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| 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. |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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".
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| 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 |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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! |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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...
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