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It's been a while since I talked about beer so here's an update. Back on the Labour Day long weekend my wife and I went to Prince Edward Country. It's about 2 hours East of Toronto and it's an area known for it's fresh produce, great dining, and TONNES of wineries. It also has a handful of craft breweries which we obviously checked out.
http://www.mackinnonbrewing.com/
The first brewery we checked out was Mackinnon Brothers. They are an 8th generation farming family and the current generation decided to start a brewery on the farm. It's run by a pair of brothers, a cousin, and a couple friends. They are all young, probably in their 20s or early 30s. On to the beers:
Crosscut Ale - This is a crisp, clean ale. Pretty smooth with a mild hop finish. Meant to be an easy drinking accessible beer and they nailed it. We bought a 6 pack of tall cans of this. This would be a good beer for transitioning someone from drinking bland lagers to drinking hoppy ales.
English Pale Ale - There's a certain malt profile that tastes really English to me and this has it. To me it tasted like a typical English pub ale (lots of malt) but with some hops added to make it a pale ale. Not bad but I felt like it was two beers mashed into one.
"Origin" hefeweizen - A wheat beer of course. I find that most wheat beers have a thick quality to them but this one was pretty crisp and smooth. The flavour was pretty standard.
"Red Fox" ale - Technically this wasn't a red ale since they used beets to give it a red hue but it's meant to be one. Again, fairly easy drinking with a pleasant citrus hops aftertaste.
After this we drove to the Lake on the Mountain, literally a lake that sits on the side of a small mountain. There is a resort/inn there with a small brewery that provides beer for their two restaurants. We stopped in at the Miller House which isn't really a full restaurant. They just have a variety of platters plus beer and wine. We grabbed a local cheese platter and a meat platter and a couple pints. The beer was good, if a bit generic but the food was excellent.
The next day we did some more exploring and checked out Gateway Brewing in Trenton. They had a wide variety of interesting sounding beers but unfortunately you could only get a couple to go. It was a pretty low-tech setup so it wasn't really a nice environment for staying a drinking a few plus I had to drive. Anyway, I don't remember the names but we grabbed their pale ale and farmhouse saison. The pale ale was a typical ale, not much hops to speak of. The saison was quite good, lots of spicy flavour a mild hops finish. Quite good.
The last brewery that we visited was Barley Days. They have a bunch of their beers in the LCBO so it wasn't a big deal to visit. They did have a special brewery-only beer called Sacred Mule Sparking Ale. It is a pilsner brewed with a yeast that is usually used in sparkling wine, hence the name. It was pretty sweet so I didn't really like it. I didn't bother buying any beer here since you can grab it all at the LCBO.
In addition to breweries we also checked out the Sandbanks Winery. It has a really interesting back-story as it was started as a small winery by a single mother but has grown to be quite popular. We tasted a bunch of their wines and they were excellent so we bought a few bottles.
We also checked out a local distillery and picked up some gin for my mother in law and a bottle of rum for myself.
http://www.mackinnonbrewing.com/
The first brewery we checked out was Mackinnon Brothers. They are an 8th generation farming family and the current generation decided to start a brewery on the farm. It's run by a pair of brothers, a cousin, and a couple friends. They are all young, probably in their 20s or early 30s. On to the beers:
Crosscut Ale - This is a crisp, clean ale. Pretty smooth with a mild hop finish. Meant to be an easy drinking accessible beer and they nailed it. We bought a 6 pack of tall cans of this. This would be a good beer for transitioning someone from drinking bland lagers to drinking hoppy ales.
English Pale Ale - There's a certain malt profile that tastes really English to me and this has it. To me it tasted like a typical English pub ale (lots of malt) but with some hops added to make it a pale ale. Not bad but I felt like it was two beers mashed into one.
"Origin" hefeweizen - A wheat beer of course. I find that most wheat beers have a thick quality to them but this one was pretty crisp and smooth. The flavour was pretty standard.
"Red Fox" ale - Technically this wasn't a red ale since they used beets to give it a red hue but it's meant to be one. Again, fairly easy drinking with a pleasant citrus hops aftertaste.
After this we drove to the Lake on the Mountain, literally a lake that sits on the side of a small mountain. There is a resort/inn there with a small brewery that provides beer for their two restaurants. We stopped in at the Miller House which isn't really a full restaurant. They just have a variety of platters plus beer and wine. We grabbed a local cheese platter and a meat platter and a couple pints. The beer was good, if a bit generic but the food was excellent.
The next day we did some more exploring and checked out Gateway Brewing in Trenton. They had a wide variety of interesting sounding beers but unfortunately you could only get a couple to go. It was a pretty low-tech setup so it wasn't really a nice environment for staying a drinking a few plus I had to drive. Anyway, I don't remember the names but we grabbed their pale ale and farmhouse saison. The pale ale was a typical ale, not much hops to speak of. The saison was quite good, lots of spicy flavour a mild hops finish. Quite good.
The last brewery that we visited was Barley Days. They have a bunch of their beers in the LCBO so it wasn't a big deal to visit. They did have a special brewery-only beer called Sacred Mule Sparking Ale. It is a pilsner brewed with a yeast that is usually used in sparkling wine, hence the name. It was pretty sweet so I didn't really like it. I didn't bother buying any beer here since you can grab it all at the LCBO.
In addition to breweries we also checked out the Sandbanks Winery. It has a really interesting back-story as it was started as a small winery by a single mother but has grown to be quite popular. We tasted a bunch of their wines and they were excellent so we bought a few bottles.
We also checked out a local distillery and picked up some gin for my mother in law and a bottle of rum for myself.
