Position: -63 34.33, 44 39.02

On our first day in town, we stopped in at the Gahan House brewpub in the Historic Properties to sample their excellent craft beer brewed on site.

Position: -63 34.48, 44 38.75

Nova Scotia has a lot of craft breweries, and Halifax has a lot of great pubs. We plan to sample as many of each as we can. Here we are tasting four local craft beers at The Maxwell’s Plum, which has sixty beers on tap.

Position: -63 34.37, 44 39.04

A waterfront dinner, with local craft beer of course, at the Lower Deck.

Position: -63 34.33, 44 38.85

The Irish alehouse Old Triangle wins points for one of the most attractive pub signs in Halifax.

Position: -63 34.31, 44 38.84

We sat at the bar and had an excellent lunch while chatting with the bartender at the wonderful Irish alehouse Old Triangle. Despite our goal of sampling only local craft beer, Jennifer couldn’t resist a pint of her favourite brew, Kilkenny. That last time we found it on tap was in Australia. None of the Irish pubs that we’d visited recently in the US carried it. When we mentioned this to the bartender, he said “Then they weren’t Irish pubs were they?”

Position: -63 33.98, 44 38.40

The Garrison craft beer brewery is right beside the cruise ship terminal and offers lots of souvenirs in its store.

Position: -63 34.22, 44 38.66

We returned back toward town, planning to have dinner at the Red Stag pub. We loved their sign out front. Believe it or not, we went right, not left. We’ll be back.

Position: -63 34.23, 44 38.66

Right next to the Red Stag tavern is the Alexander Keith’s brewery, established on this site in 1820 and one of the oldest breweries in Canada. We’d arrived just in time for the next tour, which is why we went right at the Red Stag sign. The tour took us through the brewery, with an explanation of the brewing process and the history of the Alexander Keith and his brewery, and of course samples of their various beers. The assistant brew master is in on the right talking to the group.

Position: -63 34.23, 44 38.66

We finished the tour with a traditional Nova Scotia Gaelic gathering called a Ceilidh in the brewery’s basement pub while enjoying a pint of the Keith’s brew of our choice. A Ceilidh usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. We didn’t do any dancing, but the singers were entertaining and we had a great time.

Position: -63 34.22, 44 38.66

We finished the day with a great dinner at the Red Stag tavern adjacent to the Alexander Keith’s brewery. Our table is by the window on the right.

Position: -63 34.53, 44 38.82

We took a lunch break during our Citadel visit after we’d watched the Noon Gun. At the nearby Wooden Monkey pub we had an exceptional pizza lunch with, of course, local craft beer.

Position: -63 35.76, 44 39.25

From the Citadel, we walked 1.5 miles northwest to the Halifax Forum. On our way we stopped for a drink in The Charm School Pub at Unfiltered Brewing. Their beer and cider were delicious, and we loved their domain name. While there we had a great conversation with outspoken co-owner Andrew Murphy, who is a professional photographer. Jennifer is looking through some of his impressive pictures while Andrew sips his beer.

Position: -63 36.72, 44 42.24

We had a good lunch on the patio at the Old Port Pub about a ten-minute walk from the Dartmouth Yacht Club.

Position: -63 34.11, 44 39.88

An ultra-local craft brew on the rooftop deck at the Celtic Corner Public House in Dartmouth. Nine Locks brewery is about 2.5 miles away and named for the nine locks on the historic Shubenacadie Canal.

Position: -63 34.23, 44 38.43

Jennifer has been pining to visit the Granite brew pub in Halifax since first arriving into Nova Scotia two months ago. The Granite Brewery, established in Halifax in 1985, opened a Toronto brew pub in 1991 that was a favourite haunt of the IBM Toronto Lab compiler and database teams that we were worked on. James had actually been to the Granite brew pub in Halifax at The Henry House, a National Historic Site, but Jennifer hadn’t. Unfortunately, the Granite has since moved its brewery away from The Henry House and dropped its brew pub license. But The Henry House still carries Granite on tap and their Best Bitter tastes as good as ever.

Position: -63 34.46, 44 38.96

A sunny spot in the corner of the Split Crow pub. We had a good lunch there and have now tried most of the local craft beers. Halifax is a very cool town.

Position: -63 34.47, 44 38.74

We had an excellent meal upstairs at the Stubborn Goat Gastro Pub.

Position: -63 34.76, 44 38.56

A tasting flight of excellent craft beer at the Rock Bottom Brewery in the Dalhousie University district. From left to right are their Dark Mild, Baltic Porter, IPA, Oatmeal Stout, Raspberry Wheat, American Sour, Wheat and ESB. Stouts, porters or fruit-based beers generally don’t appeal to us, but we liked every single beer in the selection. The food was delicious too.

Position: -63 34.33, 44 39.02

Having spent time with our visitors, we didn’t finish the wing engine alingment job until 7pm. We went out for dinner at Gahan House brew pub. This was the only pub repeat visit we made, mainly because it was convenient for a late meal.