'Louis Cifer' - Brew Pub Review

Louis Cifer ("Lu-cifer," get it? ... subtlety turns out to not be one of their strengths) is one of the city's oldest brew pubs. The other really old one I know of is The Granite. Louis Cifer is located on the Danforth a couple blocks east of Broadview, where they've been for 20 or 30 years. It's hard to argue with success ... but I'm going to. The space is large, popular, and loud, combining a stamped tin ceiling with LED lights and other slightly conflicting sensibilities.

We arrived after having already visited Bar Hop Session where we had a large dinner and a couple small (5 oz) beers, and then (hey, it's the Danforth) having some loukoumades - which are delicious, but sit in your stomach like lead. This is important because while we were at Louis Cifer, we didn't actually feel like drinking. And neither of us managed to finish a single beer of the four 5 oz samples in our flights. I got Spruce Tip IPA (tasted like spruce sap slightly diluted with IPA and was the least unpleasant of the four), Dark Horse APA (which tasted almost entirely of coffee - not a great fit for an APA), Gothic American Brown (heavy on unpleasant flavours I couldn't name), and the Ukrainian Stout (strong on Cherry and so strong on VANILLA it was like being punched in the head). I kept sipping them because I wasn't quite believing they'd produced such overpowering, unsubtle beers, but every time I put them down in disgust.

A friend says it's a good place to drink other people's beers. I found it a bit loud, and their beers put me off entirely.