Molson's spreads its wings

The latest offering from Molson's is this, the John H.R.
Molson and Brothers 1908 Historic Pale Ale. Make no
mistake. This is not their usual fare. In fact, given their
history as the oldest brewery in North America, I would
be surprised if they didn't dip into the history well a few
more times. This one actually caught me by surprise...

When the John H.R. Molson and Bros 1908 Historic Pale Ale came in on a Molson's delivery one Tuesday night, I was caught a little off-guard. They sent it in traditional 12-packs with 341 ml (11.5 ounces) bottles, as well as a single case of 625 ml (21 ounce) single bottles, complete with collar tags.

The collar tags explained what the beer was. It stated simply: "John H.R. Molson & Bros 1908 is a strong and unfiltered historic pale ale crafted from a recipe found deep in our archives. This limited release brew provides an inviting blend of traditional hop field notes and a malty body that is not too full or heavy."

It was signed John Molson. I assume that's the original John Molson, who founded the Montreal brewery in 1786 at the age of 22. People were usually lucky to make it to age 50 in those days so if you wanted to achieve something, you had better start the day you turned 20. Also when I read that collar tag, it maybe meant someone was speaking to me from the Great Beyond. With that in mind, I'd just like to ask John Molson this one single question. "Look, Johnny, the LottoMax is $50 million on Friday and if you know the numbers, can you slide them my way? Seriously, I'll split it with you."

John Henry Robinson Molson lived an
interesting and colourful life. I mean, he
must have. Someone wrote a book about his
"voyages and travels." So they must be good
because we've all had our big travels and
nobody's out there writing about our stuff.

(If you're gonna make promises, make them with a dead man. You never have to follow through.)

So is that John the same John on this label? Nope, that's his grandson, John Henry Robinson Molson, who also ran the brewery in the 1800s. So what's his prominence in the field of Canadian brewing history? His name was Molson. That's pretty much all it took. Some people are born into greatness. The rest of us? We buy lottery tickets.

I would suggest it's safe to say that the 1908 Historic Pale Ale recipe was created under our man, John Henry Robinson. And I can honestly say I bought this for one reason - to see what a pale ale tasted like in 1908. But I'll be honest, the fact that it was just $3,95 a bottle didn't hurt. Even if it sucked, I'm only pouring a couple of toonies down the drain.

Except here's the thing. This was actually a pretty interesting and somewhat tasty beer. Given the recipe was the turn of the century in the last century, I had anticipated this would be simply a malt-heavy pale ale. But working (slightly) in its favour was two simple things - it was 6.8% and it was unfiltered. That probably caused wide-spread panic on on the production floor of the mainstream brewery. "Unfiltered? What the hell does that mean?" No, no, no, I'm joking. They actually busted their asses to replicate the 1800-1900s formula, going as far as to research and use century-old fermentation techniques.

John Molson still walks the halls at the
Molson brewery to this day. But as a
ghost. If there's a sound in the middle
of the night, it's John going to the can.

"To try and replicate the flavours and nuances of the early twentieth century recipe, we went deep into the archives to uncover every last detail behind this historic brew," said Keith Armstrong, the brewmaster of Molson Coors Canada in a media release. "We sat down with maltsters, barley and hop breeders from across the globe to identify the correct ingredients to mix with Molson's ancient ale yeast derived from the same primordial strand John Molson used in the 1700s."

And they stood watch during the brewing process, recording the density and temperature every few hours to ensure consistency. Actually, all brewers do that - craft and mainstream alike. I've watched it first-hand. Dull as hell. "So that spot on the wall over there. What's that?" I'd ask. The brewer, looking up, "Dirt."

So down to brass tacks, what did this beer taste like? Okay, wasn't getting much distinctively on the nose. Some sweetness and grain. But on the tongue? Okay, that was an interesting and unique flavour - there was grassiness, a bit of citrus, little bit of spice and some welcome bitterness. This was actually (surprisingly, even) a very strong tasting beer. Nice colour, decent haziness. I would drink this again and probably will.

How can a beer with this rich a colour have so little in
the way of flavour? That said, I have little interest in a
low-carb, low-calory beer. My theory is that the flavour
of beer is directly linked to calories, carbs and gluten!
Take those key things away and this guy has no interest.

Now Molson's also has a couple more newbies on the market and I gotta be frank - I'm not a fan. Before I begin, let me say, I thought the Rickard's Red IPA was solid. Not outstanding but certainly a decent attempt. But we also got the Canadian 67 Session IPA not long ago. I have never had a Canadian 67 regular because it is a low-cal, low-carb beer. I have no interest in those made by any anyone. If I could describe my physique, it would go like this. Imagine a Q-Tip with a marble taped to the top. That's me. I need all the calories and carbs a beer has to offer. It might be the only thing keeping me alive.

