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The problem with collecting rare beers that I can`t buy again because they don`t ship anywhere near my house is not drinking them. The problem raises it`s ugly head on he first sip of something so special that you know you`d drink as a weekly favourite though you just won`t be able to buy it. Your heart breaks a little bit at a time as you take each sip knowing that you are falling further in love while simultaneously knowing that your supply is dwindling.
This is the experience I had last night with Deschutes Brewery`s (Oregon) Red Chair IPA.
Red Chair is sharp, crisp and delightfully present in your mouth. It grabs the attention of the entire range of taste buds at the same time. It`s an experience that threatens to overwhelm your mouth but quickly disipates leaving a refreshing aftertaste to linger in your mouth.
Red Chair was named after the oldest ski lift on Mt. Bachelor in Oregon and I adore the label.
Some would argue that calling Red Chair an IPA is a liberal use of the term. I`ve noticed that they appear to have changed the branding to call newer bottles (and a newer label) to call it a NWPA (Northwest Pale Ale). It`s not as dark as many IPAs and the bitterness is intentionally lacking. Perhaps purists would take exception to the term – I adored it for what was in the bottle and not on the outside (but that too was very pretty).
If only I could find a bottle of this again (I got mine in Phoenix, Arizona).
It`s been a long time since we`ve shared a beer review in these here pages. We`ve had plenty worth sharing (beer is a significant passion) and some worth avoiding (we don`t talk about such things here in any great detail) and many that split the difference.
Dana and I have about 40 large bottles of beer (750 ml – common to craft beer consumers a bit of a novelty elsewhere). Most were brought home from the USA where import laws allow a far greater selection and their amazing craft brewing scene puts ours to shame (albeit they have a population base that allows for such a claim and we do have a few stand-outs). The bottles quietly wait their night to be featured in our home and to dance on our palates. Some will wait years.
On our recent trip to New York I was purchasing a few bottles for the hotel room when the kind beer guide came up to me with a bottle in his hand and placed it in my cart. I remember thinking that he was like a character out of `Lord of the Rings` as he brought me a secret treasure that I had to guard or consume to absorb it`s magic powers.
`Do you like IPAs?`
I liked that he assumed I knew what an India Pale was – and the fact that it is one of my two favourite styles of beer (a Pilsner being the other). I also liked that he had already placed the bottle in my cart and wondered what would have happened if I spat on the floor with disgust (I imagined my golem-like friend would have snatched his bottle back and scurried to some dark shadow where he would simply disappear.
I nodded yes.
He smiled and got even more excited. `This is Sculpin. It`s very rare and when it`s sold out, it`s sold out. It`s awesome!`
I noted it was yet another beer from California. The beer scene in California is truly out of control (in a good way).
When I emptied my cart at the cash register another Hobbit-like creature got excited seeing the ugly bottle. `Ooooh, this is so good.` I was wondering if I was buying a used car or a bottle of beer.
Sculpin is named after a fish that is covered in spikes which are laced with poison yet the fish is very edible. Ballast Point releases a very limited yearly release of this fruity, bitter and crisp IPA which can be tough to get your hands on (I don`t beleive you`ll find a bottle in Ontario to purchase). It poured light and fresh and weighs in at 7% alcohol by volume.
The fanaticism over the beer was well worth it. Dana had a sip which quickly led to a glass. The care taken to make this craft beer even craftier is evident in it`s pour – it just feels like something special. If you ever have the chance, make sure to pick one up – and while you`re at it, place one in someone else`s cart.
It was a darling friend`s birthday last night. There were about 40 people for dinner and then drinks on the Danforth (Lolita`s Lust – who were great hosts).
After completing dinner we migrated upstairs to an intimate private lounge. I pulled up to the bar and noticed a beer I hadn`t tried before which is always an exciting view for me. A new unopened beer is kind of like seeing all those gifts at Christmas when you were a kid. You knew some would be the coolest things in the world and others would be socks but the prospect of what they could be made them all equally exciting.
