I'm going on vacation in Canada this Sunday and I'm going to be on the in Windsor, Toronto and Ottawa area over the next week. I know absolutely nothing of Canadian craft beer, zero knowledge. What are some choice brews I should look out for? Also, any record stores in those areas?
For Ottawa... Bars/Restaurants: Brothers Beer Bistro, Arrow & Loon, Pub Italia, The Manx, Wellington Gastropub (if you're looking for a high quality dinner, this is your place). I don't really have much of a preference for any of them. Brothers is consistently good, Arrow has the beer list down but otherwise kinda sucks. I'd avoid Mill St, 3 Brewers, and to a lesser extent Big Rig and Clocktower though they're worth a try I suppose. Breweries: Uh, none...? Okay, I personally would only recommend one. Beyond The Pale, they're pretty great. They're open Thursdays-Sunday now with half growlers, full growlers, occasionally bombers. Ottawa has a lot of very meh breweries unfortunately. I would recommend Beau's as the tour is fun and people are great there, but you may as well hit Montreal for the day if you're headed out that way. Not sure what your transportation situation is, but you should absolutely head over to Quebec while in Ottawa. L'Autre Oeil in Aylmer is the best place in the entire Ottawa-Gatineau area with 500+ bottles and 8-12 Quebec taps (depanneur Rapido is just down the street and carries a good bottle selection). Brasseurs du Temps is a nice little brew pub. Store-wise, I'm partial to Broue Ha Ha and Rapido. List of Quebec breweries and beers is endless. If you go to L'Autre Oeil, ask the bartender/waiter. They're all very knowledgeable in my experience. Don't go to The Beer Store. Rideau/King Edward, Bank/Walkley are the best centralish LCBO's. The selection there is just whatever. For breweries in general: Bellwoods, Great Lakes, Amsterdam, Beau's, Grand River, Sawdust City, Flying Monkey's, Cameron's, Nickel Brook, Black Oak are all good and found easily. Bellwoods is a must as you'll quickly find out when others reply. Bunch of other nano-breweries and brewpubs around Toronto I'll let those members take care of. I'd personally wouldn't bother with breweries like Mill St, Lake of Bays, Creemore...but that's just me getting picky. Oh, and Trafalgar. Don't touch their beer....ever. There's certainly some record stores around Ottawa, but I'm not the person to recommend any. Enjoy your visit. Ontario has really begun to figure out the whole craft beer thing.
Great Review/Summary!! Looks like I am a little late in the game for a reply to this post, but just in case the trip is still to come, there was a pretty good discussion of downtown Toronto beer bar on this thread. Hope you enjoy(ed) your trip.
