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You had me at Beers!

In celebration of #beersaturday, my leveling up to (65)/1000 followers, and @tasteem, I am back with my first Tasteem Review in quite a while! After a great day of golf, what better way to finish off the buzz than with a trip to the brewery?

Strap on your drinkin' socks and lets get at it.

If you are one of my long time followers who doesn't pay attention to the details, or one who is yet to follow my beer adventures, you probably wouldn't have heard of Toboggan Brewing Company http://www.tobogganbrewing.com/ I live 45 minutes away from the brewery and am the only one I know that regularly enjoys their Lunatic Fridge IPA.

That being the case, I had never been to the brewery for a tour until this day. It is a long time coming and none of the strip bars were open. ;)

One of my favourite breweries has 3 of my favourite things right on their sign out front. They also have gone a little overboard with a coupld huge beer tanks behind the sign.

The industrial entrance seemed to fit the town of London and almost looks like the entrance to a ski chalet at first glance in this pic. I do like the rustic look with the complementary wood colours and textures. Though I didn't linger as I was thirsty!

The place was surprisingly big on the inside and would pass for a Buffalo Wild Wings or sports joint with the many televisions and really long bar.

You can see one of our patented Antler Cows on the far wall highlighting what looks to be a well decorated establishment.

Can I Start You WIth a Drink?

You know me too well! As you might expect, there are a metric assload of choices here. The first page is completely taken up with the main beers Toboggan brews which was a pleasant surprise as I only knew of the IPA. The second page is an impressive lise of guest taps from Ontario breweries hundreds of miles apart.......and a little Innus & Gunn to represent Scotland. The third page is filled with choices for your guest if you were earning Wifepoints on a date night.

Pretty cool to see Black Swan Brewing from my home town on the menu along side of some of my other favourites.

This was a boys trip though so we opted for some of the in-house brewed goodness. Mine is the Double Lunatic Fridge which, as expected, was everything the regular IPA was but double. Higher ABV, hoppiness and flavour without being obnoxious. So damn good. My buddy went with the entertainingly named JACQUE STRAPPE - LONDON LAGER as he is a 'lanwmower beer' kinda guy. Light and crisp and clean and good enough to pass his strict no-hops policy.

Some food to accompany your main course?

Part of me found it funny that there was 3 pages of drinks, yet only 1 page of food. The other part was a little annoyed at how hard it was to pick a dish from that huge block of text. Snacks, salads, in-house smoked meat and street tacos are fairly good variety but I was informed that pizza was the specialty. Being hungry and happy enough with pizza, I had to choose between Traditional and Modern.

We went with the Wild Mushroom & Brie which boasted 3 kinds of mushrooms and a cheese that would satisfy a hipster who longed to be different. The picture really doesn't do it justice most likely because of the blue television low light.

Dramatic Close Up Shot!

Here is my patented super zoom which is designed to get me sideways looks from the foodie haters in the place, and make it feel as if I am shoving your face right into my plate. You get a better idea of the glistening goodness as the cheese and mushrooms cuddle so elegantly. I recall it being quite tasty but not really lasting long after we had spent hours on the golf course prior to our arrival.

Zeke's Final Verdict

The ZFV on this one is "Pretty Damn Good" Truth be told, the beer was good enough to make everything else not matter that much. Having enjoyed Lunatic Fridge for so many years, it was very satisfying to see this place so poised for a good local experience and a good destination for out-of-towners.

To commemorate the momentous occasion of our long-overdue union, I had to visit the bottle shop. I rewarded my sane fridge at home with a few Double Lunatic Fridges and a nice IPA from which I could enjoy a fantastic beer.