To continue the analogy of Christmas gifts; 9 beer is one of the cool gifts and something worth getting excited for.
I was pleasantly surprised to find my mouth explode with flavor as I took my first sip of beer. It was super hoppy and a strong ale that we so often lack in Canada. So many of our beers, including many of our Ontario Craft beer, seem to take the middle ground on taste. like Goldilocks, they aren`t too bitter and aren`t too weak, they are their own version of what`s `just right.` This isn`t necesarilly a bad thing – it`s just that there`s a lot in the middle. U.S. craft beer has such a size (around 3,000 craft breweries) that their options are vast and it`s great to see our options expanding north of the border.
9 is an India Pale Ale. For the uninitiated, this means it is very full of flavor and most consider it bitter. Some consider it an acquired taste though converts would argue that they are not full of flavor – it`s that others are boring and weak.
I tried an experiment – I shared tastes of the beer with friends. Some are craft beer junkies, many are not even beer fans. I thought the results would be easy – that the `veterans` would like it and others would find 9 to be overpowering. I was wrong. Of the 8 or 9 friends who tried it, they all found it to be interesting or great. I`m not convinced this is an ale for all people but I do find it a wonderful beer for my tastes.
A quick bit of research on Michael Duggan shed some light on this great beer that appeared to come from nowhere. His fingerprints are all over Toronto`s beer history. He was the original brewmaster at Mill Street Brewery and worked at Cèst What, Robert Simpson and ran operations at Cool Brewery in the west end of the city.
Mr. Duggan has taken the leap of faith into his own brand which includes the brewery and an attached restaurant and pub (on Victoria Street near Queen and Yonge in the heart of the city). The location opened in late October last year and provides a testing ground for established product as well as new experiments.
Our list of places to visit in Toronto just grew by one!
I have been stating that the U.S. is kicking Canada`s butt in terms of it`s beer scene for about 2 years (by many accounts I was very late to the table with that assessment).
It`s not that we don`t have good beer. Our craft beer scene is picking up momentum and some world-class pint glasses are appearing in Canada. Progress is slow and consumers are supporting the scene slower. With the LCBO (Ontario`s Government Liquor monopoly) now devoting shelves to Ontario Craft Beer, a strengthening of the Ontario Craft Brewers Association and brewers who are starting to get International recognition (Mill Street, Beau`s and others) there is great potential for where beer may go in Ontario, and Canada.
The US now supports more than 2,000 craft beers who support each other and educate the public on the beer scene as a whole. People are excited about breweries and brew masters and the industry is becoming closer to rock and roll than mass food production. Brewers are combining efforts, producing unique and rare beers and making them accessible to the general public.
The less restrictive import laws also allow the US to indulge in beer from around the world. I have been to more than 10 stores which offer 500+ brands of beer (Premiere Gourmet being the closes in Buffalo – they stock up to 1,600 different flavors).
You may recall that I visited Stone Brewery in the Spring. They are nestled in the outskirts of San Diego, California. They were also named (once again) as the number one brewery in America. They set an aspirational example of what a brewery can be (if you have not seen the 3-minute video they produced called I am a Craft Brewer, you simply must).
I recently revisited San Diego. I didn`t have the chance to get back to Stone (it was about $100 cab ride from where I was staying) but I did get out on the town.
Of 10 or 15 bars and restaurants I visited, 100% of their draft beer was craft beer – more than 90% of that was local. When a tap wasn`t local it made sense (i.e. a Japanese craft beer available on draft in a sushi restaurant).
The support of local beer was everywhere. The convention center which housed our conference even offered local bottle beer (an amazing and pretty Red Trolley Ale). This may have been the first time I have seen craft beer at a mass convention in my life.
If I had a sudden bout of memory loss and found myself trying to figure out where in the world I was, it would have been easy to diagnose which city I was in by merely reading the taps of beer.
