Labatt USA and Goose Island Honker Ale

Labatt Prohibition Series' Bourbon Barrel Ale? Huh?
What SORCERY is this? I have never seen this product
before and I have worked at the Beer Store part-time
and full-time since 1991. Well, keep reading to find out

I was stocking the shelves at my Beer Store recently when co-worker Marie called me over to the empties room.

She handed me a stubbie - a shorter but wider bottle style used uniformly by all Canadian breweries between 1962 and 1982. In 1983, Miller High Life was introduced to Canadians in a long-neck bottle and basically, due to its frenzied popularity, it changed all beer bottles across this country to all shapes and sizes once again. So at first, I assumed, "Wow, this is an old beer."

I mean, whenever someone from my high school on Facebook scans an old high school photo, the closest table is invariably littered with stubbies. If I'm actually in the photo, I'm usually face-planted on the table... surrounded by stubbies. Good times. Reading this, you are, no doubt, thinking, "Well, clearly this guy was an Honour student!" If by that you mean on occasion I would honour a teacher by showing up for class, then hellz yeah, I was an Honour student.

But back to this bottle. I examined the bottle closely. It couldn't be an oldie-goldie because it was twist-off and back then all our bottles were "church key", meaning, "someone better have a bottle opener or Bob's using his teeth again and last time, that ended in a hospital visit." There's a reason that all those super-sophisticated high-tech telescopes looking for signs of intelligent life in the universe are always pointed away from Earth.

Also, the bottle, as you can see, is listed in ounces, not millilitres so you know instantly, it's from America. Only three countries in the world don't use the metric system - the USA, Liberia and Burma. I am fairly certain this little beer bottle didn't make it all the way to Oakville, Canada by way of either Liberia or Burma.

The Genessee Brewery in the High Falls area of
Buffalo mades a line of beers for Labatt USA, which
we cannot get up here in the Great White North.

So, of course, I thought, "Which of the many Labatt breweries scattered across this great land is making this unique beer and shipping it directly south thus giving only Americans the chance to try it? Bastardos!" So Marie went on Google Hunt and found a link for Labatt USA - like this beer, a company completely unfamiliar to me. "It must be brewed up here," I told her, "because I know Labatt has no breweries in the States." Well, once again, I managed to be both right and wrong in the same sentence. This happens to me with alarming frequency and makes taking advice from me a total crap-shoot. You have to figure out which half of what I said is actually great advice and avoid the other half, which will instantly lead you down the path of ruin and despair.

Labatt does not have a brewery in the USA but this beer is, in fact, brewed down there under contract at the Genesee Brewery in the High Falls neighbourhood of Buffalo.

Well, Labatt-brewed Goose Island Honker Ale bills
itself as an "English-style bitter" and since I have
never had the Chicago Honker Ale to compare the
two, I decided to pit this beer against two others,
London's Fuller's ESB (the world-wide gold standard
for the style) and Nickel Brook's craft Equilibrium
ESB. How did it fare against these two bad boys? Uhh...

Do you know what this means? It means Labatt, a brewing giant here, is also a contract brewer. something usually associated with small craft brewers. To put it in perspective for my American friends, imagine if you will, Anheuser-Busch contract-brewing a specialty line out of, say, Wellington Brewing in Guelph, Ontario under the name AB-Canada? As Spock would say, "Fascinating, Jim." (To which Kirk would likely reply: "What... did...YOU... say?") To that end, Marie's boy toy Ernie has a sister visiting from the north-east USA in a couple of weeks and Marie has put her on a Level-Five Labatt Prohibition Series' Bourbon Barrel Ale Hunt. I'll let you know if the hunt is successful.

But since we're already talking about Labatt so let's keep that ball rolling for a bit. As I last reported, Labatt (by virtue of its association with Anheuser-Busch) has the rights to brew a line of beers from Chicago's beloved craftie Goose Island, which was purchased a while back by AB. I talked at length about the Goose IPA that landed here in mid-April in my last one. Once again, this week, I got Goosed when our Labatt delivery arrived - this time by Labatt's take on the Goose Island Honker Ale. But there was an inherent problem this time. When I tried the Labatt Goose IPA, I had, in fact, imbibed the real deal from Chicago in Las Vegas two weeks prior.

I have to wonder what Chicago Goose Island's, well,
imposing Brewmaster Jared Jankosi thinks about
the Canadian take on his beloved American classics?
Because, frankly, I think his beard could beat us up.

But I have never sampled the Honkers Ale out of Chicago. What am I gonna compare this Labatt version to? Well, the bottle says it's an "English-style bitter" so I figured why not pit it against Fuller's ESB, out of London, England and my local crafties Nickel Brook's Equilibrium ESB? Did I deliberately stack the deck with ringers against the Labatt's beer? Of course, I did. If you wanna play in the Premiere Craft League, you best be ready to pull up your Big Boy Brew Pants. Okay, much like it's Chicago counterpart, the Honker is a lighter ale, clocking in at just 4.3% but they did, well, goose it a little with 30 IBUs (international bitterness units) just as the Chicago one does. Some light fruit on the nose and light bitter tweak on the tongue make this a decent though not at all outstanding session ale. Spanking #1 came at the hands of the Equilibrium which packs some power at 5.5% and 43 IBUs. Bready on the nose, this begins hoppy on the tongue but slides quickly into a caramel maltiness. Nicely done! Okay, let's turn that Honker around for a roundhouse kick to the nards, courtesy of Fuller's. At 5.9%, this ESB is a legend in the industry and very much my favourite British beer thus far. A nifty fruit burst on the nose, slyly spiced on the tongue, this is pretty much the yard-stick for ESBs worldwide. Outstanding, as always.

Seen here is the now-gone Labatt's Brewery on King St East
and Ontario Street in Toronto. A little piece of Canadiana.

However, I want to make one clarification here. The ESB is far from my favourite beer style. I have had a few for the purpose of this blog but they're one-and-done beers for me. Perhaps a true Brit like Upstairs Simon might have a more favourable opinion about the Honker Ale. And frankly, I do applaud Labatt for at least trying to break out of the mainstream mold with a couple of outside-the-corporate-box Goose Island beers. These two beers will never make the millions that their Budweiser does. Neither will they ever steal away any real segment of craft beer drinkers. So while the results may be C-minus, the beer behemoth should get an A+ for effort. And to be honest, I have purchased the Goose IPA a couple of times since. It's not really an IPA by my standards but it's really a pretty good little pale ale. Also, Labatt, take heart - my co-worker Jay-Dawg tried the Honker on tap and loved it.

