thebabyperks

I'm going to be honest-- I went in with high expectations. Throughout the past week I've been reading the reviews and everyone was raving about the quality and flavor profiles of the beer options. I was cautiously optimistic that this would be a good place to kick off my Barberis & Brews series.

I was not disappointed.

Overall, David and I gave Not Lost a 23/33 (for reference our highest-scoring brewery is a 29), putting it up there with some of our favorite breweries. What did we love about it?

From back: blueberry wheat, pink guava, pub ale, and regular beer

They have a great range of types of beers. When we visited this past Saturday they had a sour, a cider, IPAs, a lager, wheat beer, and more. With some of the breweries we visit they may have a lot of options but they all taste similarly, this is not the case with Not Lost. Each beer had a unique flavor-- they weren't afraid to take risks. I got two flights of four tasters, my two favorites were the Blueberry Wheat (5.5% ABV) and the Pink Guava Banana Milkshake IPA (8.3%). I'm a sucker for fruit-based wheat beers and juicy IPAs. Both of these beers had amazing flavors and I ended up ordering a full pour of the Blueberry Wheat. A notable mention was the Watermelon Chili Lime Gose (4.9%), not something I'd order a full pour of but was fun to try (and definitely watermelon/chili-y!). Something else that you don't always see is that they had a "Regular Beer" on the menu. David is more of a lager, pilsner, and cream ale sorta guy, and some breweries are more IPA focused. It was nice to have a crisp, simple beer offered amongst the other flavor-packed options.

Another way to win my heart over is to have snacks. They didn't have a full menu from what I could see, but on the day we visited they had pretzels and cheese and nachos. If you serve pretzels with cheese you automatically make me 10x happier so this was great to see.

The final category I want to bring up is the vibe. We went right when they opened at 2 p.m. and were the only ones there for the first hour or so, but I can totally see this being a fun place to go on a night with friends. They had a pretty rustic/farmhouse ~trendy~ vibe with Edison lights, which again, I love. They also used barrels as tables which I thought was neat, too.

Not Lost Brewing Company lived up to the hype that the Google reviews gave it. Ottawa was a cute, little town, with fun local stores. It was a perfect Saturday getaway: a road trip, great beers, and supporting local business.

Check out their Facebook page to keep up-to-date with their weekly brews and events.

Until next time,

Taylor