Who the heck is Kristers Gudlevskis... and, y'know, beer stuff

This Latvian dude stopped nearly everything Team Canada had to throw at
him. For that, and that alone, to me, he is the biggest hero of the Olympics!

My biggest hero from the Sochi Olympics didn't come from Canada. Oh trust me, I have dozens and dozens of deserving Canadian heroes from the 2014 Winter Olympics and like my friend Glenn, I think they are heavily stacked on the ladies' side...

But no, my Olympic hero comes from Latvia. Where's that, you ask? Up there in northern Europe off the Baltic Sea. About 2 million people. Nice country, I assume... pretty in the Summer, maybe? No idea. But this Latvian dude, who doesn't even play in the NHL, named Kristers Gudlevskis played goal for Team Latvia... and against all odds, he held Team Canada during the playoff round to a standstill... in hockey!

The very beautiful face of winning. Marie-Phillip Poulin
tied the gold-medal game against the USA with 53 seconds
left, shown here. And then, she scored the winner in OT. 

And you know what? No one gets more patriotic than me when the Olympics are on. And I love gold. Oh man, I love gold. But sometimes, it goes beyond winning. Sometimes, it's about just being your best... and letting the world see you at your best... whether you win or lose. And on that one day - in that one game - that he truly needed to be his best, Gudlevskis was precisely that... or more. For all we know, that could be the best-played game of his life... and he did it on the world's stage against the toughest of possible opponents.

And thus, Kristers Gudlevskis was the best athlete I saw in this Olympics. Canada beat him 2-1 eventually... but by gawd, he made us ready for our game against the USA. He faced 57 shots from the best multi-millionaire snipers in the NHL... meanwhile, our goalie, Carey Price faced 16 shots from guys no one's ever heard of and probably could have spent most of the third period updating his Twitter feed.  (Likely Price Tweets: "This is boring. Going for a smoke", "Who IS that dude down there?", "I should skate over to the boards and get a sip of that guy's beer" and "If I left the net, would anyone even know? I haven't been on camera for 27 minutes.")  I raise my frosty mug to you, young goalie Gudlevskis!

Americans, you want your Olympic hero? Look no farther
than T.J. Oshie who scored four times in six tries against the
Russians  in the round-robin game shoot-out. Take it from a
Canadian, that was some of the BEST hockey I've ever seen

And yes, we eventually won gold against the Swedes but it took very tough one-goal wins against Latvia and the USA to even get there. Don't even get me started on Finland, who took the Bronze... holy crap, so fast!

Most Canadians would say the best hockey game they saw this time was the Women's gold medal game where we were losing 2-0 to the USA with the final minutes ticking down before we finally got one with three minutes to go. At that point, the lovely Marie-Phillip Poulin decided "enough is enough" and tied the game with 53 seconds left. Not long after that, she potted the winner in OT, thus magically turning silver into gold. Clearly, she's taking her university Medieval Alchemy courses seriously.

But the Yanks had their shining moments, as well, especially in that round-robin USA vs Russia men's hockey match. With the score deadlocked after regulation time and then OT, they went to the shoot-out.

A Molson Canadian skate mug, just like the
one I used during the Canada-USA game

And here's when things got a little bit crazy and a whole lotta awesome. Olympic rules dictate each team gets three shots from three different shooters but if it's still deadlocked after that - and it was - they can choose anyone they want. The Russians continued to juggle shooters as the shoot-out stretched further but not the Americans. They just kept using T.J. Oshie over and over... and over again. Oshie was on-the-bubble to even make the team but was brought aboard at the last minute, due to his phenomenal skill (and luck) in NHL shoot-outs. It paid off. He connected four outta six times and landed the USA on top of their division going into the playoff round. Some of the most heart-stopping hockey I've ever seen in that USA-Russia game - unbelievably great hockey from two talent-laden squads.

Now when it came to the Canada-USA semi-final men's match, my co-worker Gordo and I finagled our way out of the office and squeezed into Burlington bar Joe Dog's just in time for the third period. The favoured beverage of the hundreds sardined into the place? Molson Canadian, of course, being served on tap that day in a 32-ounce skate mug which I erroneously referred to as a boot numerous times... only to be corrected every time. Look at it!  It looks like a ski boot! Me: "Damn, my boot's empty. I need more."
Gordo and everyone else: "It's a skate!"
Me: "Y'know, the 'need more' was the only part of that sentence that's actually important..." Besides, how do they know that I'm not a Newfoundlander trying to say the word 'about'?

The Molson's Marketing Squad got their funny hats on,
posting this ad after the Canadian hockey women won gold

I, of course, happily quaffed down my Canadian while cheering my side onto a 1-0 victory (the USA had Stanley Cup winning goalie, Jonathan Quick in net so this wasn't gonna be a cake-walk). I quickly refilled my boot/skate with the (Molson-owned) Creemore Springs Premium Lager, a lively 5% medium-body amber lager with a nice slightly bitter after-taste that says "Yeah, you're gonna remember me, hockey boy." (I just remembered this is actually a beer blog... so I'll be stickhandling away from hockey for the second intermission...) Actually, if you go to a Beer Store in a Creemore mood, I would strongly suggest their Kellerbier, as well. The unfiltered brew, also 5%, that uses whole-leaf German hops late in the brewing process, pours a hazy orange and has an earthy, lightly fruit taste. The brewery does this one in small batches using their direct fired copper kettles. An outstanding beer!

