Rails to Ales - Visiting Greater Toronto Area Breweries by GO Transit
In 2025, I read the The Secret History of the Five Eyes, about how the US, UK, Australian, Canadian & New Zealand spy agencies came to work together on intelligence gathering. Fascinating to me were the stories of William Stephenson, Canadian soldier, fighter pilot, businessman and spymaster and Camp X, a WW2 paramilitary / covert agent training facility just outside of Toronto.
Looking at a map, the former Camp X facility is on Lake Ontario, not too far from the Oshawa GO train station. And there’s a brewery not too far from the Whitby GO station. I suggested to my wife we plan a day trip - take the GO train to Whitby, have lunch at the brewery, then walk along the lake towards Oshawa, see the Camp X memorial, and then walk to the Oshawa GO and make our way home. We did it, and it was a fun day, so we thought it would be fun to visit other breweries by GO. We’ve lived in Toronto for quite some time, and this was a fun way to explore beyond city limits, particularly without having to worry about driving or traffic. A brewery is as fun a destination as any, and GO weekend passes are $10, which seems like a great deal.
I didn’t always make a point of taking photos, noting what beers we tried, or what food we ate, and am writing long after we had these outings. I’ll focus on proximity to a GO station, and you can just assume that if I’ve written it here, we enjoyed the beer and our meal and had a great day…
Town Brewery
- https://townbrewery.ca/
- 1632 Charles St, Whitby, ON L1N 1B9
- April 2025
The Town Brewery is a 10 minute walk from the Whitby GO station. We ordered flights, a pizza, and a hummus plate and enjoyed everything. I’ve actually been back since, with a friend from out-of-town, who appreciated that the pizza could be ordered with lactose free cheese - he told the staff it was so good, “whoever made it deserves a raise”. They also run an outdoor establishment on the waterfront called The Pump House, which is also within walking distance of Whitby GO - we haven’t checked it out yet.
Flying Monkey Brewery
- https://www.flyingmonkeys.ca/
- Waterfront, 24 Essa Rd, Barrie, ON L4N 9C8
- February 2026
The Flying Monkey Brewery is a nice 30 minute walk along the shoreline of Lake Simcoe from the Allandale GO station in Barrie. The weekend Barrie GO schedule WAS PERFECT (note past tense!) for taking the train on the weekend, walking to Flying Monkey, having lunch with a pint, and heading back to Toronto. But as I look at the GO schedule now, they don’t seem to run a northbound train in the morning on weekends anymore - I’m not sure we’d repeat this trip without that train. That being said, beer from the Flying Monkey brewery has been a favourite amongst our circle of friends - particularly the “Juicy Ass” IPA. A friend who has left Ontario speaks of missing Flying Monkey.
Collective Arts Brewing
- https://collectiveartscreativity.com/
- 207 Burlington St E, Hamilton, ON L8L 4H2
- May 2026
Our visit to Collective Arts was actually a side quest for another Hamilton activity, but I’m including it on the list, as we did take the GO. Collective Arts Brewing is a 25 minute walk from the West Harbour GO in Hamilton. It was at the tail end of our day, we’d already eaten, so we just indulged in a flight before taking the train back to Toronto. It was a cooler day, we sat indoors.
Bench Brewing
- https://www.benchbrewing.com/
- 3991 King St, Beamsville, ON L3J 1E7
- July 2026
Bench Brewing in Beamsville was quite a commitment, and definitely a long, full day activity. We went out of our way to try this brewery on the advice of a colleague. To get to the brewery, take the train to the Burlington GO. From the Burlington GO, take the 12 Niagara bus to the Ontario St @ QEW stop. From there, it’s 8 km - almost a 2 hour walk. We took King St there, and John St back - I highly recommend avoiding King St - it’s busy, and the sidewalk does not go all the way to the brewery. The walk along John St is quite nice - it follows fruit orchards. The brewery has a great beer garden, and we tried their recommended pork BBQ nachos - they were excellent.
Counterpart Brewing
- https://counterpartbrewing.com/
- 3659 Stanley Ave #8, Niagara Falls, ON L2E 0A6
- September 2026
Counterpart Brewing is a 45 minute walk from the Niagara Falls GO station, and just a bit longer if you choose to take a scenic walk along the Niagara River. Counterpart is in a generic, new commercial plaza, but they have a pleasant, quiet beer garden. The hummus plate with fried cauliflower was excellent - we really enjoyed our meal. Of note, from the bottle shop, I picked up their Zombie Smoothie Sour w/ Mango, Pineapple, Tangerine & Banana - it was the first time I’d had anything like it - it was just like a fruit smoothie - even the consistency, I really enjoyed it.
