Ottawa Foodies

Beers fall into 2 general categories : ales and lagers. These correspond to two fairly broad families of yeast. Hundreds of years ago there was only Ale yeast, which stops fermenting when the temperature gets too cold (around 55F / 11C, but varies by yeast). Round about the 1300s, the Bavarians figured out that beer kept better when stored in Alpen caves. The German word for "to store" is "Lagern". So over time natural selection allowed yeasts to develop which kept fermenting at these lower temperatures. Thus were born lager yeasts, and Lager beers!

Today, Ales are typically fermented in the 65F to 70F range (18C-21C). Lagers are typically fermented much cooler than this - primary fermentation for the first few weeks around 8C-10C (46F-50F), then they get conditioned for up to 3 months at about freezing (or a bit below - the alcohol keeps them from freezing)

When a beer ferments at a lower temperature (i.e. Lagers), there are less yeast by-products produced, so the yeast contributes less to the overall flavour profile of the beer. The opposite is true when fermented at higher temps (i.e. Ales). Since yeast by-products are actually a desirable part of the flavour profile of Ales, they are also served at warmer temperatures so as to better be able to taste those by-products. Proper serving temp for Ales is "Cellar Temp" or about 50F-55F / 10C-13C. Lagers on the other hand should typically be served cooler than this - about 5C.

Note that most North American "aficionados" (ahem) like their beer served closer to the freezing point, which quite frankly is too cold even for a lager. It's so cold that it numbs your taste buds such that you can't even taste properly.

The Manx is the best place in Ottawa for drinks when the patios close for the season or it is raining in my opinion. Cozy atomosphere.
Only place in the city where you can get a Churchkey, delicious! Lots of other great choices aswell.
People are nice too which of course makes the beer taste better :)
Love the potato wedges, make it possiable to have just one more beer.

One of the few places in Ottawa where you can get beer from the Church Key brewery (near Campbellford) a (relatively) local brewery that we enjoy. Great selection of beer overall and great food. The only downside is that it is often too crowded to get a table!

Great beer selection, including (last few times I went) the new "Lug Tread" ale from Beau's All Natural Brewing Company -- very tasty.

I had the most girliest beer on the planet from here the other day.
It was a belgian beer called a Fruli. Its made from strawberries. REALLY good. This is a good beer for anyone who likes the coolers and "girly" drinks of the world.
I can't believe their selection either.
I want to try every beer on the list.

I don't have much to add to the comments already made here. Yes it is a beer haven, especially if you like Belgian beers. If you are looking for good Italian food then you it fails miserably. You can make it at better at home with out much effort.

So go for the beer and eat somewhere else.

My favourite beers are all red, so I was eager to try the exclusive-to-Pub-Italia Satan's Red. Our kind server offered to give me a little taste, warning me that some people like it and some don't. I quite liked it but didn't love it so I decided to try something else -- Der Koninck. It was really very nice and worth having again!

After Der Koninck, I went for a pint of something I really love -- Kilkenny. It was poured perfectly, with a beautiful 3/4" head of creamy foam. Ahhhh!

I love reading through their Beer Bible and picking out something new when I visit. Great little watering hole with a cool decor and vibe. Try your beer with a side calamari and zucchini sticks.

The beer selection here is nothing short of fantastic, as always. I started out the evening with a Beau's All Natural, then a Hacker-Pschorr Munich Lager, and finally an Erdinger Hefeweizen.

Pet peeve time - Hefeweizen is adamantly not served with a wedge of lemon! Grrr. It's close cousin Krystalweizen often is, but Hefeweizen never! And when I went to remove mine I accidentally knocked it into the glass so it did end up flavouring my beer a bit. Normally not a big deal but given the bad experience we were having here last night (see my other comment) this was just adding insult to injury.

This is one of my favourite places to find some delicious beers.