Very cool bottle... the weakest crappiest beer ever!

In the end, Russia notched the most golds and highest medal tally for the Olympics which is precisely what you hope the host country will do. Well, if you're a good sport, anyway. China finished 12th in the medal standings on the strength of three golds, mostly because they always have some awesome speed skaters. So let's look at a Chinese beer, Lucky Buddha, brewed by the Hangzhou Qiandaohu Beer Company. First you will notice it comes in the coolest bottle ever, shaped like, well, a little green Buddha. Once in the glass, the 4.8% lager's aroma is lightly grainy and a bit skunky but that first sip... will have you immediately racing to the kitchen to pour this down the drain, all the while praying to Buddha himself that your pipes aren't clogged. I don't care if you're Batman and The Joker himself saunters into the room... you don't hand him one of these. Life in prison (or Arkham Asylum, if that's the case) is far more humane.

Craft beer brewed here since... 1871? Seriously? Yup!

Next up is Anchor Steam Beer, a San Francisco offering recommended to me by my New Zealand compadre, Stevil St Evil. Googled the brewery. Ummm, wow, Anchor Brewing Company has some serious history. German immigrant Gottlieb Breckle buys an old saloon in 1871 and turns it into a brewery. Fast-forward 25 years and another German brewer Ernst Baruth and his son-in-law buy it out and rename it Anchor, likely an illusion to the port city. The Great Quake of 1906 sinks it, they rebuild and reopen in 1907. Prohibition shuts it down in 1920... but it's back in 1933 when the No-Fun-Allowed-Law is repealed. New ownership steps in... it does well, than teeters on bankruptcy, more new ownership comes, more potential bankruptcy... it just goes on and on. Check their website HERE for the full scoop. Fascinating stuff, actually... but all signs indicate this may have been the first craft brewery ever and obviously, the longest-running. Not to mention, most challenged.

Ladies, if you're going to pose in a Canada
shirt, NEVER ever stand in the middle!! Your
friends' hair could completely change the word

But how is the beer itself?? Actually, pretty damn good for a 4.9% lager. The nose is a tad yeasty and grainy and the taste malty and a touch bitter. I quite liked it, drank it ice-cold and would happily recommend it to even mainstream fare drinkers. But I just noticed that a sister beer, their Liberty Ale is popping up here and let's face it, that's waaaay more up my alley. I shall report back!

Now quickly, back to Gudlevskis. Here's the reason behind the reason that he's my Olympic hero. Last summer, my son, David, competed in the Provincial Special Olympics Track and Field Championships here in Ontario. He'd never competed at that high a level previously. So I was expecting, you know, hey, a great experience for him. He'll learn about competition and the like. In his first event, on his second throw, he threw the shot-put a full metre further than he ever had. A full metre. (That's 39 inches to American readers.) He won a bronze, as well as two more medals but that's the one that had the most impact on me because, well, his first medal. On the one day he had to be his best, he was. It just happened. He was thrilled. His Mom was thrilled. And Dad? Oh, I totally lost my shit. Gudlevskis' performance reminded me of that. When the moment came, there's no way the Latvian goalie should have been able to shut down the Canadian shooters like that... but he had to be his best when it counted... and like my boy, he was.

Okay, shout-outs... As always, Stevil St Evil continues to entertain, this time telling us the crazy cab rides he's endured since his mobility got more limited and he depended on them more... travelling up and down his rickety old "cow road". See it here in: White Knuckle Fever! And Glenn, who kindly asked me to remind you that he is awesome (surely a solid 7.7 on the Awesome-O-Meter - shhh, that's a high mark for a dude) is just going IPA crazy these days over in Oshawa but he pauses to praise the Canadian women Olympians here in: Our Ladies Kick Ass! Our beer-drinking partner-in-crime, Cat, has blown the dust off her old blog and returns with a spiffy new logo in: The Cat Came Back

As for me, I'll be back inside a week because I left a few new beers out and well, to be frank, ever since Pluto lost its status as a planet, I find my only salvation towards restoring my faith in humanity is my ongoing journey to discover and then drink new beers. Beyond that, I've fairly convinced that beer was invented by The Big Guy on the eighth day to ensure Canadians don't conquer the world, rather than just the Olympics. Well, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...

An awesome afternoon at Bellwoods Brewery

The friendly young lady at the front counter of the
retail outlet at Bellwoods happily chatted away to
me about their beers, using the bottle label machine
while I waited for my beer-drinking buddies to show

Okay, I want it on record that this time, I was the first one there. You see, a month or so ago, when I was meeting my beer-sluggin', brewery-invading friend Cat at the new Amsterdam Brewery in Toronto, I got seriously lost. I blame both Mapquest.com for bad directions and my stubborn refusal to buy a GPS for my car. I mean, I was gonna get one last summer but the church up the street put on their sign out front, "Why buy a GPS when Jesus will show you the way for free?" Thus far, despite their stated policy, Best Buy has refused to price-match that. I brought them a picture of the sign and everything...