Okay, I've make it this far without mentioning an IPA (besides Goose, which was in passing) so I'm gonna keep that trend going and look at a couple of other styles I have recently.

Now this is a nice pale ale, the Royal City
Brewing Company's (Guelph) Dry
Hopped Pale Ale.  A Kylie choice for me.

There are a few Beer Certainties in my life. One is I will put in five days a week at the Beer Store and will continue to do so... until I win the lottery. Two, I will be at Nickel Brook Brewing at least twice a week to fill growlers with their nectar-of-the-gods Headstock IPA and will continue to do so... until I win the lottery, in which case, I will then fly around the world drinking the best craft beers from every country. And three, I will always stop at Rib Eye Jack's Ale House on Thursdays for their Mini-Cask Night, hosted by their talented beer technician Kylie and will continue to do so... until I win the lottery. In which case, I will buy a castle and get contractors to seriously gouge me (because I'm filthy rich) throughout the process of converting it into Donny's Bar and Grill, the biggest craft beer bar in the world. That castle will also be located in Hawaii because screw winter. Then I would hire Kylie for a stack of cash taller than she is, let her run it while I travel the world drinking the best craft beers and shipping crates of them back to my Uber Cool Craft Castle. If you think I'm putting too much faith in a lottery win, go work for a few decades and then get back to me.

Well, the point is I trust Kylie's judgement because my tastes mirror her own - IPAs, big and bold, please. So when I pop in on Thursdays, after I've tried the Mini-Cask, I have occasionally said to Kylie, "You pick." (The Force is strong in this young Padawan.)

So from where in Quebec does
Brasseries Des Quatre Lune hail?
Try Oakville. It's Trafalgar Brewery.

Thus far, she has plunked some outstanding IPAs from Waterloo's Innocente Brewing and Barrie's Barnstormer Brewing (and Pizzeria - not joking) in front of me. The other week she surprised me by putting down a Royal City Brewing Dry Hopped Pale Ale. A pale ale? From Kylie? (I quickly bolted outside to see if it was suddenly raining frogs, goats and lizards.) Now I have heard of Royal City out of Guelph but honestly only the name. A quick Google search turned up that it was started by two guys, Cam Fryer and Russ Bateman, This place is small, like Ant-Man small. Fryer did some time at Great Lakes Brewery in Toronto but not as a brewer. The pair is evidently self-taught, brewing up batches in their homes before starting their own nano-brewery a year ago. So when the pair say they do small batch brews, trust me, that's all they do.

And how was the Dry Hopped Pale Ale? At just 5.1%, it packed a nifty 59 IBUs which gave it light fruit on the nose and just the right touch of bitterness on the tongue. A small batch with a big-ass taste! Gotta meet these guys. Quite a story.

See that staggeringly good looking thumb?
That's my thumb. What's it holding? A
pair of tickets to the Burlington Beer for
me and Beer Bro Glenn. Got beer???

I found a small beer, hiding in the back of my fridge recently - something called a Brasseries Des Quarte Lunes Saison Automne. For those not fluent in French, this means Four Moons Brewery's Autumn Saison. Saison is also French for season but it's a light summer beer style, as well. And to my French high school pal, Lubin, I translated that without assistance. (He's gonna be pretty proud of me.) Naturally, I assumed that brewery was from Quebec. Beyond the name, it was a regular-sized bottle that was actually corked and caged - that's pretty French right there. Well, not only was it not from Quebec, it was from the most whitebread, Anglo community in Canada, Lubin's and my hometown of Oakville. Trafalgar Brewery makes it and while I bought a huge load of their beers, just prior to their seven medal win at the Ontario Brewing Awards a few months back, I had clearly forgotten this one of those when I reviewed the lot of them. Some were good, some less so, one outstanding (more on that one in a minute.)

So once I spent 10 minutes getting the wire cage off (a blow-torch may or may not have been used) and yanking that damn cork out with my molars, how was it? Well, here's the thing. This poor beer got an eight on RateBeer and zero points for style. That means to RateBeer reviewers, it was the most non-saison saison they had ever tasted. I have never seen this before. So let me say this: like ESBs, saisons are not among my favourite beer style - a little too light for my Hop Ho, Stout Slut tastes.

To all of you the college and university
graduates in Canada and the USA, let me
say congratulations on completing the
easiest part of your life. Now come join
us in the working world. But I will say
this. While you can take the boy out of
college, this graduate shows us that you
can't take the college out of the boy...

But dammit, I liked it. Perhaps being a non-saisony saison helped it? Beats me. It's an Autumn seasonal, meaning it had been sitting in my fridge for a long while. But they use some funky Belgian yeast in it so it's nicely fruity on the nose, lightly spiced on the tongue. Hell, I'm going on RateBeer and giving this a 100 on both points and style, just to mess with the Bell Curve. Is it a 100 beer? Oh gawd no, not even close! Just being a RateBeer anarchist. But it wasn't bad.

Okay, as we wind down (and frankly, I can't believe you made it this far), a quick Burlington Beer Festival Twitter story. So one of the Beer Fest folks, likely the co-organizer, Wayne Brown, takes to Twitter and asked Trafalgar Brewing, "Hey, what are you bringing the the Burlington Beer Festival?" Trafalgar tweets back a nice assortment. Then I butt into the chat. "Mighty Oak, Mighty Oak, Mighty Oak!", meaning their delicious Imperial Brown Ale, which is, for my money, their best beer. This goes back and forth for a while - all good, clean, wholesome fun (usually outside my wheelhouse) - until Trafalgar finally tweets, "Okay, for you, we're bringing Mighty Oak!" Behold, the power of social media! But I felt bad because they're doing me a serious solid so what do I do? I get on there and tweet, "First 20 people who see me and say hey get a sample of Mighty Oak on me." (Kids, don't drink and Twitter.) Now granted no one knows me or what I look like but my word is my word. I will buy 20 extra tokens, give them to random strangers but they have to sample the Mighty Oak with that token! See more information about the July 17-19 event that is gonna to be talked about for decades to come at: burlingtonbeerfest.com.