26 beers on tap and over 100 more in the bottle - what's not to like?!! Ok, my wife reading over my shoulder right now says "What's not to like - they have no accommodation for kids - no booster seats or anything". OK, aside from that what's not to like?

As for the food, I've only ever had the pizza and find it to be extremely good thin-crust pizza.

It *is* all about the beer and the decor when visiting this establishment. The food isn't anything memorable, in fact I've had a couple of below average pasta dishes on two different occasions...but that being said I find that the pizza is a pretty safe order, and the calamari is OK.

Their sister establishment next door "The Abbey" has a phenomenal menu of trappist beer (beer brewed by trappist monks). My boyfriend and I enjoy a visit and treating ourselves to new kinds of beer every now and again. This opened my eyes wide to the staggering varieties of beer the world has to offer.

Fun place to take a group. Oh, and Pub Italia has a great flavored olive oil that they make themselves.

Nice place on Preston Street where I can drink international beers without stress. Tasty burgers

Agreed that they have a staggering selection of beer. Even better is the fact that the choices come from countries all over the world, and that they stock not only beers that the staff enjoy, but ones they fully admit they do not! Reading the tasting notes is almost as fun as drinking the beer. Almost.

"The Man" was very impressed by the selection of Beers "on tap". By our count there were four craft beers... Heritage (Carleton Place), Blanche de Chambly (Chambly, Que) and St. Ambroise & Griffin (Montreal). As well as Boddingtons, Kilkenny, and Stella (there may have been a couple more, but we couldn't read the taps from where we were seated).

Unfortunately, they don't have Beau's, I would think that this would be a good location for them to get into though, because management obviously supports craft beers, and afterall Beau's home is half-way between Ottawa and Montreal, so it would be a good fit with the atmosphere at Chez Lucien.

And don't forget the Kilkenny! They have 8 beers on tap, and a whole whack of them in bottles. Beverage prices are shown with tax included, which is very cool.

From memory from my last visit: among some more common offerings, there are a couple from Macauslan (Griffon Extra Pale Ale and St. Ambroise Pale Ale), plus Blanche de Chambly on tap.

While not really a comment on beer from this vendor, I just had to respond to FF's comments on Guinness. If you don't like the relative harshness of Guinness, you should head over to Ireland. The Irish all swear it doesn't travel well, and I thought they were full of it. But it's true. Guinness in Ireland is as you describe: heavy, dark, but smooooooooth and creamy. It's just the perfect drink. Though "perfect" is a dangerous word when talking about taste.

The really big Irish fans insist it has to be sampled in Dublin, near the brewery, as even trucking it to the outer counties reduces the quality. This might be going a little too far, so to speak.

I really enjoyed the Amsterdam Two-Fisted Stout (presumably from Toronto's Amsterdam brewing company). Although the waiter "warned" me that it's dark like Guinness, this beer is the way Guinness *should* be. Heavy and dark, but with a smooth and delicious flavour. No overpowering bitter burnt flavours like Guinness... A pint of Guinness is too much (hence the existence of Black and Tan). A pint of this Two-Fisted Stout is spot on!

The only downside of their beer selection is that the other four draught choices tonight were all yellow beers: three lagers and one pale ale. The beers I love most always seem to be red (or at least orange).

The owners took a broad range of input when coming up with the beer menu, including the opinion of some local craft brewers. They serve an excellent selection of Ontario Micro Brews and British Ales which attracts beer geeks from all around the Ottawa Valley. Definitely go here for the beer.

I've only been here once about 5 or 6 years ago and the selection was good. But the venue is well-known amongst local homebrewers as a spot for great beer.

Besides the usual suspects, the Black Tomato usually has a few gems from nearby microbreweries available on tap (notably Church Key and Scotch Irish).

EDIT : this really has more to do with "beer at A&L" than just "A&L" so I've deleted it from the general section and pasted it here verbatim.

---snip---

Well, I just called to ask them to rhyme off the beer menu for me so I could update my previous post with the name of the beer that my buddy had that was cloudy. OK, admittedly an odd request. so I wasn't starting out on the right foot here.