But this Canadian 67 Session IPA? I don't know. Never had a regular Canadian 67 (a 3% beer with just 67 calories) but Beer Store regulars who drink it tell me it tastes a lot like Canadian. Okay, that I have had - everyone's had that. So basing this on my memory, this 67 Session IPA tastes like a light Canadian... with a bit of lemon squeezed it for some latent bitterness. I would suggest steering a wide berth. That said, my coworker Marie loves it so different strokes. Other coworker Jay? Like me, not so much.

I have to say that I had pretty much the same reaction to the new Rickard's Session Lager.

Hey, Molson, if you're wedded to the whole old
time recipes, I would like to see this one! I say
that because I am quite impressed with what
you did with the John H.R. Molson Pale Ale...

It's a 4% red/amber lager. I'm usually a fan of the style but this time, no, not really. I can appreciate the brewery is trying to hop on the "IPA" and "session" bandwagon. I get that. And this pours a nice amber hue. But honestly, it's like a thinner version of Rickard's Red Ale. There's a little bit of caramel on the nose (very little) but on the tongue, except for the graininess, there's nothing there really. Like the 67 Session IPA, maybe give this one a pass. I drank it so you wouldn't have to. I won't twice.

No, if I could suggest something to Molson, it would be this. Screw trying to replicate what the craft brewers are doing because you won't succeed. Ever. But you have something the craft brewers do not have. You have 230 years of history. Your 1908 Historic Pale Ale is the perfect example of that. That was a damn solid offering that truly caught my interest and one I could honestly and happily recommend to my friends. Go back into the recipe vault and tap into that rich history. You have a very precious resource at your fingertips, one that not many other breweries have - for gawd's sake, use it!!! Show that the 1908 Historic Pale Ale wasn't a tasty fluke. That you have more in your arsenal like that. I don't care that you're big, I have only ever cared about the beer in front of me. If it's good, I don't care who makes it. And that beer was damn good. You should be proud. It's in your hands now.

But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. Until next time, I remain...

Contests beating the February Blahs

Want a year's worth of Amsterdam Boneshaker IPA?
Go on their Twitter account - @amsterdambeer - and
gives them your best new slogan for the Boneshaker!!!

This month in Canada, as well as the American North-East and Midwest, can be a depressing time for many people. In the month of February, we get creamed with frigid grey days, filled with snow and rain and not nearly enough sun - weather so blah that it's actually become known to most of us as the February Blahs.

However, it's an actual medical condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD - I'm guessing that acronym was intentional), meaning simply that seasonal change can affect a person's mood to varying degrees. Simply put, when it's crappy out, you too feel like crap and February, the greyest month of the year, is when it is mostly likely to strike in this hemisphere. But the medical reasoning behind it is that the human body needs Vitamin D, which the sun dishes out in liberal doses, as that vitamin is the one that boosts our immune systems. Too little Vitamin D and we are more prone to colds. Which make you feel like garbage - it's a vicious little circle.

Stevil St Evil's entry into the Boneshaker slogan contest
netted him "Slogan of the day" kudos from the Toronto
brewery on their Twitter feed. Will he win the contest?

To that end, some of Ontario's premier craft breweries are doing their best to banish the February Blahs by making us put on our creative thinking caps. How so? They're holding contests - slogan contests, name-that-beer-contests and even let's-see-your-best-pics contests.

By far, the most ambitious contest with the biggest prize was Amsterdam's Boneshaker Slogan contest. The premise is simple: enter a slogan for the tasty IPA and you could win a case of Boneshaker per month for a year.

My favourite Winter Shot for Muskoka's contest
was submitted to them by @jpye91. It has it all.
Muskoka Cream Ale, snow and hockey - nothing
says Winter to me like these key frosty elements

To that end, they enlisted ad agency Bensimon Byrne to create an ad, promoting the contest with some mini-commercials. The agency responded in kind with a dozen or so hilarious slogans intoned by a man with a gravelly voice. They were silly, salacious, awkward and goofy. Among my favourites were: "This Bone Train's leaving for Quenchtown", "Reach for something different... er" and my personal favourite, "Copious amounts of copious."

I quickly alerted Stevil St Evil, my college buddy now happily settled in sunny Wellington, New Zealand, to the slogan contest and off we went. My submission was naturally a groan-worthy pun playing off the label's skeleton - "So hoppy, it's not even humerus." That earned me a "nice try" pat on the back and a smattering of likes on Twitter. No free Boneshaker for me - yet - but I'll keep trying, of course. No puns too lame for this guy. But Stevil, he of clever mind and mad graphic designs skills, struck gold with his Twitter entry above, intoning "The IPA Bone is connected to the Mouth Bone." His words netted him "slogan of the day" honours! The contest runs until March 31st on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram so "hop" to it, people and get yours into Amsterdam.