And so for me, this pretty much means the
same weather every night for decades now

Okay, this train is out of gas. Wait, do trains use gas? Seriously, I don't know - I've seen coal being used in movies but those were cowboy flicks. And speaking of movies, I watched Air Bud with my son last night. And yes, while it is impressive that a Golden Retriever can play basketball, I feel bad for the poor kid who got benched so a dog could take his place on the court.

Next up is the annual Canada Day Brew Ha Ha! But just before then, Stevil St Evil will be gifting Neil Miller, New Zealand's Beer Writer of the Year with a little Canadian Care Package. In that package is a Great Lake's Brewing Thrust! An IPA, a Highlander Brew Co. Blacksmith Smoked Porter, a Muskoka Mad Tom IPA and Twice As Mad Tom Double IPA, a Flying Monkey Smashbomb Atomic IPA, a Collective Arts' Rhyme & Reason Extra Pale Ale, a Central City Red Racer IPA, an Underdog Brewing All Or Nothing Hopfenweisse, a Cameron's RPA, a Phillips Cabin Fever Imperial Black IPA and of course, a Headstock IPA. Anyone getting a sense of what Neil's favourite beer style might be? And while it will be June 30 to us, in New Zealand, it will be Canada Day so there's a couple of extra Canuck trinkets in that care package. Okay, guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!! Until next time, I remain as always...

Tom, Block 3 and Goose Island IPA

My old high school crony, Tom, happily held
his retirement party at the Pipes and Taps Pub
in Oakville last Friday. As for that mystery
woman in the pic? None of us have the faintest
idea who she is. But she kept popping up in
our pictures and had some surprises for me...

So who exactly IS that mystery woman who kept appearing in pictures at my buddy Tom Weech's retirement party at the Pipes and Taps Pub in Oakville last Friday?

Well now, we're not sure. I do know this much. Tom (who we pretty much called Weechie in high school because, well, that's a pretty cool last name) has been working for the Town of Oakville since we left high school, meaning the combination of his age and years of service has put him in the incredibly enviable position of a very early retirement. And if I recall my brief sojourn into municipal politics, they have the Cadillac of pensions. So Tommy Boy is sitting pretty. But because she was in the vicinity of our gang of thugs, I assumed this woman was a co-worker of Tom's. She wasn't. In fact, she was more likely affiliated with one of the two birthday parties going on in the same pub that night.

Our introduction was interesting. I was trying to take Tom's picture on my phone and she demanded: "Why are you taking my picture?" I explained that I was, in fact, trying to takes Tom's picture. So she slid in close besides him and posed with him. My coworker Marie, who was at the party (Tom is godfather to her son, Marc) with her boy-toy Ernie, said the woman kept showing up in her pictures, as well.

But then things got really interesting. Every time she saw me after that, she said, "Hello, handsome" and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. Every single time. It was kinda funny.

Big Bad Bob Sherwood kicked it into high gear with the lead
vocals on ZZ Top's Cheap Sunglasses. Bob has always been,
you know, pretty fly for a white guy. For a bass player anyway

So why am I sharing this story? For this reason - guys, this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that given enough alcohol, women also get "beer goggles", just like we do!!! It's now a researched fact. And as she walked away one time, it was readily apparent that she had lost her land-legs about three glasses of wine prior. Wine goes in, crazy comes out.

But back to the party. We had a blast, sending Tom off to a life of leisure... until his wife puts him to work. Bass playing Bob Sherwood, one of Tom's closest mates, was there with his band, Project 360. As he saw me approach the stage, he bellowed in the mic, "Geezuz, Donny, you look like you're ready for a day at the beach!" Given as I was wearing sandals, cargo shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, it was a fair call. Also a pretty good indicator that you shouldn't be taking any sartorial advice from me. Now I call it Bob's band, simply because he's the only member I know. I think the singer's name - and he is staggeringly good - is Ted. (Bob can correct me if I'm wrong.) But I saw Ted in the can and told him that he was in particularly fine voice for classic rock on this fine, fun evening. I added I was an old buddy of Bob's. "Oh, I know who you are," he laughed. Well sure, I'm the guy who was dressed for the beach. But I always love seeing Bob and the boys play. He was too cool for school way back when, well, we were in high school together and years before it was an actual phrase.

I think the Pipes and Taps Pub in
Oakville is the only bar I've been
to with Innis & Gunn on tap. Nice!

I was told the next day by my boss that the Pipes and Taps Pub was the Greyfriars Pub prior to 2014 but they got shut down for repeating serving minors. 'Twas her brother's favourite haunt. Glad they reopened under new ownership and here's the reason. They have my Scottish favourite Innis & Gunn Oak-Aged Ale on tap. Now yes, I recognize that Innis & Gunn is an acquired taste but apparently unlike material wealth, I've actually acquired it. I gave Marie a sip. "Tastes like wine," she said with a scrunchy face. "That's because it's oak aged," I say, sounding like I have some semblance of a clue. My fellow full-timer Jay-Dawg put it even more succinctly. "It doesn't just taste like wood," he noted. "It tastes like a freshly-sawed two-by-four was actually part of the brewing process!" Since that's how many drinkers view this beer, what can I say? Except more for me.

But all in all, an excellent night!! Tom, all the best, buddy! I would have thought with an event this dignified and sophisticated that at least a few members of the Royal Family would attend, if only to hand him a Royal Certificate. But I came after work so maybe I missed them. Zup, Prince Harry? You keep the Royal Scepter in your Royal Pants? ("Party with Prince Harry" is on my Bucket List. Never mind the fun - the pics will be worth a fortune.) And Big Bob and his Banditos of Bad-Ass? Gonna see you guys many more times. Innis & Gunn? I buy more beer than all those nay-sayers combined so panic not. You're safe here in Canada by virtue of my purchases alone. (Actually, the boys over at the LCBO told me it sells very well.)

When the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup last
week for the third time in six years, there was a pretty
significant first. This Blackhawk is seen pouring a Steady
Hand Brewing (Crown Point, Indiana)  Citra City IPA
into the bowl. I guarantee you that is the first craft beer,
much less an IPA, to be poured into Lord Stanley's mug!!

