I'm happy to be heading back to Saskatoon for a quick overnight trip in mid-January (brrrrrrrr ). I'll be staying downtown, arriving after 6pm (that eliminates some brewery tasting rooms I think) and walking so was wondering where I should go and what I should drink to taste the best that SK is brewing these days. Most of the the forum threads and reviews seem to be from at at least a year ago so thought I would see if much had changed.
Here's what I learned after a brief one-night stay in -25C (PLUS wind chill) Saskatoon: -the Rook and Raven is the place to go for the best combination of food and beer. Not a huge local beer list (about 7 on tap) but well chosen. Excellent food menu that has two excellent dishes for vegetarians (like me). -Rebellion and Nokomis continue to impress and be the best from SK as far as I can tell. I didn't love all their beers but nothing I tried was unbalanced or poor. -if I was just looking for the best local beer selection I might give Woods Alehouse a bit of an edge over Rook and Raven
I do love the Rook, but Winstons just around the corner has a huge selection of SK beer on draft, does growler fills, and even has a brewery in the basement now called 21st Street Brewery.
We were trying to decide between Winstons and Woods and the Rook bartender pushed us to go to Woods for local beer. Next time it's Winstons!
Woods just went through an ownership change. They do carry craft beer, including ours, but I haven't had a chance to visit as a customer. Winston's currently has 23 taps of local craft beer... easily the biggest selection in SK.