My lack-of-snow plight here in
Burlington was highlighted with
my sad attempt to sway Muskoka
as I posted this on their Twitter
wall. Everyone up there had snow
to work with. I had bloody rain.

Meanwhile up in snow-blanketed Bracebridge, our good friends at Muskoka Brewery decided they wanted folks to break out their cameras and hand us a little Winter Wonderland action. They put the call out to send in your best Winter shots with some of their fine product in the picture for a chance to win a big old basket, overflowing with Muskoka swag! The contest ended February 22nd but by gawd, I was ready. I had a little hat and toque ready to drape around a bottle of Mad Tom IPA in a snowbank. Inspired by Amsterdam, I had a slogan ready and everything: "Even bad boys get cold now and then."

But Mother Nature decided I was not winning anything as Burlington barely saw any snow in February and sadly, the contest was over. (No winner announced yet.) In the meanwhile, dozens of entries were pouring in with snow-covered Muskoka beers in scenic Winter settings. The natural choice for most photographers was the brewery's delicious dunkel-wheat, Winter Weiss. I sent a private message to Muskoka on Twitter, telling them I had nothing to work with here! The pleasant respondent reassured me that they hold plenty of contests throughout the year and that my chance would come. I replied that me and my Mad Tom would be waiting to represent. Back came a chuckling response: "You may be Mad Tom's best friend... if he had one."

I don't care if I win Barnstormer Brewing's
Name That Black IPA contest. Frankly, I
just want to try it! That's win enough for me

And finally, up in Barrie, those fun-loving folks at Barnstormer Brewing just threw out a brand spankin' new contest yesterday on Facebook. Their Assistant Brewer, Dylan, has just created a Black IPA that seems to be missing a name thus far. So the brewery is asking us: "Want to put your name on our new beer? Submit your suggestions in the comments and we'll choose our favourite on the release date (March 12), launching your name into the Barnstormer history books forever! Cheers!"

I think they've had a handful of contests in the past - all of which I've missed - but you can be damned sure I flew nose-first into this one. Knowing that the brewery favours aviation terms and names for their product, I submitted Blitzkrieg Black IPA as my choice. And again, with Amsterdam's slogan contest still hardwired into my brain, I added, "It'll bomb your taste-buds!" Just 24 hours in, their contest has seen more than 60 submissions so far. It'll be well into the hundreds by the time the *ahem* crop-dust settles. So fly onto their Facebook page and dive-bomb them with your cleverness. I'll likely be propell-ing another dozen at them but I'm hoping my Blitzkrieg really takes off. Let's see what Stevil has in his tank.

The dumbest - and shortest - lawsuit
between American craft breweries
happened last year when Lagunitas,
bottom, suggested the font in Sierra
Nevada's use of the word IPA, top,
was far too similar to theirs. After
big outrage on social media over the
stupidity of the lawsuit, Lagunitas
withdrew it after two days. Good call.

So let's all raise a chilled mug of our favourite craft beers from these three Ontario breweries doing their best to negate the February Blahs! Your Brew Crews are testing our creativity and curling our toes with Blah-Busting contests. But hey, the clocks on the wall at Donny's Bar and Grill are telling me it's Beer O'Clock and let's talk beers, shall we?

I was stunned to see some Lagunitas (Petaluma, California) IPA in my local LCBO last week. It's never wandered this far north before. So I snapped a dozen up quickly. But before I get to the beer, I am reminded of the world's silliest lawsuit, launched last year by Lagunitas against craft competitor, Sierra Nevada (Chico, California). It seems that Lagunitas felt the font for the word "IPA" used by Sierra Nevada with their Hop Hunter IPA was far too similar to their Lagunitas IPA font. To that end, they launched a cease-and-desist lawsuit. Disagreeing with Lagunitas' contention was anyone with eyes as they are pretty clearly two different fonts. This lead to an instantaneous explosion on social media from craft beer lovers, some 99.9% of which sided with Sierra Nevada. Sensing the futility and lose/lose nature of what they had started, Lagunitas withdrew the lawsuit after just two days. BeerAdvocate posted the first page of the lawsuit and included was the notion that Sierra Nevada hadn't used periods between the letters in IPA... just like Lagunitas! Uhhh, I've been at this more than a couple of years and I have yet to see any brewery refer to it as an I.P.A. Perhaps breweries should be instructing their graphic designers, "To be safe, make sure it reads I-dot-P-dot-A-dot" just to be certain? Such nonsense piled on a dung-heap that's floating in a cesspool of stupid-ass.

While I used this Driftwood Brewing (Victoria,
BC) Fat Tug IPA (again, no periods - a lawsuit in
the making) as an example of a label that's tough
to read if you're colourblind. I believe I also said
the contents more than made up for the label...