My lateness caused us to miss the 1 p.m. brewery tour which, in turn, forced us to linger at the free sample bar until the 2 p.m. tour... so even when I fail, we somehow won. Regardless, this time, I was meeting both Cat and my old college buddy Glenn at Bellwoods Brewery in Toronto for an afternoon at their Brewpub and there was no way I was gonna be late. This time I had an edge. I know where Ossington Avenue is, having had several friends who've lived there in the past and when I saw their address, 124 Ossington, I didn't even write it down... I mean one-24?? It's like the brewery was speaking directly to me... in beer words.

Because they're so tiny, Bellwoods doesn't
give brewery tours. So it's basically, "See
those big shiny steel vats? Yeah, that's us
brewing  fresh beer. So what can I get you?"

So even though Glenn was coming in from Oshawa (an equal distance to me... but the other direction) and Cat was coming from the other side of Toronto, I knew I had the best shot to arrive first because, well, again, one-24. (*Amen*) And I did. But they made it too, landing there at exactly the same time. And folks, lemme tell, big celebration weekend. Whereas my birthday was the day before on the 14th, Glenn and my college crony, Stevil St Evil's bday was that very day, the 15th. Now since he lives in New Zealand, we would be toasting him from afar, of course, but the fact is we had a birthday to celebrate... and dammit, we were going to! Cat has never met him but she's a recent Facebook friend of his... meaning she had to rely on our lurid description of the dude. (Only made her like him more.) And ironically, even though we're born a day apart, Steve's something like 16 hours ahead in NZ so we virtually celebrated our birthdays at the same time on opposite ends of the globe, turning the Earth into our own gigantic beer birthday sandwich... hold the mayo. So Steve's birthday was toasted repeatedly... and progressively more loudly at their brewpub.

This humongous chalkboard behind our
server-dude has all the imports at the bar from
craft breweries both near and far. We stuck
mostly to Bellwoods... but veered a few times

Now this was the first time Glenn and Cat had met and I ended up remembering something about him that I had forgotten over time. You see, he and I went to Journalism School at the same time, even once wayyyy back worked at the same paper in a tiny, very smelly pulp-mill town in Northern Ontario early in our J-Days. I can't begin to describe what a pulp-mill town smells like (okay, skunk's ass works) but I think the day I got used to it was the day I decided it was time to leave. Regardless, one of Glenn's best skills as a reporter was his ease with talking to people - strangers and friends alike- asking just the right questions that eventually triggered longer and more involved answers. With Glenn, there's this innate sense of empathy to the guy that just makes people want to tell him their stories. In Cat, he certainly found a willing participant - someone whose stories are fascinating and the afternoon was basically one long, loud, raucous, intimate, often silly get-to-know-each-other session, punctuated by lots of laughs and some serious good beers.

While I recognize the above description sounds very Hallmark Moment, trust me when I say we were parked more firmly by the humourous cards, rather than the touching ones. And that started quickly with out first beers. You see, Glenn had poured through RateBeer and decided beforehand which beers he would have down to the precise order and started with the 6.8% Roman Candle IPA. Cat's choice was preordained: it had to be the 7.3% Catherine Wheel IPA. Mine came after a lengthy chat with the young lady in the retail section where the descriptions were posted - how could I not start with the 9% Witchshark IIPA?

Cheers to our mate Stevil St Evil on his birthday, cheers to
me on the day after mine, cheers to old and new friends
alike and finally, of course, cheers to Bellwoods Brewery!

All I knew from Glenn was that all three scored in the 90s on RateBeer, one very high-90s. One of the advantages of still using a flip-phone is that I can't see RateBeer scores before a purchase and since this blog is about discovery, that works well for me. Plus it only costs like $30/month and no one can ever tell if I've read their texts. (My "Oh, I'm sorry. I never saw it. Crappy flip-phone" is so smooth, I could fool the best police detective. Well, until now...) But back to the beers... our server dude returned with mine and Cat's... but not Glenn's. "Yeah, we don't have the Roman Candle," he noted. "Sorry, we blew the keg..." That statement sent Glenn into Panic Mode as he searched for an alternative. However, at the same time, it sent me and Cat into Snickering Teenagers At The Back Of Sex Education Class Mode, instead. One of us might have even muttered: "I bet there was foam everywhere..."

You want your bell rung? Then try Bellwoods Brewery's
Witchshark IIPA. Buckle up because it's a delicious ride...

I knew before even sampling the others, the Witchshark Imperial IPA had to be the high-90s one - turns out it was 99. Using Columbus, Simcoe, Amarillo and Centennial hops, this bomb-blast of a beer had the fruit and pine aroma with the tangy mango/grapefruit taste. I can't find its IBU (international bitterness units) listed anywhere but it's gotta be pushing 85-90. Liquid dynamite! However, though milder, the Catherine Wheel held its own, using Simcoe, Summit and Cascade hops and Belgian yeast, its nose is conversely floral and pungent at the same time, giving it a less-tangy light citrus and spiced taste. The 7.3% was masked completely, making it deceptive, as well as delicious. None of us could try the Roman Candle until we got home (it was available in the retail shop) but by using Columbus and Citra hops, it's citrus, pine and something really bitterly pungent on the nose while tart, tangerine and grapefruit on the tongue. A damn fine American-style IPA.