The day after I returned from my trip I ended up in a large hotel in Toronto. The lobby bar supported mostly large US mass-produced beer. This is not an indictment of the hotel – they are not an exception in our city. It is however, a pint worth thinking over…
It was memories of this literary classic that came to my minds eye as I saw the label of Highballer Pumpkin Ale from Grand River Brewing (from Cambridge, Ontario). It has been an exciting autumn for Ontario Craft Beer – there are more and more small breweries showing up through the LCBO and they are raising the bar with more and more interesting offerings. I was excited to see 4 or 5 pumpkin beers show up to celebrate the regional flavors of fall.
Seasonal beers are commonplace in many small breweries around the world but it has been a tradition that has been sparse in Ontario Craft Beer. Barley Days Brewery, McAsulan (from Quebec), Mill Street and a few others offered specialty flavors for limited times but it seemed (at least to me) that they were few and far between. I imagine it is scary enough to try to establish a few quality beers and that creating diversion can seem like a counter-intuitive way to establish a brand.
Grand River is planning to bottle 4 seasonal brews timed around Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day and Canada day (details here).
The Pumpkin Ale contains the real deal – the fruit is donated by Stroms Farm in Guelph. It is dark orange in color, fruity and spicy. It is very dry to taste and lightly carbonated. The beer weighs in at 5.2% alcohol. flavors of cinnamon and nutmeg and the heartiness of fall. If you haven’t had a pumpkin ale this is a great place to start – it is one of the better examples of Ontario Pumpkin Ale I have had this year.
If you haven’t explored local beer (wherever you are), make sure to give it a try. Look out for seasonal favourites like this. If you’re in Ontario and can still find a bottle of this fine
I’ll admit it was the packaging that stopped me in the aisle – a Canadian Craft Beer with phenomenal packaging stands out from it’s peers. There are many that are fairly good and others that are even very good – but there are few that are this pretty:
We ran into the fine folks at Beau’s at the Royal Winter Fair. They had a small booth and were super friendly and we were glad to say hi. Our friend Margaret had tipped us off that there was a new beer lurking around Toronto and we simply had to try it. 3 days later we were provided with our chance. We came home from the Royal Winter with two bottles of their Lug Tread Lagered Ale.
The beer is a combination of two styles – it is top fermented like an ale (it uses malted barley which conducts a fast fermentation and typically results in a sweet and full-bodied taste) and then cold-aged like a lager. The roots of this type of beer trace back to Germany though the beer also reminded me of the Czech Styles of beer (of which a Pilsner is one of the more distinct).
The beer is a golden color and crisp to drink. If you`ve not had a crisp beer before and are struggling to imagine what I mean by that, think of club soda. Club soda is way crisper than any beer I`ve drank but if you`ve had club soda then you know the direction we`re pointing at.
Each of us is entitled to their own taste so my review is relative. This beer, quite simply, could be the best Ontario Craft Beer I have consumed yet. It is certainly in my top 5 and is one of the best beers I have tasted all year.
On top of a great product and a great package (and a great website), Beau`s has a great story. It is a family business that is primarily helmed by a father and son team and their friends. In a world where so many companies are trying to make themselves look bigger than they are to try to compete with giants, Beau`s is proud to be small and family based. Part of their corporate philosophy insists that they will always have time for their friends.
Beau`s has been around Eastern Ontario for several years – it is just starting to come west. Look for the specialty bottle above in Toronto area (and the rest of Central Ontario) LCBOs in early December before it is replaced in January by a new design. A great holiday gift that won’t be re-gifted!
It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a beer post – as winter sets in there will be more evenings at home and we’ll be sampling more than ever and enjoying a collection of cellared beer that we’ve collected over the summer.
In the mean time, there’s Beer Wars – a movie about the US beer scene and the independent breweries who are challenging the giants. There’s several regular beer heroes in the trailer including Greg Koch from Stone and Sam Calagione from Dogfishhead Brewery.
If you haven’t seen the I am a Craft Brewer video yet, take the 2 minutes to watch the stirring clip for a view into the very real battle for beer that is happening in the US right now.
Do you have any favorite craft/ small beer from around the world?
