Wednesday 4th of November 2009 02:13:44 AM

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Brewsters was a welcome change to years spent unsuccessfully searching for sasquatch of beer in my life: a "good" Candadian beer.

By all anecdotal accounts they exist. It just happens that the in-law family of mine that lives in Canada are either teatotallers, they live in the middle of nowhere, or both.

Since a visit to Canada is predicated by visiting family, such a visit is almost certainly doomed to never find that "good Canadian beer" by default.

Brewsters offered my first ray of hope: Blue Monk Barleywine. Great in an almost unclassifiable way. But great nonetheless! Like Anchor's Old Foghorn, Brewsters thumb their noses at the (incomprehensible) convention that North American Barlywines should be hopped more than IPAs. Blue Monk has a distinct hop taste, but it's only there enough to make its presence known and compliment the malt flavors. It never takes the foreground. Beyond that they further defy convention by using no (or almost no) roasted malts. The result is something that is rather hard to describe unless you've been lucky enough to have McCall Brewing Company's "Tanglefoot". Excellent job Brewsters! I've probably spent 10 years failing to find good Canadian beer (not the beers' fault) but this find will inspire me to keep trying! Oh yes, their Shaughnessy Stout was quite good as well, though very odd in that it was the hoppiest of all their beers I tried. Not sure what to make of that.

Nothing else was of note except that the place was cozy when it was cold outside, and not too loud.

The service was nice enough, though my order got messed up. The food was just above average, but nothing to write home about. Lacking conventional pub fare is probably a strike against it. If you're like me (like mild chese, dislike mushrooms on your burger and dislike both sourdough and chibatta) good luck finding something "simple".

Oh well... you can't have Tim Horton's three meals a day, eh?