Toronto - Steam Whistle Brewery!!

A special post - by WILL:

After going up the CN tower (blog post to come) we discovered the Steam Whistle Brewery!! It is a very nice looking brewery in downtown Toronto inside an old train shed (there is also a railway museum).  There is a miniature train out the front for little kids to ride on (and big kids...).   Steam Whistle Brewery only makes one type of beer which is a smooth and tasty "European style" Pilsner!  The brewery started brewing in 1998 as the dream of a group of friends on a canoe trip in the heartland of Ontario, Canada. They pride themselves on being eco friendly. All their delivery vehicles are old-school "vintage" cars which they have converted to electric to be more eco friendly. Each year they win awards for their great beer as well as for their eco friendliness. 

Here in Ontario all alcohol you buy from the store requires you to pay an extra 10c per bottle as a deposit and when you return them you get the money back.   The bottles are then returned to the brewery to be re-filled.  Steam Whistle have designed a bottle which can be refilled 35 times before needing to be recycled which means a lot less carbon use! What's not to love?!

Of course, the brewery just looked funky too, with lots of brick and of course lots of merchandise and TAPS for beer! We went in to have a look and as we were checking it out, we were asked if we wanted a free sample - of course we said YES! And it was 1.30pm so not too early. As we sipped we could see all the retro decor and also some of the vats in the brewery itself. The little (but full) glasses we had were pretty cool so we went to see how much they were and were offered another sample by someone else - we said YES! We went and sat down again, used their free wi-fi and generally enjoyed the beer. A third time to the counter to ask how much the bottles of beer were and we offered another sample, but Jen was feeling a little tipsy by this point and so we said no - can you believe it!! 

Tours were $10 and then you were given a souvenir glass or bottle opener, plus a beer to carry around while you checked out the brewery. We definitely needed some food before we even attempted stairs and another beer, so we wandered off, intending to come back later. As it is, we are already nursing three souvenir glasses in Betsey and hoping they don't break, so Jen told me we couldn't get another one :(. Hopefully these ones make it back to Oz! Unfortunately we didn't go back, but if you are in Toronto, it's definitely a cool place to check out! We have the Alexander Keith brewery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in our sights though!! 

I really wanted one but we do not have space/money for this.....So sad!

As soon as we walked in the door they offered us a free sample!!  We then went up to the counter to
ask how much it would be to buy a glass and they gave us another sample!!! I was a very happy camper!

This cool "retro" bike has tapping gear at the back just behind the seat!