Before we get to the larger portion of this post, I’m sure some of you are simply here to learn how to cool beer (without freezing it) while in the woods. This lesson works year round and will work in any body of water:
Full cans of beer float (in this case we used barrels of rainwater)! Note that this doesn’t work so well with cans of pop which simply sink (I think the can is heavier). This will chill warm beer in the summer and – as long as the water doesn’t freeze – will keep your beer cold without going to ice. In the summer you can use the water in a lake or a stream to chill them out.
Regular readers will know that I have just returned from a week in the woods hunting moose. I had pre-written a series of posts and tweets about my general perspective on hunting and how different it is from what many may (or may not) think. I’ve been back for 4 days and am glad to say it was a great hunt.
When I was in the woods I kept a journal of all 9 days of my hunt. I will be posting each of these in order from tomorrow through next week and post each one exactly one week after each happened (i.e. tomorrows post is from hand written notes from exactly a week before).
I am hoping that this format gives readers an idea of what a group hunt is really like and shares insight into the world of sustenance hunting. It won’t always be the easiest thing to read and all of it is my interpretation of the hunt.
I will not include gory photos or stories about the hunters themselves. The personal stories are powerful and a massive part of why I go hunting – but this is not the venue to talk about stories of others – that’s not the deal they signed up for and not fair to them. Taking this part of the story out of the story only paints a small part of a much bigger whole – I am hoping that the stories we posted in previous weeks would give some idea as to the bigger picture. It is tough knowing that these stories would share a much bigger value to what we do – you’ll have to take my word on it (or not ).
Some of the posts will be tough to read for many – this will not be a glamorized image of the hunt. I, of course, have my own biases but hope to paint a whole picture of the hunt and went I went through of part of it. I am hoping the last 10 days has been a good intro to my perspective about a topic that is difficult for many. If you want an idea of what it’s like to be on a group hunt (hint: it’s a lot of sitting still), I hope this gives you an idea of what it’s like to be a hunter – and a member of a very real tribe.
We’ll be returning to food posts once the play-by-play of the hunt is over. By then I’ll have a stockpile of information and topics to share – including several posts from another trip to the UK (I leave on Tuesday). In the meantime, hope to see comments (including respectful challenges and questions) to continue as we go!
It’s been a long while since we’ve shared a beer post here – even longer since we’ve posted about Canadian beer.
It is a popular myth in Canada that we brew superior beer to our counterparts in the United States. While some may feel that “our large-scale breweries are better than theirs” (both sides of the border making the same claim) – the argument quickly sounds like “My dad could beat up your dad.” A time comes in every life that we must fight our own fight – and American Craft brewers are in the midst of a full-tilt revolution (if you haven’t seen the following – click on it without pause: “I am a craft brewer).
There are 25 craft breweries in Ontario – the United States had more than 1,500 in 2008 (to be fair, almost 1,000 of those are brewpubs which their products as offsale). Craft beer in the US has gained almost 2% market share in the last 2 years (Nationally) and is a 6.3 billion dollar industry. (All stats from the Brewers Association). Craft Beer in the US is supported in ways rarely seen in Canada – more than 90% of the pubs, restaurants, hotels and bars I visited over the last 6 months in Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego, Salt Lake City and Richmond all had at least one tap of local craft beer.
Canadian Craft beer accounted for almost 17 million dollars of sales in Ontario last year. Our beer industry remained virtually unchanged from 2002-2007 – however our imported beer took an additional 10% of sales from the pot in that time. National craft beer sales are increasing by a large percentage but still form a small percentage of the overall market.
All that being said; I prefer judging individual beer by it`s flavor rather than statistics of an industry. And flavor is not an area that Canada is lagging in – our numbers may be thin but much of our Canadian (and Ontario) Craft Beer is fabulous.
Wellington Brewery is based out of Guelph, Ontario. Their beers range from 4%-8% and offer 6 options – an Ale, Pale Ale, Bitter, Strong Ale, Russian Stout and Lager.
