Which Canadian beer was among the 300 More Beers To Try Before You Die?

"I never said that... and you can quote me on that"

"Write drunk, edit sober..."
These words are famously attributed to Ernest Hemingway. One small problem. He never said that. "God bless the Internet and its uncanny ability to put never-spoken words in the mouths of famous people," as Abraham Lincoln also famously said. The quote is more likely to have come from Peter De Vries' 1964 novel, "Reuben Reuben", where the leading protagonist is based on notorious pisstank poet Dylan Thomas, who utters: "Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober."
In the case of a beer blog, it is unavoidable that on occasion, you will be wetting your whistle with tasty suds while happily tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard. Which is fine, of course. It's research, after all. But you can "over-research" at times (call that a "happy accident") so I will have to alter that initial statement thusly: "Write in whatever state you happen to be in at that moment. But never publish until you've read it again in the morning with a cuppa Joe."

"Winter ales are coming... to Brew Ha Ha... Perhaps
this Canuck nitwit will even stop with all the IPAs"

The reason? Well, lemme give you some scenarios here as to what happens when you revisit your beer blog the following morning with fresh bright eyes:
Scenario #1: "Whoa... where the hell was I going with this?" *delete, delete, delete*
Scenario #2: "This was a lot funnier last night. Somehow that short passage of time has turned comedic gold into Shakespearean-level tragedy." *delete, delete, delete*
And, of course, Scenario #3: "I'm not even sure this is in English. Somehow, that 10.7% porter gave me the ability to write in grammatically-incorrect Ukrainian." *delete, delete, delete*

How does Unibroue Grande Reserve 17
taste? Deliciously and bizarrely complex

That said, there are a number of other beer bloggers throughout the world that I follow regularly and at the top of the sudsy blog vat is New Zealand's Neil Miller, an erudite, witty and prolific beer writer/blogger. I don't always get his sports and political references because, well, he's on the other side of the world and 18 hours ahead of me so technically, he's writing from the future. Plus the man is a beer expert to the point of being a judge in beer competitions whereas I am merely a beer enthusiast... a beerginner, if you will. Anyway, when he wrote a blog about famed British beer author Roger Protz' recently-released book, "300 More Beers To Try Before You Die", my ears perked up, simply because there was a Canadian beer on that list. (Much to Neil's delight, there were eight Kiwi beers on Protz' list. New Zealand has a total population of 5 million and I swear to gawd, 578,000 of them must be craft brewers. Per capita, I swear that tiny island - islands, actually - has a bigger craft beer culture than even the United States.) And since Neil had a copy of Protz' tome in his hands, I asked him which Canadian beer made the cut. Turns out it was Quebec's notable Unibroue 17, now called Grande Reserve 17.

Cameron's Obsidian Imperial Porter: It's
rum-barrel-aged and, well, awesome

It took me over two months to actually find one simply because it's a limited edition seasonal. Turns out that Unibroue used to annually crank out a specialty beer named after their years of existence (Unibroue 15, Unibroue 16, etc) but stopped when they got to 17. Why? Because it's so damn tasty and was met with such public acclaim, they didn't bother to try and top it. And retiring it was certainly out of the question. Brewed in a Belgian strong ale style, this 10% offering, which won platinum awards three years running for "World's Best Dark Ale", will confuse the hell out of your taste-buds because it's so damn difficult to pin down what its flavour pods are. I couldn't put my finger on it and read 17 pages of RateBeer reviews to see what other drinkers found in this. The usual suspects came up: raisins, prunes, toffee, caramel... I was talking to another New Zealand comrade Stevil St Evil while I was drinking it, explaining that there was something in this but (you have to read this part in the hesitant speaking voice of Captain James T Kirk) I... wasn't... sure... what. Finally, after 17 pages of people basically disagreeing on what the flavour pods were, someone finally said "plum". Bingo! Unibroue continues to make the world's most complex and delicious beers, much to my delight. And for the record, a 99 on RateBeer and now, thanks to Protz, world-renown.

Finally! A Canadian wheat beer that
nearly matches the best German ones!