The blink-and-you'll-miss-it front of
Bellwoods Brewery on Ossington Ave

From there, we were all over the place - I went for a 10% Hellwoods Russian Imperial Stout, Cat snagged a 8.5% Lost River Baltic Porter while Glenn, who doesn't like the darker offerings of stouts and porters, continued to explore IPAs, going to a guest tap for a 6.5% Great Lakes Brewery Half Nelson IPA.

The Hellwoods was sweet chocolate and cherries on the nose, bitter chocolate and cocoa on the tongue. Thick and warming, it kept me toasty when I slipped out for a smoke. The Lost River Baltic Porter, a gold medalist at the 2012 Canadian Brewing Awards, was all coffee on the nose but sweet chocolate in the taste. Even having a sip immediately after the much-heavier and meatier Hellwoods, it held its weight beautifully. Award winner, indeed.

The Half Nelson IPA is a recent offering from Great Lakes, using the New Zealand Nelson Sauvin hop. Actually, Glenn had to point out their origin - I didn't know. (This boy learns quickly especially when he's on a holy quest! Shut up at the back of the class, it is too holy!! Oh wait, that's probably us...) Citrus on the nose, grapefruit to the tongue - very nice offering! And great to see the brewpub offering up guest taps - I dig that sense of craft brewery comradery...

Retail lady does her best Vanna White while I choose 12
to take home. Lessee, a Grizzly Beer brown ale, couple of
Roman Candle IPA. a couple of Hellwoods stout and...
oh hell, just make the rest Witchshark Imperial IPA...

But we were in for a special treat when Cat went to the guest taps for a sampler of Dieu du Ciel (Montreal brewery) Aphrodisiaque. Holy crap, it knocked us over!! A black ale that incorporates chocolate, vanilla, cocoa, bourbon... well, everything good, let's just say. It was our last offering of the day and we just stared at each other like a couple of slack-jawed yokels. Oh man, it was a show-stopper! An outstanding dessert beer. I just checked RateBeer for this (forgot that night and every subsequent night, apparently) and it scored 100 with another 100 on style points. And a couple of the reviews said that it's even better on tap! Which is precisely how we had it. Some Montreal neighbourhood is getting spoiled rotten.

My first-ever mention of Bellwoods was some time last summer when they came to the rescue of Glenn's local brewery 5 Paddles who had brewed up some batches only to realize they didn't have enough bottles. They called Bellwoods in a panic and even though no one knew anyone else at the other brewery, Bellwoods graciously stepped in with a enough bottles for 5 Paddles to finish up. I thought about that gesture a few times that afternoon. Just like the guest taps, it speaks volumes about the bond Ontario craft brewers share. That's some cool mojo there...

This is Mel's choice for her favourite Bellwoods beverage...

And, of course, when I got home, I immediately PMed the Toronto Craft Beer Queen Mel and told her, "Look, I don't know how close you are to Ossington but..." Yeah, she's close and has been on several occasions. She immediately tossed her favourite into the ring, their Cat Lady IPA, which wasn't available when we went. Looks like a return Summer visit is in order! I am certain both Glenn and Cat will be game.

Okay, shoutouts... Stevil St Evil recently attended the alcohol-fueled rugby insanity know in New Zealand as The Sevens. This year it featured something new... some whining people. So this entry can only be called: Hey Whiners, Pipe Down, We're Trying To Drink Here... And well, well, well, isn't this a cool twist? Cat has resumed her dormant blog and has also written about our Bellwoods excursion. Hers is the sober version... joking, neither of us bothered with that nonsense... You can catch Cat's take on our shenanigans here at: I WROTE MINE FIRST!!! I WIN!!! And well, well, well yet again... here's Glenn's blog on the same adventure which we're gonna called: I'm in love with a witch... or is it a wolf? It's wrong either way...

Okay, folks, that's it, that's all... and I am outta here!!! Until next time, I remain...

Lagers and ales... and super-fast Olympic sliding...

Sister Act: Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe won early
medals for Canada when they took gold and silver respectively in the
Women's Freestyle Moguls in Sochi, Russia. At this writing, Canada is
second on the medal board behind Norway - and we still have hockey to go

The Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics couldn't possibly be any less related.

The Summer Olympics involve lots of running, lots of jumping, lots of heavy lifting, lots of throwing and, on occasion, heaving. They are quick-paced, showcases of strength, often dramatic, and heavily-favour warm-weather countries.

The Winter Olympics, on the other hand, is more favoured among cold-weather countries such as Canada. But when you boil it down, the entire Winter Games revolve around one physical movement... sliding.

