Rookie mistakes, different strokes and Labatt's IPA

I made what I thought was pretty much the biggest rookie mistake ever today. You see, in Canada and the United States, it's Labour Day - or Labor Day as they spell it in the U.S. In Canada, we still use that British "u" in our words because... well, uh... not sure. As for America, it's probably connected to that whole Boston Tea Party thing a couple of hundred years ago where the U.S. gave the British a big "screw you".
In order to emphasize their displeasure with the British, not to mention the idea of sending tax money overseas, they dumped all that crappy British Tea, right there in Boston Harbour... sorry, Harbor. (Or as they would pronounce it: Hah-Bah. Love that accent, too cool.) Then they thought, "Well, that'll show the Brits but what else can we do to show 'em we REALLY mean business?" And they all went off to the pub, drank beer and thought of different things to irk the Brits. Finally, one piped up: "Hey, let's start dropping the 'u' in all our 'ou' words. We all know what sticklers the Brits are for all that King's English crap."
And thus it was done. The pub cheered! Boston Strong, baby. Gotta love those Bostonians.

Desperados: beer infused with tequila.
Some love it. I am not among them.

But back to my mistake. I forgot to buy beer for today. I'm on a nine-day vacation and forgot today was Labour Day where everything except convenience stores and gas stations are closed up. Over 35 years of drinking beer... and I have NEVER made this mistake. This is where this blog Brew Ha Ha! actually saved Donny's Bar and Grille, a.k.a. Casa Redmond. I quickly checked my fridge. I have been stock-piling funky craft beers for this column - one here, one there. At present, there are 25 different craft or small brewery beers in my fridge. I think I'm covered, being as this is Labour Day, not Toga Party Night at the Delta House.

But what I usually do between having different craft beers is cleanse my palate with traditional milder fare, usually Labatt's Blue or Sleeman's Draught. Couple of gulps, maybe. Okay, possibly half a bottle. More or less... Okay, more. When co-worker Saga heard of my nothing-but-craft fridge situation, he laughed: "Your taste buds are gonna get a kick in the face today!" True dat, Saga. Fortunately, my liver has the heart and soul of a Viking.

Our grandfathers
loved this stuff!
We'll never know why
because it's long gone.

Which brings me to my next point: Different strokes for different folks. Saga went on an Eastern Canada tour for 10 days recently and tried ALL sorts of stuff we can't get in Ontario. And god bless him, he brought me bring a mixed pack of goodies. But he just got back to work as I was readying for vacation. And we talked about that Rickard's Cardigan, the "Autumn spiced lager infused with seasonal spices of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and a hint of brown sugar..." I thought it was way too much - all I could taste was spices. Saga disagreed. "It's not meant for this heat. It's like in the Winter and I'm looking out the window at the cold and the snow. That's when I have a Drambuie because it just warms me up. That's what I think the spiciness of the Cardigan is gonna do in the late Fall." Hmmmm, he might be right. Neither of us is beer experts but rather beer enthusiasts. I'll try it again at Thanksgiving and if I still think it sucks, I'll throw the can at his head. Or just knock him out with a two-by-four. Whatever's at hand.

I fell into the same scenario when Desperados, a Belgium-brewed beer infused with tequila landed in our store last week. I had always wanted to try it but before I could, it disappeared for years. When it re-appeared, I quickly split a six-pack with a co-worker so I could FINALLY try it. Ugh. Tasted like just another lime-infused piece of crap to me. But remembering the Cardigan disagreement, I took the other two up to my neighbours, Amy, a former co-worker and her British hubby, Simon.

How manly was Labatt's IPA? It put hair on the hair of
 your hairy chest! A case of this and you were Sasquatch

They loved it. Amy could taste the tequila, which I couldn't (and believe me when I say I have some tequila experience - a fairly high percentage of those experiences, not so good) and Simon flat-out loved it, saying it was "refreshing." As I said, different strokes.

One mass-produced beer that both I and my New Zealand crony, Stevil St Evil wish we could try is Labatt's IPA. But the beers our grandfathers preferred over the mainstream fare due to its hoppiness is long gone. Quick history lesson on the Labatt's IPA. When John Labatt Brewery started over 150 years ago, they had three beers: Ale, Porter and Stout. So in 1863, John Sr sends John Jr off to a brewing apprenticeship in Wheeling, West Virginia, which, let's face it, blows the hell out of being sent to a boarding school. John Jr comes back with the super-hoppy but much milder (than stouts or porters) IPA recipe. The Labatts IPA ends up being the brewery's best-seller for nearly a century. Parades are thrown in John Jr's honour (not really), starlets throw themselves at him (pre-film days - no starlets) and he finally loses his virginity to a Daddy-bought hooker (that might well be true.) Eventually, Canadian beer drinkers' taste would lean towards milder lagers and Labatt's Pilsner (now Blue) becomes their number one brew. And before we got our chance to try a decent mass-produced india pale ale, the Labatt's IPA faded away. That kinda irks both me and Stevil that we never got to try our grandfathers' favourite beers but we are soothing that pain with literally dozens of other beers. We're healing... We're survivors, dammit!

Perfect for Shona's Crazy Girls Night!

To ease the pain of a missed IPA opportunity, I am sampling a Boreale IPA out of Blainville, Quebec, which Saga brought me back from his recent Maritime sojourn, knowing well my new-found love for IPAs. Nice, smooth... though at 50 IBUs (international bitterness units) not quite hoppy enough for me. I want an IPA to kick me in the nards. That said, it scored a very high 93 on the RateBeer website so it's got tons of fans. I see why. I could drink it all afternoon. The super-high-IBU ones that I favour, not a chance. But I only have one so...

And finally, with her big Cheese And Beer Girls Night coming this weekend, my friend Shona now has another beer to add for the fruit portion of the evening: the KLB Raspberry Wheat. I also tried a Granville Island Brewing False Creek Raspberry Ale (another Saga gift) for her event. Notice my friends don't throw WINE and cheese parties. Nope, beer all the way. Couldn't be prouder of her. Okay, good news and bad news. The bad news: False Creek Raspberry Ale is not available in Ontario. The good news? The KLB Raspberry Wheat was the better of the two with the tart fruit taste being slightly more muted... and Shona? It's available at the LCBO in single cans. Go to town! And hey, have fun, ladies!

Okay, blog brother shout-outs! If it's evil, it's Stevil. Check out his bawdy, lewd, crude and disgusting (not really - just trying to draw in the reader with salacious promises - it's actually rowdy and fun) blog right here at: 5-Foot-19 And my other blog brother who we call Glenn because as it turns out that's his name - well, I'll be honest, I wanna see a birth certificate - his east-of-Toronto tales of Oshawa can be found here at: Shwa Stories But in this particular case, he has a piece on Stan "The Man" Lee, who created ALL of those Marvel Comic icons. His best yet - by a long mile! Read this one!!!!

Until next time - and while my tastebuds continue to get kicked in the face on this Labour Day - I remain...