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Barnstormer Brewing Company

Discuss Ontario's brewpubs, pubs, beer bars and restaurants here.

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alsiem
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun May 03, 2015 9:16 pm

Barnstormer Brewing Company

Post by alsiem »

I couldn't see a dedicated thread for a review so I've started one.

This is a nice spot out in the middle of no where Barrie in a strip mall. The address is: 384 Yonge Street, off of the Essa Rd exit on the 400.

They've made a nice spot in an utterly featureless strip mall, lots of barnboard and nice lighting, seats probably 40 people.

I and everyone around me was eating pizza. It was very good, certainly a significant cut above chain pizza stores.

More importantly to this board, the beer was excellent.

I had a Cirrus Session IPA, lovely hop flavour and aroma. I then had a mosaic rye ale which came with a lovely head, pronounced and complex hops and a touch of spice.

I was there on Canada Day, so the retail store was getting hammered. I wanted to buy some of their IPA ($3.25/can) but it was sold out. I did get a bottle of the IPA, the Rye Ale and a few cans of Blonde. Bottles are $6/$7.

It's about 5 minutes off of the 400 so I think it's worth a visit if only to pick up a couple of new beers if you're heading north for a vacation.

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El Pinguino
Seasoned Drinker
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Joined: Sun Jan 02, 2005 6:02 pm
Location: Downtown TO / Galapagos Islands
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Post by El Pinguino »

Hit them up last summer and had chicken wings I think, which were good.
They had 4-5 IPAs on at the time, and 1 or 2 others...including an "extra medium bitter" collaboration with Sawdust City.
I thought they were all decent to above average. Nothing stood out as "great" or worth purchasing bottles of at the time. Perhaps they've tuned their beers a bit more since then, and obviously some different styles too, so good to hear you were impressed!
I agree it was a friendly vibe in there, despite it's lacklustre location. Worth a stop on the Barrie beer route.

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alsiem
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun May 03, 2015 9:16 pm

Post by alsiem »

Inspired by a recent visit and the news that the IPA and the Brown Ale is coming to TBS, my update:

The good:
The Pizza is really good here. It's not far off the highway and certainly in my last visit on a snowy Family day, it seems that the community is in on the secret. Good solid turn over of tables, everyone getting pizza. For people with kids, kids pizza for $9 is enough for 2 kids.

The quite good:
I had the Parachute Porter, solid if unspectacular porter done in the traditional british style. At 5.1 ABV, I found the mouthfeel quite thin which was my main complaint with the drink.

Meh:
I had the Brown Ale too, it was Ok. It comes in at 3.8 ABV, and I found it a 1 note beer, with some sweetish malts and not much else. I don't think I would drink another one of these.

On second thought:
I don't know where I posted it on the forum, but I had a fairly negative review of the Late All Day IPA. I had drunk a bottle that hung around the fridge for awhile. This time, I got some of the canned stock and drank it right away. It was better than average. Cloudy, indicating that they hadn't filtered out the hops, not much in the way of aroma but a fairly complex hopping, layering in bitterness and some citrus makes for a pleasing IPA coming in at 5.1 ABV if I remember correctly. If I saw this on tap, I would definately drink again.

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