From Brutal Brewing in Grangesberg, Sweden comes
Pistonhead Kustom Lager, a serviceable brew in a cool can

Snowboard events are basically sliding down a mountain on a really cool piece of wood. All skiing events are sliding very quickly down super-steep mountains on two pieces of wood, the exceptions being that one where you're sliding cross-country and stop on occasion to pull out a high-powered rifle to shoot at stuff and the other where you slide halfway down the mountain to one big mother jump that propels you about 60-feet into the air, after which you are expected to land on the ground on two pieces of wood without breaking anything. Frankly, I think any athlete who even enters that one should automatically get a medal and free drinks at the Olympic Village Bar. That said, I'd really really like to try the sniper rifle one. I'd feel like a trained assassin in a James Bond movie. All luge, skeleton and bobsled events involve sliding down a track of, well, ice at an incredibly high speed and basically making it to the end of the course without, well, mangling yourself...

Alcohockey: a very Canadian form of Beer Pong that if the
International Olympics Association were to add this sport
to the 2018 Winter Games, I could represent my country...

And then there's curling, which involves carefully sliding a rock from one end of the ice to the other end where there's a big target. Back when I was in my 20s, I used to join my late father at the occasional curling bonspiel and sliding the rock was only one small part of the day. I'm not certain what happens at the Olympics but lemme tell you my curling experience. I firmly believe that some Canadian invented this game, simply to get out of the house and start drinking beer early in the morning. Because there was a helluva lot more of that happening than actual rock sliding. Y'know, if they eliminated the rock-sliding part of curling and just concentrated on the morning-drinking part of curling as a sport, I honestly believe I would go down in history as one of my country's greatest Olympians!

And finally, the favourite of me and my fellow citizens here in the Great White North, hockey... the sport where you slide around the ice on thin metal blades with a big wooden stick... using that stick to slide the little black puck to team-mates, who, like you, are trying to slide that same puck into the other guys' net. However, there is one condition. While you are sliding, if you bump into a slider from the other team, you have to cease all sliding, drop the gloves and fight them. It's mandatory. Don't look at me. I didn't invent this game. I just enjoy the hell out of it.

The Ontario Beer Company has gone a very safe route with
their 100 Mile Lager and Ale. Will they veer in a more radical
crafty direction with the inevitable IPAs and stouts??

Now today, in honour of the Winter Olympics, we will be looking at lagers and ales. Why? Because in the Sochi Athletes Village, that's what the boys and girls are drinking. They aren't having the Fancy Dan stouts or porters or IPAs that I favour. It's all lagers and ales over there... and since they're in Russia, also vodka. But I am not qualified to talk about vodka simply because all I know about it is that it used to only come in vodka-flavour. That no longer seems to be the case. Smirnoff Fluffed Marshmallow Vodka? Seriously? Are the Smurfs big vodka drinkers these days?

Okay, in the spirits of the Olympics, we're gonna start with a Swedish entry that landed in my store not long ago - Pistonhead Kustom Lager from Brutal Brewing in their town of Grangesburg. For starters, it's organic so... you know, hipsters rejoice. That's a good thing. (I suppose.) Light citrus on the nose, very smooth, I quite liked it. It's a decent lager. And the cool-looking can is glow-in-the-dark so bonus if you're a child-at-heart like me. A child that could have one day been a great Canadian Olympic champion had they taken the slide-rock component out of curling...

Big Rock's Saaz Republic Pilz is a solid
beer but I love their Traditional Ale

Next on deck... well, now this is interesting. The Ontario Beer Company's 100 Mile Lager and 100 Mile Ale, two beers that ONLY use Ontario ingredients. The Ontario Beer Company is the brain-child of Mike Duggan (he of the late, lamented Duggan BrewPub in Toronto and Duggan 9 IPA) and Brad Clifford of Get Well Bar who use hops from three separate Ontario growers in these two newbies. I had both in succession and icy-cold from the fridge at Donny's Bar and Grill, favoured the ale over the lager (which should surprise no-one). But the pair has gone with a very safe, mainstream route for these two brews. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Lagers and ales often travel this road. But... big but... when the time comes for them to create a stout or an IPA? Gentlemen, please go nuts. And by nuts, I mean go shithouse crazy! I really like the all-Ontario aspect but with these two, they didn't really make anything different than the other mainstream readily-available lagers and ales out there. Here's hoping they've just begun to create wild, new beers!

Hop City's 8th Sin Black Lager? Yeah, I'll go to Hell for this...

Next up is Big Rock's Saaz Republic Pilz (so a form of lager), straight from Calgary. Saaz hops are the weak sister of the Hops Family so they're only gonna give a beer a wee kick in the pants. And that's what has happened here. It's not bad at all but the Czech Pilsners are not quivering in fear. That said, it doesn't matter. It held its own. But this company's jewel has always been their Traditional Ale. I love that beer. That said, it's sold in single cans, has a little more bite than the traditional fare so give it a go. I'm a hophead so 'light bite' will never be enough for me. But it may be for you.

Ahhh, my friends at Brampton's Hop City, who won a gold medal for North American Style Amber Lager at the 2013 Canadian Brewing Awards for my much-loved Barking Squirrel, are back with another - their 8th Sin Black Lager.

Okay, okay... I rather like Hogsback Brewery's Vintage Lager
but can you tell which one of their beers I am eager to try??

