One of my earliest craft-beer memories from my journey into better beer, was seeing a tap handle that was an orange. I don’t know why I was so enamoured by it, but I was. It was, of course, the tap handle for Great Lakes Orange Peel Ale. While I have always loved that handle, Orange […]
Beer Review
Crazy Canuck Pale Ale — Great Lakes Brewery
Well here’s (I think) a TorontoBeerBlog.com first: I’m re-reviewing a beer. Actually it’s really not that big a deal, particularly when the beer in question is Crazy Canuck Pale Ale, and the people who make it is Great Lakes Brewery. I’m not suggesting that Great Lakes is inconsistent (far from it), but particularly with a […]
Wizard Wolf Session Ale — Bellwoods Brewery
If you’ve ever asked me about beers and quality, one thing that I will often bang on about, is that fresh is best (at least in most cases). So when I dropped by Bellwoods Brewery this morning to chat about some summer stuff, my answer to Mike’s question “Do you want some of the Wizard […]
Fruit Stand Watermelon Wheat Ale — Kensington Brewing Co
There are a lot of beers out there with fruit in them. To start with, the myriad lite lime type things that seem to have endless marketing budgets. There are also more than a few pleasing beers made in Canada with things like raspberries, apricots or blueberries in them. And, of course, there are the […]
Maverick and Gose — Amsterdam Brewing Co and Great Lakes Brewery
You might recall a few weeks back I wrote about how Maverick and Gose was about to become the first all-Ontario collaboration to hit the LCBO. Well, after the usual LCBO bureaucratic hiccup, it is rolling out! If you want me to save you some time, Gose is a style you can be forgiven for […]
Rickard’s Shandy — Molson-Coors Canada
Years ago, I was sitting at Castro’s, with a dear friend of mine named Christian. Christian is German. This is important to the story, trust me. At the time his English was fairly good, but occasionally, he would stumble to find a word or phrase. So when he ordered his beer, I assumed there was […]
Fracture Double IPA — Amsterdam Brewing Co.
I love hops, and I hope you do too. In fact, I have three hop plants on order from Toronto Brewing as we speak. I also have a hop vine at my mother’s house. So, you would assume that I was a pretty big hop head. Give me the biggest, brashest, hoppiest thing you can […]
6-4-3 Double IPA — Left Field Brewery
Wow. Just Wow. How about Left Field Brewery? I don’t know if you remember when, a few weeks ago (March 4th, to be specific) I mentioned Left Field Brewery launching. I remember, because it was the single biggest day of traffic on my blog. Seriously. People were jazzed about the new baseball-themed beer. Obviously, I […]
Canny Man Wee Heavy — Radical Road Brewing Co.
Last year, I walked into Black Oak Brewery in Etobicoke, and was greeted by a mountain of whiskey barrels. Seriously, like, 80, I think. I knew that many breweries were jumping onto the barrel-aging wagon, but this seemed like a bit much. So I asked Simon (Black Oak’s brewmaster) what the deal was. It turns […]
