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| When the Okanagan Spring Craft Variety Pack landed in my Beer Store a while back, I was kind of impressed to see that the brewery had put six different beers, representing several styles. in the pack, the most varied selection of any that we sell. |
Wandering over to coworker Jay-Dawg, I asked him when Okanagan Spring had changed this pack up, adding two more beers to the roster. Jay studied the package carefully and laughed with a shrug, "I didn't even know we carried this." Being as we are the two guys putting all of the stock on our shelves, our lack of notice is a little staggering. "Dear Jason and Donald's Parents: Your boys do not pay attention in class. Also Donald is a loud and disruptive influence and is often sent to the vice-principal's office as punishment. However, the VP often sends him back to class with a note asking why his office is the one being punished here?"
So we did what we always do, bought the 12-pack and took home six of each for comparative purposes later. (This is how we learn. School wasn't completely wasted on us.)
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| Holy crap, Okanagan Spring, just how spicy WAS that Chili Porter in the new Craft Variety Pack? Was a call to the Vernon BC Fire Department really that necessary? |
Jakob Tobler brought his family to British Columbia from the small town of Dinkelscherben, Germany back in the early-1980s. Also here was long-time family friend, Buko von Krosigk. While both men loved their new country, they also agreed that the Canadian mainstream beers were disappointing after the many outstanding German beers they had enjoyed throughout their lives. So the pair did what any normal Germans would do - they bought an old fruit-packing factory and turned it into their own damn brewery. Beckoning brewmaster Raimund Kalinowsky from the homelands and in 1985, they created Okanagan Spring Brewery in Vernon, BC. That, of course, makes it one of Canada's first craft brewers with both Big Rock Brewery (Calgary) and Wellington Brewing (Guelph) being established earlier the same year while Granville Island Brewing (Vancouver) set up shop in 1984.
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| Okanagan Springs Brewmaster Stefan Tobler holds up his Sonder Hefe (weisse) wheat beer not long after its creation. Modeled after its German origins, this is the closest to a true wheat I've had. |
Jakob's son, Stefan, was soon a fixture at the brewery, cleaning out the steel equipment, helping set up the first packaging line and using his skills at all things electrical to fix any faulty machinery. Before long, he was mentoring alongside Raimund. Loving the trade, he enrolled in a brewing school in Ulm, Germany and it was not long after his return to Vernon in 1989 that Raimund decided to go back to Germany. That left Jakob as the natural choice to fill the brewmaster void. While their German-style Premium Lager was the first ever beer poured by the brewery on New Year's Eve 1985, it was Jakob who, four years later, created his first recipe, which has been their biggest seller and cornerstone, Classic Pale Ale (now just called Pale Ale.)
Eventually, Okanagan was bought out by Sleeman Brewing (Guelph) in 1996 but it was a hands-off purchase, as in "We own your barley-stained asses now but just keep doing what you're doing. So, uhh, cheerio, chaps!" (That no-touch policy very fortunately continued for Sleeman when they got bought by Japanese giant Sapporo a decade later.)
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| While Jay-Dawg was not bowled over by this beer, I found it surprisingly spicy and tasty. Actually, this is one of the better porters I've had lately... |
Okay, let's start with that 1516 Bavarian Lager. This is a very mild, unoffensive lager - a style I seldom veer towards these days. A bit grassy on the nose, lightly malty on the tongue. Certainly a step up from the mainstream but a baby step, to be sure. It's like the time I fell off a 50-foot ladder but survived only because I was only on the second rung. (Hey, the important thing is that I lived to share this tale.) That said, when former co-worker Gordo, a dedicated Molson Canadian drinker, joins me at Rib Eye Jack's Ale house for a post-work libation, this is his go-to brew on tap. Even bar manager Steve defends Gordo's choice, noting, "If you're going to drink a lager, at least this one has some colour to it." True dat. It does. No idea what that colour is... but it has one.
Moving on to their flag-ship Pale Ale, let me start by saying that college buddy Stevil St Evil remembers this beer fondly from his BC days (1985-2000). Now fully immersed in Wellington, New Zealand's outstanding craft market, he noted, "Maybe it wouldn't hold up well these days but back then, it was a welcome change from the generic stuff being cranked out by Molson's and Labatt."
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| If you like wheats - and I recognize that's a big IF for a lot of people - try this one. This beer stays remarkably close to its heritage. |
The Classic Nut Brown Ale is a... well, brown ale. Maybe it'll keep you regular. Not sure what else to say other than brown ales are the least-inspiring style going. Lightly nutty and malty, let's move on. I'm not British. I don't care.
Okay, this is where this 12-pack starts to kick a little ass. The Sonder Hefe (weizen) - that weizen is actually in tiny letters after the name - now we're talking. This may just be the most authentic German-style wheat I've had that's made in Canada and as we all know, Germans make the best wheat beers bar none. I'm not looking to divide a continent here so I will say this as diplomatically as I know how. Screw you, Belgium and your wussy wheats.
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| Look at that colour! Look at that head! Look at that dazzling brickwork behind! The consensus between Jay and myself was that this was the winner of the group |
One that Jay and I disagreed on was the Chili Porter. "Tasted like a regular porter to me," he noted. "Didn't get any spices or heat from it at all." Really? Because I sure as hell did. You can smell the spiciness, as well as chocolate malts and when you drink, you get more chili on the tongue and even down your throat. I thought this was sensational. Now granted, Jay makes the world's spiciest chili - every guy needs that one thing he can make on the stove to impress women. His is chili, mine is jambalaya. What this means is any woman we're trying to impress will probably hate us the following morning as there is no real number for what's going to happen in their pretty, pink, potpourri-filled lady's room the next day. So perhaps Jay's chili has numbed his sense of spiciness. A dandy winter porter!