So how is the Lagunitas IPA? Well, as it turns out, it was one of many I enjoyed during my trip to Las Vegas last March. And how about that, it also turns out I had imbibed the Sierra Nevada Hop Hunter IPA at the same time. Back then, I had suggested that with its citrus on the nose and light citrus and grapefruit on the tongue, the 6.2%, 70 IBUs (international bitterness units) Lagunitas IPA significantly edged out the wet-hopped Hop Hunter. So while their legal acumen may be, well, sketchy, their ability to make a top-flight IPA (no periods) is not. However, when push came to shove, the Sierra Nevada Double Torpedo IPA (again, another I have enjoyed recently) blew both those beers out of the Tasty Vat so Sierra Nevada is no slouch, either. (In the end, I declared the Double Torpedo and Stone IPA to be tied as the best on the Vegas strip.) Anyway, I was thrilled to see it and try it again on my home turf.

One beer I forgot to review recently was Fat Tug IPA out of Driftwood Brewing in Victoria, BC. This is one of Beer Bro Glenn's favourite beer. But since Glenn ate a lot of chalk in Kindergarten (we're talking like five buckets of chalk in one sitting - they had to buy more), I like to double-check these things. Turns out Chalk Breath was right as this is a damn good IPA. Mango on the nose, grapefruit and pine on the tongue, this 7%, 80 IBU was one of the better IPAs I've had this year.

So what does the Central City Brewing Red Racer
Gingerhead Gingerbread Stout taste like? Take a
wild guess. It's a fun beer as far as dessert stouts go.

Okay, that's enough IPA talk for now. Let's look at a couple from our friends at Central City Brewing in Surrey, BC. First on deck is their Red Racer Gingerhead Gingerbread Stout. I have long maintained if you wanna flavour up a beer with outside-the-box ingredients, use a stout or porter. The reason? They are thick, rich styles that can either improve or withstand the goosing. At this point, I've had stouts that taste like pretty much everything although I will confess, this is the first gingerbread one. So how does the 6%, surprisingly-high-for-a-stout 55 IBU dark beer taste? How about exactly like gingerbread. I highly doubt I would drink two in one sitting but the cinnamon in this would make it an outstanding dessert beer, coupled with something chocolate to contrast the taste. Certainly an interesting and unique beverage, it won't be my Stout of the Year by any means but I am impressed with the bang-on gingerbread taste.

The Red Racer Copper Ale was a decent enough red/amber ale. I'm a pretty big fan of that style so I tend to be very picky. Using Pale, Munich, Caravienne and Caramunich malts, coupled with German Perle and Amarillo (not very noticeable here) hops gives this 5% ale a pluckish smooth taste. Very drinkable though not outstanding.

This is a pretty solid Canadian bock. The
molasses used would make you think that this
might be a bit heavier but bocks leave that
for the stouts and porters as bocks are more
akin to dark lagers. Still a rich taste to this.

Okay, it's Winter (or at least some contest-thwarting, snowless facsimile of Winter here in Burlington) so let's finish off with a nice seasonal-style bock. Our pals up in Baysville, Ontario do like to crank out their specialty beers. Their NHL Alumni has yielded some of the best one-off beers I've ever had. Their Wild North series is more of the same. One-offs that they small-batch for something different. This has a dunkel weisse vibe as the brewer used malted wheat but a bit of molasses in there also gives the 5.5% bock a slightly richer taste. These guys continue to impress. Nice job on this. Now more NHL Alumni specialty beers, please! (Pretty please?)

Okay, that's it for this time but I'll be back with Molson's special one-off, the John H.R. Molson and Bros. 1908 Historic Pale Ale, a beer that uses a 1908 recipe to recreate the taste of a turn-of-the-last-century pale ale. To be honest, the 6.8% unfiltered ale has captured a lot of attention lately with its limited release. Is it any good? Well, lemme tell you right now, this beer is absolutely... something we'll discuss next time, along with a few other Molson's beers, their new Canadian 67 Session IPA and Rickard's Session Lager.

In the meanwhile, I'm kinda screwed. You see, I used my last Post-Note and now I have no idea how to remind myself to get more. Yeah, yeah, first world problems but when I run out of salsa, things will get ugly. But guys and dolls, that it's, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain as always...

When Beer Fests go bad...

Mel's friends all giving their glasses the finger at the first
ever Toronto Winter Brewfest on February 19th, held at
the CNE's Enercare Centre. Outrageous prices, crowds
that were overwhelming large, ridiculous line-ups at the
booths and an undermanned groups of volunteers who
knew less about what they were serving than possible...

I was mulling over popping down to the Toronto Winter Brewfest at the CNE on February 20th after work when something stopped me cold.

More accurately, someone stopped me - my friend Mel, affectionately called the Toronto Craft Beer Queen (only by me, to be sure, but I suspect it's nice to have even one loyal servant in your Royal Court.) Having attended on the opening night, February 19, I read some disheartening news from Mel on the Saturday morning, both on Facebook and Instagram.

