Hi folks, my brother & sis-in-law are visiting family & touring Canada
for a couple of weeks in December & want to try to find some of the
best beer-bars & brewpubs on the way.

I have a couple of books, incl a brewpub cookbook by Stephen Beaumont,
but they are a bit out of date.

They are traveling by train for a big part of the journey & will stop
at Vancouver, Victoria, Jasper, Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax & Montreal.
I'm not sure how long in each, but enough for a beer :~)

From the books & www I have come up with; in Victoria - Swan's Hotel
(& Buckerfields Brewpub) & Spinnakers. Toronto - C'est What & Granite
(also in HalifaxHalifax) Any comments? Any better? Any other decent
beerbars, brewpubs, etc?

As far as I can see from a quick look online, S.Beaumont's "Great
Canadian Beer Guide" hasn't been updated for a decade - is it still
available? & is it worth buying if it's that old, & they're only
visiting for a couple of weeks?
thanks for any help on all this,
cheers,
Mike McG, nr Liverpool, UK.
replies here, or email -
mic(underscore)mac(at)postmaster(dot)co(dot)uk
(the deja/google email is long deceased)

MikeMcG wrote:

Hi folks, my brother & sis-in-law are visiting family & touring Canada
for a couple of weeks in December & want to try to find some of the
best beer-bars & brewpubs on the way.

I have a couple of books, incl a brewpub cookbook by Stephen Beaumont,
but they are a bit out of date.

They are traveling by train for a big part of the journey & will stop
at Vancouver, Victoria, Jasper, Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax & Montreal.
I'm not sure how long in each, but enough for a beer :~)

For Toronto & surrounding area, you might find some info he

http://www.bartowel.com/

If they have time to slip over to the Hamilton area (about an hour west
of Toronto), they should check out The Winking Judge in downtown
Hamilton. It has a big selection of micro-brewery stuff.

http://www.winkingjudge.com/home.htm

A couple other nice pubs in that area are The Brassie (in Ancaster) and
The Winchester Arms (in Dundas). There are also several pubs in the
Hess Village area of Hamilton.

I suggest they look for beers from these brewers:

Wellington County (Guelph, Ontario)
Lakes of Muskoka (Bracebridge, Ont)
McAuslans (Montreal, Quebec)
Big Rock (Calgary, Alberta)
Quidi Vidi Brewing Co. (St. Johns, NFLD)

Cheers,
Bruce
--
Bruce Weaver

www.angelfire.com/wv/bwhomedir

In article ,
says...

From the books & www I have come up with; in Victoria - Swan's Hotel
(& Buckerfields Brewpub) & Spinnakers.

Those are the two beer "institutions" here in Victoria, but I'd also get
to The Canoe brewpub - the beer is consistently good (though not as much
variety as the first two spots) and the atmosphere is great.

Hugos is worth a visit, but I'd make it a lunch stop. I like the beer
and the food, but the atmosphere is kind of weird - it's a little too
much like a night club/dance spot for my liking.

Two small local breweries have products that are worth finding as well:
Lighthouse and Phillips. Lighthouse products are available on tap in
many spots in town, and when the IPA is in good shape it's a wonderful
beer. It's NOT a PNW hop monster though, but it's well balanced and has
enough hops to satisfy. Their 'Keeper's Stout' is a thing of beauty.

Phillips is a tiny, one man operation run by Matt Philips, formerly a
brewer at Spinnakers. He's got some interesting beers but they can be
hard to find on tap - you can get bottles in almost all the liquor
stores though. Look for his IPA and Espresso Stout. He also brews a
raspberry wheat if that's your kind of thing, and some sort of maple
ale, both of which I found surprisingly enjoyable (I usually loath
fruit/unusual adjuncts in my beer).

Vancouver Island Brewing is OK but a bit dull. Their beers are clean,
well made, but not very interesting.

If you are in a driving mood, I can highly recommend Longwood Brewpub in
Nanaimo. It's a bit out of the way, but the beer, the food and the
atmosphere are great.

I'm not quite as familiar with Vancouver, but I do get there from time
to time. I like Steamworks in Gastown, Yaletown Brewpub in (surprise!)
Yaletown. DIX in Yaletown doesn't excite me quite as much, but if you
are there you might as well check them out.

I'd give Granville Island brewing a pass, and the brewpub on Granville
Island (can't remember the name right now) was pretty disappointing the
last time I was there.

My old fav, Sailor Hagar's in North Van has sadly closed down. But the
good news is that the brewmaster moved to some new digs in Surrey -
Admittedly I haven't been to this new spot, but I've heard very good
things about it, and I'd expect the beers to be top notch.
It's called Central City Brewing Company:
http://www.centralcitybrewing.com/

While in Vancouver, try to find some spots that serve Storm products.
They're another very small brewery who produce some nice products, and
the brewmaster isn't afraid to experiment.

I'd generally avoid anything from Okanagan Springs, Sleeman's. If you
can find Tree Hophead give it a go, it's a nice beer. Also, anything
from the Cannery brewery is worth trying - they're a relatively new
brewery based in Penticton, but you might find some of their products in
Vancouver.

Good luck and have fun!

Bill

"MikeMcG" wrote in message
om...
Hi folks, my brother & sis-in-law are visiting family & touring Canada
for a couple of weeks in December & want to try to find some of the
best beer-bars & brewpubs on the way.

I have a couple of books, incl a brewpub cookbook by Stephen Beaumont,
but they are a bit out of date.

They are traveling by train for a big part of the journey & will stop
at Vancouver, Victoria, Jasper, Winnipeg, Toronto, Halifax & Montreal.
I'm not sure how long in each, but enough for a beer :~)

From the books & www I have come up with; in Victoria - Swan's Hotel
(& Buckerfields Brewpub) & Spinnakers.

Swan's and Spinnaker's are both worth a visit for brewpubs. If they are
planning on spending a bit more time in Victoria, a tour of the Vancouver
Island Brewery is also a good way to spend an evening...

For information on Montreal, try www.bieremag.ca/claudeboivin. I don't
remember what the place was called, but my old friend Claude showed
me some really great beers the last time I visited...

-'dreas