https://www.rorschachbrewing.com/
anyone been here yet?
Looking for the original Bar Towel blog? You can find it at www.thebartowel.com.
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Rorschach Brewing Company
-
kevinlater
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2013 10:44 pm
- Location: Mississauga
i know the space well. getting a brewery in there is really, really tough. saw the photos and, yeah, another Toronto brewery that has people right next to pressurized fermentors (Bandit had the same and had 1 explode a few months ago. thankfully, no one was there at the time).
the upstairs patio should be lovely. lots of empty stair space, though, taking you there and to the bathroom. so i wonder what its vibe will be like.
friends had some beer. hearing it's "good". as in, fine, average, ok. nothing blowing ppl away, but not Bandit horrible.
their tap plans are ridiculously ambitious. swore i read that they plan on having 12 of their beer on tap. that...kind of doesn't make sense.
I went on their opening weekend. A couple of thoughts and reviews of the beer. Didn't have any food and the service was still working out the kinks which is to be expected for a new restaurant so for those elements, go check it out yourself.
1) They have a lot of fermenters etc. And the beer list was at least nine different types of beer. They have 3 variations on IPAs, 3 saisons, and an Oatmeal stout, a pale ale and others that I can't remember. It was a good mix of styles that I enjoy.
2) The beer was average. As in it was brewed to style, ie. you ordered an IPA and it tasted like an IPA and there were no obvious flaws. I think when you open a brewery and charge $7.50 for 16 oz pours, you need to be ready for the spotlight so here's my impressions on the beer. I had an IPA ( I believe it was called Enthrallment). Great colour, hazy so they didn't filter it (good) but really there are no hop aromas at all and really it's just bitterness in taste. Wait staff knew nothing about hops being used. I then had a saison, was really clear, had a nice frothy head which fell back quickly and what remained was the faintest of tastes of saison yeast.
I thought it looked nice on the ground floor but you are close to the brewery workings as it is a long slim room. The roof top patio will be nice on a summer day.
I don't think I'll rush back anytime soon but I wish them luck.
1) They have a lot of fermenters etc. And the beer list was at least nine different types of beer. They have 3 variations on IPAs, 3 saisons, and an Oatmeal stout, a pale ale and others that I can't remember. It was a good mix of styles that I enjoy.
2) The beer was average. As in it was brewed to style, ie. you ordered an IPA and it tasted like an IPA and there were no obvious flaws. I think when you open a brewery and charge $7.50 for 16 oz pours, you need to be ready for the spotlight so here's my impressions on the beer. I had an IPA ( I believe it was called Enthrallment). Great colour, hazy so they didn't filter it (good) but really there are no hop aromas at all and really it's just bitterness in taste. Wait staff knew nothing about hops being used. I then had a saison, was really clear, had a nice frothy head which fell back quickly and what remained was the faintest of tastes of saison yeast.
I thought it looked nice on the ground floor but you are close to the brewery workings as it is a long slim room. The roof top patio will be nice on a summer day.
I don't think I'll rush back anytime soon but I wish them luck.
-
Napalm Frog
- Posts: 223
- Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 10:01 am
- Location: Toronto
Was there today as a pit stop after eating at Descendants nearby.
To follow up with the above comments, I definitely felt the same way. Sat at the bar in the front (didn't explore the rest of the place), sampled one of everything. Saisons were light and easy, a little bit lacking in body or excitement but nothing really wrong with them. IPAs were just that, decent IPAs that do what they say. The oatmeal stout was pretty good. Note: their swing-top bombers come with a $4 deposit. It's the only reason I sat and tried everything, couldn't commit to coming back soon enough to make it worthwhile.
The bartender that seemed to be in charge of the place definitely knew his stuff, was fun to chat with. Rest of the staff friendly.
Can't comment much on food, didn't have. People seemed to like it. No takeout. Service at the bar also hits the crapper once it starts getting busy because they're also juggling the walk-in bottle shop traffic on the same POS (also used for the rest of the place, it seemed, and two card machines but only one actually being used). Growing pains of a new venue I guess.
Worth a pit stop if you're in the hood, but not worth a dedicated trip.
To follow up with the above comments, I definitely felt the same way. Sat at the bar in the front (didn't explore the rest of the place), sampled one of everything. Saisons were light and easy, a little bit lacking in body or excitement but nothing really wrong with them. IPAs were just that, decent IPAs that do what they say. The oatmeal stout was pretty good. Note: their swing-top bombers come with a $4 deposit. It's the only reason I sat and tried everything, couldn't commit to coming back soon enough to make it worthwhile.
The bartender that seemed to be in charge of the place definitely knew his stuff, was fun to chat with. Rest of the staff friendly.
Can't comment much on food, didn't have. People seemed to like it. No takeout. Service at the bar also hits the crapper once it starts getting busy because they're also juggling the walk-in bottle shop traffic on the same POS (also used for the rest of the place, it seemed, and two card machines but only one actually being used). Growing pains of a new venue I guess.
Worth a pit stop if you're in the hood, but not worth a dedicated trip.
-
ChampionsPrerogative
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2015 7:28 pm
I'd have to agree with the above posts as well... everything brewed well and to-style, but nothing particularly amazing. They seem to be on the right track, however, and hopefully will continue to improve with new offerings. The space is interesting... long and narrow first floor and the rather out-of-the-way second floor patio will be quite pleasant on a warm summer evening. One thing that impressed me was their growler policy: they allow you to bring your own growlers for 1 and 2L fills... no annoying growler exchange programme that seems to be the standard in Ontario and results, in my case anyhow, with a large amount of unreturned growlers laying about the house. I hope that this is a trend that catches on here.
Me and the boys and our 50. Me and the boys and our beer!
-
groulxsome
- Posts: 470
- Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:24 pm
Are they live filling growlers from their pub taps? That's not allowed with the tied house license (it is with the tap room one). Or do they have a growler station that's separate?ChampionsPrerogative wrote:I'd have to agree with the above posts as well... everything brewed well and to-style, but nothing particularly amazing. They seem to be on the right track, however, and hopefully will continue to improve with new offerings. The space is interesting... long and narrow first floor and the rather out-of-the-way second floor patio will be quite pleasant on a warm summer evening. One thing that impressed me was their growler policy: they allow you to bring your own growlers for 1 and 2L fills... no annoying growler exchange programme that seems to be the standard in Ontario and results, in my case anyhow, with a large amount of unreturned growlers laying about the house. I hope that this is a trend that catches on here.