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Beaumont's Beer Blog
Agree with him or not, noted beer expert Stephen Beaumont is guaranteed to stimulate your enjoyment of the world's finest brews.
About That Barley Wine
February 2nd, 2010 by stephen_bI mentioned last week that I’d be writing more about a particular 15 year old barley wine I recently sampled, and here it is.
Tall Ship Ales of Squamish, British Columbia, was a sadly short-lived enterprise, but when it was around it was responsible for some of the finest ales brewed in western Canada during the 1990’s. My notes on their brands have been sadly lost to the computer melt-downs and bust-ups I have endured through the years, but I still bear fond memories of their IPA and Imperial Stout, the latter brewed long before others even contemplated such an effort, and their barley wine.
No. 1 Barley Wine, it was called, an homage, I’m sure, to the infamous Bass No. 1 Barley Wine, reputed to have been the first commercially bottled version of the style. It was then a wonderful beer, and although I knew much less fifteen years ago than I do now about aging beers, I was pretty sure it would store nicely for some time to come.
My second to last bottle was tasted earlier this decade and it was a beauty, with still acres of character and plentiful appeal. The final bottle I trotted out in January, however, was considerably older than even that well-aged version and, frankly, I wondered how it would handle the extra years.
Turns out, it did so fairly well. There was a slight acidic edge to it and a distinct thinness of malt, but at the same time there was plenty still going on, like dark fruits and black liquorice in the nose and black currant, prune, raisin, herbals and clove notes in the body. Although obviously a few years past it, I was impressed with the stature it retained and more than happy with the results of a decade and a half of patient aging.
Afterwards, I tasted one of Canada’s new classic barley wines, from one province over and a whole lot fresher. More about that in a day or two.
Coming Face-to-Face With Loki
January 29th, 2010 by stephen_bTim Kramer, the young brewer at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan’s Paddock Wood Brewing, passed through Toronto lately laden down with bottles of his most recent creations, including the Loki Double IPA. Never one to pass up the chance to sample something new, I met up with him at Toronto’s Bar Volo and swapped a taste of a 15 year old barleywine – and more about that next week! – for a couple of bottles of his cargo.
Bottle-conditioned with a fair amount of sediment laying on the bottom – thus requiring careful decanting – Loki is brownish copper in colour and offers a good degree of fruitiness in the nose, like candied orange and peach, alongside notes of grapefruit and butterscotch. On the palate, though, the beer shifts course rather dramatically, hitting with but a whisper of fruity sweetness before coming forward with a great deal of hoppiness. Brewer Kramer says that he is an unapologetic hophead and it shows here, with rampaging flavours of spicy, green hop and citrus peel held in check by, well, practically nothing.
The finish mellows out so the palate doesn’t feel quite so assaulted, but more maltiness would make this a much more balanced and considerably less harsh ale. What Kramer does quite well, however, is hide Loki’s considerable strength, so perhaps the aggressive hoppiness is more a warning not to get too carried away with this beer!
Infiniti Essence of Elegance
January 20th, 2010 by stephen_bI could hardly miss the 1/3 page ad in the Life section of today’s Globe and Mail: “Infiniti presents The Essence of Elegance.” Sounds like a Big Night out, yes?
If you enjoy the sounds of Matt Dusk and the food of Mark McEwan, then yes, I suppose it is a quintessentially Big Night out. But for $150 per ticket and no full meal included, it’s worth looking down the page a ways to see exactly what you’re getting, too.
And here they are, the details following the price: “Includes Matt Dusk performance, appetizers created by Mark McEwan, fine wines, Corona, as well as a special parting gift.”
Wait a minute, Corona? It’s a popular beer, no doubt, but “the essence of elegance”?
Yep, nothing says elegant more than chugging pale Mexican lager from a bottle with a wedge of lime stuck in its neck.
Beer Cruise!