Now before we get to weightier matters, a couple of observations about the Summer of Don thus far. The Chicago Blackhawks just won the Stanley Cup (the team is hard-stocked with Canadian players) last week and as you can see in the pic to the left, for the first time ever, a craft beer - Steady Hand's Citra City IPA - was poured into the Cup. Thus another beer has landed on my always-growing To-Drink List, which, by the virtue of this very blog, justifies the ridiculous amount of beer I consume. As well, a couple of afternoons of Day Drinking with New Zealand's Stevil St Evil taught me something about Smartphones. He has an iPhone, I have a Samsung - and neither company seems capable of creating a battery that can handle an innocent afternoon of Day Drinking. Wussy baby batteries. And finally, when a buddy is visiting, all you have to do is give the bathrooms a cursory clean-up and promise that they won't contract Hepatitis B, using the john. Steve only cared about the beer, not the cleanliness of Donny's Bar and Grill. Guys are easy to please. Feed me, put beer in front of me... and no one gets hurt.

When Block 3 Brewing opened in tiny St. Jacobs, Ontario,
in September 2013, the owners were younger than most
boy bands. In no particular order, Bryan Maher was 23,
Philip Hipkiss was 26, Graham Spence was 28 and
Derek Lebert was the old man at the tender age of 30.

Okay, then, my aforementioned co-worker Marie and her boy-toy Ernie like to wander Ontario, seeking out new fun, new friends and most importantly, new breweries. It's in their blood. Marie was born to gypsies and Ernie was a carnival worker. They'll deny this but seriously, who are you gonna believe? A hugely-respected blog writer (me, dammit, me!) or the daughter of gypsies and a carny shill? Anyway, they landed in tiny St Jacobs, Ontario, a township of less than 1,900 people. That actually doesn't include the 4,000 Old World Mennonites surrounding the sleepy community. (Seriously, don't piss off the Mennonites, St Jacobs, because you are so outnumbered. And they're handy with pitchforks.) According to Ernie, largely due to those Mennonites, the place has the most outstanding year-round Farmer's Market he has ever seen. "Cheeses, breads, other awesome things you never see here," he raved. Marie and Ernie are the most enthusiast foodies I have ever met whereas I eat food simply to coat my stomach for the upcoming onslaught of beer. Liver? Resistance is futile. Do your damn job.

How good are the guys at Block 3 Brewing?
They can brew you some great craft  beer
and then do your back-taxes! That's talent!

But the pair stumbled across Block 3 Brewing Company, which opened in September 2013. Not saying the owners are young but I can't believe the place operates without chaperones. What's the curfew at this place? Now, the youngest one, Bryan Maher, had actual brewing experience with Wellington Brewery in Guelph. The other three - Philip Hipkiss, Graham Spence and Derek Lebert - well, they were all accountants. The Bean-Counter versus Brewer Ratio at this place is seriously askew. "I couldn't believe how young these guys were!" marveled Marie. But it would seem that as well as having the cleanest books in the province, the numbers guys have added brewing some damn good craft beer to their ledgers.

Marie and Ernie brought me their 1-Up Double IPA and well, these young guns know what they're doing. At 8.7% and likely about 90 IBUs (international bitterness unit), it gives you a huge citrus punch to the nose and follows it up with some awesome bitterness on the tongue. Top flight! Next on my Block 3 To-Drink List is their Pushbroom Porter which the boys suggest tastes best "if you have a Movember moustache." I like their sense of humour.

Wait! What? This is NOT my Goose Island
IPA! I want to know who is making this beer!

Which brings us to the Canadianization of Chicago's beloved Goose Island Brewing. You see, Anheuser-Busch bought Goose Island a while back. This is not unusual these days. Big Beer likes a diverse portfolio. Craft breweries are seeing a fleet of Brinks trucks back up to their loading docks and well, it's gotta be pretty tough saying "no" to becoming instantly wealthy. I couldn't but only because relative poverty seems to come easily to me.

Long story short, Labatt is associated with Anheuser-Busch, in that they both owned by European Beer Giant, In-Bev. So Labatt has had the long-time rights to brew Budweiser and Bud Light up here since the 1980s. So hello. Ka-ching! Bud is this country's number one seller, ahead of Coors Light and Canadian, while Bud Light clocks in at number four. But because of that, they also got the rights to brew Goose Island IPA and the soon-to-be-released Goose Island Honkers Ale.

So in mid-April, we got our first shipment of Goose IPA with our Labatt's delivery. One small problem. I was in Las Vegas just two weeks earlier and was, quite frankly, living off Goose Island IPA along the strip. Every bar had it on tap. I know what Goose Island IPA tastes like. Very well. This is NOT that beer.

So wait? This Goose IPA is NOT the
same as the one from Chicago? Uhhh,
no, this is a different kettle of fish...

So what is this beer? Well, let's answer that question. Now before I start, let me note I drank Labatt Blue for decades and happily so. In a Canadian beer world of Molson's versus Labatt, I was the Labatt Dude. So I will never diss them. I enjoyed their products for years. It was cheap, it was fun... it did the job. Also, to be frank, I still believe the Guinness Extra Stout, brewed under licence here by Labatt, is far superior to the original Irish version. Sacrilege to some, I'm sure, but I'll take the burning bus to Hell for far more offensive statements about beer than that. So let's take this to the pros, shall we? In this case, the pros are myself, Beer Bros Glenn and Steve and Rib Eye Jack's Ale House beer technician Kylie. (So, really, just one pro.) Okay, let's start with the pretty, professional one. Kylie had it at the Toronto Spring Beer Festival and dismissed it out of hand, not realizing it was brewed by Labatt. "Well, that explains it," she said when I told her. Steve was in agreement - he gave it a .5 out of 5 on Untapp'd and was a little ticked at the packaging that included the significant awards won by the Chicago brewery beer. (Totally fair comment.) Glenn didn't hate it but wasn't tripping over himself with praise. "It's NOT an IPA but it's not bad," said Glenn. On this, I agree with Glenn. No, this is a decent pale ale but not an IPA.

Stevil St Evil made me pull out my Molson
Canadian Olympic skate/boot during his
stay here. That's 32 ounces of Muskoka
Mad Tom IPA in this picture here. If I'm
going to some other place in the complex
that houses Donny's Bar and Grill, this
glass is my beer vessel. Thanks, Molson!

