We decided to take the show on the road this week, and went out to broadcast live from the Block 3 Brewery in St. Jacob’s. Craft beer, and beer in general, tastes better right from the taps. As Londoners we know this with respect to the Labbatt Brewery, a hometown icon. We also knew that Block 3 makes some pretty good beer. Lastly, we just needed something to do on a Friday after work. We brought our last roommate Andrew along for the trip, and found it very easy to get out to the brewery. The atmosphere in there bar area was also appreciated; we got to play euchre and listen to The Who and The Black Keys for a while.
I started off with their Belgium Brown Ale Tapestry. I was surprised at how smooth it was, while retaining a stout-like flavour. A most enjoyable beer, it really gets you with its high 6.1% alcohol content. If you’re a fan of Kilkenny then you’ll appreciate this one a lot. It has a slightly creamy caramel-like taste that sticks in your throat. Smokey undertones blended in craft, a really nice beer all around. Andrew pointed out his aversion to darker beers, so I’ll relay to our readership as well that dark beer is an acquired taste, and that typically you don’t want to drink a lot of them at once. Don’t be upset if your opinions don’t align with ours. We don’t really know that much, but we enjoy beer. As fans of darker beer, we appreciate the Tapestry a lot, and give it four and a half stars out of five.
Tristan kicked it off with Beauty and the Belgian, a lighter, hoppier beer. Also a stronger beer, this one had our heads spinning almost as fast as the cards we were playing. With sweet, citrusy undertones the Beauty lives up to its name. There isn’t a whole lot that needs to be said about this beer. It reminds Tristan of Leffe Brune, a Belgian beer that’s one of his favourites. Beauty and the Belgian is a little less in your face with its flavour, which is appreciated. It has a pleasant flavour without being overwhelming; not the most remarkable beer we’ve ever tried, but solid. We both enjoyed it, and give it three and a half stars out of five.
We both followed up our beer with the King Street Saison, Block 3’s flagship beer. The King Street is a good beer, but following the other two it lacks a kick. It packs a lower alcohol content and is a more standard beer. It’s also the beer from Block 3 that they ship most often in the LCBO. A decent beer for hitting up a small party or drinking with dinner, the Saison has a slight citrusy flavour similar to the Beauty but without the larger kick. It has by far the most mass appeal out of the beers we tried tonight, but just isn’t as good as the other two we tried tonight. We give it three stars out of five.
One of the other huge benefits of visiting the brewery is that you get to fill up your growler. A growler is a 64 oz bottle, that you buy outright for $5 from Block 3 and fill for $12. I had one graciously bought for me by a family friend when we reviewed the Frankenstout, and today elected to fill it with Tapestry. Tristan also thought that the Tapestry was the best. If you like it, you will probably like it a lot. We strongly recommend taking a trip out to Block 3 if you have the time, and like craft beer.
We thought that that was going to be the end of our tale, but it was not to be. Block 3 is open till eight o’clock on Friday nights, a reasonable hour to close down shop, we thought. We stayed till close to then and had a good time, then left for the bus stop to catch the 21. When we got there, however, we realized that GRT service to St. Jacob’s and Elmira stops at 7pm. We were officially stranded in St. Jacob’s folks. We want to send a HUGE shoutout to our heroes Stephanie and Natalie for coming to pick our sorry selves up and bringing us home. Your two are the best. We here at Broskies on Brewskies hope that everyone has a few good weeks and remind you to drink responsibly.
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