But I got into an argument with the woman on the phone about how many beers are on tap. She insisted they have 25 and it would be too much to rhyme off. OK, I'll accept that. But I asked why if they have 25 on tap did the beer menu I had last night only list about 12 (I didn't count, but there was no way that was 25 or anywhere even close). I pointed out that there were only about 12 on the chalk board, and that the beer menu that stands on the table listed the same selection of about a dozen. She insisted the beer card lists all 25 and to "nevermind the chalk board" (OK, so why is it there?)

Obviously I'm not questioning how many taps they have - I'm sure she knows that well. I'm just wondering whether or not they are all connected to anything at the moment. And if they are why they were not all listed.

Anyway, one of us is obviously wrong. I'll admit there is a small chance it is me but I'll count that as extremely unlikely. Beer is my 7th sense (balance is all of our 6th sense).

I will try to get back there tonight just to figure out whether or not I'm crazy.

EDIT : Went over around 6:20 to check the menu and discovered several important things : (1) they had 18 beers on the card at the table so my estimating skills are not as good as I would like to think, and (2) the beer my buddy had was not on the list. This means that (3) at least they ARE keeping their beer list up-to-date (a very good thing in any pub) because it seems the beer my buddy had must have been emptied. That means that the cloudiness was likely just end-of-keg protein, and since my buddy Klaus is Schwaebisch and really loves Hefeweizen it probably tasted fine to him. This BTW also means that there very well could have only been 12 on the list last night when we were there.

There were BTW 16 on the chalk board tonight with 2 half wiped out.

Even with 16 beers I suppose it was not realistic for me to have them read to me over the phone. But it's not hard to keep a website updated as any of we should know. Knowing what's on tap ahead of time can be an important part of making a decision on where to go. On their website they do have a long list of beers they carry in rotation which at least gives you an idea, I'll admit. Which is why I like brewpubs because you always can be assured of at least 1 or 2 reliable mainstays :-)

EDIT : btw, this also suggests that my 'foul' Arkell Best Bitter may well have been the cask conditioned by mistake. But still unlike most beer geeks I really don't like a lot of cask ale just because so many pubs don't know how to do it properly ... A&L used to, not sure they still do but I'll at least be back once or twice to determine whether or not that's the case just because their beer selection is still one of the best in the city. And that burger menu pretty much seals their title as "best burger in the city". See my post under "Hamburgers at A&L" for details.

Went last night for supper. The beer selection is not quite a eclectic as I recall it being (it's been a couple of years since I've been here), but they still had about 10 or 12 beers on tap, with 4 from Wellington, 2 from McAuslan, another Ontario Micro whose name I forget (ug), along with more mainstream like Upper Canada (Sleeman), Moosehead, Keith's and Creemore (recently bought by Molson)

I started with one of my old standbys Wellington Arkell Best Bitter, and I was fairly disappointed with it. It was cloudy and going off, and very undercarbed. Yes, I am well aware that some beers are supposed to be cloudy and that cloudy is not necessarily a bad thing. In this case it was. I will entertain the idea that someone accidentally served me the cask conditioned version since they also had that on tap. So either they aren't taking proper care of their beer, or they aren't paying enough attention to the customer's order.

My friend had a light lager from the Micro whose name I forget (I'll call them and update this afterwards) and it was also cloudy, though obviously I did not taste it.

I followed up with the McAuslan Pale Ale and it certainly did not disappoint. Great combination of malt and hops balanced a bit towards the latter, and not cloudy thank goodness.

Just went back to this place for the first time in years to discover they have several cask ales on tap. Two of these were done by local brewery Scotch Irish Brewing Company: Dry Hop Boarder Bitter, and Sgt. Major's IPA. The other was by Wellington Brewery: Arkell Best Bitter.