I will call this one a Y2K IPA, meaning simply in the year 2000, this would have been cutting edge stuff. In 2015? Yeah, not so much. At 55 IBU and 5.9%, it's not quite an IPA by our standards these days. But it is a decent pale ale. Some good citrus on the nose and tongue, I can say, without lying to my corporate masters, this is the best beer they have put out since, well, Guinness Extra Stout. So there's that. And here's the thing. I have bought it several times since the first 12-pack. Sassy Cassy was at the cash one night when I did grab some and she was all, "Oh my gawd, how can you drink that? It's so hoppy!" Monkey, to me, it's mother's milk. I call her that because of the way this crazy chick climbs the beer racks, not because she looks like a monkey. She's a very pretty and fun-loving young lady - yet another cherished daughter in my Beer Store family.

Okay, next up I have a Beer List longer than your colon, which is, by the way, five feet long. So if you're a young lady like Cassy, who's the height of Tyrion, your colon is bigger than you. Don't get too uppity. But it's time to end this bad boy with a scientific thought. What do you call an organic compound in which a hydroxyl is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl? See? Sometimes, alcohol IS the answer!!!!

Now I'm cashing in my chips and getting the hell out of Dodge. I have too many beers to talk about and I have run out of space. Again. This happens every week. But remember this. If you EVER hand your beer to me and say. "Here, hold my beer while I...", the return rate on that beer is zero. I will drink it. And then watch you nearly kill yourself. Happily. So don't. Guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...

The fine art of Day Drinking...

How do you transition from coffee to beer?
Well, you need that stepping stone better
known as Mill Street Coffee Porter. Perfect!

Some things are not for the weak of heart - rollercoasters, sky-diving, bungee jumping, haunted house tours, visits from the mother-in-law, your lady saying, "I'm fine..."

The same could be said about Day Drinking with Stevil St Evil, the scourge of Wellington, New Zealand, a party-hearty no-good-nik of Boris Badenov proportions. (Yeah, if you're under 30 - or even 40 - you may have to Google that cartoon reference.)

Fortunately, when it comes to a challenge, especially one that involves the copious consumption of craft beer, my Scottish side goes all Braveheart ("You can take my life but you can't take my beer!!! I mean, freedom!!! But especially beer!!") while my Irish side probably already has a three beer head-start.

While Steve landed on a Tuesday night (chronicled with disturbing accuracy in my last blog), Wednesday would be a day of nothing to do and there's nothing a couple of guys like Steve and me enjoy more than a day with zero responsibilities. Eat, drink, chill - repeat as necessary. As you can see from above, we, of course, started the day with coffee (and lots of it) before transitioning to beer with Mill Street Brewing's Coffee Porter. "I love the light coffee in this," noted Steve when we began the festivities at 11 a.m. "This is a really nice start-your-day porter."

In addition to be one of the last few standing during our
Thursday night Humber College Journalism Reunion,
Amy would do both of us a pretty huge solid on Friday.

And from there, we continued on like the good soldiers we are. (Joint beer reviews coming below.) All day. In fact, we were out on my patio for so long, I'm surprised the Mennonites didn't come along and build a bar around us. When we decided to watch the Stanley Cup final hockey game between Chicago and Tampa Bay at 8 pm, I made the mistake of lying on the couch to watch. I was asleep within minutes. Steve was still awake, watching TV with his laptop on the Lazy-Boy when I woke up at 2 a.m. Casual beer was consumed because there is no "last call" at Donny's Bar and Grill until Steve finally nodded off at 5 a.m. I'm not entirely sure he's even human.

But Thursday night was the big one - a mini Humber College Journalism Reunion, featuring the pair of us, Beer Bro Glenn, the unflappable Steve Pecar, ginger-fro-ed Ann Cavanaugh, as well as the Beer Store contingent of Gordo, Amy and Sandi. Mr Pecar would bring a special guest - an apple pie the size of New Hampshire. My son and I had that for dessert for three consecutive days before it was gone. The burgers were left to me and my barbeque while Ann bought the fixin's for a salad - the food that my food already ate before becoming my food. That's how I eat my salads - secondhand via the cow.

Underdog Brewing's (Oshawa) All
Or Nothing Hopfenweisse was a big
hit during one of our Day Drinking
sessions. Steve declared it the best
Canadian wheat he had ever tried.

When meal-time came, Amy asked Ann if she could prepare the salad and goose it a little. Ann said have at it so Amy went to her place for some goat's cheese, pickled beets and then fried up some bacon to add. Now we're talkin' salad! In fact, if you add the bacon bits and forget the salad parts, that's still a damn good salad. Anyways, food was happily consumed (flame-broiled dead cow - always a hit), many, many outstanding beers went down and stories of the good old days at Humber many moons ago were recalled in all their gory glory. Only Glenn, who had done one of his infamous border runs for Stone Brewing products, Steve and Amy were still up for the count when I finally wandered to bed in the wee wee hours of the morning.

However, Amy did Steve and me a huge solid on Friday, knowing his flight to Vancouver was leaving at 8 pm. "Look, it's Steve's last day here. Why don't I take you guys to the airport so you can drink some beers during the day?" Offer... accepted!!!! (This is why I love my friends.) But Glenn has his own challenge on Friday. He ran part of the torch relay from the Pan-Am Games through Oshawa... the day after this big bash. We envisioned him, face-planted on the asphalt, writhing in pain and sputtering, "Damn you, Redmond and Cossaboom!" So, really, the same as college.

Look at our Beer Bro Glenn go! He was all bright-
eyed and bushy-tailed for his portion of the Pan-Am
Games' Torch Relay on the Friday after our huge
college bash. Didn't know the old fart had it in him!

Now don't get me wrong - he pulled off the 200-metre (a couple of football fields and a bit) run, carrying a flaming object without incident. I'm proud that my Beer Bro Glenn did the Torch Run because if it was me? I'd be lighting a smoke off the thing 50-metres in and asking the organizers, "There's a bar at the end of this arduous journey, right? I'm pretty sure that was my only request."

But Amy's Airport Limo offer meant Steve and I could also meander over to Rib Eye Jack's Ale House where he could finally meet my Beer Technician Kylie, allowing them to swap hophead stories. If you recall, Steve brought Kylie an Epic Hop Zombie, Garage Project's Death From Above and Panhead's The Vandal - all top-rated IPAs from New Zealand. Her favourite? Death From Above from Steve's local brewery. A spicy, muy caliente bit of IPA goodness. And since he brought my beer expert over some of the Kiwi classics, he was sent back to New Zealand with the motherlode of Canadian craft beers, plus assorted trinkets, for his beer expert, Neil Miller, New Zealand's Beer Writer of the Year. Because something, something... pay it forward. I wasn't really paying attention during that movie, to be honest. I think the kid saw dead people or something.

