To celebrate week 384 of #beersaturday, I take you on yet another craft brewery tour!
I have come to find, being The Blockchain Beerologist definitely has its perks, including but not limited to getting paid to tour breweries and sample new beers! When I am not globetrotting or brewing my own beer, my fridge looks like a colorful mosaic of regional craft beer I enjoy sharing with the #beersaturday alliance of #beer bloggers on #hive.
Almost lost among a visit to wine country, I present a visit to a neat craft brewery in Niagara-on-the-lake!
The Pint of the Week is a popular feature as I can share a social pint, which is probably the optimal way to enjoy a beer. Some of the best social pints of the week are shared at local craft breweries and this is one of those. This handsome lady lady is known as Broken Rail IPA as enjoyed on our last visit to the brewery. A little foreshadowing as we will be visiting this place again at the end of the month in the 24-person, 6 brewery tour.
The Exchange Brewery
Right downtown Niagara On The Lake, The Exchange Brewing lives in this classic brick building that you should click that link and just watch the landing page video. When you have completed that task, return to the next section. ;)
Let's Go Inside
Inside the front door, the bar is a bit of a surprise with the nice striped tile floors and modern design.
We headed upstairs in hopes of having some beers & snacks on the back patio. Awesome to see more people up here and that they are pet-friendly.
Can I Start You with a Drink?
How great is it when they manage to cram a whole host of beer styles and the menu on a couple pages? You may want to take a look as there is quite a bit here and I was angling for 6 of these beers in a Tasting Flight.
The presentation of this flight was pretty solid. A nice round platter with plenty of different styles and the round tiles with the simbols on them tell you which beer it is. Those symbols are down on the menu which you can use as a map.
In my flight, the NEIPA was one of my favourites. Hazy and a little dank, less bright than I like my IPAs but full-bodied without being too sweet or dry but substantial at 7% ABV and 71 IBU
Another highlight was the most typical Twoo-Way IPA which weighed in at 6.5% ABV, slightly less bitter and surprisingly clear. This is a lovely IPA I would love to discover on the shelves where I live, not 2 hours away.
For the Lady?
My better half opted for the 3 Beer & Cheese flight. A lager, wheat beer and fruited saison were more her style and the artisan cheese didn't hurt either. She enjoyed the pairings as far as taste goes and still saved room for a little lunch.
Having already been on a wine tour, she was feeling a little hungry and went for the truffle pizza which was introduced as the specialty. Not a large portion but the crust was done to perfection.
Hoping to score a slice or 2 of that pizza, I opted for the portobello brie burger and kettle chips. Almost health food and delicious! ;)
The Brewery
As a Hive #Beerologist, I always have to poke my nose back into the brewing section. While it is part competition to see who can have the most stainless steel, I also love how the operation is arranged and how much space is reserved for the smaller, experimental brewing section. Plenty of all of that here.
Also nice to see a nice collection of regional brewing awards. Some of these are for strange stuff with little competition like Peppercorn Rye Saison but there are a nice variety of gold medals for other competitive categories. Definitely deserved.
There is your tour of a neat small town brewery even I had only just heard of. Nice variety, consistent quality, great IPA game and solid food to make the experience what it should be. I would definitely recommend visiting Exchange if you get the chance. Maybe a stop on the regional brewery tour once all my fellow #beerologists are wealthy on Hive and paying for tours with HBD.
#BEERSaturday!
I like to stick to my core competencies.
Join me, 
Cheers to our global family of beer drinkers!!
