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Agree with him or not, noted beer expert Stephen Beaumont is guaranteed to stimulate your enjoyment of the world's finest brews.
Canadian Beer Innovation
November 20th, 2009 by stephen_bA couple of high-traffic, high-controversy posts on my World of Beer site this week, all centred around innovation in brewing, its merits and detriments, got me thinking about Canadian brewing innovation. As in, has there been any, and what’s the biggest?
The first that came to mind was eisbock, which rattled the perceptions of Ontario beer drinkers when Niagara Falls Brewing first brought it out way back in the early 1990’s. But that wasn’t an innovation so much as a (very capable) revisiting of an old and almost obsolete brewing style. There was dry beer, of course, but Molson simply ripped that off from the Japanese, who in turn had taken the idea from the German diät pils, so no laurels there.
Hemp beer started in Fredericksburg, Maryland, before it arrived in BC, so that’s not on, and while Blanche de Chambly was indeed the first Belgian-style wheat beer brewed in North America, it was hardly anything new in the world view of things. (Same for Unibroue’s mulling beer, Quelque Chose, which was both predated and inspired by Liefmans Glühkriek.) Likewise, spelt and buckwheat beers were more revivalist brews than innovative ones.
That leaves what? Labatt’s patented ice brewing process? Please, don’t get me started. Nope, so far as I can figure, the one true Canadian brewing innovation thus far has been coffee beer, of all things, which was born at Toronto’s C’est What before migrating to Durham Brewing in Pickering, Ontario, and taking off as one of the first flagship brands of Ontario’s Mill Street Brewing. I do believe that the C’est What Coffee Porter predated all other coffee beers in North America, and I think also the one in Prague, and so might be claimed as a real Canadian brewing innovation.
What do you think? Any innovative beers that I’ve missed? Let me know through the comments section.
When the Salty Snacks Come Out
November 16th, 2009 by stephen_bIf you look around elsewhere on this site, you will not look long before you arrive at some common sense advice of what to drink and eat while enjoying a football game with friends. Pale ale or best bitter with beef, amber lager or brown ale with pizza, serving punch to cut down on the drink prep time…all wise and reasonable recommendations.
What’s missing from that story, however, is the ubiquitous salty snack. Because let’s face it, there’s little better when television sports are on that handfuls of chips, pretzels, cheese doodles and such like. But pick wrong beer to drink alongside and – please believe me on this front – you risk ruining a perfectly good pint.
The reason for this is that salt does not play well with sweet maltiness, so if you alternate, for example, sips of a sweetish Belgian dubbel with handfuls of salt and vinegar chips, that dubbel will soon wind up tasting flat, acrid or even sour. Swap a hoppy beer for the malty one, though, and your pale ale, pilsner or IPA will not only refresh your palate between snacks, it will also hold its own against the salt. And everything will wind up tasting pretty much the way it’s supposed to.
OCB Discovery Pack #3: Bouquets & Brickbats
November 5th, 2009 by stephen_bThe Ontario Craft Brewers have just released the third in their “mixed six” discovery packs, and it is certainly the best yet. That does not mean, however, that it’s perfect.
Bouquet: Making it a six of 473 ml cans is a stroke of genius, highlighting as it does the recent efforts of Ontario brewers to enter the canned beer market.
Brickbat: With two pale and one amber lagers, plus a cream ale, variety could have been a lot better. Why Neustadt saw fit to include their Neustadt Lager rather than their highly user-friendly, award winning 10×30, for instance, is a mystery to me.
Bouquet: That said, we see here a pale ale, a dark ale, a cream ale and the aforementioned lagers, which is still more variety than we’ve seen in the past.
Bouquet: The compact cube shape of the carton is great design.
Bouquet: And including a “Craft Beer Style Guide” is an inspired bit of promotional work.
Brickbat: Regarding that “Style Guide,” what’s with the “Refreshing Thirst Quenchin’ Ales” descriptor? Is “Quenchin’” supposed to show how populist the OCB is?
