The Bar Towel

The former Amsterdam bar on King Street West and Portland is now operating under the name Portland Beer House. They've always owned the bar... It's just that they served exclusively Amsterdam brews for obvious reasons. Now that Amsterdam is gone, they have opened up their taps to other micros.

They host 14 taps and currently have Wellington Trailhead Lager & Irish Stout, Amsterdam Framboise, Amber & Nut Brown, Niagara Falls Gritstone & Honey Brown, Mill St. Tankhouse & Stock Ale and others like Steam Whistle, Creemore, Rickard's Red, Keiths and some other.

The waitress was explaining that they plan on expanding the size of the bar. The entire section where the Amsterdam vats were situated will be a party room with pool table, dart boards, jukebox and so on. They're not sure yet if they will keep the divider between this room and the bar area.

It's great to see yet another craft brew friendly bar... with patio! And relatively close to my work!

sounds fun!
Can that place really sustain 14 taps though?

I hope that they open up the back room behind the bar. I remember having many good times back in the 90's when this place was called the Rotterdamn. This was were I had my first Duvel and a beer I have never seen back here since that night in the 90's: Bateman's XXB. I would love to have that beer. Peter, do you represent Bateman's in this market?

Mmmmm .... Batemans XXXB and Victory Ale. I don't think the LCBO has carried them since 1993 or 1994. Love to have them back.

JerCraigs wrote:sounds fun!
Can that place really sustain 14 taps though?

With enough enthusiastic support! I could get through maybe 6 or 7 at a go...

That part of King Street is really opening up in a cool way.

I just noticed - Wellington Irish stout? New beer or should this be Amsterdam? or the Iron Duke Imperial?

I believe it's the Wellington Imperial Stout, but I'll take on the task to go back to confirm.

http://www.wellingtonbrewery.ca/our_beers.php

Maybe they are having enough of a time with their existing product line, and the ho-hum Arkell and SPA (never tried their lagers.) But the County Ale (Brown), Iron Duke Strong, and Imperial Russian Stout are all very solid daily drinkers in my estimation and we should all be supporting this brewery at LEAST once a month if we are at all ale drinkers.

Doesn't strike me WCB would release other stouts, when few people I know are even aware the IRS is already such a good beer.

Agreed, Wellington make some solid beers (I don't like the SPA at all, but the Arkell can be ok if served fresh and the other 3 are excellent beers).

Thanks for the quota as well, I always enjoy it when people tell me what I should drink.

I think the question was whether it was the Imperial from Wellington or the Amsterdam Irish Stout, as it was previously served here. I know which one I hope it is I used to work in this area and I think this location can succeed; all the best to the people running the show and thank you for making more Ontario Craft beer available...

Remember when this location was called 'the Rotterdam', and they had like over 20 or 30 taps and HUNDREDS of bottles, I remember going there, I think it was actually my first experience at that type of a bar, this was like about 14 years ago or something like that... OMFG I'm getting old... and seeing all those beers, could have actually been a key factor in my getting into beer actually, so I think it's super cool that it's going back in that direction again... My office is at King & Peter St, so it's prob. about a 15 min. walk, certainly worth the trek for a couple of nice pints! Anyone know if they have a TV, might show midweek football/soccer matches? Man City v Newcastle is on FSWC next Wednesday @ 2:30pm...

DAN-D-MAN wrote:I believe it's the Wellington Imperial Stout, but I'll take on the task to go back to confirm.

Wellington Imperial Stout it is indeed... and quite tasty!

Checked out the Portland Brew House for lunch today...

- They still haven't opened up the bottom floor yet, the brewing equipment is all gone, but that glass wall is still up, the Bartender mentioned that their liquor license doesn't cover that area yet, they are planning to renovate.

Taps: (from Memory)
Amsterdam Blonde
Amsterdam Framboise
Wellington Imperial Stout
Wellington Trailhead Lager
Mill St. Tankhouse
Mill St. Stock Ale
Mill St. Coffee Porter
Niagara Falls Gritstone
Niagara Falls Honey Brown
Steamwhistle
Creemore
Rickard's Red
Keith's

So a pretty decent selection! I had the Mll St. Stock Ale because I hadn't had it before, it was pretty much as I expected, very simple, pretty bland, easy to drink, but not worth ordering again, definitely designed as a mainstream beer. Finished with a half of the Framboise, it was quite nice, I was glad to see it was still around, I thought Amsterdam might have dropped it in favor of focusing on KLB's Raspberry Wheat.

some friends and i have plans to go there this weekend. was wondering if they have a website so that we can check out the menu. if not can anyone tell me about what sort of food they serve...thanks

Not sure about a website, I doubt it. The pub looks in pretty rough shape - in transition if you will from what it used to be. They still had old amsterdam menus. When I was there the food was standard greasy pub grub stuff, but it was cheap and tasty. Cool little character spot though with a good tap selection, I hope they're able to clean it up and bit and take advantage of the extra space they currently are not able to use.

a group of us went there for dinner and drinks one night (12 of us). the place is a mess. we were stuck at a group of tables near the front door. food was alright...standard pub grub...beer selection was good though. maybe once they have renovated it might be a better spot