The Special Pale Ale has become my summer crush – a new must-have for the fridge.
The SPA is not for everyone. If you are a die-hard traditionalist and a fan of traditional pale ale, you will likely find this a little meek. If you are looking to transition from a mass-produced beer (which I also consume ), this is an easy introduction to smaller-batch beers and may start to get you ready for some of the more bitter beers. St. Peters Golden Ale would be a good place to go from here – though it`s a big jump in terms of bitterness - once you get acclimatised to this beer.
Wellington SPA starts off light and crisp before its mild bitterness kicks in. It is a pretty bronze color and pours with a light, airy head. It can be consumed on an especially hot summer day and would not be out of place after coming in from the cold in the winter. It’s a wonderful alternative to the very light and fizzy yellow beers that we have been trained to consume as summer beers. It’s also a great beer to pair food with – spicy food, strong cheeses and other hearty meals (a big plate of spaghetti, for example), would all be great companions to our hero.
If you`re looking to expand your pallet, this refreshing beer is a great place to start. If you`re a veteran with high expectations, try it with an open mind and see. For me, this is the beer of the summer (so far) and one that will be around the house (along with many others, of course), for a long time to come.
Got back from Utah on Friday – a wonderful place with an odd culture around alcohol (odd to me of course and perspective is everything – I understand and appreciate that if I were in Utah I would be the odd one and respect that). I write from my own perspective and experience and, therefore, Utah is respectfully odd about it’s views on alcohol.
I stayed at the University of Salt Lake City and respected it’s dry policy. I actually found it interesting that the University was dry and actually thought it made a lot of sense. When I went to school, many of us invested our evenings at the bottom of a glass. The summer student population seems to be settling into a different pace here – everything from nightly strolls, bike rides and coal BBQs. It seemed to have a great sense of community and appeared to work.
The decision to go for a beer became a 6-mile walk (I took a cab home both times). It is a lovely place and the weather was fabulous. I walked past a theatre which was releasing a frantic crowd from the first night (of 3) of the Miss Utah qualifiers. Larger than life outfits and fans with huge support buttons of the women they supported poured onto the streets. It’s a lasting memory and such things are some of the rare benefits of travelling for business – it’s a moment I will not forget for a long time.
I made my way to Squatter’s Brew Pubin the heart of Salt Lake (thanks again to Graeme and his beer network). I clamoured onto a bar stool and was presented a beer menu and knew I was off to a good start.
Squatter’s is naturally cozy and charming. The staff were friendly and the beer was plentiful. The warm interior welcomed visitor’s with it’s glow of exposed brick and natural wood beams:
I was excited to see that they had a sampling/ tasting menu and was quick to order a round. The pub chooses 6 for you to try. I was initially disappointed by this apparent totalitarian selection process and then understood the advantage to their choosing – each sample is lined up on a place-mat which labels each taste and describes the tasting notes.
I found the placemat system remarkably gratifying – I would sample a beer and attempt to detect my own tasting notes. I would then refer to the menu to see if I could match my thoughts to their description and then used the placemat to determine how accurate I was. I’ll admit to being stumped at least once!
I tried one of their nitro condition brews and sampled my way through the line until I hit the Provo Girl. This lady is a Pilsner – something fairly rare in North America (it’s Czech in origination and not entirely common if you are counting by the total number of options presented to us in North America). A Pilsner is also my favourite type of beer in the world. They tend to be crisp, dry and are quite often bitter with Hops. Provo Girl is the best Pilsner I have ever had from the United States – it was simply wonderful. I was surprised to learn that the beers on tap were all limited to 4.0% alcohol by order of the state of Utah (who also just legalized home brewing of beer in March of 2009). I am a raving fan.
I had a quick nibble as well – hummus complimented with other tastes of the Mediterranean (fresh feta, olives and fantastic slow-roasted tomatoes):
Squatter’s is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary and if you find yourself at the airport, in town or in Park City, check out one of their three locations.
A few more shots to give you the feel of the bar rail:
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