And speaking of delight, I stumbled onto two separate gold-mines from Cameron's Brewing in my hometown of Oakville. (The brewery is literally down the street from my Mom's house.) Our store sells four of their beers - Lager, Cream Ale, Auburn Ale and Dark 266 - and I'd suggest the auburn ale is the best of that list. But where this tiny brewery truly shines is in its single 650-ml bottle releases where it ventures off the beaten path and goes a little crazy. Their Rye Pale Ale is outstanding. I instantly detected grapefruit in its aroma although in all honesty, I almost always detect a hint of grapefruit when something is hoppier and at 6.6% and 80 IBUs (international bitterness units), this certainly qualifies as hoppy, which always makes me (quick vowel switch) happy. I'm a hoppy-happy kinda guy. For his part, my co-worker Saga almost always gets a hint of banana when a brew gets either hoppier or maltier. After that, it was onto their Obsidian Imperial Porter, which is rum barrel aged. The chocolate hints are the first thing you get from this malty sensation but it is so incredibly smooth that the high-octane 9.2% is basically masked. It walks a dangerous yet delicious turf, this one. These two notched respective score of 98 and 95 on RateBeer and I strongly urge you to try both... or simply pick the style you prefer. You know, if you wanna be a wuss... *coughs the name SAGA* (Just kidding, buddy... you're my amigo... can we switch shifts on Friday?)

Sawdust City's Lone Pine IPA, a feel-
good story from a tiny craft brewer

Since being bowled over by the German wheat beers a few blogs back which if you missed you can view here: Don Gets Bowled Over By German Wheat Beers A Few Blogs Back I have been actively seeking Canadian wheat beers of the same calibre. Saga suggested Rickard's White which is a nice summery beer but no, not even close. So when I stumbled onto Howe Sound King Heffy Imperial Hefeweizen out of British Columbia, I proceeded with caution. That turned out to be unwarranted. As Jesse Pinkman would say: this shit's the wheat bomb, yo! This time if Saga said he smelled bananas in the aroma, he would be spot-on. Coming in a distinctive 1-litre jug with one of those uber-cool (see the clever use of German there?) ceramic flip-tops, this wheat beer, brewed as a Weizen Bock is the closest that our country will come to the best German beer I ever tasted, a single bock wheat called Weihenstephaner Vitas. This is an outstanding wheat beer that, at 87 on RateBeer, outscored a number of the German wheats I tried (and loved). If you love wheats, you have to try the King Heffy which even at 7.7% is as smooth as Jean Luc Picard's head. (Oooh, two Star Trek references in one blog. My inner geek is showing...)

For all you do, this anything-but-Bud's for you...

And finally, a feel-good IPA story out of the tiny Sawdust City Brewing Company in Bracebridge, Ontario. The brewery made the tough decision to recall their October 25 batch of Lone Pine IPA, which had already been shipped out to LCBOs across the province. Why? They didn't think it was good enough. They thought it was good, mind you... but not good enough. Wow. For a craft brewer to take a full-body shot to their bottom-line like that? That had to hurt. To show support for the brewery, I "product-located" the beer and bought up the remaining stock of a fresh batch of Lone Pine. That's a considerably less magnanimous gesture when there was only two left on the shelf but hey, in the end, it was my pleasure. Aptly-named, there is some pine to the taste with - again - a hint of grapefruit in there. At 6.5% and 65 IBU, its medium hoppiness puts it close to the top with a solid 91 on RateBeer. Also in my fridge right now, a Sawdust City Long, Dark Voyage to Uranus Imperial Stout which, yes, I bought solely for the name because I am just that juvenile.

Next up: what Capital City Brewing did right with its Red Racer Summer Sampler. And what Brick Brewing also did right with its Waterloo Small Batch Winter Sampler... because this is Canada and we go from Summer to Winter in one day. And a couple of shout-outs. First on deck is Stevil St Evil who views across the Pacific Ocean to marvel at: The Crack-Addled AssHat That Is Rob Ford And then, of course, there's the lovely and very funny Karolyn who writes Confessional Of A Former Fat Girl near-daily. Here's today offering: Sweet! I have a hater!!! but do yourself a favour and click on past ones which are date-underlined. One clever lady. Oh, and to my American friends, Happy Thanksgiving Week. We had ours a month ago. Try the turkey, it was really good. Well, folk, that's it... I need a beer so I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...