Road Trip through Ontario (where to stop??)

Bellwoods is only available at the brewery. They have great beers and it's a nice place for a meal also. If you can spare an afternoon I would suggest that you try to make it into Toronto. There are a half dozens places within a 30min drive of each other. Bellwoods, Great Lakes brewery, Amsterdam, mill street, left field, black oak. There are several others but I haven't been to them. If you are going through Cambridge grand river brewing makes some decent beers.

There is a large lcbo ( the lcbo, the beer store and the breweries themselves are the only places you can purchase beer) store in collingwood. I think they will have a pretty good selection of the more common ontario "craft" beers.

The real question is what are you going to bring up to trade

 

Forked River has been developing a pretty good reputation for such a young brewery. Certainly worth checking out.

Side Launch Brewing is in Collingwood. I'm not sure if you can visit the brewery or not. Their wheat beer is well regarded.

The town of St. Jacobs is just outside Kitchener, great place to visit for the Mennonite market. Not as nice as it was before the main building burned down, but still fun. Block 3 Brewing is in downtown St. Jacobs. Worth a visit if you plan to go to the market too.

Innocente Brewing in Waterloo has developed a loyal following in its very short history. Probably a place you should seek out

As @matgor has said a lot of the best places in the province are in Toronto. You might find some of the really good Toronto stuff at a pub in Waterloo or London if you are lucky. Someone with more knowledge of that scene might be able to help you out.

The LCBO (Provincial liquor monopoly) has a terrible web-site that is almost unsearchable. You can use the drinkvine.com web-site to get relatively up to date numbers on what is in stock at the various LCBO locations with regard to seasonal and new releases. You will find the selection at the LCBO appalling compared to what you are used to at the better shops in the States. That said, Rochefort 8 and 10 are under $4 a bottle if you can find them.

Cheers, and enjoy your visit.

 

As others have said, if you have a couple of hours to spare, hit Bellwoods (just be careful of their hours if you are visiting during the week).

You'll be heading up the 400 to get to Collingwood, so Bellwoods is a bit out of the way, but worth the trip IMO. Another place that is less out of the way and worth a visit (and open for lunch M-F) is Indie Ale House. From the 400 & 401, you can be there in about 10-15 mins, providing that you are not travelling through the city during rush hour.

 

Bellwoods has Bring Out Your Dead on tap right now, who knows how long that will last.

Use this to find what beers are listed in each LCBO. The actual LCBO site sucks!
http://www.foodanddrink.ca/lcbo-ear/jsp/ProductSearchNonVintages.jsp?language=EN

 

If you are passing through the area I do recommend hitting up Wellington Brewery in Guelph, or at least hitting an LCBO in the area and picking up some Wellington Brew. As a side note, I believe Flesherton is on the way up there and apparently the Flying Spatula is really good. It made it onto a TV show up here called "You Gotta Eat Here" which is basically a Canadian version of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives"

As another side note, it's a bit of a detour there is a Brewery in Owen Sound called Kilannian and I'm a big fan of their Kolsch, less so their Alt. Then if you go down Highway 10, you can hit Neustadt Springs in Neustadt who makes a nice Scottish Ale and Maclean's Ales in Hanover whose farmhouse ale tastes like Pumpernickel.

That all being said though, if there was one Brewer I'd buy from that might be on your route, it would be Wellington in Guelph who in my opinion are the best brewers of English style ales in Ontario. That being said though, you can probably get most of their offerings from the LCBO or the Beer Store if you search ahead of time online.

 

I hate to be "that guy" but if you go at all out of your way for Wellington, you will be very disappointed.