Any good Canadian micro-breweries out there?

McAuslan Brewing. I am a big fan of their St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout.

Cheers!

 

Speaking as a local, no one here considers them a micro. A few (very few but still) local beer stores do not carry their products but focus on small, local breweries. My faves?

Quebec: Dieu du Ciel, Trou du Diable, Charlevoix, Dunham, Naufrageur, Trois Mousquetaires
Ontario: Bellwoods, Flying Monkeys, Great Lakes
BC: Parallel 49, Driftwood, Howe Sound, Phillips
Manitoba: Half Pints
Alberta: Alley Kat, Wild Rose

Trouble is most of these don't make it pass the Canadian border and for most of them, not available Canada-wide.

 

Too many, Driftwood, Half Pints, Paddock Wood, Flying Monkey's, Trois Mousquetaires, Charlevoix, Dieu Du Ciel, McAuslan, Central City, Le Loupe Rouge (obscure), a bunch in Quebec... etc.. etc...

 

Oh, and it's eh?

 

I created an account just to chime in on this

I grew up on Vancouver Island and there are many awesome breweries:

- Phillips
- Driftwood
- Longwood (it's a brewpub and many of their beers don't get out of the building, but they're fantastic)
- Tofino Brewery (up-and-coming)
- Swan's Brewpub (Not much makes it out of Victoria)
- Vancouver Island Brewery (Their year-rounds are average, but their seasonals are great)
- Spinnakers

I recently moved to Alberta and can't say I've had a good local beer here yet. Maybe the Dragon Series from Alley Kat.

 

Isn’t it “A”?

I was told that the way to spell the country name was: It’s C “A” N “A” D “A”.

Was I misinformed?

Cheers!

 

I first saw this in an All About Beer magazine article in a 100 must try brews line-up. Somehow I remembered the name and found some on the shelf about a month ago. Quite a nice beer indeed.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/194/2704

 

There are quite a few craft/micro breweries in Quebec, but few of them distribute south of the border. When I vacationed in Quebec City several years ago I don't remember a restaurant bar that didn't have local craft beer available.

 

Tree brewing co
They have fantastic beer and they are a bit underrated if you ask me, i dont see a rating for the double hop head seasonal on here but if you ever have a chance to grab the 8% bad boy it drinks phenomenal one of my favorites i have a buddy that is canadian and he will bring it back after family visits sometimes.

 

Spelling of Canada is ok.

eh? is an expression often attributed to us and not without reason. Kind of the Canadian equivalent of y'all

 

Forgot them and i shouldn't! Just had their doppelbock this week, delicious.

 

It is and a very affordable and flavorful stout. pretty much the only thing i buy from them except the imperial stout.
They're kind of like the Sam Adams of Quebec.

 

I was in Quebec City for a one week summer vacation in 2008. It was pretty exciting since they were celebrating their 400th anniversary. During that week Celine Dion was in town to perform at a free concert in a park; she stayed at the same hotel we were staying at. The week was a pretty hot week. I drank a lot of Le Cheval Blanc Blanche (Wit) beers. They were very tasty in that hot environment.

I also drank a number of McAuslan St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stouts. I don’t normally ‘associate’ with hot weather drinking with Stouts but that beer was so yummy I made an exception.

I also had a half & half that was half Guinness Stout and Hard Cider which was quite tasty. A few weeks ago when I had some company visiting from Texas I made some half & half beers from homebrewed Oatmeal Stout and homemade Hard Cider. It was quite tasty on a hot summer day.

Cheers!

 

“y’all” is not commonly used in the majority of the US; only folks from the deep south and Texas use that phrase. I recently had visitors from Texas (friends and family) and I head the word “y’all” quite a bit. They are also fond of ‘defending’ their use of that term with a statement of: “y’all is a very useful expression”. In response I felt compelled to use the Philadelphia equivalent of “youz” like in: what do youz guys want to do today?

Cheers!

 

Many (if not most) Canadians don't say 'eh' either...

 

Do you happen to know if it is a regional thing? For example, do folks from Ontario tend to use “eh” but most of the other parts of Canada don’t?

Cheers!

 

I have only lived in BC and AB, so you'll have to ask them, eH? I would guess that 1/50 people I've met say it regularly.

 

It is good. I plan to be there on Saturday. Can't wait.

 

Ontario is in the midst of a beer renaissance right now.
My favourite brewery/place to hangout, hands down, is Bellwoods Brewery in Toronto. They were rated 3rd best new brewery in the world by RateBeer. I believe they just started shipping very limited quantities to some bars in NYC. Their Witchshark IIPA and Hellwoods Imperial Stout are remarkable. As is their Monagamy single hop Pale Ale series. I have yet to try something there that I didn't love. They also do a lot of collaboration brews with other breweries like Trou Du Diable (the Frambizzle Saison), as well as Evil Twin (No Sleep Till Brooklyn Sour Stout) out of Brooklyn/Copenhagen.

Also worth mentioning out of Ontario: Great Lakes Brewing (Try the Winter Ale), Black Oak (Ten Bitter Years IIPA), and Left Field (Oatmeal Brown Ale).

Quebec is the big dog when it comes to Canadian microbreweries. Unibroue (Blanche de Chambly - Belgian White and the "Terrible" Quad) as mentioned above. Unibroue is probably the most commonly exported of the Canadian "microbreweries". They also brew seasonal brews for Trader Joes, incidentally.
Also of note:
McAuslan Brewing (St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout)
Le Trou Du Diable brews Dulcis Succubus a sour / Wild Ale that might be my new favourite beer all around.
Hopfenstark has some great saisons.
Microbrasserie Charlevoix - Dominus Vobiscum Saison
and of course, probably the best of all is Dieu Du Ciel - Look for their Peche Mortel - bottle conditioned Imperial Coffee Stout and Rose d'hibiscus (bottle conditioned hibiscus flower wit)

I'm not as well versed in the BC Breweries, although the guy above that said Red Racer is one of the best, wasn't kidding. It's a great IPA.

And on that note, I'm going to the LCBO to buy some Trou Du Diable Shawinigan Handshake IPA. Hope you found this helpful.

 

just replace eh with , ya know... when down in the US..

simple.