What can I say about me and black lagers? Once you go black... well, you know how the rest goes. I love black lagers. If I was only allowed to drink one style of beer for the rest of my life, it would be... okay, totally IPAs. But if there were no IPAs, it would be... uhhh, it would be stouts. But if there were no IPAs and stouts, it would definitely be... well, ales but only ales as good as Rogue Dead Guy Ale and Mill Street Tankhouse Ale... not sissy weak-ass ales. But after that, it would be dark lagers. And oh my stars and garters, Hop City has created one kick-ass black lager with 8th Sin. Just 5%, this schwarzbier is everything I love in a stout... but far lighter. Coffee and cocoa to the nose, light touch of chocolate in the taste, bit of bitterness. Holy crap, this was good.

The Molson Canadian Beer Fridge is in Sochi, as we speak
and yeah, you can only open one with a Canadian passport!

That brings me to Hogsback Brewing Company's Vintage Lager. The Ottawa brewer use three different malts for this but falls back on the Saaz hops for its kick. Again, the problem is Saaz hops have less kick than a one-year-old playing soccer. I honestly wish some brewers would try, well, a hoppier hop in their lagers. Fortunately, their use of the 2-Row, Munich and Vienna malts combine with the Saaz for a pretty decent taste with this lager. This 5.2% brew actually got a better little with each sip. That's rare and definitely unique for lagers. Most wane slightly after the initial gulp. That said, I am incredibly eager to try their Hogsback's Aporkalypse Now Oatmeal Bacon Stout! Oatmeal, bacon, stout in one glass? This isn't a beer. This is a bloody proper Irish Breakfast!

People, you have exactly one day to find me
a Stone Brewery Enjoy By 02.14.14 IPA
because aside from the lameness known as
Valentine's Day, that is also my birthday.
Simply fly to the Escondido, California
and tell them it's for me. They'll know...

Well, just as Budweiser and Bud Light (brewed by Labatt up here in Canada) owns Canadian Super Bowl-watching beer drinkers because it's the brew most readily identified with the NFL, the Olympic-watching beer drinkers here are owned by Molson's. Not too surprising when your best-seller is actually called Canadian. Molson's knows this and has been putting together an incredibly-clever ad campaign around their Canadian fridge that can only be opened with a Canadian passport. Their first installment landed way back in my Canada Day blog which you can see RIGHT HERE! Love that commercial. Well, they kept it going with these outstanding commercials by next sending two buddies with another fridge to visit their buddy Morgan in Indonesia with this one, which we'll simply call: Morgan gets a special visit And then, they continued to highlight Morgan and his life of hockey worship in Indonesia with this beauty called: Beach Hockey! Okay, the bottles you see Morgan drinking in that ad are the 625-ml Molson Canadian "Victory" bottles and I think I can safely guess they're gonna be a huge-seller, particularly as the Women's and Men's hockey teams hits the playoff rounds in Sochi. And that Molson fridge? Well, it's in Sochi right now and readily available to our athletes to drink all the free Canadian they want... so long as they remember their passports.

This is how the Canadian women's hockey team celebrated
gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics... with magnums of
Molson Canadian and cigars at centre ice. That's our girls!

Okay, shout-outs! Well, well, well, my blog brother Glenn is finally back in the fold after a five-month hiatus. And what brought him back? His new-found love for IPAs. You can read all about it here at: Smashbombed On Craft Beers! And of course, my lovely young friend KC keeps cranking them out with her last Confessionals Of A Former Fat Girl blog wondering this: Did I Break My Diet On Super Bowl Sunday?

As for me, big weekend coming up. Tomorrow is my birthday (yes, Valentine's Day and yes, I recognize what a lame day that is for a dude's birthday) so co-workers Gordo and Saga will be taking me out for a rowdy night of terrorizing and traumatizing fair damsels in Burlington. And just as I recover from that, I will be jetting into Toronto to visit Bellwoods Brewery with my Amsterdam Brewery-loving friend, Cat, and the aforementioned Glenn, who's stoked because the brewery has THREE different IPAs. We will also be celebrating the birthday of our co-conspirator Steve St Evil down there in toasty warm Wellington, New Zealand on the 15th so big birthday weekend. You'll hear all about Bellwoods by Monday or so. But that's it, that's all and I am outta here so until next time, I remain...

... and now for something a lot less hoppy...

... for this is Groundhog Day, an annual
event where we pay tribute to Bill Murray

Well now, isn't February 2nd, 2014 a big day for two reasons! The first reason, of course, is that this is Groundhog Day - the annual 24-hour stretch we all set aside because this is the day we celebrate Bill Murray's classic 1993 comedy, Groundhog Day.

Yeah, there's also something about huge North American rodents and their shadows predicting the future weather but seriously, how drunk/high do you have to be to believe that?

And secondly, of course, it's Super Bowl Sunday - which if you're unfamiliar with it (yeah, right) is an annual event that sees millions of North Americans hunker down in front of the big-screen to drink beer and watch some hilarious commercials that are occasionally interrupted by what is usually a very one-sided football game. This year's title tilt is between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos, two teams I like pretty much equally... as does Las Vegas which has basically called this affair a "pick 'em".

