Black Lab Brewery opening in East Toronto this fall

[Gedge]

By Thanksgiving weekend they say. If I'm reading things right the focus will be Belgian styles.

https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2018/09/black-lab-brewing-leslieville-toronto/

[El Pinguino]

I hope so...most Ontario breweries fail at dubbels, tripels, quads and most other Belgian inspired styles.

Rode my bike by here recently and am looking forward to the opening!

[Provost Drunk]

Not to dampen any enthusiasm, but I know one of the owners and asked about the Belgian focus referenced in the BlogTo article. Apparently, they just mentioned in passing that Belgian styles were among the owners' and brewer's favourites and BlogTo sort of ran with that. No real Belgian influence for the opening line-up, but down the road, they'll probably branch out and give some of these styles a try. Couldn't agree more regarding the underrepresentation and general shortcomings of the Ontario attempts at these styles.

[Gedge]

Not to dampen any enthusiasm, but I know one of the owners and asked about the Belgian focus referenced in the BlogTo article. Apparently, they just mentioned in passing that Belgian styles were among the owners' and brewer's favourites and BlogTo sort of ran with that. No real Belgian influence for the opening line-up, but down the road, they'll probably branch out and give some of these styles a try. Couldn't agree more regarding the underrepresentation and general shortcomings of the Ontario attempts at these styles.

Typical of the "journalism" at BlogTO. Thanks for sharing. Still looking forward to checking the brewery out.

[El Pinguino]

Ah well....now I am in less of a rush to visit.

[Gedge]

Nice space, lots of dogs. Four beers on tap (a sour, an IPA, an APA and a black lager). Liked the IPA the best, but not enough to buy a bottle to go. Early days for this brewery, so will visit again at some point to see how they are doing.

[Craig]

I got a bottle of the sour because it was full and I didn't feel like waiting. There's a comical amount of sediment in the bottle.

Early days, I'm sure they'll clean some of that stuff up. I was actually pretty surprised they had a sour on day 1.

[beersinthesix]

Far more impressed with the five beers on tap than I expected to be. Dark lagers are hard to get right and they did an exceptional job with it. Prickly pear sour is very impressive. Looking forward to what else they will make. Grabbed a few bottles to go but they seem to be running out of their bottles quickly.

[northyorksammy]

I agree with Gedge's review above based on my Sunday visit, rather than the person who suddenly appeared after him and has just posted the 1 time with a lot of love for this place. I would give it a year and see if I would visit again.

[seangm]

I agree with Gedge's review above based on my Sunday visit, rather than the person who suddenly appeared after him and has just posted the 1 time with a lot of love for this place. I would give it a year and see if I would visit again.

Beerinthesix turned up on RateBeer as well and left glowing, 5 star reviews for all of their beers. Clearly someone affiliated with the brewery, those kind of tactics leave a bad impression with me.

That said, I checked out the place this weekend with some friends (and of course our dogs). My honest take, the beers just aren't there yet- not necessarily bad, but very watered down in flavour. I guess the black lager stood out, but it really was light on flavour and everything. The space is nice though, they've definitely captured their market with the dog theme. I'll probably give it a shot again in the next 6 - 12 months, see if things have improved. They'll probably do well though regardless since I think a lot of brewery goers nowadays care more about the image and atmosphere than the beer they're drinking.

[Blasphomet]

Keep your smelly dogs away from my beer.