers.  The Pineapple Guava Sour, and the Three Berry Sour both had the distinct flavor profiles described; as oppose to the warhead style burst of pucker. Out of all the outskirt breweries in this line back from the Zoo, Shacklands is your must hit.