Posts
Brewmance Episode 4: The Great Outdoors
This month on Brewmance, Mark and I are joined by Aaron Spinney from Sawdust City Brewing Co. and we make a Belgian-style Golden Ale with Earl Grey Tea and mangoes! First outdoors brew of the year for me, too! It was a …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The Loose Moose, Toronto
"The Mississippi Delta, is shining like a national guitar/ I am following the river down the highway through the cradle of the civil war..." Picture this: you were part of one of the most popular duos of your generation. …
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 …
Lady Stavoren Wheat Wine — Amsterdam Brewing Co.
It's always nice when I'm handed a beer, that is a style I'm not familiar with. I admit, it happens less these days then, say, three years ago. But when it does, it reminds me how awesome the beer world is. I felt this a …
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 …
Maverick and Gose
It's official: the LCBO will see it's first collaborative-brew from Ontario brewers (having had Brooklyn/Schneider's Hopfenweisse), with the release of Amsterdam/Great Lakes Maverick and Gose. What's extra crazy, is it's …
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 …
Brewer's Plate 2013
So, sorry for the delay, but last week was actually pretty crazy. Lots of evenings out, and sleepy mornings. At any rate, last Wednesday was Brewer's Plate, one of my favourite beer events of the year (as noted in my …
Hopwired IPA — 8 Wired Brewery
Did you ever read The Chrysalids in school? Remember Sealand, the awesome country where telepaths were normal and encouraged? Sealand was New Zealand. It survived the nuclear holocaust, basically because it's such an …
Why The Brewer's Plate Matters
I like what I call the Rule of 3. I first learned about it through a style of gardening/farming called Permaculture (actually, Permaculture is much much deeper than just gardening and farming, but that's how I met it). …
Omerta Blood Orange Pale Ale — Bellwoods Brewery
Fruit in beers, what can I say? They range from light lime lagers to the epic Cantillion Lambics, and lots of iterations in between. In some cases, the fruit is really the only thing you taste, in other cases it used to …
Roman Candle IPA — Bellwoods Brewery
I love a good fireworks display. When I was younger, it was all about lighting off the kind you buy at pop-up shops on the way to the cottage, firing them off over the lake on Victoria Day, Canada Day, and midnight on …
Goedemorgen — Amsterdam Brewing Co.
Three years ago, if you had asked me about Amsterdam Brewing, I would have talked about their excellent quality, their awesome staff, and the (large) part they played in my journey into craft beer. I would not have …
Brewmance Episode 3: Sharing is Caring
Well, last month's Brewmance wasn't a home run, but this month, we've got Iain McOustra from Amsterdam Brewing Co. and a big old jug of Brettanomyces Bruxellensis. Indeed, we're going with a 100% brett pale ale, and a …
Hop Series Hallertau Hop Ale — Alexander Keith's
Single-hop (and indeed, single-hop/single-malt pale ales), are becoming a bit of a "thing" in the beer scene. Using careful hop additions to draw out the characteristics of the hops is something of an art form. It's not …
Market Pale Ale — Amsterdam Brewing Co.
One of the best parts of spring returning, is the return of the dozens of farmer's markets around Toronto. Nothing is better than wandering around, seeing neighbours, and meeting the people who grow your produce. I take …
The Monday Wrap
Well now, it's Monday morning. How was your weekend? I had my last Friday night hockey followed by drinks at the Monk's Table, Saturday was the epic Beaunly (more on that in a moment), and yesterday was nicely chill. I …