January 13th, 2010 by stephen_bIf you read The Globe and Mail newspaper, you may have noticed this morning a full page ad on the back of the front section for Scenic Tours, promoting a river cruise in October from Amsterdam to Basel. It’s certainly an attractive trip, all the more so because the company is offering two-for-one pricing! But it’s about to get even better…
Because yours truly is coming along to add beer to the equation!
That’s right, in addition to a relaxing cruise down the beautiful Rhine, complete with plenty of culture and tourism stops, we’ll also be featuring numerous beer-oriented side trips, including a visit to Amsterdam’s terrific Brouwerij ‘t Ij, a pub crawl through Köln, tours and tastings at Belgian, German, French, Luxembourg and Swiss breweries large and small, and even floating tutored beer tastings. All for only a few dollars more than the book price for the cruise.
The beer portion of the trip is all very new – so new it hasn’t yet been included in any of the promotional materials for the trip – and so several details are still being worked out, but I can guarantee that it will be an experience no beer aficionado will soon forget. And the Scenic Tours “Space Ship,” with balconies attached to almost every suite and plenty of room in both the public and private areas, makes the whole thing just that much more appealing.
For a basic outline of the cruise, stop by the Scenic Tours website and have a look at the itinerary departing October 11 from Amsterdam and sailing for 13 days to Basel. And if you like that idea, give CruiseShipCenters Rosedale a call at 866-355-7447 or 416-962-7447 for more info and booking details.
Refreshing Politics
January 11th, 2010 by stephen_bNice to see at least one Canadian political leader supporting Canadian craft beer, even if our own embassy fails miserably on that front.
But Jack, use a glass next time, will ya?
Book Review: “Cheers: An Intemperate History of Beer in Canada” by Nicholas Pashley
January 4th, 2010 by stephen_b(Disclosure: I know Nick Pashley pretty well and would count him as a friend. I am also referenced a couple of times in this volume and more than that in his enjoyable earlier work, “Notes on a Beermat.” That said, I do not believe that either of these factors impact on the opinion expressed below, although you are of course free to disagree.)
While this book, Pashley’s second beer-themed tome, was published in the fall, I was unable to get my mitts on a copy until just before the holiday season, and thus read the bulk of it while toasting my pasty white flesh over Christmas on a Riviera Maya beach. If you think it odd to read a book about drinking Canadian beer in Canada while broiling under the sun in a place where the most characterful beer available is Negra Modelo, well, you’re quite right, but such were my circumstances.
Still, with all the gift cards that seem to change hands each Christmas these days, perhaps it’s better my review appear now, when you’re in a position to buy the book for yourself, than before, when you would have perhaps felt more obliged to buy it for someone else. And buy it your should, even if that means using actual cash, because this is one highly entertaining read.
Pashley has a way of writing which, like the best of beer-related scribes, makes it seem more like you are conversing with him in a pub than absorbing dry words from a page. So when he waxes poetic about the triumphs and failures of beer marketing in this country, or invites you along on his cross-Canada beer travels, it really is more dialogue than monologue, even if your part only takes place in your own head. (And for your own good, make sure that it does, especially if you’re inclined towards reading in public places, as Pashley is himself.)
What this book is, then, is a fun romp through the Canadian beer biz coast to coast, from the Centre of the Universe (a.k.a. Toronto, both Pashley’s and my home town) to both the Atlantic and Pacific and even up so far as Whitehorse. What it is not, however, is the advertised “History of Beer in Canada,” unless you count the twenty or so pages covering the start of European occupation to the commencement of prohibition, or even the thirty-some-odd pages that follow and bring us right up to the 1970’s.
But really, who cares? This is Pashley we’re talking about, not some starched collar historian, and if you go into a book with a blurred picture of a Mountie on the cover and chapter titles like “Barkeep! Gimme Another Light Dry Low-Carb Ice Beer with No Aftertaste” expecting a serious history lesson, well, you get what you deserve, my friend.