Scott Norwood is the reason I drink...
Okay, not really. That's far too heavy a
burden to place on one man's shoulders

You see, I am a long-time die-hard Buffalo Bills fan, dating back to my childhood. Back in ye olden days, we relied on TV antennas to watch the boob-tube. Where I grew up that meant you could watch TV stations from just two cities - Toronto and Buffalo. So I became a Bills fan. Some of you might remember the early-1990s when the Bills appeared in four consecutive Super Bowls (a record that still stands)... and lost every single one of them (a far-less auspicious record that also still stands). While Dallas (twice) and Washington had no problem beating my Bills in three of those Super Bowls, the Bills' best chance came in the first one against the New York Giants where with time running out and the Bills down 20-19, kicker Scott Norwood lined up for a very do-able 47-yard field goal. The always-reliable Norwood basically had the Super Bowl in his hands. Except on this day...

The words haunt me. "The kick is up and it's... wide right!" Wide right... wide right. Not since "I do" have two words so punished me. Actually, this was worse. In failed marriages, you can only lose a house. On the Bills, I had bet the whole damn farm. Wasn't my farm, mind you, but my Uncle Ed still won't talk to me to this day...

Old Milwaukee: for those who like
their beer with a 1940s pin-up lady

But it's Super Bowl Day and two teams I quite like are going at it in a matter of hours. On one hand, I kinda want Seattle to win it, just because they never have and this is actually their first appearance in the Big Game. But Denver? Man, they have Peyton Manning and that dude rocks so I think the bigger part of me is rooting for him. In the end, I just want a good game... (and possibly a Broncos' win.)

But to matters of beer, good quaffers... for beer is what Super Bowl Sunday is truly all about! And for Super Bowl Sunday, which usually begins in the early afternoon for most of us, that means the football fans need a session - or sessionable - beer, meaning something low alcohol. You see, the problem with the high-alcohol, high-IBU (international bitterness units) IPAs that I favour is that they are not marathon beers. They are sprint beers. And Super Bowl Sunday is a marathon. So the other problem with the high-octane, high-IBU suds is simply this: while both myself and my New Zealand beer-bro Steve St Evil prefer them to most others, we have determined that they have an effect that we very scientifically called "Sleepy-Makey."  Granted, I love a good nap - not sure why I fought so hard against them as a child. And it doesn't take very many of them. They're stealth-mode beers - they sneak up on you. It is fair to say high-octane IPAs are the ninjas of beers.

The other (other, other) problem is that while I go on at great lengths about IPAs in this blog (no, seriously, I do...), many beer drinkers, both craft beer lovers and commercial beer sluggers alike, can't take the IPAs. They're simply too hoppy for a majority of beer drinking palates.

Great Lakes Brewery's Crazy Canuck Pale Ale
is a great example of how a pale ale can be a
somewhat hoppier, which appeals to me, but
lightly so, thus appealing to everyone else...

Take my coworker, Saga... (please, take him... he's free to a good home and mostly house-trained...) He casts his net just as wide as me when it comes to discovering new beers but where I go hop-nuts, he goes malt-mad. Says beers that are too hoppy give him gas (like I said... mostly house-trained.) Having worked with him a fair few years, I can confirm there are a lot more things than an aggressively-hopped beer that give this lad gas. But in the end, he's loved as many newly-discovered beers as I have, just in a different malt-driven direction. And to be frank, when it comes to super-wide malt selection versus super-high hop hunting, I suspect Saga's tastes are far more wide-spread and representative of (a large number of) craft and (the great majority of) commercial beer drinkers than mine.

So today, I am looking to very lightly hopped IPAs and a couple of medium-hopped, regular-alcohol pale ales as the best sessionable beers for this, the holiest of days - Super Bowl Sunday. Or as I shall call them: SFS (safe for Saga) IPAs. Because we all want to see the game and not nod off on the couch by half-time.

Hops and Bolts IPL, made by Mad and Noisy
Brewing, which is actually Creemore Springs
Brewing, which in turn is owned by Molson's

My buddy, Kevin, has already stumbled onto one of the best out there - Flying Monkeys Hoptical Illusion Not Quite Pale Ale, a 5% offering that seems punchier than it is due to its use of Amarillo hops. It's long been my go-to session beer. Kevin, a long-time Blue Light and Old Milwaukee (brewed here under licence by Sleeman) drinker, likens it to a British bitter. As for Old Milwaukee, he always liked, as do I, the illustrations of the 1940s sexy (when sexy was still innocent) pin-up models on the cans and bottles of Old Milwaukee. But Kevin is also a pretty big fan of Creemore Springs Lager, which brings me to my next one...

Molson's is a gigantic Canadian commercial brewer and damn, if they aren't an incredibly clever one, to boot. While many American giants have been trying to sneak craft beers onto the market under different brewery names (and getting caught by eagle-eyed craft drinkers), Molson's hasn't bothered. Why? They don't have to. They own an actual craft brewery, Creemore Springs Brewery, founded in 1987 and bought out by Molson's in 2005.

Double Trouble Brewing out of Guelph has
thrown its Hops and Robbers IPA into the
session IPA pond. One of their three beers.

And - this is my favourite part of the story - the big corporate brewery did something unheard of... they let Creemore Springs carry on, business as usual. Even under Molson's eye, Creemore beers continue to have no preservatives and remain unpasteurized, just as they always were. They still get their spring water from artesian wells on the founder's property, just as they always have. Full marks, man - Molson's did everything right on this call.

