I had to travel to Winnipeg in Manitoba Canada in DEC for business. Flew from Tampa where I was wearing shorts on SUN to Winnipeg on MON where it was 4˚F. I lived in MI so am used to cold weather but living in Florida the past 6 years has made me realize that people should live in this climate. I can’t handle the heat in Florida from June to August but going out when it is 4˚F is no fun. It has been awhile since I had frost on the inside of my windshield from my breath condensation freezing on the glass. Anyway, I did some research prior to the trip to figure out where I should visit after my meetings and before I have to jump on a plane back to Florida. Luckily the two best places for craft beer were only 5 minutes from my hotel at the airport. I stopped first at Barley Brothers. I visited the “Polo Park” location at 655 Empress. They have a new location at “Stadium” which is located at 2005 Pembina Hwy. According to the bartender, “Polo Park” has 72 taps but the new “Stadium location has 156 taps. I figured I wasn’t going to get through them all anyway so stuck with the one closest to my hotel. They have several 4-beer flights you can purchase. I chose the IPA flight which include 3 Canadian craft beers and 1 from the US. It included 606 from Paddock, Big Sky IPA, Shipwreck from Lighthouse Brewing, and Heelch O’Hops from Anderson Valley. I have pasted my Untapp’d comments and ratings in this post. My favorite was actually Shipwreck from Lighthouse Brewing. I ordered a cup of beer cheese soup and had an apple salad for lunch. The beer cheese was very good (since I am becoming a beer cheese soup expert). Salad was also very good. If you do ever visit Winnipeg I highly recommend this spot for some food and great craft beer. One think I liked was they have a list when the kegs were tapped. All within a month or two but I did see a couple in the late JUL/AUG timeframe. I would think you would just dump these but maybe they don’t get the turnover. I guess that is always the challenge of a craft beer place that has lots of taps. If you choose an obscure beer, it may be old which of course would impact your rating. If you want more info on this spot go to http://www.barleybrothers.ca.