The Junction Craft Brewing's Engineer
IPA is an interesting beer. At first, it
comes off quite malty but eventually,
the hops do rise to the surface. I've only
had a couple of their beers and haven't
been blown away but truth to tell, I
ended up quite enjoying this offering. 

But as Mr T would say, "Enough jibber-jabber!", meaning it must be Beer O'Clock at Donny's Bar and Grill. As I did last time, these will be voice recorded musings from both Steve and myself, talking about some of the beers he had while here in the Great White North.

Okay, first up would be Great Lakes Brewing's Thrust! An IPA, which won gold at the Canadian Brewing Awards in 2014 and silver this year. Me: "Getting a really nice citrus, mango, fruity smell off this." Steve: "Oh, this is top notch. In the upper echelons of the best IPAs." Clearly a winner, especially for a Hop Ho like Steve. (I'm a hophead, Steve's a total slut.)

Now when we lived in Toronto, Steve and I both lived in the western Junction area of the city. At that time, it was a dry section, no licensed bars, nothing - nor had there been since the early-1900s even after Temperance was repealed in the Province in 1927 (a few years ahead of the USA). Granted, that didn't stop Steve and me but that has also changed in our absence as not only is it a wet community now but there's a small brewery right in the middle, Junction Craft Brewing. I've reviewed one of their beers before, the Conductor's Craft Ale, and liked it. Didn't knock me over but a solid entry. Their Engineer's IPA also was a bit of a puzzle at first. Me: "It smells hoppy on the nose but when you drink it, it's more malty than hoppy." Steve: "It needs more hops, less malt." Me: "Okay, it starts to grow on you. This is actually pretty interesting." Steve finally figured out what Junction was trying to do. "I think they've tried to mash together a malty British IPA style with a hoppy West Coast IPA because there's strong evidence of both in this. It's actually pretty decent. It's certainly different."

Despite being Hop Dudes, the Blacksmith
Smoked Porter from South River's Highlander
Brewing Company knocked us both for a loop...

On deck was the Highlander Brew Company's (South River, Ontario) Blacksmith Smoked Porter. I believe I've had this once before at a Beer Festival somewhere. But it was like I was tasting it again for the first time. Me: "Okay, getting the usual porter smells. Coffee, maybe licorice." Me, seconds later: "Oh my. Holy (bad word)... are you getting this taste?" Steve: "Oh yeah. I say top flight, world-class, really, really good porter. One of the best I've ever had. Really nice. Good job, boys." Me: "Oh, that's delicious." Steve: "That's absolutely beautiful." And with that, Steve went on Twitter and added Highlander, just so he could praise this beer to them. They thanked him accordingly. He had countless great Ontario craft beers during his time here, mostly IPAs, but this one? This will be the one he remembers. (Neil Miller, if you don't see this one? Steve drank it.)

The next one confused me a little because I thought it was made by Gigantic, out of Portland, the craft beer capitol of the world. Turns out it's a collaborative effort between them and Beau's All Natural Brewing in Vankleek Hills, Ontario. This would be the La Formidable American Belgo-IPA.

Is that a Transformer holding a gigantic beer? It may well
be. Because Transformers love the American-Belgo IPA

Now, American IPAs are notorious for being hoppy while due to the yeast used, Belgian IPAs are mostly spicy. So this beer compromised and was both hoppy and spicy! See? Matter met anti-matter. No one died. It's all good. Steve: "Top notch. Excellent blend of the styles." Me: "Hoppy, really nice and getting some spice on the tongue."

Then came the Underdog Brewing's (Oshawa) All or Nothing Hopfenweisse - a wheat beer that frankly is one of the best in this country. With three malts and four hops, this ain't your Daddy's wheat beer. Me: "All banana on the nose. Quick taste of bubble-gum that disappears very fast and then more banana." Steve: "Wow! This is really good. We have some top-flight wheats in New Zealand and this is as good or better than those." He takes another sip. "Yeah, this is outstanding. Some undercover hoppy goodness for a wheat."

This nice young lady from Trafalgar Brewing served me
some of their Mighty Oak Imperial Brown Ale at the
Launch Party for the Burlington Beer Festival a couple
of weeks back. Goddamn, that's a really tasty brown ale
and believe me, I don't say that phrase very often at all.

There's a couple more but we'll get to them next time. But hey, a little more than a month left until the Burlington Beer Festival. This is gonna be a lot of fun. I met co-organizer Wayne Brown at Rib Eye Jacks yesterday and he told me they were locking down Brewery #31 for the party. And get this. There are two cider booths and two Ontario wine booths there. I think that's cool. I don't drink wine but I understand some people in this city do. At least, that's what I've heard. Also, because Spencer Smith Park in Burlington is the size of 57 football fields, Wayne is trying to get an art component in there, which would be very cool. Stay tuned. Now I suggested to Wayne that we hold a "Win A Dream Date With Kylie" contest. He totally agreed that was a great contest. But Kylie had an even better idea. "How about we don't do that?" Okay, guys, sorry... maybe next year. Don't feel too badly, boys. She already knows way more about craft beer than you. It's not emasculating if you appreciate craft beer knowledge... which you should. (Steve: "Holy crap, she knows her stuff!") So go to: burlingtonbeerfest.com for the juicy details.

But gang, cashing my chips in. Next up, Block 3 Brewing out of tiny St. Jacobs. Ontario and what co-worker Marie brought me from them. Also that Goose (Island) IPA. Who makes it? Who doesn't? What's the dealio? But guys and doll, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!! Until next time, I remain...

Stevil St Evil lands at Donny's Bar and Grill

That Old College Gang of Mine... Enjoying the ambiance of Donny's Bar
and Grill for the Great Humber College Reunion was, back row, Beer
Bro Glenn, Ann Cavanaugh, Guest of Honour ("honour" being a relative
term) Stevil St Evil and the always-engaging Steve Pecar. That dude on
the lower left in the Superman pajama pants? The freak-show proprietor.

Well, some 10 days after a recent White Oaks Secondary School High School Reunion (two blogs ago) in a reputable, legitimate bar in Oakville, I held a Humber College Journalism Course Reunion in a far-less-reputable and well, let's say illegitimate Burlington dive called Donny's Bar and Grill.

