Niagara Brewing Company

 

 

I was very excited to go to my first Canadian brewery, but this one was quite the let down. Physically the place was fine, small brewpub next to Ripley's, short bar seats 10, a few communal tables and an outdoor patio. 8 beers on tap, the Irish Red was solid, but the, Citra Smash not: flat and close to tasteless. I had a just average pretzel... I got the sense from my bartender that Americans were a chore. I had a pint and a half of beer and a pretzel charge me 28CN$ (prices are listed in US$ also, but bill does not reflect that), gave bartender 40US$, she gave my 16CN$... brain fart... on me that I didn't question it at the time... something was either wrong with the bill or the bartender was just flat out ripping me off... 30US$ for a pretzel and a pint and a half... Needless to say, I'll never set foot in that place again... even though the view walking across the bridge was very nice.

We visited this brewery on a hot June Saturday, the day before Canada Day. We sat outside and enjoyed people-watching and the sun. I had a flight of beer, which as average old-school brewpub ale. Nothing spectacular or interesting, but also not bad. The food was okay...I had a bratwurst that was a little overcooked. All in all, it is a mass-market brewpub, but still worth a visit if you are in the area and thirsty.

 

 

It's a touristy spot for the general public. Their beer is at worst, below average, but at best, fine. The service was decent and I liked the indoor outdoor feel, but I wouldn't come back for the beer.

 

 

 

A real beautiful place, 3 stories with a garden on level 3. A very nice bartender who gave samples. Beer average to below. Got me away from tourist trap.

 

A cool little spot on Clifton Hill in the "arcade/tourist trap" region of Niagara Falls. It was refreshing to run into a brewery like this while we were walking through the area.

They had 8 beers on tap. Mostly basic beers, nothing exciting, but still carried a good balance of styles. I was happy to find one stout on tap, these apparently aren't as common in Canada.

The brewery was somewhat small, but they made good use of their space. Good decor, great service, decent beer. They had some live music on their patio, which was nice. I wouldn't call this a destination brewery (it isn't something you would travel to), but if you happen to be in the area checking out Niagara Falls, this is a good place to stop for a couple beers.

Vibe: Tourist trap. No soul, hipster wannabe guitar player for 'live music'.

Quality: Everything seemed well put together at least.

Service: Waitress was polite and happy, slightly overworked. Could tell she didn't really care.

Selection: Eight beers, none that were very good.

Food: The one redeeming feature. We got a varied array of foods, all of which were excellent. Especially liked their beer and cheese sauce for the soft pretzels.

Overall, this is little more than a tourist trap taking advantage of the surge in craft beer popularity. They didn't have any of the beers I was interested in on tap, but there was at least one or two I liked. Not usually the biggest fan of fruit beers, but the Peach Radler was actually quite good. The brewery near me that operates out of an old car wash is far superior to this.

Sat down and we were offered the specials, cream ale or IPA pints for $4, so we ordered one of each, they arrived and the worst part was we had a hard time distinguishing between the two! The cream ale lace was the only distinguishing feature (I dislike hoppy beers, can smell an IPA from a mile away, there was zero hops smell from this "IPA"). The food menu is tiny but at least the sandwiches were good.

 

This is more or less what you'd expect for a shiny new brewpub nestled right in the middle of the most touristy street of a quite touristy town - glass and polished steel surfaces everywhere, high top tables, nothing resembling regulars in the crowd, and exactly eight beers on tap at any given time (flight of all 8 conveniently priced at about $1.50 per beer).

The beer selection features lagers and hoppy ales in roughly equal mixture, with the caveat that what I call "hoppy", quite a few BAs call "malt bombs with zero trace of any hops at all", and a radler/shandy that drinks like straight peach juice. I enjoyed a handful of the beers, and hated a handful. I don't know that I'd bother returning, if I made another trip to the Niagara area.