Wow! A bus takes you to a tour and samplings of the Steam Whistle Brewery, The Granite Brewery, Historic Dominion Tavern, Todmorden Mills Heritage Museum and Arts Centre and a four course "Wild Bavarian Beer Dinner" at Denison's Brewing Company.
The day starts at 12:00pm and ends when you want it to end. The price is $139 per person (includes all Restaurant/Brewpub taxes and Gratuities) and there are only 47 seats available. Check out this site for more info:
http://www.beerloverstour.com/toronto.html
I'm there!
Looking for the original Bar Towel blog? You can find it at www.thebartowel.com.
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
A Heritage Beer and Dinner Tour of Old Toronto
Even though there were only 14 of us, the organizer, Oliver Dawson, still went all out and showed us a great time.
When I arrived at the Steam Whistle around 11:30, I was immediately presented with a free sample as there was a Brewery Memorabilia Show going on. Bought two tap handles for my newly converted keg fridge. Great timing!
After a brief beer history speech from Oliver, Kim from the Steam Whistle explained how they make their beer and gave us a tour of their brewery, then we had a quick sample.
Then on the bus we went to the Granite Brewery where we had lunch and sampled four of their beers, the Ringwood Ale, Best Bitter, Extra Best Bitter and Peculiar. All the while, the owner I believe, from Granite spoke to us about their brewpub. A quick tour was then given before we hopped back on the bus to Todmorden Mills.
We were showed around the Todmorden Mills and given a history lesson on the early stages of beer brewing in Toronto. Very facinating stuff. The tour ended with coffee, hot apple cider and beer bread.
Then we went to the corner of Queen and River Streets where we met up with Gerry, a local resident who knows all there is to know about the history of the area and the early days of brewing including the late Dominion Brewery. We ended our walking tour, in the unfortunate unbearable cold weather, at the Dominion on Queen pub where we enjoyed a St. Andrés Vienna Lager.
Our last stop, and the highlight of the day, was at Denison's Brewpub for samplings and dinner. The brewmaster came out, in his german gear, and tapped a mini keg/wooden barrel of their Royal Dunkel just for us, even though we could order whatever we wanted at this point. I started with the Royal Dunkel. This was a beautiful and flavourful beer. I then enjoyed their classic Wheat beer that tastes and smells so much like banana. I followed this with their Marzen which is still the same batch of that smoked malt as someone in this forum pointed out... nice beer. The Brewmaster explained that this malt was indeed a mistake and only one batch was made and it will only be around until it's gone. He was pleasantly surprised when I mentioned that bartowel.com readers really enjoyed the smokiness of this beer and hoped that this "mistake" could happen again. We'll have to see what happens. The wild boar stew dinner, preceded by a nice salad and excellent spicy soup and followed by a light chocolate cake and coffee was quite the meal.
Even though the tour tab stopped there, I was able to convince the waitress and the brewmaster that we (four friends of mine and myself) would be doing them a favour by finishing the rest of that open keg. The brewmaster agreed so we enjoyed two more glasses each of their excellent Royal Dunkel. Needless to say, we were the last remaining ones from the tour and we made sure to tip the waitress even though we weren't obliged to.
Oliver is planning several other beer tours, most of them abroad, so check out his website often:
http://www.beerloverstour.com/
When I arrived at the Steam Whistle around 11:30, I was immediately presented with a free sample as there was a Brewery Memorabilia Show going on. Bought two tap handles for my newly converted keg fridge. Great timing!
After a brief beer history speech from Oliver, Kim from the Steam Whistle explained how they make their beer and gave us a tour of their brewery, then we had a quick sample.
Then on the bus we went to the Granite Brewery where we had lunch and sampled four of their beers, the Ringwood Ale, Best Bitter, Extra Best Bitter and Peculiar. All the while, the owner I believe, from Granite spoke to us about their brewpub. A quick tour was then given before we hopped back on the bus to Todmorden Mills.
We were showed around the Todmorden Mills and given a history lesson on the early stages of beer brewing in Toronto. Very facinating stuff. The tour ended with coffee, hot apple cider and beer bread.
Then we went to the corner of Queen and River Streets where we met up with Gerry, a local resident who knows all there is to know about the history of the area and the early days of brewing including the late Dominion Brewery. We ended our walking tour, in the unfortunate unbearable cold weather, at the Dominion on Queen pub where we enjoyed a St. Andrés Vienna Lager.
Our last stop, and the highlight of the day, was at Denison's Brewpub for samplings and dinner. The brewmaster came out, in his german gear, and tapped a mini keg/wooden barrel of their Royal Dunkel just for us, even though we could order whatever we wanted at this point. I started with the Royal Dunkel. This was a beautiful and flavourful beer. I then enjoyed their classic Wheat beer that tastes and smells so much like banana. I followed this with their Marzen which is still the same batch of that smoked malt as someone in this forum pointed out... nice beer. The Brewmaster explained that this malt was indeed a mistake and only one batch was made and it will only be around until it's gone. He was pleasantly surprised when I mentioned that bartowel.com readers really enjoyed the smokiness of this beer and hoped that this "mistake" could happen again. We'll have to see what happens. The wild boar stew dinner, preceded by a nice salad and excellent spicy soup and followed by a light chocolate cake and coffee was quite the meal.
Even though the tour tab stopped there, I was able to convince the waitress and the brewmaster that we (four friends of mine and myself) would be doing them a favour by finishing the rest of that open keg. The brewmaster agreed so we enjoyed two more glasses each of their excellent Royal Dunkel. Needless to say, we were the last remaining ones from the tour and we made sure to tip the waitress even though we weren't obliged to.
Oliver is planning several other beer tours, most of them abroad, so check out his website often:
http://www.beerloverstour.com/
-
Kid Presentable
- Posts: 144
- Joined: Wed Jun 27, 2001 8:00 pm
- Location: Toronto
I was at denison's tonight and tried the smoked marzen. don't miss it. this one is a bit smokier than a raftman, but not as smoked as the rauchbier at the lcbo. it's nicely balanced with good maltiness and even a hint of stilton cheese in the finish. I hope they don't run out too quickly because I'd definitely like to go back for a few of these.
kp
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kid Presentable on 2001-10-29 23:37 ]</font>
kp
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kid Presentable on 2001-10-29 23:37 ]</font>