Brewery Tour
Go for the beer but stay for the experience!
By Mike Fitzgerald
Fenelon Brewing
I’m hard pressed to think of a brewery with a better location in Ontario than Fenelon Brewing. As I walked up the canal to reach
the front of the building, I will admit that the stunning roll up windows and old-timey stonework on the front gave a sense of what summertime in the Kawarthas is all about, but if we’re talking confessions here, then I must also confess that inside the building was even better.
The folks working within the brewery were every bit as helpful and obliging as a beer connoisseur could hope for, knowledgeable about every single brew on tap. The menu; don’t even get me started. But if you must, then I’d opt to start with a red ale and the loaded perogies and go from there. Next, I tried their mango IPA, and it also did not disappoint. Some fruitier IPAs can lean a little too far on the side of the puree that so often goes into them, but this one hits the nail straight on the head.
While their beer is found throughout the Kawartha Lakes region and beyond, I cannot recommend enough the value of making the trip to Fenelon Falls to visit this brewery – it may very well be one of the crown jewels of the entire region.
Old Dog Brewing
Nestled, in the truest sense of the word, on a quiet corner just far enough away from the bustle of a busy main strip in the town of Bobcaygeon, sits Old Dog Brewing Co. A small building with lots of character and a wonderful selection of craft beers to match, I opted for their blonde ale and was not disappointed. All over the walls were photos taken candidly of many of the brewery’s four-legged patrons sporting an unopened can of the brewery’s product, which only adds to the charm of the entire place.
With several beers on tap and not enough time to try them all, I’ll be making another visit to the brewery soon. The staff arming the taproom were wonderful, but what I think I loved most was the fact that it was just far enough off the beaten path to feel as though I had discovered some sort of well-kept secret in the Kawartha Lakes, which so often is a hard feeling to come by these days.
All this to say that if you are in cottage country and happen to be in the neighbourhood, do not pass on an opportunity to drop into Old Dog – you genuinely will not be sorry!
Haven Brewing
I’ll be the first to openly admit that I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when google maps displayed the location of Haven
Brewing, but I had also learned not to judge a book by its cover. This lesson proved to be correct when I walked through the front door of the brewery and discovered a beautiful, quaint taproom with (drum roll please) multiple dark beers on tap (the way to this beer lovers’ heart). Not wanting to miss a thing, I ordered a flight and was treated to some of the best tasting beers I’ve had in a very long time. My favourite? The Dunkel, followed closely by the Keller bier. The brewery was quiet on the day of my visit, and while that was the case, I had the overwhelming sense that this brewery was the place to be during other portions of the week. Dare I say that I felt as though I was missing out?
In any case, Haven Brewing was a delightful last stop on this Kawartha Lakes Craft Brewing tour that drove the point home that region has some of the nicest craft beer shops in Ontario, and while they might sometimes be overshadowed by the hype and hops of the craft scene in Toronto or Prince Edward County, they are nonetheless worth every single kilometre it takes to reach them. So, dear reader, go now.