"The Winter Brewfest was actually a huge rip-off. Tokens were $1 each, which sounded reasonable at first but a 4-ounce sample equaled three to five tokens and an 8-ounce sample equaled six to 10 tokens?! Way too expensive for sampling beers in my opinion. Might as well gone to BarVolo (a popular downtown Toronto craft bar.) Kegs were tapped out too early in the night, which worries me about the Saturday folks (Note: I would have been one of those - yikes!) and line-ups were very long, due to what looked like a shortage of volunteers. Never again!" Mel was also the first person to post on the Brewfest's Facebook Review page, giving it a one-out-of-five with that same review.

So here's what $5 got you at the Toronto Winter
Brewfest - 4-ounces (118 ml) of beer. Not feeling
the love there, organizers. Hell, a 20-ounce pint
at Rib Eye Jack's Ale House runs about $7 to $8.

Lest anyone think that Mel was being unduly harsh, trust me, she put it far more charitably than others that followed her. I frankly haven't seen social media comments this eviscerating since drug-addled chowderhead Rob Ford was the Toronto Mayor. And the one thing I haven't even mentioned yet? Aside from the outrageous price once inside, it also cost $25 to walk through the doors! As for the subsequent reviews after Mel's, almost everyone complained about the prices, very angrily in some cases, as well as a few other things. Here's a sampling.

From Jessica: "This is, by far, the worst beer festival I've ever attended. Brewfest was a huge money-grab, not worth it and I will definitely not be attending it in the future nor will I recommend it to others."

From Nicola: "The volunteers knew nothing about beer and some didn't even know the names. We had to tell them which brewery made it and what beer it was to help them find the tap!"

From Shealyn: "(The servers) seems equally uncomfortble with the price of the samples and didn't even look you in the eye. I spent my $20 worth (of tokens) and called it a night." Suffice it to say, Shealyn walked out stone cold sober.

If you look carefully at the bottom of the head in
this picture of an 8-oz glass from the Burlington
Beer Fest, you can see the short thick white line
that is the "pour line", where the brewers are
meant to stop. Using a measuring cup, I figured
out that was exactly 4 ounces - good for one token
at most Beer Fests. But at the Toronto Winter
Brewfest, you only got one ounce per token or a
quarter of what I have poured here so not much

To their credit, the organizers did try to answer the issues raised by Mel and others on the Facebook Beerfest Review page, saying that at $1 per, the token prices were in-line with other beer festivals. I was desperately hoping someone would call them on that. Some guy named Brett (and then several others) did precisely that.

Said Brett: "Contrary to the canned organizers' response, no, the prices are *NOT* on par with any of the other beer festivals in Toronto."

So since all of these people, as well as Mel and myself, have been to presumably many Beer Festivals over the years, allow me to explain to the Winter Brewfest organizers how these things usually work. One token gets you a half-pour (see the photo on the left with the Smashbomb Atomic IPA in it). Two tokens gets you a full pour. Except here's the thing. Most craft breweries consider the pour line to be a vague suggestion and usually just keep going - for one token. The same Nicola quoted above noted a few breweries such as Great Lakes Brewing, Beau's All Natural Brewing, High Park Brewing and Collingwood Brewing were somewhat free and easy with their pouring hands but at the other booths, manned by volunteers, "we didn't even get a full 4-ounce measure. We added up that we had 45 tokens (costing $45) and we got 2.88 pints! Not even three full pints for our money!"

But perhaps my favourite organizer response was to Brett, also quoted above, after his beef with the excessive pricing at the event, as well as a sizeable handful of other issues.

Are these nice ladies enjoying their night at Toronto
Winter BeerFest? Well, actually, no - this was taken
from an ad for the Festival prior to the actual event.

The organizers told him, "The prices are on par with Quebec festivals. Festival organizers are from Gatineau (Quebec), hence why our sampling prices were set as such. We replicated this model in Ottawa and never had an issue with it."

Or did they? You see, they held the same beer festival in Ottawa's Lansdowne Park exactly one week prior. Wonder if that Ottawa event had a Review page on Facebook? Well, lookee, lookee, it does! And how were those reviews, as well as others on social media after the Ottawa Beer Fests? Yeah, the organizers got creamed on those, as well, for all the same reasons! Now, of course, they claim they will learn from their 2016 mistakes this time next year - you know, the old "It was our inaugural year and all. We were going to make mistakes. Mea culpa. Off to kiss the Pope's ring." And as a regular Beer Fest attendee (though thankfully not this one), I do want to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Except for this - they didn't even learn their mistakes from one weekend to the next one? But so you know, we in Toronto (and the surrounding area) aren't the only ones this sort of thing happens too. It happens everywhere.

As New Zealand contemplates a new flag (the leading
vote-getter thus far is shown up top), my former Beer
Store buddy Alex pointed out that PC Brewing's beer,
the Downunder Amber Ale pretty much foreshadowed
the flag referendum on their cans some three years ago...

