Canadian Craft Beer

A little closer to where you live, I've been impressed by the few beers I've tried from Driftwood and Central City. Fat Tug and Red Racer are seriously under-the-radar IPAs. I don't know a lot about the BC brewery scene, but it seems to be growing.

Also, you mentioned Unibroue, but Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel out of Montreal also makes some outstanding beers.

 

I think Dieu Du Ciel is my favorite Canadian brewery, but a cruise to Nova Scotia allowed me to try some lesser known Canadian beers (Garrison, Propeller, Pickaroons).

 

Dieu Du Ciel is probably the best, but Unibroue is right up there for sure.

 

Peche Mortel for the win. Gotta love those Dieu du Ciel stouts.

Unibroue is fantastic too - best North American purveyor of Belgian-style ales and fairly priced to boot

 

Fun Fact: You can see them drinking Propeller in Trailer Park Boys.

 

In addition to the Unibroue and Dieu du Ciel brews, I've found that this one (that's available in the US) is pretty good too: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/11056/46644/

 

There are many great craft breweries in Canada but many of them do not see distribution outside their province which limits their reach. DDC, Driftwood & Central City deserve recognition but there are others also. Dunham, Bellwoods and Four Winds are excellent breweries that are (for now) confined to their respective provinces. Good thing we have trading though

 

The one thing that I think hurts some Canadian brewers stateside is price. I'm not sure why, but beers from British Columbia are way overpriced compared to comparable beers from Washington and Oregon. I think Fat Tug was priced around $10/bomber when it was available here. That's about double the price of most local IPAs in bombers. Driftwood's barrel-aged beers, Singularity and Old Cellar Dweller, were priced around $20 (also bombers). That also is on the high end of the spectrum for those styles. I can pick up other pretty good to great local barrel-aged stouts and barleywines for around $14, sometimes even less.

Also, by moving this thread to the Canada forum I think you'll be limiting responses/feedback. OP seemed to be asking the overall BA community their opinions, which is why I think it was originally posted in Beer Talk.

 

Four Winds is making big strides out here in BC. A beer like Nectarous (http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/32184/124777/) could probably crack the BA top 250 if it were to ever get enough ratings under its belt. Once it gets to 26 ratings (the minimum for the Canadian top 100), assuming it keeps up its rAvg of 4.58, it'll jump straight to 23rd or 24th on the list. Pretty dang good! Most of their other non-standard beers get pretty great feedback on here too.

Driftwood is obviously another favourite out here, and from the sounds of it, Alberta will be seeing distribution of it very shortly!

 

Here in Ontario, it's all about Muskoka Brewery, Wellington and King brewery for me, with splashes of Mill St. as they seem to be the only brewery brewing uncommon styles and actually distributing them to the LCBO with their mix packs.

I'm told Bellwoods is king in Toronto, but given I'm in Hamilton and I have yet to see any of their stuff here down the road.

 

So much of what is good in the various regions is only available locally. Participating in CANBIF is probably the best way to overcome this. I've only been a participant for a couple rounds thus far, but the experience has allowed me to try some fabulous stuff from BC and Quebec that I would otherwise have to travel to try.

I'm torn though over the wider availability issue. While I always enjoy seeing what others think of the beers i enjoy locally, I kind of like the fact that you can only get Bellwoods at the brewery. It means I always have some solid stuff for trades available.

 

I'm a really big fan of Kokanee Gold, have you tried that yet? It's pretty dang exclusive, you won't find it in many craft beer establishments. It's pretty much the white whale of Kokanee beers, tbh.

 

My kingdom for a Great Lakes Brewing Winter Ale tap handle !!!!!!

 

Get thee down to Brux House and the Brain, good Sir! Both have Bellwoods on a fairly regular basis, usually in bottles but occasionally on draught as well.

 

For me, the top 3 breweries in Canada are: Bellwoods, Dieu du Ciel and Driftwood. I also agree with the previous comments about Four Winds and I am looking forward to trying more of their offerings in the spring.

There are a lot of solid breweries in Canada, but we severely lack World Class breweries IMO, which is both surprising and frustrating in regards to the Ontario beer scene. Hopefully we see more breweries like Four Winds open up shop across the country.

 

Not sure how welcome my views are here by my experience of the Ontario beer scene is mixed. Certainly a huge huge improvement in recent years but IMHO still lagging behind what I've had in the US and UK.

 

Driftwood in Alberta?

It's about time because fat tug sits on the shelf for months everytime i drive through saskatoon