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| My buddy, Liam Mckenna, the brewmaster at St John's, Newfoundland's Yellowbelly Brewing got an early Christmas present this month when December 2nd issue of The Overcast (the island's alternative newspaper) printed their Readers' Choice Awards and his Pale Ale was named the Best Local Craft Beer. As Liam himself is likely to say, "All beer is good beer." His is just better! |
But the big winner from this mixed pack was their Cloudy Amber Ale, Light spiciness on the nose, thick malts and a light bite on the tongue, this was a great ale and the best of the bunch - as agreed upon by this jury of two. It was the unanimous winner (again, just two votes) as we both loved it. But there's something about this mixed pack I'd like to point out. It contains a lager, a pale ale, an amber ale, a brown ale, a wheat and a porter. That's really crossing all the lines. So if you're a regular lager-pilsner-light beer drinker and you want to break out of the mold and discover what other styles you might like, this is the 12-pack for you! Let your tastebuds decide what style's best for you... and let your buddies drink the ones you don't like.
Okay, a couple more beers before we wrap this piggy in a blanket. Every second week on Thursday night, Rib Eye Jack's Ale House holds their Mini-Cask Night at their Walker Line-Harvester Road location. A couple of weeks ago, they featured Rainhard Brewing's (Toronto) Kapow! IPA in the cask. Now all the casks come with slight alterations from the same beer they put into bottles or cans. In the case of this IPA, they likely tinkered with the hops a little, maybe did some extra dry-hopping at the end. that sort of thing.
If I had to guess, I would say the casks contain somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50 litres (13 US gallons). Maybe a bit more. But the point is, it packs a lot of beer. It's not unusual to see the casks still on the counter on Friday night or even Saturday. Not this time. The Kapow! sold out in two hours. "That's a record," GM Steve told me. "We've had some casks sell out the Thursday night by close but two hours? That's pretty fast so people obviously enjoyed it." I know I sure as hell did but I should probably feel badly for any regular who got there after 7 pm (the casks are tapped at 5 pm), only to find that bad boy was done like dinner. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel bad in the least - I said I should feel bad. You know the best part of having no shame? The having no shame part. I make no apologies. Wait, with the cask gone so quickly, did Steve even get to try some? "Oh," he grinned, "I had a little."
Of speaking of Rib Eye Steve, he did one of his famous GTA-wide beer runs recently and came back with a handful of beauties. (This is how he determines what special beers will land in their restaurant's fridge.)
Truth to tell, I walk up to that glass-doored fridge the second I come in to see what newbies are in there with my name on them. But I was gifted my first Indie Alehouse (Junction area of Toronto) beer from Steve's Stash, their Instigator IPA. I gotta get back to my old stomping grounds, which was actually a dry neighbourhood when I lived there, my apartment excluded because I hear these guys are doing big things. Like this Instigator IPA for one. Loads of citrus and grapefruit on the nose, slyly dry and piney on the tongue, this 6.5%, (probably) 70 IBU (international bitterness units) is a toasty little hop bomb. I have to get more of their stuff. Said Steve, "The one I was after was their Cockpuncher Imperial IPA. You ever heard of it?" Oh lord yes, Stevil St Evil will confirm that our Beer Bro Glenn was obsessed with this beer about a year ago. If you asked him about the weather, he would work the word "cockpuncher" in there somehow. At one point, I was willing to pay for an "escort" to go over to his place, slam his junk with a bat and say, "There's your damn cockpuncher!" Of all Glenn's many obsessions, this was the weirdest.
And finally, before we sign off, here's a funny little story about Tinder, the hook-up site.
Apparently, I'm on there but not really. One of the Rib Eye Jack's waitresses, funny, bubbly little Cara said to me, "I saw you on Tinder in a profile picture with two other guys that was taken here at our Beer Fest!" As it turns out one of Jay and my mutual friends decided to use a shot of the three of us as his profile picture. Which could lead to confusion, to say the least. I mean, there's three guys in the picture - how would any young lady know which one is him? Adding to the confusion is the fact that I am one of them and a fair bit older than the other two, making this an instantaneous "swipe left" (rejected!) profile. At least crop me out if you want a fighting chance, dude. Jay might pull in some honeys for you but I sure as hell won't. Beside that, I think Tinder is different things to the two genders. To guys, it's a hook-up site. For women, it's a group activity (usually 2-4) to reject guys en masse. All of the fun of rejecting, none of the guilt for hurt feelings. Also, find a picture of yourself in a suit to use as your profile picture. According to one of my pretty coworkers, "suits are to us what lingerie is to you guys." (Doubtful but...) But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...
Okay, a couple more beers before we wrap this piggy in a blanket. Every second week on Thursday night, Rib Eye Jack's Ale House holds their Mini-Cask Night at their Walker Line-Harvester Road location. A couple of weeks ago, they featured Rainhard Brewing's (Toronto) Kapow! IPA in the cask. Now all the casks come with slight alterations from the same beer they put into bottles or cans. In the case of this IPA, they likely tinkered with the hops a little, maybe did some extra dry-hopping at the end. that sort of thing.
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| How good was the mini-cask of Rainhard Brewing's Kapow! IPA? The damn thing sold out in just two hours, a new record for the casks by a long-shot... |
Of speaking of Rib Eye Steve, he did one of his famous GTA-wide beer runs recently and came back with a handful of beauties. (This is how he determines what special beers will land in their restaurant's fridge.)
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| The label's kinda artsy but you have to look on the back of the bottle before you know this is the Indie Alehouse's (Toronto) Instigator IPA. Tiny tag says so. |
And finally, before we sign off, here's a funny little story about Tinder, the hook-up site.
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| As it features Jay, myself and him, our buddy's Tinder picture might as well as this one. How is any woman gonna know what one he is??? |
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