There are a number of places in Ottawa you can get these beers, but most offer it in the bottle, which gives a very different flavour and experience. Trying it on tap recommended for the beer connoisseurs among us!

They've only got 5 or 6 taps but they really go out of their way to make them the highest quality beers. The food here is authentic German and Bohemian, so the combination of the two is spectacular!

Go here often! Especially during Oktoberfest when they have live oompa bands.

Back August 2006 when we went here, the beer selection listed on their website was pretty uninspired. But we went nonetheless only to find a completely different list on their physical menu, most of which they did not have. Fortunately they ended up having a very good selection, with Amsterdam Blonde, Headstrong Helles, and two types of Warsteiner on tap. In the bottle they had both Heritage Light and Dark, Seargent Major's IPA, and at least one other I do not recall.

Their website seems to have since been updated and now lists Headstrong (yum!), Amsterdam (yum!), Steam Whistle (yum!), Warsteiner and several others.

In short, not a bad place for beer.

Just last week I had the ESB and the Brown and I enjoyed both. The ESB was especially flavourful. As far as brew pubs go, it's them and the Draught Horse out in Navan, and that's it to the best of my knowledge. But fortunately a lot of places these days are carrying micros. Click "Beer" on this site for some of my recommendations.

It just wasn't good beer. Not flat to style, but flat as in stale. If you can recommend some good brews they make I'm always willing to give them a chance.

Frequenting brew pubs in Montreal Boston and Toronto for the past decade and a half I had high hopes for Ottawa. Are there any other brew pubs in Ottawa I can try? Localish breweries whose products I love are Millhouse, McAuslen, Heritage. From the New England area, Harpoon, Sam Adams, Dogfish. I lean towards complex hopped beers.

Just curious which beer you had Shamus. If it was one of the cask beers that would explain the flatness since cask beer is often flat (by design)

Have I just been unlucky? Some of the worst pub brew I have ever had has been here. I've tried the location in the Glebe and in new Edinborough and both times the beer was almost undrinkable - flat and flavourless. I am a huge supporter of crafted beer and really wanted to like the Clocktowers offerings but sadly I cannot do this.

Been there a few times the last few weeks since my son is in an activity around the corner. Went for lunch today. $3.45 is the regular price for their own brewed beer! Glass is at least 500ml if not a British Pint (even bigger). Wow! And apparantly Tuesday nights are wing night and beer is half priced!

Their Festive Porter on tap right now is absolutely fantastic! A very drinkable beer even for people who think they don't like dark beer. Smooth, almost toffee-like flavours with no harshness at all from the roasted malts.

We just came back from having supper at the Clock Tower. We were looking forward to having a beer at our first brewpub in Ottawa (we lived in Montreal before, so we were used to great brewpub beer).

Out of their 5 beers, they only had 2, and this is on a Friday night. I had the Classic Vienna Cask Brown and my husband had the Bytown Brown. We were disappointed. Neither beer had any aftertaste - they both cut "short". The Bytown Brown was terribly flat. I don't know whether it was the bottom of the keg, but we don't remember having had beer like that! The Vienna Cask Brown was a bit better, at least it had some carbonation.

We finished those and I ordered a Stella Artois and my hubby a Guinness. We were so happy after the first sip, which is pretty sad considering we were in a brewpub.

Went for lunch today and had a few beers as well. Or rather, I believe I had some lunch with my beer :-)

Got to chat with brewmaster Pat - he has some big plans in store for the place including a beer education program for patrons. So definitely stay tuned to the Clocktower! They'd been having some real quality issues according to the lads in the brew club, and I believe Patrick is just the guy to clean it up! In fact I believe he already has! Kudos to the owners for recognising they needed a new brewmaster!

The Koelsch - well - they shouldn't be calling it that! I know it's not a protected name in Canada but just out of respect for the brewmasters in Cologne. But it was a very good beer. Not quite to style but I'm having trouble placing what's off so I'll obviously have to go back and sample more so I can figure it out. I believe the finishing gravity is perhaps a bit too high so it's not dry enough on the finish. That's probably it.

