Sour & Wild Ales

The benchmark sour - Jelly King is a house-lacto dry-hopped fruited sour that accounts for roughly a third of everything they make, and the limited fruit editions move fast. If you want the deep cut, ask whether any Motley Cru oak-aged wild blend is on; it's an anniversary release. The white-picket-fence Ossington patio fills fast in summer, so come early.

The west-end wildcard: alongside the juicy IPAs, Bandit runs a real Brett-farmhouse and barrel-aged sour program with a new limited barrel release roughly every month, plus a deep fruited-Gose and smoothie-sour line (Wizard of Gose, YoYo). The covered, retractable-roof beer garden works year-round, and there's a full kitchen with vegan and gluten-free options, so treat it as a sit-down stop.

The Paradise Lost line is the draw: barrel-aged fruited sours that rotate through different fruit-and-botanical variants - and the same barrels' oak staves smoke the in-house Southern Comfort menu. Up to 26 taps on Geary, so grab a flight to compare. Sunday brunch runs 11-2 if you'd rather pair the sour with food.

Canada's self-described open-source brewery cultures its own lactobacillus in-house - the Shapeshifter kettle sour and its goses (like Ion Cannon) lean on that house blend. It's a small Junction Triangle taproom with no kitchen, so plan to eat first or order in. Recipes are all published online if you want to nerd out before you go.

The pilgrimage end of the circuit: Nickel Brook's Funk Lab is one of Canada's serious dedicated funk-and-sour programs, and retired oak casks become the taproom's furniture and light fixtures. The Etobicoke site on The Queensway brings those bottles into the city - check the bottle shop for small-batch funk releases. It's a haul from the others, so make this its own trip.