On The Road Again: Ottawa Region Craft Breweries Tour Continued--June 25, 2020

With the unprecedented lockdown of the province (and the world) thanks to the Covid-19 virus, there have been few opportunities to take out the Corvette as car events have been cancelled and most cafes or restaurants are not yet open for business.  However, craft brewers have been able to offer pick-up sales for retail customers and taking advantage of this my friend Karl and I set out to visit a number of breweries in the western end of Ottawa we had not tried before.  I believe this would be our fourth such tour--it is hard to keep up as new breweries are constantly opening in the National Capital Region.

First up was Evergreen Craft Ales on Silver Seven Road in Kanata.  Like many craft brewers here, it occupied a unit in an row of commercial buildings, more retail than industrial.  There was a selection of four different beers and the Red Rye Ale looked interesting, so I took a pair of those plus two Raspberry wheat.  We chatted with the saleslady, who was excited that their big new outdoor patio would soon be open.

Our travels next took us to Covered Bridge Brewing in Stittsville, which was established in 2013.  We chatted for a while with the cheerful brewer and each had a small glass of beer to sample.  In the end we came away with some of the excellent Irish Red beer, a Balgian Quad and a novelty--a pilsner made with Sea Buckthorn fruit.

We turned the car eastwards now towards Bell's Corners and soon came to our third brewery, Whiprsnapr Brewing Company.  Another small location in an industrial building, it has a patio as well.  The selection of beers available was limited but novel, including an "ISA," which is an "Indian Session Ale," an Indian Pale Ale with reduced hop bitterness and fairly low alcohol.  The Whiprsnapr version included lactose to make a light summer "milkshake" beer with 0% IBU.  A bit too novel for us, we went with the Root of Evil Pre-Prohibition Lager, along with some Strawberry Blonde Wheat Ale for summertime drinking.

Our final beer stop of the day was also in Bell's Corners.  Kitchesippi Beer Co. One of the city's older craft breweries, Kitchesippi recently moved into new and expanded quarters in a former car dealership and was the largest of the breweries we visited.  Its name comes from that used to denote the Ottawa River until 1855.  The brewery had the largest beer selection and also offers some soft drinks as well.

From the wide selection I ended up taking some of the Cerny, a dark Czech-style lager, as well as some Hefeweizen.  Our tour successfully completed for the day, we headed back to the highway and went to Almonte and Joe's Italian Kitchen for some excellent pizza from the wood-fired oven.