The Wishart's Bitter was very tasty, and while I've never had a Bitter in the UK I do believe this to be very true to style at least to my understanding of the style. Would be very easy to drink a lot of this.

Finished up with the Brown Ale. As my friend who was with me commented, "it has nothing that people who say that don't like dark beer wouldn't like". In other words, if you think you don't like dark beer this just may change your mind. Slightly sweet, balanced well with the hops. Very drinkable.

Keep up the great work Patrick! I believe I will now officially start taking the family here twice a month instead of the Royal Oak.

Beau's Bog Water is now on tap.

Cpn. Caper, FYI - Lug Tread is brewed by Beau's, located not very far from Ottawa out in Vankleek Hill (think just south of Hawkesbury) www.beaus.ca

Just to be a nit-picker ale is top fermented and lager bottom.

The style is called Kölsch, and it is the much better known of the two unique beer styles brewed in and around Köln, Germany. You can read further into the style in a fair bit of detail on this page of my site www.bodensatz.com "Kölsch" is an EU-wide geschutzte Herkunftsbezeichnung or appelation controllee or however the French spell it. Same as how Champagne can only be brewed in that area of France, Kölsch can only be brewed in and around Köln.

And of course there is my beer-drinker's guide to Köln which I've already posted in the forums section of this site where you can learn more still.

Finally got to try a pint or two.... last night.

The Lug Tread Lagered Ale is a treat..... Fresh and crisp on the palatte .. Mild hopping... lingering straw-like finish... no additives or preservatives ... and at $5.50 (INCLUDING taxes)a pint , it's a steal !!

Anyone know of a fancy-pancy beer (cottage industry, import, or microbrewery) for $5.50/pint in Ottawa ... please let me know. I'm so there.

It's made in a Cologne stylee.. bottom fermented like an ale but lagered (cold aged) like a .... well.... like a lager. Best of both worls , I guess.


I'll try the Heritage products next time.

Bloodshot Bill WILL be at the Elmdale House for his LP release party on January 12th!
And by the way Walter, I've already made sure we don't run out of Beau's or Heriatge again! ;)

UPDATE:

WHAT ???!!!??? All out of the fancy-pancy beers ???

Went Sat nite. They were already sold out of their Heritage and Beaus products, because of the success of their Grand Re-Opening this weekend.

The server in the picture is pointing to the Heritage tap with a "Sold Out" sign on it.

www.heritagebrewing.com/
www.beaus.ca/index.html

Will have to return soon, maybe for their Blues Tues: www.facebook.com

PS: The new owners (really nice) are putting some spit and polish on the 'ol place. They started with the washrooms. Immaculately clean and modern !!

Haven't been here in a million years or so! Bloodshot Bill is on their friend's list....so does that mean he will be playing here?

ETA:

Bloodshot Bill will be playing here January 18!

The grand opening is this Saturday featuring the hip country swing band, Ball and Chain. Yeeehaa.

I'll report back on the beer.

Check it out :
www.myspace.com/elmdalehouse

The establishment is under new ownership and they are now serving 3 different beers from Heritage Brewing in Carleton place.

While they do have a decent selection of imports, most of them are considered fairly "mainstream" these days amongst the local beer geeks. Though I still go here often because they are good beers, and the food is pretty decent as well. Fuller's ESB and London Pride find their way onto my table fairly often. Would be nice to see them carry some Ontario Micros, though.

kmennie, the downtown Oak is the only one to go to. Just not for the food. Sketchy patrons are all part of the fun (think of it as street theatre), and the service is usually good there, although I haven't been in a while. The food sucks, as it does at all the Oaks but there is nothing wrong with the beer.

I do not want to send anybody to the original Oak in Centretown; it's filthy, in more ways than one, but.

