The Bar Towel

Planning to drive to Nova Scotia sometime in the summer. Other than Garrison, anyplace I should hit? Also (other than Garrison) Never been. anything special I should bring back?

Halifax has Garrison, Propeller for bottles, but pubs include Rogue's Roost, Hart and Thistle, Henry House (Granite) and Rockbottom.

If you are looking to travel outside Halifax, Sea Level Brewing is in Port Williams, in the Annapolis Valley. I've had a bunch of their beer. Nothing I'd say has been outstanding, but generally at least tasty beers. Port Williams and the Valley in general are beautiful parts of the province, roughly an hour from Halifax.

There's also the Hell Bay. They are half way between Bridgewater and Liverpool, off the beaten path. I've had some of their beers. Again, not world-beaters but tasty generally. If you were going to Lunenburg (and I would go to Luneburg if you haven't ever been), may be worth a stop althouth it would be out of the way.

Depending on your interest, time available, etc, I can suggest some stuff for NS for sure. Either post here, or PM and I'll offer you my 2.5 cents.

rejtable has it pretty well covered. I would add Premier Wines to the list. They carry some great beers not available at the NSLC (private liquor stores!! Yeaaa!!).
http://premierwines.ca/store/

The Hart and Thistle is my first stop in Halifax. Always a treat for the hop-head.

Oh yeah, Premier for sure, although they are pricey.

Premier looks pretty good - you know it's amazing how cheaply we're getting traquair jacobite here consider it's about 5 bucks everywhere else...

Cagiva650 wrote:rejtable has it pretty well covered. I would add Premier Wines to the list. They carry some great beers not available at the NSLC (private liquor stores!! Yeaaa!!).
http://premierwines.ca/store/

The Hart and Thistle is my first stop in Halifax. Always a treat for the hop-head.

They have pre-order on the Westvleteren gift pack!! FYI.

Hmm...thanks for the heads up...I might not be down there until July though...

Jeff, I assume you'll be driving through New Brunswick en route to NS. You have some options on the way. Picaroons in Fredericton, Big Tide Brewing in Saint John, Pump House in Moncton.

I know there's a few new ones as well, but I don't have their names handy. A look through some beer blogs and Canadian Beer News will give you that info.

nevermind, found it.

I'll be in Halifax in a couple weeks. I'll report back what I have learned. So far Garrison, Propeller, Rogue's Roost and the local Granite are on my to do list. I've heard there is another decent brewpub, but I haven't researched enough to know what it is called or where it is.

I think I can resist the temptation to visit InBev (Kieth's)

There's Hart and Thistle in Halifax, by the water. Nice spot, though I have not been impressed with the food. They do make their own beers, though, and they are a bit more creative than Rogue's Roost.

I'll be there in July... I definitely plan to check out Nash's brews (Hart & Thistle as well as Rockbottom).

Tapsucker wrote:I'll be in Halifax in a couple weeks. I'll report back what I have learned. So far Garrison, Propeller, Rogue's Roost and the local Granite are on my to do list. I've heard there is another decent brewpub, but I haven't researched enough to know what it is called or where it is.

I think I can resist the temptation to visit InBev (Kieth's)

The big news in the last 6 months or so has been Greg Nash brewing at Rockbottom (as well as H&T). Rockbottom pretty much had crap beer before he arrived.

I'm going to be back to the motherland in a few weeks as well, heading down for the Tom Petty concert.

Did the rounds in Halifax last week, and as always had a great time. Rockbottom beer was dissapointing though. Had the baltic porter, which was decent, and the stout was ok, but the white IPA didn't work for me and the wheat was abominable.

Wooden Monkey was new to me, had fun.

Over a couiple of nights, had pints and spent time at:

Tom's Little Havana: great place, few Garisson on tap;
Rogue's Roost: never been big on the place, beer was only meh;
Wooden Monkey;
Carleton;
Economy Shoe Shop;
Rockbottom;
Hart and Thistle, hate the place, love the beer;
Henry House;
Olde Triangle;


Probably a few others that I don't remember. Garisson and/or Propeller stuff on tap pretty much everywhere, otherwise interesting finds were harder to come by. Lived there for nearly 10 years, and it doesn't take much arm twisting to get me back. Love the place.

A couple additions:

I really enjoyed Rockbottom. The IPA was excellent. The White IPA was disappointing and the others I tried were not so special, but I could see there is some experimenting going on. The food was also not so good, but I found pub food generally disappointing in Halifax. What I did like at Rockbottom, in addition to the IPA, were some great little bands and the knowledgeable staff.

Another decent place was Maxwell's Plum. They advertise 60 beers on tap and look pretty much like a college bar, but they had an excellent local tap selection (lots of Garrison, Propeller and Pump House) and some o.k. imports. Serving sizes were smallish 12 oz, but the happy hour prices were great. Again, great staff that knew their beer and forced samples on us.
I also watched them really help educate and move some newbies along. They did some good PR work for the local breweries.

Propeller was pleasant, but nothing on the tasting tap I had not already tried at Maxwell's Plum.

Garrison has a great tasting room in their store. I didn't take the tour since I already know how a brewery works and preferred to chat and sample with the staff. BTW, I think everyone that works there is from Toronto.

Rogues Roost is a little dingy and the beer is good, not great. I'd say if a brewpub like that moved into your neighbourhood, you would visit often, but not necessarily rave about it. In other words, on par with many small brewpubs.

Had some pretty decent BBQ at a place called Q. Some Garrison on tap rebranded as a house beer. Typical of many BBQ places, the sides sucked. Go for the meat.

Henry House was slammed when I went with some Dalhousie event, so I can't comment.