Alexander Keith's Brewery Tour - Halifax, Nova Scotia

581

04 October 2012

R. Linda:

After me conversation with a raven or crow, I took us back into Halifax proper. Did you know their double-decker buses are PINK? Pepto Bismol pink. I do believe they are tour buses, but I didn't pay that much attention to them since Maudie was giving instructions that were of vital importance to me personally, and that was directions to the brewery.

 

Pink buses but no pink elephants ... yet. But it was early

Halifax is a unique and pretty city. I have heard it likened to a small Boston, but it's more like Peabody, Massachusetts. There are plenty of green spaces, lots of trees, grass etc., making it seem like you are travelling in a more populated residential area. We were charmed by Halifax and I think those who live there are lucky because there be plenty to see and do and you have a neat mix of the modern with the old.

                                                                                       

Halifax Harbour

                                                                                   

Tugboat Harbour big chairs

Maudie's directions were spot on and we arrived at the Farmers Market the brewery located inside.

 

Gabe's Mecca -- the Brewery

 

Entrance to the Farmers Market

We bought our tickets for the brewery tour and had some time, so we had coffee and walked around the shops which were sadly lacking. The place be full of charm but not many shops inside. The ones that were there you'd expect to find, artisan jewellery, outdoor clothing and the like. We had wandered back out to the centre square where the tour was to begin just in the nick. As we came in under one of the archways, this rather pretty young lass was calling out to us on the tour to come to her. We did because she was so loud you couldn't help but hear her no matter where in the mass of hallways deep inside the recesses of the Farmers Market you might happen to be. I mean LOUD LOUD.

So we walk up to the steps and there the lassie be telling us to "Gather round now, and get ready to come inside, but first please if you have any of those new-fangled beeping gadgets you moderns like talkin' into, please shut them off." OK, mobiles off and up the stairs we followed her, but as soon as we hit the first room inside she whirls around and gives us the beginning of a drunken spiel on the origins of the brewery. We all exchanged covert glances and with many questioning or furrowed brows we looked at her closely. Was she exhibiting a slight buzz, OR was it our imaginations? Well, after the second room stop and then the third, there was no doubt the lass was taking us for a tour inebriated style.

 

And there she was, talk about woozy floozy

I tell ya, just when I was getting used to her rather unique and sudden movements, another lass appeared just as high as the first one! Only this one was more obvious than the first. It was an Oh My God tour. Because that's what we would all muttered as we followed soberly from one exhibition room to the next. One guy even turned to me and whispered, "Is it me? Or, are these ladies drunk?"

"They must have been in the vat that's for sure," I answered.

                                                                                    

Just look at her

I was getting high off the tour guides and I had nothing to drink. But wait it got better!

Yes, she brought along a friend! And look at HER! Can you tell something be amiss?

This was getting rather ridiculous it was. Almost falling over each other they regaled us with song! Yes, they sang to us, in a brewery, someplace below ground, captives we were and truly none of us knew if we should clap and encourage this, or speak up and ask "Hey, what about the tour?" I tell ya!

Just as they stopped the singing and we thought they were about to lurch through another doorway, we were surprised by this:

 

Then, there was another one!

Just look at him! I ask you does he look sober? He made the other two look that way, and Tonya whispered aside to me that this was the hokiest tour she'd ever been on. Well ME TOO!

We were taken into a subterranean pub. Yes, we were in the bowels of the brewery somewhere locked in a large stone room with three crazy people, but wait, the first one magically appeared as well!

                                                                                      

The downstairs pub

                                                                                      

The threesome before the original guide appeared (prelude to the drinking, us I mean)

We were served three types of ale and beer. I opted for the Pale India Ale and will never have another. It was awful. I like me ale, but this stuff was more like bitters. The Irish Red Ale, of which I had a sip of Tonya's, was delicious. So it be a matter of taste. We had our first choices and were offered another AFTER the show started. Yes, all four of them put on a dancing song fest. I was stunned senseless by all this and when offered another ale would have partaken, but for the wife noticing a tunnel OUT.

ESCAPE! Thank the Fates the door wasn't locked!

If that door had been locked, I'd be more certifiable than I already am. That was the most bizarre tour we'd ever been on. We think the "actors" were acting, but why they'd act sloshed is no ones guess. But it was memorable I'll give it that much.

Gabe
Copyright © 2012 All rights reserved