The reason was simple. After 15 years in Wellington, New Zealand and some 30 years after he left Toronto for the British Columbia coast, Stevil St Evil was back in town. As far as I know, since he's left, he's only been back once for his younger brother Dave's wedding many years ago. So two weeks ago, I picked him up at Toronto's Pearson Airport to shuttle him to Napanee for his father's funeral. After spending a week there, eventually he touched back down in Toronto where I grabbed him again and he was held captive at Donny's Bar and Grill for a few days.

Stevil St Evil meets The Beer Store Mafia. Amy hasn't
been at the Beer Store for a while now (but really, are
you EVER out of the Mafia?) and Gordo, who left his
beloved Molson Canadian behind and instead drank
Carlsberg out of one of my son's superhero glasses...

Clearly, there were some Stockholm Syndrome elements at play for his captivity here as he seemed to really enjoy the arrangement, particularly the non-stop flow of top-flight Canadian craft beer that found its way into his glass. That said, Steve has always been the polar opposite of a Gremlin (from the movie, not the car - he's a lot like the car because it was quite the eyesore), in that you have to continually feed him and water him, regardless of the time of day.

Much like the first time I picked him up from Pearson a week earlier, I have a couple of cold beverages in the back seat for him - this time, a Cameron's Brewing (Oakville) Rye Pale Ale and a St Ambroise (Montreal) Oatmeal Stout - two very contrasting styles, both outstanding. And believe me, he was in full agreement for both as being fantastic. When he left Canada in 2000, craft beer was really just starting to spread its wings so he's been blown away with what he's been served here. The leaps the Canadian craft industry has made since his departure is staggering, he noted on numerous occasions while here. Naturally, I had a bunch of really great beers in my fridge, including three growlers of Nickel Brook's Headstock IPA.

Steve Pecar saw this hockey jersey at a
thrift shop and instantly grabbed it for
me several months back. The school is
actually Father John Redmond Catholic
High School in Etobicoke. He brought
to our little shindig, thinking I might
want it. Well, yeah! I'm now the only guy
I know with his name on the FRONT
of a hockey jersey. Definitely my prized
possession and, as a heathen, the only
link to Catholicism that I will ever have!

While we were driving home from the airport, I had to share with him the text I had gotten from Nickel Brook's Tony Cox earlier in the day. It was words to the effect of "Hey! Haven't seen you. When are you coming in?" Well, truth to tell, I was there just two days prior, filling two growlers and a howler with Headstock, which, of course, were now long gone (don't judge) and three full growlers now had to be refilled for Steve's arrival because, well, he loves Headstock. So I texted back that I would be popping in shortly and when I did, he came out from the canning line, shook my hand (as he always does) and he and Amy, their sweetheart special events lady, who was manning the growler station, started telling me that they had this conversation about how they hadn't seen me in a while... meaning, at most, two weeks. Steve howled. "Man, you know you have good friends at your local craft brewery when they haven't seen you in a week and they get worried if you're okay!" He suggested I give them my Mom's phone number but the fact is it would make more sense for me to give her Nickel Brook's phone number as they are far more adept at keeping tabs on me.

So we landed again for the second time since his return to Canada at Donny's Bar and Grill and this time it would be for a few days of shenanigans, I had taken two weeks off work when he flew here to shuttle him around when he was on my turf and needed to go elsewhere - like Napanee - because 1) I wanna be a good friend and more importantly, 2) Woohoo, two weeks of partying with Steve! It's been a long time. Like 30 years. Hell, when he left Ontario, we were all "Everybody Wang Chung Tonight".

The Steamworks Brewing (Vancouver)
Blitzen Belgian Tripel and Big Rig
(Ottawa) Scotch Ale were among the
early victims to my and Steve's mutual
reviews. They were not sacrificed in vain

It was about 9 pm when we hit home on Tuesday night and once Steve was sorted, it was Miller Time - minus the Miller.

But while I was pouring some growler-fresh beer, I looked in my fridge. In there, as always, was countless single bottles and cans of Canadian craft beers, earmarked for review in this spot because I have finally found a way to make my beer drinking (slightly more) socially acceptable. And I had a thought, which was, "Mmmm, Headstock." But then I had another thought! Which was: why not drink all these Brew Ha Ha beers together and both see what they are like at the same time? To the surprise of no one in the room (there was just the two of us, plus some assorted dust bunnies), Steve was quite agreeable. Imagine that - Steve was amenable to drinking numerous beers, all for the sake of Brew Ha Ha, a blog he not only named but designed the graphics for on my behalf. (So yeah... his fault, people!) And from Tuesday night to Friday night, when he jetted off to Vancouver, that's precisely what we did.

We'll get to some of those in a minute - but certainly not all of them - because in that three-day span, we drank three or four blog's worth of beer. A good beer blogger always has a ready supply of reading/writing material in his fridge. So too do sketchy, semi-literate beer bloggers, such as myself. But we had many activities planned for those three days - all beer-related, culminating in the aforementioned Humber College Journalism Reunion Party on the Thursday night.

Many have called the outdoor patio
component of Donny's Bar and Grill
 "luxurious and yet still homey." And
by many, I mean I talk to myself and
clearly have little concept of luxury...

So while elements of Steve will continue to show up in the next few blogs (Stevil St Evil: Like Herpes, he's the gift that keeps on giving), particularly our conjoined beer reviews - a few of which are ridiculous, particularly the Great Lakes Brewery beer Steve referred to as a "tickle-trunk of a tasty treat." But the clock on the wall says it's Beer O'Clock here at DB&G, so... ♫ let's get jiggy with it... Nah, nah, nah ♫ What you are about to read was all voice-recorded on my phone and may contain scenes of violence, graphic language and nudity. (Kidding, the coarse language and various catcalls to supermodels has been edited out because we sound like frat boys, which in fairness, we are when we get together. You know, every 30 years or so.)

After the Headstock, the first beer out of the gate was Steamworks Brewing (Vancouver) Blitzen Belgian Tripel - a 9% car explosion of Belgie goodness. Me: "Nice fruit on the nose. Oh man, that's tasty! Very warm on the throat - 9% but you don't taste the alcohol." Steve: "They got this style, which is hard to do, down perfectly!" Me: "Getting something apple-y off this now." Steve: "Yeah, I just got that, too." Not recorded was Steve's memory of the brewery which started up in 1995, five years before his getaway to New Zealand. In particular, he remembered their brewpub being nothing shy of an oak-laden beauty.

