No, the young woman wasn't from Immigration Canada. She was on the staff of the Gold Crown Brewery, our first stop on Ontario's Ale Trail. Her job was to make sure guests had paid their two dollars for an Ale Trail passport, which entitles its holder to sample beer at the six participating breweries. On the third Saturday and Sunday of the month, April through October, the breweries hold an open house. From 1 to 4:30 p.m., they offer tours, beer sampling, and conversation with fellow beer lovers. It's largely a local affair, attended by residents of the Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo areas looking for an afternoon out, and the occasional tour bus filled with university students. My wife and I were the only Americans on the circuit.

The Ale Trail's breweries take care not to let the tasting get out of control. Sampling takes place under "industry guidelines": two to three ounces of beer per plastic glass, and three samples per guest. Those amounts weren't likely to get anyone in trouble with the local constables, but they were enough to allow the two of us, sharing our sample cups, to taste--and comment on--the Trail's offerings. The breweries also put out snacks to help guests clear their palates while tasting.

Located in downtown Waterloo, Gold Crown Brewery (71 King Street North; 519-886-2071) brews six beers whose names evoke the spirit of Merrie Olde England. We sampled them in the brewery's retail store among wooden beer barrels, exhibits of brewing science, and convivial drinkers. I especially enjoyed Gold Crown's Jester's Ale, an Irish-style red ale, and Kings Pilsener. Brewmaster Kelly Adlys belongs to a family that has been brewing beer in Waterloo since 1842. The Adlys family also owns the Lion Brewery Restaurant, located next door in the basement of the Huether Hotel. The restaurant, which isn't part of the Ale Trail, serves its own line of beers and offers a full pub menu.

At the other end of downtown Waterloo is Brick Brewing (181 King Street South; 519-576-9100 or 1-800-505-8971). The brewery, located in a converted Victorian furniture factory, is named for founder Jim Brickman, said to be Ontario's first microbrewer. His brewery's original products include its flagship beer, Brick Premium Lager, and Waterloo Dark, a lager with the brewery's mascot, a wild boar, on the label.

Sitting at the hospitality center's bar, surrounded by hundreds of beer bottles from around the world, I learned that Brick had acquired two of Ontario's breweries as part of the ongoing consolidation of Canada's beer industry. One of these is Algonquin Brewery, located in Formosa, some 60 miles to the north. The 130-year-old brewery sits on a huge underground aquifier, which provides plenty of natural spring water to brew Formosa Springs Cold-Filtered Draft, as well as the Algonquin line of beers. Brick's other acquisition is the Laker line of popular-priced beers, now brewed with Formosa's spring water. Brick is also licensed to brew two German beers, and Celis White, a Belgian-style wheat beer.

We couldn't tour the Old Mill Brewery, the Ale Trail's tiniest, because it had just closed to make room for a hotel. Its operations have been taken over by Oakville's Trafalgar Brewing Company, which intends to keep making and distributing the beers. In the meantime, Old Mill's products had all but vanished from the taps in the brewery's historic hometown of Elora. The first pub we visited had just run out. The next establishment, the historic Elora Mill Inn, still had Paddy's Irish Red, which we drank to the accompaniment of the Grand River rushing past the dining room window. Ale Trail organizers are scrambling to find a substitute venue for Old Mill's products for the year's remaining open houses.

There's more to come on the Ale Trail. In the next article, we'll go to Guelph, Ontario, and drop in on craft breweries, old and new.

This article originally appeared on Suite101.com in July 2000.