My go to brew at Sawdust is the Lone Pine West Coast IPA (one of my all time favourite IPA’s), it’s a well hopped beer with a strong malt backbone that’s bursting with flavour. However, if you manage to time your visit right, you might just find my latest obsession from their specialty lineup; Juicin’ a New England Style IPA. I just can’t get enough of the juicy taste of fresh peaches that embraces the juiciest characteristics of hops while laying off on the bitterness. It was crafted by Head Brewer Caleb and Packaging Manager James in the first of their Fever Dream series and they have just recently released it again at the brewery. The other Sawdust Brewery Beer that comes highly recommended is Princess Wears Girl Pants, Muskokan Saison, this hop forward Belgian is fresh, bright, and absolutely perfect for a summer's day! They are also big fans of collaborations, and can often be found teaming up with other breweries across Ontario, so keep your eyes peeled for those one off brews!
At Sawdust City they love to party, they run a rockin’ Oktoberfest event annually to give everyone a chance to wear their favourite Lederhosen and dance their way through the night. Alternatively, if you prefer to have your fun when the sun is out, be sure to check out Funkfest on July 1st. Funkfest is a day filled with funky sour beers, funk bands, and food trucks, it is an awesome way to celebrate the nation’s birthday and something tells me this year might be a little bit special! Finally, every Saturday night they have live music on in the saloon - check out their website for more info on all their upcoming events.
If you are looking to spend a few days in Gravenhurst whilst you visit Sawdust City, Rob and Karla Engman, the co-owners of Sawdust, also run The Lone Pine Inn, a quaint little complex of six cottages within walking distance of the brewery. It’s an ideal place to spend a lazy weekend drinking fresh, local beer and exploring the surrounding area; I had the chance to stay there for Oktoberfest one year, so I speak from personal experience..
Whilst they have no restaurant on-site at the moment, you can catch a food truck there at the weekends and they sell little pizzas from the bar to accompany your beer(s). Grab a basket from the stack in the retail space to fill up from their huge cooler full beer. Cans, bottles and growlers are all available and some of which can only be bought from the brewery so you may want to grab a few.
So in conclusion, if you like road trips, cottages, cool spaces, rad people, and fantastic beers, then this is a place you will settle into just fine and find it very hard to leave.
65