Steve and I split the #7 Terrible Ted Red
Saison that fateful night but maybe two weeks
prior, I had the #24 (Chris Chelios) Cheli's
Oak-Aged Pale Ale on my own. That is,
without a doubt, one of the best they've done!

Next on deck was the Big Rig Brewery (Ottawa) Scotch Ale, which clocks in at 7.2%. After listening to the recordings, it seems we quite enjoyed it. Me: "Getting fruit on the nose again but dark fruit like plums." Steve, a veteran Scotch drinker: "Scotchy." Me: "Deep beer, deep taste." Me (in a bit): "I've had maybe one or two better Scotch Ales but this is really very good." Steve: "This is a really well-balanced Scotch Ale." Me: "I completely agree."

Then Lake of Bay's #7 Terrible Ted Red Saison, stepped into the face-off circle. This beer is part of Bayville (Ontario) brewery's ongoing NHL Alumni one-off series of beers and so far, these hockey beers have been outstanding. Named after famed Detroit Red Wing Ted Lindsay, the player actually earned the moniker "Terrible Ted" for his rough style of play. How rough? The NHL actually had to actually create penalties for elbowing and kneeing because of his style of play from 1944 to 1960. Talk about a guy that should have had a Scotch Ale or Imperial Stout done in his honour. That said, Ted and Red rhyme so he got a nice red 6% saison, a decidedly lighter-tasting, summer-style beer. Me: "Really light fruit on the nose." Steve: "Tasty fruit." Me: "Not complex or anything like that but it's pretty good." Steve: "Pretty light. It's approaching sessionability." Me: "This is a little like a red ale, actually." Steve: "A saison is a good break in the middle of the heavier beers. It cleans the palate for the heavier beers. It's beer sorbet," referring to an iced fruit or chocolate dessert far less heavy than ice cream.

Chris Chelios was one of those hard-nosed defencemen
that you loved if he played for your team and hated if
he was playing against your team. That said, his grit,
determination and skill-set were admired by all fans.

That said, a few weeks prior, I had Lake of Bays #24 Cheli's Pale Ale, an oak-aged pale honouring Chris Chelios, who had an incredibly long career spanning from 1983 to 2010. An American of Greek descent, he won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens and two with the Detroit Red Wings, as well as helped the Chicago Blackhawks gain a berth in the final. Trust me, he was one helluva fierce competitor, even (or maybe especially) in his latter years. Well, Lake of Bays has truly honoured him with this oak-aged pale ale. The 7%, 40 IBU (international bitterness units) barrel of chippy goodness is, quite simply put, one of the best pale ales I've ever had... and I have had plenty. Ontario-grown Chinook and Perle hops give this some wonderful citrus on the nose and the taste? Woody, earthy, sweet and yet bitter. Just dynamite. I scrambled to find one for Steve but it was out of circulation. Had I known, I would have saved one. I suspect this bad boy, much like Chelios himself, would age pretty damn well.

The beer that nearly killed us - the
17% Mikkeller Black Imperial
Stout out of Copenhagen.  Damn!!!

Good thing our palates were cleansed by the Terrible Ted Red Saison for the next one - the Mikkeller Black, an Imperial Stout that clocks in at a nasty 17%. The Copenhagen brewers actually don't own a brewery (I'll continue on that in a future blog with more Mikkeller beers) but despite their contract brewing status, they have a staggering 95 pages of entries on RateBeer. Our reaction to it was equally long - five separate voice recordings, each one progressively goofier and raunchier. (Nasty bits edited.) Steve: "Thick and burly." Me: "Winey on the nose." Steve: "Like a really strong porter but beyond a porter. One of my bars (Hashigo Zake) goes out of its way to get Mikkeller beers but I've never had this one." We didn't know it was an Imperial Stout. We're beer enthusiasts, not experts. Look at the label to the right. Me: "This is chewy and heavy!" Steve: "This is a sipper." Me: "Got a little bit of after-burn to it." Steve: "This is high octane. Can't quite peg the style. It's like porter mixed with molasses mixed with bourbon that some Danish God's scrotum was dipped in. It's (frikkin) amazing!" Me: "This is a meal in a glass and then it just went to a dirtier level. It's like smoking a joint and drinking a beer at the same time." Steve: "It's like I got a kick in the nuts and a punch in the face. But I really really liked it!" So, uhhhhh, yeah, safe to say we really quite enjoyed it.

This young lady at the Cameron's booth
chatted it up with everyone during the
Burlington Beer Festival Launch Party
last Saturday on Pine Street (between
Elizabeth and Pearl). A great afternoon
to get the ball rolling for what is bound to
be the best Burlington Beer Fest yet!!!

Okay, up next is the College Reunion Party fun with Glenn, Ann, Jennifer, Other Steve, Sandi, Gordo, Amy and of course, The Idiot Twins (that would be me and Steve). There's also many, many more beers that were jointly-reviewed, as well as a treat from co-worker Marie after she and her boy-toy Ernie visited the tiny Block 3 Brewery in St. Jacobs Township. Steve visits Rib Eye Jack's Ale House and gets to meet Beer Technician To The Stars Kylie and well, a crap-ton more. Even though it's not universally-recognized, crap-ton is still my favourite unit of measure... although I usually say shit-ton, depending on the company. And while I want kudos for not mentioning a single IPA today, I will be passing along Steve's absolute favourite non-IPA beer in the next one (as well as *ahem* some IPAs). And 'zup with that Goose Island IPA? We'll delve into that, too.

But before I go, a quick reminder that the Burlington Beer Festival is coming fast, folks. They held a Launch Party on Pine Street (between Elizabeth and Pearl) this past Saturday and quite literally hundreds roamed through between the noon to 5 pm hours. I caught up with co-organizer and all-around great guy Wayne Brown who told me they had just inked their 30th brewery for the event. (There were 22 last year during the inaugural fest.) I expect a couple more to sign on the dotted line so a whole lotta breweries will grace the green splendor that is Spencer Smith Park right on Lake Ontario this year - July 17-19. Beer Bro Glenn and I will be there on the Sunday so move quickly to get those Friday and Saturday tickets to avoid us!!! Check it out at: burlingtonbeerfest.com. Also the lovely Kylie will be there but I'm not telling you which day so you may wanna pony up for the three-day pass! But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!!! Until next time, as I remain, as always...