Here's my advice for you: Find your local craft breweries, and get your beer straight from the source whenever possible. It's the freshest way to get your beer--no languishing in warehouses before getting to you. You'll also have the pleasure to see the place your beer was made and, if you're lucky, you might get to meet the folks that make your beer, chat them up. No cold soviet era like storehouses, real people make real beer. And that sense of community is what makes getting into craft beer so much fun.
In addition, at least at my local breweries, they often save the best stuff for the brewery store. Many brewers sells their big market stuff through the lcbo, but save their small batch goodness and seasonals (this is the real good stuff) for the brew store.
Without these brewery stores (props go to Great Lakes and Amsterdam so far...), I'd have a pretty long year ahead of me. Instead, over the past week, I've been able to get an Imperial Russian Stout, an Imperial Black IPA, a Vanilla Imperial Espresso Stout, and a smoke beer which otherwise would have been out of my reach.
To find your local breweries, a good place to start is the Ontario Craft Brewers website. Check out their brewery map here: http://www.ontariocraftbrewers.com/breweriesMap.php (Note that there are other craft breweries in Ontario that don't belong to OCB).
If you're in Toronto, BlogTo recently wrote a piece on their "top 10 non-Beer store beer stores" in Toronto. Check it out here: http://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2012/11/the_top_10_non-beer_store_beer_stores_in_toronto/
Of course, the lcbo has its place, and, when paired with your local breweries, can help create a fulfilling craft beer experience for you.
I'll be moving to Guelph at the end of the month and I'm excited because I found out that Wellington Brewery is merely minutes away. Also, I've learned that they do these WellyOneOff - where they experiment, I believe once a month. This month on November 10th, they'll be releasing, get this...CHOCOLATE MILK STOUT. - http://www.wellingtonbrewery.ca/?p=1528
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm glad to be closer to F & M Brewery as well.
I'll be a regular at both breweries.
Thanks for the map!
Isn't that pretty cool? We'll both have completely different, but awesome, beer experiences in our own little corners of Ontario.
ReplyDeleteHey Brau...if you can make it up to Guelph, come check out Wellington brewery this Saturday, we'll be releasing a milk chocolate stout, and our brewmasters will be hosting tours...i'll be pouring beer! always a great time!
ReplyDeleteHi Karyn - you can call me Pierre :) - can't make it up this weekend, unfortunately, but I've heard good things about the milk chocolate stout - Any chance it'll be making its way down Toronto way?
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