Beer of the Week - The Beers of Louis Cifer Brew Works

Tonight Teena and I traveled to the east side of the city, to the Danforth, to check out Louis Cifer Brew Works. It has been open for almost a year and a half. It was on Teena's radar, I had somehow forgotten about this place and Teena suggested this morning we head out and give it a try. Of course, I totally agreed.

The place was busy and has a floor and a half of seating.

I love the bathroom signs. The men's is very similar.

The brew house.

The bottle shop.

The beer menu. More about the beer in a bit.

First the food.

Louis Cifer has a great selection of pub and high-end food. Instead of ordering the duck comfit, which tempted me so much, I went for the more pubby Macaroni and Cheese Poppers and Lemon Salt 'n Pepper Dry Wings.

The poppers were fabulous. Lots of mac 'n cheese packed into a Panko crust. It was tasty and cheesy and I would definitely get them again.

The wings were also great. They seem to be marinated in the lemon, salt and pepper mix, then BBQed. I loved them. It was a hard choice on what to finish with, the last wing or the last Mac 'n Cheese Popper.

And the beer?

I tried four and enjoyed them all. I really didn't have the nerve to try the Coconut Lemon Grass Thai PA but really should have a least asked for a sample. I will next time we are there.

Here are my favorite two. The Bock and the Gates of Ale IPA were really good but I wanted to concentrate on my top two.

ESB

The ESB pours brownish with a slight brownish head. All the different fragrances of food around the restaurant made it hard to assess the aroma of this beer.

The ESB is more malty than a regular ESB but very layered. It starts malty, with just a very hint of chocolate, which is followed by something something tangy or slightly fruited, Whatever it is, it is very nice and there is just a touch of a hop bite in in the finish, which is surprising clean and refreshing.

Very well done. I would get this again.

Retox IPA

The Retox IPA is today's daily one-off. It pours kind of a deep golden colour with a bit of orange in it. Grapefruit and citus are very prominent in the aroma which manages to overcome the rest of the wonderful food aromas wafting through the place.

The taste follows the aroma, full of wonderful bitter grapefruit and citrus. It's pleasantly flavourful and bitter. Right away the bitter grapefruit and citrus hits you and stay with you right through the finish.

I asked at the bottle shop if I could bring home a growler (half a gallon or almost 1.9 litres) of this. They only bottle their regular lines which makes sense but still I was disappointed. It was just so fabulous.

Final impressions? We both said we would like to return and with friends. Yes, I do highly recommend this place and wish it was in our neighborhood.

Beer of the Week Stats 

Beers Profiled 308 
Breweries 276 
Countries 45