I remember Beer Bro Stevil St Evil from his comfy perch in Wellington, New Zealand, sending me a news link about a Auckland Beer Festival that traveled down the same road a couple of summers ago. (Initially, I thought acclaimed NZ beer columnist Neil Miller had written the piece and said that here. Nope, wrong again.) And it was the same deal, except this was an established beer fest that greatly increased prices and greatly reduced sample sizes from 2013 to 2014. As I recall, their rationale was to curtail the "rowdyism" from previous years. While Steve acknowledged that was an issue at this particular festival, the strict measure was meant to keep the lunkheads out and entice only the serious craft beer drinkers with the sky-rocketing prices, Turns out the only thing worse than drunk, rowdy beer drinkers is sober, angry ones. The turn-out was abysmal after the changes. Having attended a fair few Toronto-area beer fests at that point, I read the story and thought, "Those idiots are gonna put themselves out of business."

As a mea culpa to Neil Miller, who received a Toronto
Maple Leaf jersey from me last Summer, here's my
apology for our season thus far. A pretty lady chugging
a stein of German wheat beer. Sorry, that's all I got...

So the same thing was bound to happen in Toronto eventually, I suppose. But fair warning to the Toronto Winter Brewfest organizers. Yes, it can happen. Once. There are many other really great craft beer festivals here. We can pass on yours. And we will. Of further note to you, the other beer fests throw a few free beer tokens (four or five) into your sample glass on the way in as part of the ticket cost. You didn't. As Homer Simpson says, "You don't make friends with salad." Or being stingy with disorganized, undermanned volunteers running booths. To me (and many others), the absolute best part of being at Beer Fests is talking to the enthusiastic guys and ladies at the booths about their product. That's why I go. Consider that a bare minimum before throwing the same event next year. Please remember, craft beer drinkers are not sheep. We won't blindly go somewhere just because there is craft beer, especially at exorbitant prices. Yes, we will pay a little extra for our beer because we think our beer is worth it but we won't be ripped off. Anyways, if you want to see those reviews, here's that Facebook Review page, RIGHT HERE! Strangely, there are also a number of 5/5 reviews, which is making a lot of people's Spider-Sense tingle. Okay, guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!!! Until next time, I remain, as always...

Respect your Elders...

A big beer on a big barrel. And and they 
don't come much bigger than Russian
River Brewing's (Santa Rosa, California)
Pliny The Elder Imperial IPA. So how
did I get my grubby little hands on one?

I have seen the Holy Trinity. I know the Holy Trinity. I have beheld the Holy Trinity.

No, not that Father, Son and Holy Spirit jazz that all good Catholics talk about. I'm more heathenly than heavenly.

That said, I do know the Bible pretty well. Like the part where Jesus turned water into wine and Judas scolded him, saying, "You can't just insert free products into a stable economy! You'll crash it!" And Jesus said, "Hush, my child." And Judas stormed off, yelling, "This is total bullshit!" And Jesus whispered to Peter, "Meh, what's the worst he can do?" And noticing the Roman guards approaching, Peter quickly asked Jesus, "Have we met?"

See? Who has two thumbs and knows his Bible? This guy! (Gesturing towards myself with both thumbs - you have to kinda picture it.) But my favourite part of the Bible was that day that God and Jesus were talking and some guy who wasn't there was writing about it.

No, my personal Holy Trinity was three top-flight Imperial IPAs from around the world - Auckland, New Zealand's Epic Brewing's Hop Zombie, Santa Rosa, California's Russian River Brewing's Pliny The Elder and Waterbury, Vermont's The Alchemist Heady Topper. When I started researching IPAs, these three became my Holy Grail, if I'm allowed to say that anything remotely religious here anymore.

Pliny The Elder died in 79 AD because Mount
Vesuvius erupted and he thought, "Hey, this
explosion of molten lava deserves to be seen up
close and personal." Roman scholar, my ass...

From everything I had read, those were the three IIPAs that I had to try, even if it meant killing a man. But like a bad man - like Hitler-level. (Someone once asked me if I could go back in time, would I kill baby Hitler? Well, I'm not quite sure. The problem is when you came back to this time and told people what you had done, they'd just say, "Who's Hitler?" And you've killed a baby.)

So for a couple of years now, these three beers became my Holy Trinity, my Troika of Terrific, my Trifecta of Tasty, my Holy Grail of Greatness. And in the last seven months, I have had the good fortune of getting my hands on all three. First up last May, Stevil St Evil flew in from Wellington, NZ, with a Hop Zombie and four other Kiwi hop bombs. One down. A few months later, when I got my hands on another selection of NZ's best, Rib Eye Jack's Ale House's GM Steve popped over to Donny's Bar and Grill for an afternoon of drunken debauchery sophisticated beer sampling. With him came the Heady Topper. Two down. And finally, just this month, Rib Eye Steve returned from Santa Rosa with several Pliny the Elders stashed in his luggage, one with my name on it.