So when it came time to slide something onto the craft market, Molson's simply said to Creemore, "Yeah, we're kinda busy, what with the selling of a million litres of Coors Light and Canadian every 12 minutes. Ooops, latest sales figures in... now it's every 11.87 minutes. Why don't you pick up the ball?" So Creemore did, creating their own separate wing, Mad and Noisy Brewery, which in turn cranked out Hops and Bolts India Pale Lager last summer. The beer, meant to be a combo of an English IPA with some Czech Pilsner leanings, is more hoppy in aroma than taste but still a pretty strong and tasty sessionable at 5.3%. It won't clean your clock... but then that's the point of session beers - to stay awake before the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform at Super Bowl half-time. The point of my high-test IPAs is to fall asleep just before Bruno Mars performs, also at Super Bowl half-time... and then wake up immediately afterwards.  Like, within seconds... maybe a couple of minutes, just to be sure.

One of the three new hop ales created by Alexander Keith's,
the Galaxy Hop Ale trumps the Hallertauer and the Cascade

Double Trouble Brewing, a two-buddy outfit which contract-brews out of Wellington Brewery in Guelph, has but three beers: their Break-Out Pilsner (a decent outing), their Fire In The Rye RPA (stay tuned to another blog - hands-down their best) and their sessionable 5.7% Hops and Robbers IPA. This beer is listed as 55 IBU, which is a little difficult to believe. Quite a bit lower, I'd guess. It's not a bad beer at all. Mostly citrus and floral in aroma and taste, not over-powering in the least. Definitely a Safe-For-Saga IPA, which makes it a solid choice for many looking to try something slightly hoppier. Because that's precisely what this is. Oh-so-slightly...

Okay, while Molson's lets Creemore Springs do that craft thing, Labatts lets Maritime brewer, Alexander Keith's do it for them. When Labatt scooped up Oland Breweries in 1971, they bought the Canadian east coast's oldest brewer and it's now Keith's job to come up with the new, hip-hoppy ales. They haven't done a bad job with it, creating the Cascade Ale, Hallertauer Ale and the best of the bunch, the Galaxy Hop Ale, all named after the hops they used. The irony is the three are in a 12-pack with Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale, the least hoppy of the bunch but the only one named as an IPA. For more on that confusing bit of business, read my previous blog: When is an IPA not an IPA??? Regardless, all three are decent sessionable hop beers, totally Safe-For-Saga. And I do actually like Keith's. It's just not an IPA.

Muskoka is not identifying this as an IPA on the
packaging but make no mistake. Detour IPA is
definitely a "sessionable" IPA and a great one!

Which bring us down to the gold medal. Well, after Mad Tom IPA and Twice As Mad Tom Double IPA - two of my personal favourites, especially the latter, I figured Muskoka Brewing has done pretty much all they could in the whole, y'know, IPA genre. Muskoka, you sly, beautiful brewing bastards, with your new Detour beer, you have created a low-alcohol (4.3%), low-IBU (What? Forty, 45, even 50 maybe?) IPA that ACTUALLY tastes like an IPA. Okay, not quite as biting as their big hitters or the other big craftie IPAs. But dammit, this is really really good. This is the perfect starter IPA and thus the perfect session IPA for Super Bowl viewing. It's got the citrus, it's got the grapefruit and the mango... Now when someone comes into my store and wants something a bit bolder than the average fare, among a couple others, I can hand them this and say, "Try a light-style IPA." This is the best - and coolest - surprise of 2014 so far. I will be drinking this again. And again. And again. If IPAs scare you, please try this one.

On behalf of the "beer fanatic" grouping, I apologize to those in the
pre-marital sex grouping, the affair grouping, the gay community, the
marijuana and OxyContin users and the ravers that you were lumped
in with us beer fanatics. That's unfair. Liars? You can all go to Hell...

Okay, shout-outs: Up at bat, Stevil St Evil is ready for the HSBS Sevens World Rugby Tournament in Wellington, New Zealand which includes a Team Canada so we're gonna call this blog of his: GO CANADA!

Okay, like I said, Super Bowl Sunday which is chockful of awesome commercials. So is actress Anna Kendricks' Newcastle Brown ad a Super Bowl contender or not? We won't know just yet. But in the meantime, enjoy this maybe-it-is-a-Super-Bowl-commercial- but-maybe-it's-not here at Will I Air During The Super Bowl?

And finally you may notice my sign-off is a tad different. The new social media policy came down at work, which frankly is really smart on their end and it dealt with blogs, Twitter, Facebook and any number of social media things. (Being ANY company's policy maker, particularly regarding social media these days, must be brutal. How do you keep up?) Do I work at a Beer Store? Yeah. Great gig. Do I represent them online? Hellz no. I'm just a dude who loves beer and writes about it. When I have the uniform on, 40 hours a week, yes, I do represent them and happily so... Best job ever. Hell, I'm surrounded by beer. When Brew Ha Ha comes out to play? That's after-hours Donny drinking beer and shooting the breeze... after all, there's 168 hours in the week. So I have lots of play-time...

And that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...