I like multiple birds for my stone so how about a walk on Wednesday to a brewery to pretend it is #beersaturday. It doesn't break my rule of only drinking beer on days that end in 'Y' so let's visit a brewery for a beer!

Flying Monkeys

Long time followers of my weekly #beersaturday blog will know the name Flying Monkey Craft Brewery https://www.flyingmonkeys.ca/ well. They are among the longest standing craft breweries, dating back to when we called them micro breweries and IPA was a new thing. They are largely responsible for my hoppy slide down into IPA obsession.

The Pub

Despite being one of my long-standing favourite brewers, I have never had the chance to visit in person. When nominated to take a 4 hour round trip to drop a little one off at a relative's place, I decided I deserved a little pit stop coming through Barrie. The place looks as cacophonous as one might expect from the crazy label design.

I passed the screening at the door and am happy to be welcome even though I identify as a beer pitcher.

The inside is a nice combination of standard Irish pub furniture and an adventure of decor ranging from retro to modern hipster chique. Plenty of people here in the middle of the week means this must be a popular place with the locals too. If you can see the lightbulb panel above the fellow in the white shirt behind the tall table lamp, I will tell you about its special function.

Each table is equipped with a light switch used to call your server. The light above the switch comes on, as does the corresponding light on the panel in the previous picture. Pretty cool huh? Turns out our server liked us enough or was very skilled as we did not have to use our switch once.
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The Beer

Another progressive aspect of a visit here is that they do not print a menu. Take a picture of the QR code and review the menu on your phone. I like this as physical menus can are costly for the restaurant, and not very editable to keep up with changes. Online, they can maintain the same webpage they offer browsers, pack them with fresh key words, and not worry about printing regularly. This one is a snip of the Taps list.

We opted, as one should in a pub with plenty of varied brews, for a flight. Surely they have flights where you are? Here, they are samplers where you get to choose 4 (or so) different beers to taste. When you are a couple hours from home, best have a few small beers than big beers!
My selections were:

QUANTUM HUGS 6.1% cold ipa w/ Sabro, Strata, Azacca, Motueka
THE MUTANTS ARE REVOLTING 4.5% Crushable IPA - Idaho 7 And Sabro Hops
JUICY ASS IPA 6.5% highly hopped unfiltered IPA
GEEKED OUT 7.3% no coast IPA. w/Nelson, Mosaic, Amarillo and Citra Hops

That much great IPA from an IPA specialist, you know I loved it. Geeked Out stands out as new, awesome, and containing the hops I love in both New England and West Coast IPAs.

What to Eat?

Looking through the menu on my phone, one of the items stood out. Which item do you figure was new and funny enough to order just to entertain my global beer blog following?

That's Right. Just for you, I ordered the Pickle Pizza. I figured that the taste wouldn't even matter for the amount of #Hive cred I would get, and the entertainment value of the comments. Turns out, it was not bad! I even had someone else taste a slice to make sure I wasn't just living up to my name. He said it was alright too. There you have it.