The Bar Towel

Heading far north on Saturday. Plan to hit Whiskeyjack and Full Bread. Could also hit Compass but seems unlikely as I'm probably in Timmins on Tuesday and they aren't open that day. Most likely also hitting up Rheault Distillery in Hearst.

Offer open to anyone that wants anything from these places. Pick up would be in Elmira anytime starting Sunday August 28.

I'm still interested in Whiskeyjack if you can grab some! Cheers!

I have managed to get it down to 10 Breweries remaining. Hoping to get to some of the closer ones at some point but those northern ones are tough! I got as far as planning a trip to Thunder Bay and realized I likely need more days than i have available to do a proper trip up there.

Still need to try:
Backyard Brewing & Supplies
Barrel Heart Brewing
Cornerhouse on Main
Lakehead Brewing Company
Mudtown Station
One Time Brew Co
Schooner Street Brewing
Slate Islands Brewing Company
Still Fields
Whiskeyjack Brewing

JerCraigs wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 10:35 pm Lakehead Brewing Company
One Time Brew Co
Slate Islands Brewing Company

If I see these in an agency store or off-sales, you interested?

JerCraigs wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 10:35 pm Schooner Street Brewing

The brewer/one of the owners, is a friend of mine. I can hook you up with this when you pick up the Whiskeyjack.

JerCraigs wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 10:35 pm Mudtown Station

btw I highly recommend making the trip up to Owen Sound to check this place out. Beautiful/cool location and the food was excellent. Beers were pretty good too.

Still Fields in Meaford isn't far from there either.

MatttthewGeorge wrote: ↑Wed Aug 17, 2022 8:43 am

JerCraigs wrote: ↑Tue Aug 16, 2022 10:35 pm Mudtown Station

btw I highly recommend making the trip up to Owen Sound to check this place out. Beautiful/cool location and the food was excellent. Beers were pretty good too.
Still Fields in Meaford isn't far from there either.

Hoping to do so soon! Several cideries I haven't been to between Meaford and Collingwood too so should be an interesting area to explore.

MatttthewGeorge wrote: ↑Wed Aug 17, 2022 8:43 am Lakehead Brewing Company
One Time Brew Co
Slate Islands Brewing Company
If I see these in an agency store or off-sales, you interested?

Yes! Seems like Slate Islands is draft/growlers only as far as I can tell.

I did it!!!! I have tried every brewery in Ontario that was open prior to 2022!

On my list I have 374 currently opened, confirmed breweries (not including subsidiary and second locations).
I have tried 364 of those, and there are 10 that opened since 2022 that I have not tried (with some question marks as to how many of those are actually new brick and mortar breweries).

Some numbers for anyone that cares:
494 Breweries on my list - Total Including closed, pending / potential / rumoured but doesn't include breweries that closed before I started the list.
486 Breweries On my list - Confirmed
418 Breweries Open, including subsidiaries and second locations
374 Breweries Open, NOT including subsidiaries and second locations
364 Unique Breweries I have tried - Currently Open
409 Unique Breweries I have tried - Including ones that have closed
10 Breweries I have not yet tried (2 may be contract breweries TBC, 1 which I technically tried as a previous iteration.)
275 Total Breweries Visited - including subsidiaries and second locations
261 Unique Breweries Visited - Not including subsidiaries and second locations
301 Total Breweries Visited Including locations that have closed. subsidiaries, and second locations
103 Breweries that I have not visited.
132 Breweries that I have not visited. Including secondary locations
108 Total Contract breweries on my list
72 Currently Open Contract breweries on my list
24 Currently Open Contract breweries on my list - Tried
43 Total Contract breweries on my list - Tried

Some day I may update the list to count breweries that pre-dated my list to get some true totals, but for now this was fun.

Shout out to Jordan St. John who put up with my pestering him with questions about his list every time he updated it

Okay, now rank them.

Congrats, that's quite an accomplishment!

Craig wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 10:24 pm Okay, now rank them.

Based on what criteria?

Uhhh...goodness?

I was mostly kidding. It would kind of depend on how you define good; Some breweries are objectively good but their beers aren't necessarily to my own taste. Other breweries make some beer that is great and some that is not. (Some breweries have a reputation based on hazy IPAs, or adjunct beers that people love that are just not for me. How do you judge a beer that is objectively well executed for what the brewery was going for but you find undrinkable?) Some have just okay beer but have an amazing venue space etc. Several are generally good but not particularly consistent batch to batch!

All that said, I have long argued that Great Lakes is one of the best, because I think they are the most consistently good across a range of styles and time. If I had to choose a brewery "blind" without knowing what beer, or what style I was going to get then they would probably be it.