If you're referring to brewery bottle shops, the best/most exciting brewery in the city is Storm Stayed, located just south of downtown on Wharncliffe. They have a small fridge of bottles and cans with a decently varied selection, but things usually sell fast so I would call ahead to check what's available. Craft Farmacy is up the street if you have time for dinner/lunch and a beer. Toboggan is not too far from Storm Stayed and they also have a bottle shop. I think they recently released their DIPA in cans. Forked River is arguably the second best brewery in the city. They're way out in the east end but are worth a visit. Lots of stuff available in bottles and cans. Anderson and London Brewing are right beside each other and are worth hitting if you have the time, but I personally think their beers are less exciting than Storm Stayed and Forked River.
For LCBOs the best stores are Wellington Road South (White Oaks), Fanshawe Park Road (Masonville), Boler Road (Byron), York Street (Downtown), Wonderland Road South (Westmount), and the new one at Oxford and Wonderland (Oakridge). Hope that helps.
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 1:00 pm
by wittaker
Thank you Cratez!
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2018 5:24 pm
by ErkLR
A couple additions for brewpubs:
Dundas and Sons Brewing Company - 400 Adelaide Street North, London, ON, N6B 3H6 Website: http://www.dundasandsons.com
Thought I'd bring this back up to mention a few notes about London. The Tourism board was generous enough to assist with a trip for A Quick Beer video, so I did a whirlwind tour last weekend.
More to come in the video, but some quick notes:
- Milos and Beerlab continue to anchor beer awesomeness downtown. Two great, complementary places where the owners all like each other so easy to float from one to another.
- In the east end Forked is still great, and they've expanded their taproom so have a lot more space to sit & enjoy. Kyle's Fried Chicken which was a pop-up at Beerlab now has a permanent space within Forked.
- Anderson is still solid as always, and London Brewing (no longer co-op) is a block away making it a good one-two punch.
- Powerhouse is located in a massive development in the old Kellogg's plant, and it is a really huge scale. The closest thing in Toronto I suppose was the Distillery redevelopment, but this is way bigger. There is a Hard Rock hotel under construction, a 2nd brewery, plus there's retail, commercial, a massive Dave & Buster's style games bar, kids play zones, and more. I never realized something this big was being developed in London.
- Storm Stayed is also still solid. A focus on IPA and lager a bit more nowadays. They have a side patio that came during COVID.
- Toboggan is a friendly spot in the Richmond nightlife zone, a bit of a respite from the other bars along that strip.
- Chaucer's was a trip as it's super old school and focuses on bottles and Euro taps. A rarity nowadays.
- Holy Diver is a cool "city style" bar down from Beerlab close to the train station. Lots of industry folks here, and they even have a side pull tap which you would not expect to see in a place like this - the influence of the industry patrons.
Overall London feels like a "mature" Ontario craft beer city - it was late to the game but now has a number of breweries that seem to be doing well. The folks that run the breweries and bars are all friendly and welcoming so a nice city to visit.
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2023 4:41 pm
by cratez
Cass wrote: ↑Sat Aug 26, 2023 9:02 am
Thought I'd bring this back up to mention a few notes about London. The Tourism board was generous enough to assist with a trip for A Quick Beer video, so I did a whirlwind tour last weekend.
More to come in the video, but some quick notes:
- Milos and Beerlab continue to anchor beer awesomeness downtown. Two great, complementary places where the owners all like each other so easy to float from one to another.
- In the east end Forked is still great, and they've expanded their taproom so have a lot more space to sit & enjoy. Kyle's Fried Chicken which was a pop-up at Beerlab now has a permanent space within Forked.
- Anderson is still solid as always, and London Brewing (no longer co-op) is a block away making it a good one-two punch.
- Powerhouse is located in a massive development in the old Kellogg's plant, and it is a really huge scale. The closest thing in Toronto I suppose was the Distillery redevelopment, but this is way bigger. There is a Hard Rock hotel under construction, a 2nd brewery, plus there's retail, commercial, a massive Dave & Buster's style games bar, kids play zones, and more. I never realized something this big was being developed in London.
- Storm Stayed is also still solid. A focus on IPA and lager a bit more nowadays. They have a side patio that came during COVID.
- Toboggan is a friendly spot in the Richmond nightlife zone, a bit of a respite from the other bars along that strip.
- Chaucer's was a trip as it's super old school and focuses on bottles and Euro taps. A rarity nowadays.
- Holy Diver is a cool "city style" bar down from Beerlab close to the train station. Lots of industry folks here, and they even have a side pull tap which you would not expect to see in a place like this - the influence of the industry patrons.
Overall London feels like a "mature" Ontario craft beer city - it was late to the game but now has a number of breweries that seem to be doing well. The folks that run the breweries and bars are all friendly and welcoming so a nice city to visit.
It was fun bar crawling with you guys. I'm glad you enjoyed London's humble yet worthy beer scene. Your assessment of where things are at is bang on. I appreciated the introduction to Holy Diver, as I wasn't aware it had changed from Nite Owl. It was also nice to hear more about the planned second brewery at 100 Kellogg Lane. Needless to say, things have come a long way from the days when Len and I would hype up bars that had some craft taps and LCBO seasonals (lol by today's standards), to the current landscape where there are multiple breweries and several good bars/restaurants. If you have more time on your next visit, Company Bar, Craft Farmacy, and BackRoads are all worth a stop. Cheers!
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 8:06 am
by Cass
Definitely nice to hang @cratez!
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2023 8:18 pm
by Cass
I'm finally getting the Quick Beer video of London off the line, and it's going to be multi-parter as I spoke with so many folks there.
Here's a quick teaser with a fun story from Milos Kral of Pub Milos about his first experience with beer after arriving in Canada. Hopefully the first full episode will be out tomorrow or on the 1st.
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2024 4:36 pm
by Cass
Happy new year folks!
Posted up part one of my A Quick Beer in London. This will be a big one, as I did interviews with Milos (this episode) plus Anderson, Forked, Beerlab & Storm Stayed.
This one will be of particular interest to those who remember the old days of Ontario beer as Milos talks about how the scene changed over the years.
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2024 11:15 am
by Cass
Next up, visits to Beerlab and Storm Stayed and chats with Nick, Adil & Justin. Check it out!
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2024 10:39 am
by Cass
And another, this one visiting Forked River with a barrel tasting from Dave.
Final episode in London hopefully coming on the weekend with the final spots in town.
Re: London, Ontario and Area
Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2024 11:03 am
by Cass
Final episode from London with visits to Anderson, Powerhouse, Toboggan, London Brew, Holy Diver, Bungalow and Chaucer's. A fun visit for sure.