In this John Burgess photo taken for the Santa Rosa
newspaper, the Press Democrat, Russian River co-owner
and head brewer Vinnie Cilurzo, left, talks to eager
patrons who lined up for blocks to sample the annual
release of triple-IPA Pliny The Younger. This is why
Rib Eye Steve made the pilgrimage to Santa Rosa...

I nearly shared it with Rib Eye Jack's Cask Night regular, Steve D. He asked me that night if I had received any gifts from Santa Rosa. I told him about the Pliny and he suggested, "If I don't get one, can we split yours?" Absolutely as great beer is better shared and as it was bloody cold out, I knew the Pliny would have the perfect chill on it. Just if I was readying to ask our lovely Beer Technician Kylie for two sample glasses and a side-order of no questions asked please, Rib Eye Steve wandered up to Steve D with a bag, containing his Pliny. We all had one. Well, all the cool kids did, anyway. And me.

But the Pliny the Elder was not the reason Rib Eye Steve made the pilgrimage to Santa Rosa. No, he actually went for other reasons. For one, Santa Rosa is surrounded by some of the best wine country in the USA and he is a sommelier. And two, like he did in 2015, Steve was down there for the annual release of Russian River's Pliny The Younger, a triple-IPA, only available on tap at the brewery's restaurant. This is an event that attracts hundreds of IPA lovers from across the continent and beyond at the beginning of February every year. And Rib Eye Steve is always pretty pumped to fly down and be part of that annual throng of craft beer enthusiasts.

In yet another John Burgess photo (this guy is one helluva
photographer), Russian River co-owner Natalie Cilurzo
takes a picture of the line-up in front of the brewery on
February 5. Let's just say Natalie would have to walk many
 blocks to get everyone waiting in line for the 11 am open.

And while he flew down solo, much like me, he doesn't care. "When I'm in the line-up, I become instant 'best friends' with everyone around me. The line-up itself is all about comradery, the joint adventure, exchanging beer stories. Obviously, it's a group of people who love really good beer so you have a lot in common right from the start."

But like last year, the Russian River Brewing rules were simple. You get three samples of Pliny The Younger and can only spend a max of three hours in the brewery, drinking it and others. Last year, Steve somehow managed to get (I think) five samples and reviewed each one on Untappd with each review getting progressively rosier. Funny how a 10.5-11% beer (it varies from year to year) can alter your thinking the more you have. By the end, he was probably ready to chain himself to the bar.

Okay, before I go any further, perhaps I should explain who Pliny (ply-knee) The Elder is. He was a Roman scholar, historian and writer back in 60 AD, who created the name "lupus Salictarius" (a wolf among scrubs) for hops, which grew wild among willows. Now hops are called humulus Lupulus though only by Latin-speaking botanists. So both of them.

Is it wrong that I am looking at this picture and ogling
that Pliny The Elder a bit more than this pretty lady?
What is wrong with me? Maybe it's this. I got my hands
on a Pliny The Elder. Her? Yeah, not gonna happen...

Pliny bought the farm when he decided to watch the eruption of Mount Vesuvius a little too closely with his last known journal entry likely being "Lava hurts." So his nephew, Pliny The Younger carried on his work from a safer distance. Not entirely sure what the family's fascination with volcanoes was but we all need insanely-stupid hobbies.

Okay, the minute I got my Pliny, I posted the top picture on Facebook, tagging Stevil St Evil, Beer Bro Glenn and acclaimed New Zealand beer writer and brother from another mother Neil with one of those bragging "Look what I gots" posts. Stevil has never had it but desperately would love to. Neil had it early in his beer writing career and called it the best beer he had ever had. (He likely has had a few that surpassed it by now.) Only Glenn preached cautious optimism as he has a Hop-Head friend who tried it and wasn't as impressed as she thought she would be.

Sorry to hear about her experience because I thought this was one of the best beers I've ever had and proved more than worthy of being in my Holy Trinity. In the commercial description, the brewery notes that it "is brewed with 40% more malt and over twice the amount of hops as compared to our already-hoppy IPA."

In another Burgess photo, Anthony Graves of Gary,
Indiana, checks out his Pliny The Younger t-shirt.
Graves had been in the line-up since 2:30 am, hoping
to be among the first to sample the sought-after beer.

Oh yeah, this is a little melon and pine on the nose but all bitter pine on the tongue. The extra malts balance out the hops perfectly as it playfully tingles your tongue long after you swallow - even longer than the Heady Topper did. This, like the other two, is a picture (pitcher?) perfect IIPA. Steve D's review was an even-more-succinct: "It was epic!"