The one in the Glebe is quite nice nowadays. The Guinness even comes with a 'shamrock pour,' a bit gimmicky, but certainly appreciated after getting half a pint of foam, etc, at other places.

And my god, my pictures are awful. But. Good beer.

A good selection of excellent Asian beers including:

Tiger, Tsingtao, Asahi, Saigon, Sapporo and Singha

There is also an awesome selection of beer on-tap:

Heineken, Stella, Keiths, Bud, Coors, and Ricards.

They also have: Guiness, Ex, Moosehead, Blue, Bluelight, Sleemans, and Corona by the bottle.

If you like craft breweries then this is a great place to visit as all of their draft selections are from microbreweries. McAuslen, Mill Street, Heritage, Wellington among others.If there is a place like this in Ottawa for beer, I would love to know about it.

About 8 different beers on the menu, with 5 or 6 of them being decent choices. Choose a hoppier, higher alcohol, or even spicey beer to help cleanse the palate of the zing in the food. Thai Singha is nice and hoppy but average alcohol - still a good choice to help keep the bite of the spices subdued. They had some higher-alc Belgian beers too, including a Wit and a Brune. The unique coriander spiciness of the Wit is perfectly matched to Thai cooking, as is the sweetness of the Brune. Not a bad beer menu at all.

At lunch today they had 21 taps going and only about 6 of them were megabrew crap. Though I would definitely like to see more Ontario microbrews as I believe they only had 2 (1 if you no longer count Creemore as a Micro since they were bought by Molson). I had the Wellington Cask Conditioned and unfortunately it was off - very, very off and sour. I got a 2nd and 3rd opinion from the brewers. But I just sent it back and did not get charged for it. And 10 minutes later 2 guys at the next table sent theirs back as well.

But still an excellent selection and still one of the city's best spots for beer.

Haven't been here in maybe 2 years, but they always used to have a decent selection of beer available - specialising mainly in Ontario Microbrews. I understand they still do, and currently serve Beau's All Natural among others.

This is in response to Zymurgist's comment re: desired wider beer selection at Beckta.

This restaurant is owned by a sommelier and it is even titled "Restaurant and Wine Bar". The emphasis is intentionally on wine. The main reason to go there is to experience Stephen Beckta's amazing wine pairing with Chef Michael Moffat's scrumptious dishes.

If you are are not a lover of wine, you may not want to eat here. The food is delicious on it's own but the menu is designed around the wine.

The place is very popular and I can't see the format being changed any time soon. Although, even with the short list of available beer, you might go anyway and query Beckta on his knowledge and beer & menu pairings. Given his genius on wine, I bet he knows a lot about all types of alcohol!

Website lists Steamwhistle, Amstel Light, Upper Canada .9, Blanche du Chambly, Stella Artois, Trois Pistoles, St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout. Small, but well-rounded selection. Though sounds like the sort of place that really could benefit from expanding their selection a bit and learning more about how to serve/recommend it like wine.

Based on some of the reviews especially from "Fat Cat" I really want to check this place out sometime. Fine dining and "non-pretentious" normally don't go together :-)

Locally-brewed Heritage Light and Dark on tap - both are great beers that are nice and hoppy which goes well with spicy food.

Don't expect anything special here - just your standard big-brand offerings from Molson and Labatt. By default they serve quart bottles, which is kind of neat.

Surprisingly good selection of beer here: among others, Steam Whistle, Creemore, McAuslan (Griffon extra pale and red ales, plus the oatmeal stout). Reasonably priced, too (before tax, under $5 for a pint, $14ish for a pitcher, even of the good stuff).

What a shame. This used to be one of the real gems in the city for beer. They only had 2 or 3 taps but they were always serving something unique that was difficult to find elsewhere, like Hacker-Pschorr Hefeweizen and Edelhell. It was a bit of a hot-spot for local beer geeks. Sadly, they no longer serve draft beer at all. I hope they'll see this and bring it back.