My advice is to buy the book now – for all I know, Nick might need the money, given his penchant for public house beer drinking – and store it until the start of the summer. Then, crack the spine with a glass of nicely chilled ale or lager at your side and mete it out to yourself in careful doses. You might be tempted to finish it in one go, but you’ll also want to keep drinking, which would no doubt result in that damn Mountie picture blurring even further. No, much better to take your time and savour every word and drop.
Fermentation Defined
December 8th, 2009 by stephen_bGoing through a bunch of old magazines, I came across a short interview I conducted in 2003 with the head fish at Dogfish Head Brewing, Sam Calagione. What caught my eye was Sam’s excellent description of the uncertainties involved in the creation, fermentation and conditioning of his so-called “extreme” beers.
You’ve got to remember that there are probably about 40 human entities at Dogfish Head, while in one fermentation tank there are millions of yeast entities doing what they want to do. And their people aren’t always talking to our people.
On Beer and Barbecue in Toronto
December 3rd, 2009 by stephen_bI love me some good barbecue from time to time. Not the summer-stuff-on-the-grill, although that too, but the southern US stuff of almost any stripe. Memphis rubbed ribs, Texas smoked brisket, pork-and-slaw in Arkansas, the vinegary sauces of North Carolina; I love it all, and will happily engage in completely unbecoming face-stuffing from time to time when circumstances allow.
And what goes ideally with barbecue? Why, beer, of course. And so we arrive at our topic of the day.
Yesterday I visited for the first time a relatively new arrival on the small Toronto barbecue scene, a place called Lou Dawg’s on King Street just west of Portland. Not being quite of the mind for ribs – St. Louis-style at Lou’s – I opted instead for their pulled pork sandwich, which was offered to me on a choice of white or whole wheat bread. This should have been a warning sign – this is barbecue we’re talking about, not some damn veggie burger – but I persisted nonetheless with my order, adding both sweet potato fries and a beer. But what beer…?
On tap was a slew of Sleeman brands, three of them to be precise, plus their “house” lager, which I assumed would be Sleeman Silver Creek Lager by another name. Of the draughts, only the signature Cream Ale had any appeal, but I worried that it would be lost beneath the spicy tang of the restaurant’s barbecue sauce, so I asked about the bottled beer selection.
“Oh yes, we have bottles,” exclaimed the white-aproned fellow behind the counter, who then proceeded to open the metal beer fridge door to reveal…exactly the same brands as the ones on tap, plus Dos Equis. Although I held my tongue, what I wanted to say, nay scream, was “Are you stupid or something?! This is Toronto, the heart of Toronto, in fact, not some corner of Houston where they’ve been serving barbecue and Shiner Bock for generations, and you offer the same damn beers in a sadly limited bottle selection as you do on draught?!? The wine bar a block or two away has a better selection! What’s more, you have not one beer that actually suits the kind of food you’re serving!”
But like I noted, I instead held my tongue, ordered a pint of Cream Ale, and patiently awaited the arrival of my sandwich while thinking about my recent experience at RUB BBQ in New York City, a Chelsea barbecue joint where I had a pint of Stone Arrogant Bastard while waiting for a table to open, and Blue Smoke in that same city, where not only do they seem to always have a pilsner, porter and IPA on tap – all of which complement nicely the various types of barbecue Blue Smoke serves – but know how to make a pretty damn good Sazerac cocktail, too.
Pssst, Wanna Make Some Cash?
November 25th, 2009 by stephen_bI’ve been mulling over the state of Ontario brewing these last several days and have concluded that while this province is in possession of several genuinely impressive breweries, there are a couple, perhaps a few, that may well be ideally poised to make the leap to the next level, from sustainable business to lucrative enterprise.
Said breweries may or may not wish to welcome a partner willing to funnel needed capital into the development of the business, but if they are and someone with a few bucks and some passion for good beer was interested in buying in, I think the move could prove quite profitable for all concerned. Simply, all these folk need is the means with which to undertake the next few steps in their business evolution.
As to which breweries I mean, well, that kind of info is not something a wise person just gives away. But equally, after making a measured review of the industry, another wise person should have no problem identifying them for his or herself.
