Chef’s Choice
Food is often an afterthought at ale-centric locales, where the reliance is on burgers and chicken fingers to satisfy munchies. Not so at Beerbistro, where the focal beverage is worked into such dishes as beer bread pizzas ($15) made with McAuslan Oatmeal Stout; goat cheese gnocchi in a brown ale cream sauce ($19); and (gasp) beer ice cream ($6). Each menu item can be paired with a selection from more than 130 options, and regular events include guest brewers from around the world.

The Speakeasy
Amid the grind and grime of clubland, Smokeless Joe is a tiny bar (wedged into a basement) with one of the city’s largest international collections of bottled beers, including France’s hard-to-find Amadeus wheat beer. With more than 250 offerings, the encyclopedic knowledge of the staff is a necessary navigation tool.

The Connoisseur
The owners of Bar Volo have made the most of their small corner spot at Yonge and Wellesley. An impressive quiver of tap and bottled beers, many of which come in limited batches from Ontario craft brewers, and annual Cask Days (October 20 and 21) draw hordes of hopheads. Bar Volo also commissions several dozen breweries to create one-of-a-kind real ales, which are featured alongside artisanal Ontario cheeses.

Homebrew
For more than 15 years, the Granite Brewery has succeeded in transplanting both the taste and charm of its original Halifax location to the big smoke. All the ales—ranging from India pale ale and a dry-hopped bitter to Gin Lane Ale, a sweet and powerful barley wine—are naturally brewed on-site. Best of all, you can get the beers to go, in four-pint “growlers” or party-ready kegs.

Buzzy Bodies
The nickname Meat Market does more than imply a certain aphrodisiacal property to the 100-plus fine European beers on tap and in bottles at the Esplanade Bier Markt. Weekend lineups are commonplace and a raucous after-work crowd packs in to the sprawling space for mussels and a few pints. This is where the Bay Street broker loosens his tie, tosses back a few dozen Staropromen, and gets frisky with that cute trader in split derivatives.