Brickbat: The general public isn’t going to see this, but some of the descriptions in the press release that accompanied my sample pack are just way over the top. For Paddy’s Irish Red Lager, “…was created in the 1800`s by master brewer George Henry Lett.” Cribbing from the history notes for Killian’s Irish Red will win you no admirers, Trafalgar, and by the way, Lett’s beer was an ale, not a lager. For the Neustadt Lager, “Brewed in the Belgium country style…” Huh? What’s that when it’s at home? For Muskoka Cream Ale, “‘A great food-friendly beer,’ says beer author Jamie MacKinnon, who gave it four stars in The Great Lakes Beer Guide.” With all due respect to Jamie, that book is a dozen years old, which means the research is just that much older, and that’s the best you can do to hype your flagship brand?
Final Bouquet: Brickbats aside, I think this is another good effort from the OCB and one I would encourage people to pursue. It is available at LCBO stores for $14.95.
Attention Calgarians!
October 29th, 2009 by stephen_bYou know where the Wild Rose Brewery is, don’t you? It’s over at 4580 Quesnay Wood Drive SW, and you need to be there tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow!
Why is that, you ask? I’ll tell you. It’s because tomorrow is when the brewery releases its Wild Rose Cherry Porter, available exclusively in one litre flip-top bottles and, beginning tomorrow and likely lasting not at all long, in special cask-conditioned form.
This is a beer I contributed to both the currently available “World’s Best Beers: 1000 Unmissable Brews from Portland to Prague” by Ben McFarland, for which I penned the Canadian reviews and a few stand-alone essays, and the forthcoming “1001 Beers You Must Taste Before You Die” by Adrian Tierney-Jones, to which I offered about 40 or so reviews. It also may be Wild Rose’s finest offering.
So go, buy, drink, enjoy. And revel in the fact that even if the weather royally sucks at present, at least you can drown your wintry woes in some pretty fine ale. (And besides, The Weather Network says it’s going to warm up soon!)
Creemore/Granville and Other Provincial Matters
October 21st, 2009 by stephen_bSince the news broke, the Canadian beer world has been abuzz about the purchase of pioneering west coast brewer Granville Island by Molson Coors Canada-owned Creemore Brewing…
Wait, what’s that you say? It’s not abuzz? In fact, no one seems to be taking much note at all? Read the rest of this entry »
R.I.P. Greg Noonan
October 13th, 2009 by stephen_bIt is with shock and sadness that I read this morning of the death of Greg Noonan, Burlington, Vermont, craft brewing pioneer, book author and all-around kind and gentle soul. The founder of The Vermont Pub & Brewery was only 58 when he died in his sleep Sunday night due to reasons undisclosed. Read the rest of this entry »
Canadian 67 vs. Sleeman Bock
October 7th, 2009 by stephen_bAs promised yesterday, I sat down this morning to compare and contrast two new beers, one from Molson Coors Canada and the other from Sleeman Breweries. Here’s how it played out.
The Tale of the Tape: Molson Canadian 67 is being heavily marketed as a 67 calorie per bottle brew, with just 3% alcohol by volume. John Sleeman Presents Bock is 6% alcohol, but offers no hint as to its calorie content. Both are new releases, the latter for a limited time. Read the rest of this entry »
New Beer Coincidence
October 6th, 2009 by stephen_bWithin the past 24 hours, I have received samples of two new beers: the latest in Sleeman’s “John Sleeman Presents…” line, a Bock, and the new offering from Molson Coors Canada, Canadian 67. Read the rest of this entry »
The CBAs While I Was AWOL at the GABF
September 28th, 2009 by stephen_bWhile I was down in Denver sampling from the huge variety of beer available at the Great American Beer Festival — or at least trying to! — the Canadian Brewing Awards were doled out in Toronto, and greeted with a healthy blend of respect and scepticism. Read the rest of this entry »
Chocolate and…Vodka?
September 15th, 2009 by stephen_bI received a press release this morning for what looks guaranteed to be a week of autumnal bliss in Toronto: the 4th Annual Toronto Chocolate Festival. It’s still a work in progress, judging from the looks of the website, but unquestionably a celebration of all things chocolate can only be a very, very good thing. Read the rest of this entry »
