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Burlington Brewery

Discuss anything and everything about craft brewers from Ontario here.

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Cass
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Burlington Brewery

Post by Cass »

A new brewery that opened up a week or so ago in Burlington. Kind of out there, it's at Dundas and Walkers Line. On the ground floor of an office building that used to be a pub. Literally right on the corner surrounded by suburban plazas.

Spacious tap room, larger than it looks from the street. Full brewery on-site, with 20 tap lines installed. They only had one beer on tap (I think I was there on day 3), a Vienna Lager. A few other beers available in can (IPA, DIPA, Black Lager, Pilsner). An 'on-the-house' bowl of tortilla chips & a nice spicy sauce was offered, which was appreciated.

It was pretty busy by the time I left mid-evening, so it seemed like a lot of locals were checking it out. A good spot to remember if you ever find yourself in this part of the GTA. There's really no breweries in the swath of the GTA from 403 to Dundas in Mississauga, Oakville and Burlington so nice to see something new open up.

https://www.burlingtoncraft.com
IMG_4554.jpeg

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S. St. Jeb
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Post by S. St. Jeb »

Cass wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 11:41 am Kind of out there
Spoken like a true "Toronto is the centre of the universe" person. :D

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Cass
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Post by Cass »

S. St. Jeb wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 12:03 pm
Cass wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 11:41 am Kind of out there
Spoken like a true "Toronto is the centre of the universe" person. :D
Ha! I live in Oakville now! I was actually going to mention that there's an Oakville bus that goes right to the front door of this brewery, but wasn't sure if it was relevant to anyone :)

As a suburbanite now I stand by my statement that it is kind of out there! It's right at the corner where Burlington basically ends.

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S. St. Jeb
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Post by S. St. Jeb »

Cass wrote: Wed Oct 05, 2022 12:08 pm It's right at the corner where Burlington basically ends.
It's central on an east-west basis, but yes, on the northern border. But Burlington's not so big that it's a problem to get to. I was actually in that plaza about 3 weeks ago and was surprised to see it, since I hadn't heard anything about it. It was a Friday evening, the door was open, there was beer in the fridge, but the place was still being renovated. I could hear activity going on in behind somewhere. I seriously could have helped myself to a few cans if I was that type of person. Hope to get there soon.

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Post by seangm »

It's crazy to me how undersaturated the Mississauga/Brampton/Oakville region is for breweries. Maybe there's less of a market for it there? But it seems to me nearly everywhere has a market for craft beer these days. The only new(er) ones I can think of are Skeleton Crew and Stonehooker, apart from that you've really just got your old stalwarts Cameron's and Old Credit.

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S. St. Jeb
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Post by S. St. Jeb »

seangm wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 10:20 am It's crazy to me how undersaturated the Mississauga/Brampton/Oakville region is for breweries. Maybe there's less of a market for it there? But it seems to me nearly everywhere has a market for craft beer these days. The only new(er) ones I can think of are Skeleton Crew and Stonehooker, apart from that you've really just got your old stalwarts Cameron's and Old Credit.
Quite a few years ago, I met a rep for Black Oak in an LCBO. This was shortly after they had moved from Oakville to Etobicoke. The rep told me that the owner moved to be closer to their market, and said something about not getting a lot of support from Oakville restaurants. I wasn't too sure at the time if I thought that argument made sense or not, but what did I know? In the years since, breweries have popped up all over the place, including some pretty remote locations.

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JerCraigs
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Post by JerCraigs »

S. St. Jeb wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:35 pm Quite a few years ago, I met a rep for Black Oak in an LCBO. This was shortly after they had moved from Oakville to Etobicoke. The rep told me that the owner moved to be closer to their market, and said something about not getting a lot of support from Oakville restaurants. I wasn't too sure at the time if I thought that argument made sense or not, but what did I know? In the years since, breweries have popped up all over the place, including some pretty remote locations.
That was quite a long time ago now - (oh god im old lol) - back then the places that actually carried decent beer in Oakville and Mississauga were mostly selling the likes of Kilkenny, Guinness and Smithwicks, and maybe one or two taps like Creemore and Cameron's / Black Oak. The premium beers on tap were Alexander Keiths and Rickards :)

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Cass
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Post by Cass »

S. St. Jeb wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 12:35 pm
seangm wrote: Thu Oct 06, 2022 10:20 am It's crazy to me how undersaturated the Mississauga/Brampton/Oakville region is for breweries. Maybe there's less of a market for it there? But it seems to me nearly everywhere has a market for craft beer these days. The only new(er) ones I can think of are Skeleton Crew and Stonehooker, apart from that you've really just got your old stalwarts Cameron's and Old Credit.
Quite a few years ago, I met a rep for Black Oak in an LCBO. This was shortly after they had moved from Oakville to Etobicoke. The rep told me that the owner moved to be closer to their market, and said something about not getting a lot of support from Oakville restaurants. I wasn't too sure at the time if I thought that argument made sense or not, but what did I know? In the years since, breweries have popped up all over the place, including some pretty remote locations.
I remember having lunch with the guys from Cameron's eons ago, and they told me they did not have a single tap line in all of Oakville. That was forever ago, but the beer scene really hasn't accelerated here the way it has just about everywhere else.

It is pretty staggering that the stretch of Mississauga, Oakville and Burlington has well over 1 million in population, but only a literal handful of breweries. Stonehooker (which is barely across the border from Toronto), Old Credit, 3 Brewers (technically I guess), Cameron's, Nickel Brook, Burlington Brewery. That's it (I think). I think I might make a new post about this!

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Post by S M A »

I went by to check BB out the other night. No chips and salsa offered, unfortunately. Wasn't all that busy for a late-week night. This is at least the third place to give it a go in this space, starting with a 'gastro pub' that I'd been to several times a bit over a decade ago. I believe they brewed their own beer, as well. But they must have added capacity for this.

They had 3 lagers on tap (black, Oktoberfest, and pilsner), as well as the DIPA in cans, available at the bar. I should have asked what they're planning to do with all those other taps. Maybe a slow opening since they had only the DIPA canned for takeaway. The space has been opened up and there's mostly minimalist bare concrete. It's nice enough, I guess.

I had the Oktoberfest lager, which was pretty credible. And I always like seeing that style, so that scored points. Then I had the DIPA, which was, uh, less good. Way overly bitter, and overall a bit of a mess. I'll be giving them a mulligan on that one and stopping by at some point later to grab hopefully a few different things in cans when they have more available.

I didn't eat there, but the couple sitting next to me seemed to really be enjoying the several things they ordered, and it looked good. Kind of a Mexican theme to the menu, and a lot of the staff seemed to be of Mexican background.

I hope they get a few things cleaned up, there's definitely a market for a brewery/brewpub here. I know a lot of Dads around here and most of them seem like they're at least craft beer casuals. Which is what you need to support a place like this.

Overall this isn't really the kind of place that opens with a bang with tons of money behind it, but it's also far from 'beer enthusiasts in a hole in the wall industrial plaza'. Kind of in the mushy middle, perhaps.

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