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Steam Whistle Brewery Tour Review

In the historic Railhouse Park and in the shadow of the CN Tower you will find the home of Toronto’s favourite premium Pilsner – Steam Whistle Brewing. Recognized from coast-to-coast for its green bottle and whistleblowing logo, Steam Whistle is a refreshing beer that I have come to enjoy and was eager to try it straight from the source. On my last visit to Toronto, I was lucky enough to do just that. Here is my Steam Whistle Brewery tour review .

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Steam Whistle Brewery Tour

Tours of the Steam Whistle Brewery run every half hour between 11:30 AM and 5:00 PM, seven days a week. Tours cost just $10 and are  best booked online and in advance. I found this out the hard way when I showed up to find all tours were booked up on the day of my visit. This is the one and only time I name dropped and pulled my business card. I’m not proud of it but am thankful it worked.

Tours begin with introductions in the grand Roundhouse Hall. There, tour guides hand out headsets and an ice cold Steam Whistle. The latter was a great touch. There’s nothing more refreshing than drinking a beer while learning about its origins and seeing where it is brewed.

Beer in hand and headset on, you are led through Steam Whistle’s brewing process. This takes you past the brewery floor, through the surprisingly small bottling area, and past the small head office. For such a seemingly large brand, Steam Whistle’s operation is this impressively small. This is because Steam Whistle Brewing only makes one beer. With a motto of “do one thing, really, really, well” I should have clued into this.

A Canadian Brand, A Canadian Story

Like many success stories, Steam Whistle’s vision of making one really great Pilsner was born out of defeat. The three founders worked together at a popular brewery that was bought out by a big beer company and subsequently shut down. During a canoe trip in Ontario, the “three fired guys” hatched a plan to run a brewery of their very own.

How Canadian is that?

Since the spring of 2000 Steam Whistle has been doing just that – proudly becoming Canada’s premium Pilsner brand in the process.

What’s in a Name?

Given the businesses fitting location in the historic John Street Roundhouse you would assume it’s name was derived from that. Not so. During the tour, our guide advised us that the name Steam Whistle came before the location. In reality, it pays homage to a simpler time where hard-working folks ended their hard day at the sound of a steam whistle blowing. The reward? Canada’s finest beer.

If that isn’t a story of most fitting location for a brand, I don’t know what is.

Although the location is fitting and incredibly convenient for tourists and for foot traffic, their hours are not. On my day visiting Steam Whistle I was going to a Blue Jays game at the SkyDome which is conveniently located next door. This makes it the perfect place for pregame beers right? No, or at least not on at an evening game. Steam Whistle closes its doors at 6:00 pm, which contradicts its end-of-the-day homage of a name.

Is this due to an outdated law or a sign that stranglehold the big beer companies have in Ontario? Maybe. A shame? Absolutely.

A T.O To-Do

Touring Steam Whistle ends at its bar with a sampling of unfiltered and unpasteurized beer straight from the tap. This is a great touch and shadows what you will find at the famous Pilsner Urquell brewery in the Czech Republic ( check out my review of that brewery here! ), home to the very first Pilsner. The similarity may not be a coincidence as Steam Whistle brewmaster just happens to be a Pilsner Urquell former employee.

This is just another example of how Steam Whistle is committed to doing it’s one thing, really, really well.

Whether you are pre-gaming (an afternoon) Jays game or strolling the waterfront, touring Steam Whistle’s historic building and its brewery is a must do for beer lovers alike.

What say you? Thoughts on this  Steam Whistle Brewery Tour Review  in Toronto? Let’s hear it!

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When visiting the city of Toronto there is one attraction that no beer lover should miss, the Steam Whistle Brewery. It’s unexpectedly located right in the center of downtown Toronto, in a squat unassuming historical brick building called The Roundhouse. Steam Whistle is a little brewery with a lofty goal; becoming the best (and number one) pilsner in Canada. We had the opportunity to take a tour of the Steam Whistle Brewery and we enjoyed it so much we decided to share it with the world.

As with many great things, the Steam Whistle Brewery came about in a most unexpected way with rather humble beginnings. The original three founders of Steam Whistle were actually fired from their prior job at the Upper Canada Brewing Company when it was taken over by a larger company. Being fed up and frustrated with macro breweries, they  decided to start their own craft beer brewery. Still sore from being laid off the founders came up with a name for their company to remind themselves of their humble beginnings, Three Fired Guys. Once they had a name figured out, they needed a location. They found their new home by accident one day while visiting the historical Roundhouse in downtown Toronto.

The building had been used for almost a century to repair and maintain steam locomotives, and was sitting empty and unused. Interestingly though, it still had functioning steam, and even housed an operational steam whistle. The founders fell in love with the idea of the steam whistle and how it signified the end of the workday. From there, the pieces fell together and the Steam Whistle Brewery was born.

Now that they had a location, and a much more marketable name, the Three Fired Guys needed the one other major component of their plan, a great pilsner. To make that happen they went on a worldwide search for a brew master and found him in the Czech Republic, the birthplace of pilsners. He agreed to come to Toronto and brew beer for the TFG under two conditions. First, he would require a bedroom in the brewery. His reasoning on this was simple, if the beer never sleeps he shouldn’t either. Secondly, he would only use four ingredients. Even though a beer can use over 100 different ingredients and still be classified as a pilsner, he only wanted to use the original four: spring water, hops, malted barley and yeast.

You can take a tour of the Steam Whistle Brewery every day of the week at multiple intervals, or you can just walk in at any time and simply have a sample!

If you take the tour, they bring you upstairs and treat you to a fresh full bottle of Steam Whistle on the house (in my opinion it’s how EVERY tour should begin :-) ). Then they take you through the brewery and fill you full of fun facts and information. All the while you get to see all the components of the beer production line.

But if you’re a beer lover like me, you’re not here to see hoppers and tanks; you’re here to try the beer! So how was it? I found Steam Whistle to be crisp, have a refreshing mouth feel, combine mild yet complex flavors, and overall be an easily drinkable pilsner. I’m typically not a pilsner drinker at all, and I found Steam Whistle to be very satisfying. This is the kind of beer you can drink all day at a summer BBQ or sip on at the end of a hard day’s work.

It’s everything the founders intended when they set out to make one great beer. It’s no surprise that Steam Whistle is quickly growing out of their original space and distribution is quickly spreading across Canada. If you find yourself in or near the Toronto area, order up a bottle of Steam Whistle and take a sip. You’ll be glad you did. Then take a look at the bottle and you’ll find something interesting. Stamped into the glass in small print you’ll find TFG, a constant reminder of the founder’s humble beginnings.

For more information on Steam Whistle Brewery or for tour information (including costs) take a look at their official website .

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Good times and great beer! Wish I would have had the chance to check this brewery out as well…

Derek, definitely good times! We’ll have to run into each other again soon.

I did the tour after TBEX with my boyfriend (a non-beer drinker) and loved it! I took almost all the same photos as you (I assure you I didn’t sneak up behind you while you were taking them lol) but I found the value to be totally worth it – at $10 per person, to have a fresh bottle straight from the bottling line, was awesome!

It was a great little tour and the beer was surprisingly good.

I am sure it is a wonderful tour for everybody that loves beer. Part of the fun when you travel is to taste new beers from all over the world. :)

I love visiting breweries but having been in Asia for the longest time it’s something I so rarely get to do anymore, maybe now we’re back in Europe for a short while we can visit a few more over the next few weeks.

Fingers crossed

What part of Europe are you in? I can think of a few countries that would have plenty of breweries :-)

Ahhh dear lord the nomminess of good beer :) Those shots are killing me!!!! Delicious for sure.

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