The Bar Towel

Well, I noted about a month ago that I was moving to Halifax etc. and now it's boiling down to the date of departure. So, tomorrow I board my plane to the most likely cold Halifax.

Now, we all know what the most important part of travel is... the beer of course.

What beers MUST I try and what bars/pubs MUST I hit in my little four month adventure?

We're visiting Halifax in June for a long weekend trip. There's some very decent beer made on the East Coast, and I have heard lots of great things about the city and province. I'm mostly using the info in this link to work out where might be good to drink beer and what to buy:
http://beeradvocate.com/beerfly/list?ci ... CA&s_id=NS

Have a good one!

Breweries:
Propeller and Garrison are both based in Halifax, and both make great beer. You may also find some beers from Pump House in NB.

Bars:
Rogue's Roost is a great brewpub. There's also a location of the Granite out there. And Maxwell's Plum has a pretty impressive tap line-up.

See

http://www.bartowel.com/reports/halifax2006.php

http://www.bartowel.com/reports/halifax.phtml

Rogues Roost is awesome. I was there a couple times a week when I was living there.

I had a few too many off pints at the Henry House (not to mention one of my worst ever beer customer service experiences) and the Granite to recommend them, but others have had better experiences. Its a shame too since Henry House has some great atmosphere.

As a general rule if a place does not have at least one of Propellor or Garrison available... well, I don't think I went to those places twice.

Also be sure to check out the growlers at Propellor and Garrison - some of the best beer value in town.

Check out the "Premier Wines And Spirits" location not far from Rogues Roost. http://www.premierwineandspirits.ca/

The last time I was there they had a lot of great beer including my favorite, Rogue Chocolate Stout.

Whatever you do, do not miss The Economy Shoe Shop, right downtown, for all the Propeller and Garrison brews. Fantastic ambience and great food. Maxwell's Plum is not very good, I would skip it. The Halifax Granite location is excellent, and unlike Toronto, has all the main beers cask conditioned. Enjoy!

midlife crisis wrote:Whatever you do, do not miss The Economy Shoe Shop, right downtown, for all the Propeller and Garrison brews.

I paid our bill by Visa and my monthly statement said "Discount Shoe Store". Gotta love it.

Well, I made it to some pretty awful nightclubs last night by some degree of "let's take you out on the twon!"
..
HOWEVER.
I did make it to Gingers/Granite and had some fantastic cask conditioned ales, quite superb. Tomorrow I think I'll hit up Propeller. Maybe when I come back I'll bring presents.

Just back from my first visit to Halifax.
My favourite pubs were Maxwell's Plum and The Split Crow.
Great variety at Maxwells's including all Garrison, Propeller, and Pump House brews.
Beer cheap during the day only and some good food specials.
Split Crow has house brews John Shippey's, brewed by Garrison.
First time I ordered the Garrison IPA and John Shippey's IPA, the waitress warned me it was very hoppy
( just in case I was a Keith's drinker and die of shock )
These 2 IPAs were outstanding examples of American-style IPAs, with great aroma and huge hop bitterness.
What a shame we don't have one here ( Church Key comes closest )
Also visited Rogue's Roost ( OK ), The Henry House ( Granite and McAuslan brews ) and the Beer Market at The Lower Deck Pub ( Boo!, they only serve Keith's and Stella )

hopdevil wrote:Just back from my first visit to Halifax.
My favourite pubs were Maxwell's Plum and The Split Crow.
Great variety at Maxwells's including all Garrison, Propeller, and Pump House brews.
Beer cheap during the day only and some good food specials.
Split Crow has house brews John Shippey's, brewed by Garrison.
First time I ordered the Garrison IPA and John Shippey's IPA, the waitress warned me it was very hoppy
( just in case I was a Keith's drinker and die of shock )
These 2 IPAs were outstanding examples of American-style IPAs, with great aroma and huge hop bitterness.
What a shame we don't have one here ( Church Key comes closest )
Also visited Rogue's Roost ( OK ), The Henry House ( Granite and McAuslan brews ) and the Beer Market at The Lower Deck Pub ( Boo!, they only serve Keith's and Stella )

Was The Split Crow serving both a Garrison IPA and a Shippey's IPA? By all accounts I've heard from the brewer and other, the Shippey's IPA at the Crow and Garrison are the same thing - though for a short time after the actual Shippey's brewery closed it was Propeller IPA.

It is Propeller who brews Shippey's....last time I checked anyway.

According to bartender at The Split Crow, the John Shippey's Left Coast IPA is brewed by Garrison, with a small tweak in the recipe.
Only the John Shippey's was on tap at the Split Crow.
Great brew!

hopdevil wrote:According to bartender at The Split Crow, the John Shippey's Left Coast IPA is brewed by Garrison, with a small tweak in the recipe.
Only the John Shippey's was on tap at the Split Crow.
Great brew!

Ah, I see. So you found the Garrison elsewhere. I'd say it's highly unlikely the recipe is actually tweaked just for the Split Crow. They couldn't do a whole batch just for the Crow, unless they're using the really small plastic fermenter that the first batch of the ImPA was done on, which isn't a fermenter at all really. So it's either the exact same thing or they blend a small amount of another beer with the ImPA in the kegs for the Crow so they can say it's different.

Propeller was brewing the Shippey's stuff when the Shippey's brewpub first closed. The owner of the Split Crow, though, is a shareholder in Garrison, and the father-in-law of Garrison's owner/president, and Garrison took it over perhaps a year or two after Shippey's closed.

My goal for next week will be to taste test and determine the difference between the Shippey's IPA and then the Garrison IPA.