'Junction Craft Brewing' - Brew Pub Review

Of the three microbreweries in the same area along Symes Road (Shacklands, Rainhard), this is the best established and the nicest looking. It's in a more attractive building (the other two are decidedly industrial looking, a common occurrence among brew pubs) and has a nice patio out front.

I lined up a flight consisting of: Stationmaster's Stout (dry Irish), Strawberry Rhubarb Berlinerweisse, Imperial Black Ale, and Caribru IPA. The Berlinerweisse was fairly mild, not really something you usually say about that type of beer. Although perhaps I only say that because I'm familiar with the type. I had trouble finding strawberry or rhubarb notes in the beer, and didn't like it much. The dry Irish stout was reasonably good, but very similar to most other brews in its class. One of the staff told me that the Caribru was a mango IPA and I ordered it on the strength of that - but I think she had it confused with one of their other IPAs. It wasn't a particularly great IPA, and didn't taste of mango. The last beer was the Imperial Black Ale, aged in wine barrels and coming in at 9% alcohol. As dark and opaque as any stout, the stuff tasted more like wine than beer and I found it utterly fascinating. They listed it as 64 IBU, but it didn't taste anything like that bitter to me. I'm not sure I liked it, but I really wanted to try it again so I checked the bottle shop - and they had none to purchase. Very disappointing, as I'd wanted to share it with friends. A worthy experiment that will probably work well for some beer drinkers.

photo: Out front of Junction Brewing

large patio in front of an old brick building, surrounded by a parking lot