T om’s Little Havana (5428 Doyle) is the coziest downtown pub and always wins a Coast award for Best Place to Drink Alone. It’s a welcoming, well-lit bar and there’s booths in back for a tete-a-tete. Then there’s Freeman’s (6092 Quinpool), open till late, with high, well-worn old Naugahyde booths. Sure, your butt might stick […]
Beer Guide
Posted inFood + Drink
Hop on up!
Since starting work at Pumphouse Brewery in Moncton last year, Greg Nash—the man who brewed Garrison’s first batch of Imperial India Pale Ale in a plastic vat—has waded even further into the deep end of extreme beer making. “My mouth is still in shock and awe,” he says, after tasting a batch of his triple […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Hey, Porter!
Daniel Girard darts about the Garrison Brewery plant, sliding down the rails from the top of his kettle, a large steel vat nearing the end of a long boil. He then bounds over to a hose that has a tiny window through which he observes the rushing liquid, making sure it’s darkening in colour. His […]
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Big Taps
“We sell more Keith’s at the Lower Deck than on the island of Cape Breton,” Mike Condy, the Lower Deck’s general manager, says proudly. Who wouldn’t brag? At 35, it’s one of the oldest beer halls in town. A lot of that is Keith’s, he says, because he is hands-down Labatt’s best customer in Halifax. […]
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Mo’ selecta
“Last year, during the Latvian Festival,” Dave Page, bar manager of the Economy Shoe Shop, told me, “we brought in Zelta, and we pretty much had to buy a pallet in two shipments.” One pallet of beer holds 72 two-fours. He just sold off his second shipment of Zelta last week. Importing beer is a […]
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Ultimate beer mash ups
At home: The best way to improve the taste of a cheap beer is to mix it with a quality beer. Take Fruli, the Belgian strawberry beer, and put a shot in a king can of Alpine Max. It becomes alcopop. Likewise, add strong ginger beer or a dash of lime cordial into some Wildcat, […]
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Dark Matters
Guinness The most famous. A dry, bitter, opaque stout from Ireland that is also low in alcohol. Murphy’s is very similar. It’s a Cork-Dublin thing. Dry Irish stouts are old-school beers, full bodied and far from wimpy. Where: every Irish bar in town. Rogue’s Roost Imperial Stout Big, powerful, stick to your tongue, gums & […]
