'Saulter Street Brewery' - Brew Pub Review

Saulter Street Brewery
31 Saulter Street

One does not find Saulter Street Brewery by accident. It's south of Queen Street East down a one block long dead-end residential street to the park at the end, turn in an alleyway directed by a very small sign, to arrive at the back yard parking lot and small industrial building that constitutes the brewery and bar. Hiding in this unprepossessing one story block building is one of the loveliest brew pub spaces I've been in ... I can't explain what made it so appealing, but the two friends who were with me were in agreement: it's a damn nice space. Seating for 20-25, a wood bar, beer tanks.

I was disappointed though by the selection of beers: they promote their "Riverside Pilsner" heavily (apparently their flagship), but it's not my style of beer. They had only two others on tap, the Golden APA and "IPA II." No dark beers, which are more my style. But they do flights, so we each got samples of all three. The pilsner is darker than most of its type, and a bit stronger in flavour. In an unusual turn, it was recommended that we should drink the IPA before the APA as the latter was the more bitter of the two. They both had a similar flavour, classic citrusy, grapefruit flavour - and the APA was only slightly more bitter. But they were definitely bitter, and I didn't love the flavour of either.

I have to assume they're a "tasting bar" (ie. not fully licensed) as they closed at 2100. They serve some snacks, but don't have a full kitchen. Some beers are available in bottles.