Polkapolooza Craft Beer Tour 2017 Review - Day 2 Running down the 401

  Waking up in our hotel in Ottawa after an amazing first day for the 2017 Polkapolooza tour, I felt like I was still dreaming. While we had a long drive ahead of us, the feeling of how much the Ontario Craft Beer community means to me was very real and very touching. As with all our stops, we enjoyed the breakfast and perused the Ontario Bev Net map to plan our day. Many local breweries do not open Monday, but our first stop is open 7 days a week and come summer, brewing great craft beer 24/7. 

Stop in at Beau's is a must

I have long been a huge fan of Beau's All Natural Brewing in beautiful Vankleek, Ontario for their innovative and aggressive pursuit of so many different styles. Back when I started my journey and we didn't have the proliferation of craft beer at the Liquor or Beer stores, I could count on Beau's to show up every couple of weeks with something new. Their 10th anniversary last year was full of great things and if you follow me on social media, you know I am a full on Beau's fan boy. So it was a no brainer to make the 45 minute drive east of Ottawa to pay homage to this giant of Canadian Craft Brewing.

New glasses and 355ml. Lug Tread

Meeting us there was our pal from Montreal who had made a few of the stops the day before, Mike. Walking in, we were greeted warmly and given a 4 pack of pint glasses as a present from the enthusiastic Beau's staff. We talked a bit about our tour and my personal journey in craft beer before the tastings started and the smiles grew large.

Meeting your heroes is always a good thing.

A chance to wander in a guided tour is always available if you stop at the brewery and we took full advantage, even getting the chance to say thanks to one of the good people responsible for creating the beer I love so much. We had to part ways far too soon and as we retraced our steps, we headed to a tiny town with a great little brewery contained within.

Caught Mrs. Polk looking!

Nicolas from Tuque de Broue had been in touch with me in the weeks before Polkapolooza took shape to let me know that while they were usually closed Mondays, he would gladly meet up with us so we could check out what he, his family and team had built in Embrun over the last few years. Always accepting of any invite to visit, we arrived with high hopes and open minds and were immediately greeted with his smile and energy.

Nicolas, what a guy!

Talking about the trials and tribulations of building and growing a brewery, making beer and being part of the community were covered as we sampled and marvelled at the delicious beer coming out of this small eastern Ontario town. We spent over an hour just sharing stories and it is easy to see why Tuque has become such a hit with the local community. Nicolas has invested not just his money, but his passion and love for this town into his work and it shows. We left with some beer to try at our leisure and promises to return again later this year. Not enough thank you's in the world for this stop on the tour. Make it a priority to visit Embrun, it will leave you feeling inspired and happy you did.

Almost makes me want to move to Embrun

 

Finding a brewery that you didn't know existed...beauty

  The next stop was one of the most surprising and pleasant of the entire week. Located in Cornwall, Rurban Brewing is an island of good beer in an area that used to require a road trip to get something not macro. Nothing close by and one I found when I consulted my OBN map, I knew we had to see what the first brewery in this city in almost 100 years was all about.

Lots of options at Rurban

  An impressive amount of beer available, we were met with open arms and a tour of their facility by owners Andy and Karen. Former teachers, they moved back to their hometown and have filled a much needed niche in this small town. More and more I began to feel like I could live in these places we were visiting and it was in part due to the good beer, but mostly due to the people who were making it. These two stops illustrated what we were hoping to accomplish with this week, getting people outside their usual routine beer runs and exploring all that Ontario had to offer. I loaded up a six pack and we reluctantly made our way back out to the highway for another hour or so.  

Thanks Andy and Karen.



Love the building

  Our next two stops were quick run in and grab the beer due to a pressing need to head home as the last major winter storm was burying the Hammer under a metric tonne of snow. (or so we were led to believe, it really wasn't that bad)

  A picturesque stop among the Gateway to the Thousand Islands, Ganaonoque Brewing was just about to close when we popped in.

   I grabbed one of everything in the fridge and snapped a few pictures before we headed on down the 401 to the home of The Hip and Mr. Donald S. Cherry. Kingston houses a stop we had made during our trip to Tabernac last summer and I had to make peace with only being able to stop in for a few take home beers at Stone City Ales.

I wanted to stay for a pint so bad...

Beautiful and humming with activity on a Monday Afternoon, I was hesitant to leave without having a pint, but the ominous warnings of what turned out to be a non existent snowmageddon had us worried about making it home on time.
  As we grabbed a quick dinner in the drive-thru, I realised we would not be able to make it to one of my most desired stops on Day 2, Bowmanville's Manantler Brewing.

Manantler is the bomb!

While I had come to terms with having to trim my overly ambitious trip due to time constraints, I was really upset that we wouldn't be able to stop in and visit this particular spot because of how much fun these guys were on our Durham tour with the Beer Saints. I reluctantly asked Kat to let them know we would have to miss them and resigned myself to heading home, antler-less. Within minutes my gloom turned to happiness as Matt from Manantler sent us a message saying to let him know when we were close and he would meet us at the brewery even though they were closed. 

Huge thank you to Matt for meeting us after hours!

Elation and exuberance fuelled the next hour on the road and I was feeling like a million bucks as we pulled in and met Matt out front of the brewery. Handshakes turned to hugs and we toured around the  brewpub with a joy that only great Ontario Craft beer can bring.

Maybe we could live in Bowmanville. I'd be at the bar daily.

  Matt gave us a few samples and we happily bought some bottles to take home for more "research". I can't stress enough how much I want thank Matt for giving up some of his own time on a Monday night so we could visit and cross them off our list. This may have been our last stop on day two, but it really tied together a day spent meeting new people and trying to get a sense of what Craft beer can mean in a small town with little contact to the bigger population centres. I left the day before with high hopes and found them met and then exceeded at almost every stop.
  The day was coming to a close and after 13 hours and almost 900 kilometres in search of craft beer, we rolled into the "snow storm of the century"...which turned out to be about as much trouble as a heavy rain in June. Traffic slowed to 70 km/hr. but didn't stop. We laughed at the dire warnings from our over protective families and enjoyed the leisurely pace as we crossed the bridge and the familiar sights signalling home came into view. Pulling into the Manor and unloading the spoils of our trip led to a sample or two and a few precious moments hanging out with the somewhat perturbed Jinx.   There was little time to do much but clean up, put away the beer and try and catch a little sleep. Day 3 loomed large and it was another ambitious drive that was staring us down in our quest to explore Ontario, this time up the 400 North, where friends, new and old awaited.
But that is the tale for our next chapter...

Make your next beer run a little more epic
Break your routine and Explore everything Ontario Craft Beer has to offer.
You will be happy you did.
Cheers!
Polk