Day 3 Route : Polkapolooza 2 (Electric Polkaloo)

Headed north for more good times this year!

The first two days of Polkapolooza 2 (Electric Polkaloo) are but an ambitious start to a week of using my birthday to highlight all I love about Ontario Craft Beer. When we return home Monday and try to recover from our whirlwind 2 day trip east, our sleep will be short as it will be time to pack up once again and head north. One of our trips last year and another we are eager to recreate is our visit last year to 5 of my favourites with a new one thrown in for good measure.
  As Tuesday dawns, we will load up the car and hit the 400 North with even more enthusiasm than last year. The first stop is Lake Wilcox Brewing in Vaughn. We are so happy to able to revisit places we have been before but it is a real joy to stop in and make new friends at breweries we've never seen before. Our hope is to be at Lake Wilcox by 11 a.m. so that we can then meet up with our friends in Barrie, who will be joining us for the next leg of our journey and the rest of the evening.

Finally heading back to visit Mad Tom and friends!

  We will head to our most Northern stop on this year's tour at the home of Mad Tom and friends, Muskoka Brewery. A place off the beaten path, they make some of my favourite LCBO available beers and it is one that I couldn't miss. Leaving with heavy hearts and even heavier coolers, we will begin to make our way back to Barrie with a stop at one of the most innovative and growing brewers in the province, Sawdust City Brewing. A quick stop last year, we will be staying for a flight and a pint with our friends before we make it to our night in Barrie.

More time at Sawdust this year!

Always the first stop in Barrie!

  We have been to the three breweries in this city many times and since we can stay at the home of the close friends we've made, it is going to be our 2nd overnighter of the tour. Our route will begin at Redline Brewhouse, home of some of the best and most imaginative beers I have had in recent memory.

With our palates revved up, we will make our way across town a ways to the wonderful beer and food at Barnstormer Brewing, hopefully for dinner and a pint. It was also the first time Kat or I had experienced a Charcuterie board, now a staple at brewery visits for us.


A revamped taproom and Flying Monkey's is our night time party place!

Finally we will end our day north with an evening of laughs, great beer and good people at the newly renovated and awesome Flying Monkey's Brewery in downtown Barrie. There we will make it an evening of all this giant in Ontario craft has to offer.

  It's a big day, lots of travel and 6 more breweries to help celebrate this province and its craft brewers. Not to mention meeting up with friends, new and old to share not only great beer, but our lives, our stories and our dreams. Craft has brought me so much and it is in this tour that I hope we can show that to the world.

Last year's haul from Barrie and Gravenhurst!

 

My Muskoka beauties...I miss that glass

 

  See you on the 14th my friends to the north, its going be a great time! And then we get to Day 4...but that's another thing altogether. Stay tuned for that one tomorrow!

Raise your glass and your standards,
One Beer at a time.


Cheers!


Polk

You know we will be making a stop at the famous Candy Shoppe!