He marvelled that I had waited five days to drink it as he knocked his down that night but I did have a reason - a dumb one, perhaps but a reason. I put it in my fridge's top shelf front and centre so whenever I went in there for cream in the morning or beer at night, I could see it, there it was. A Pliny The Elder in my fridge. The last beer of the Holy Trinity. End of an era. As for Steve D, he's off to Vermont in a week with one goal - to secure a Heady Topper. While I applaud his goal, I am faced with a new problem. Creating a new Holy Trinity.

When the American Home-Brewers Association asked Zymurgy magazine to have their readers send in their Top-20, using the choices to compile their own Top-50 List of Best Beers for 2015, it turned out that I've had many of them, including Pliny The Elder (1st), Bell's Two-Hearted Ale (2nd), Stone Enjoy By IPA (4th), Founders Breakfast Stout (5th) and Heady Topper (6th) - so five of the top-six.

When she arrived at my Singleton Birthday
Bash at Rib Eye Jack's, my sweet daughter
Katie brought a cake that she enlisted her aunt
to bake. It's a beer mug but delicious. Like cake.

There were another 12 more on that Top-50 that I've enjoyed so there's an untried 33 beers to help create the new Holy Trinity and frankly, I'm already putting Epic Brewing's Armageddon IIPA on the list. If you brew it, I will come. And drink it. And probably belch. Scratch my ass a little. Gross Donny stuff.

And speaking of respecting your elders, turns out I had birthday a couple of Sundays back. To that end, some eight of us descended on Rib Eye Jack's for a quiet drink, which would be followed by many, many noisy ones. Being as it was Valentine's Day, we simply declared it the Singleton Birthday Bash and partied the night away. And since Stevil St Evil's birthday is February 15th and he is 16 hours ahead, just as we were in the thick of mine, he was beginning his celebrations. We virtually turned the Earth into a Beer Sandwich. Included were my life-long friend Dave, former Beer Store coworker, Amy, Draft Services goddess Sandi, former co-worker Gordo who brought along Monique from his store, co-worker Jay-Dawg and of course, my Beer Store daughter Katie. I decided eight was the optimal number as it takes seven people to carry me out of a bar without banging my skull on door-frames. But the bar was ready for us, enlisting their A-Team of Terrific Tiffers as our bartender and Wee Dynamo Cara as our server. Rib Eye Steve was their back-up muscle.

Monique, right, totally photo-blocks server Cara but
I'm certain that was done at Cara's request. Tough
luck, Cara, because you're still in this blog. You can
hide but there is no escaping being part of this one...

Starting out slowly, I began with a couple of Nickel Brook Naughty Neighbour Pale Ales (4.9%). But Cara was having none of that as she cheekily ordered me to "Step it up!" From there, it went to Muskosa Mad Tom IPA (6.4%) and then Amsterdam Boneshaker IPA (7.1%). Steve gifted me with Rainhard's Refuge Double IPA (8%) and after that, I just said, screw it and switched to Nickel Brook's delicious Bolshevik Bastard Imperial Stout at 9.5%. Since we've known each other all our lives, it turns out a lot of my and Dave's stories end with "... and then we got the hell out of there!" Oddly enough, so do my and Amy's stories. Who knew? Another revelation was that Sandi, a dedicated wine drinker, sampled a number of my beers, turning thumbs down on all until she got to the Bolshevik Bastard. "Now that is a beer I could drink!" (So if you're trying to entice a wine drinker to the Beer Dark Side, use imperial stouts.) I'm not entirely sure when we cleared out that night but I suspect it was roughly at the same time when I co-opted Canadian singer The Weeknd's song and started singing to my Bolshevik Bastard, "I can't feel my face when I drink you... but I love it." But the Rib Eye ladies took awesome care of us so thank you to both!

Posting any mention of Barnstormers Brewing
(Barrie) Flight Delay IPA on Twitter actually
sees you get numerous Tweets from various
people, asking if you've sought compensation
for your "delayed flight." Spam at its finest...

Also, a couple of Facebook birthday posts that day were worthy of mention here. High school pal Andrew Carey posted a huge picture of Mad Tom and declared, "I am renaming my Mad Tom today as Mad Don in honour of your birthday!" I can think of no higher accolade. Then public school chum Donny Stewart piped in, "Happy Birthday to the undisputed Prince of Pints, the Baron of Beers, the Lord of Libations and the Sultan of Suds!" To which, Neil Miller noted, "The bar has been raised. I'm just the Minister of Hops." Well, yeah, but mine are just honourary titles whereas his comes with a sweet New Zealand government pension, being a Minister and all.

One final note about Twitter. I recently praised Barnstormer Brewing's Flight Delay IPA on the social media and near instantly, got a message from a stranger asking if I'd sought compensation for my delayed flight. Say what? We were talking about a beer. Then I got three more from different strangers, asking the same question. Ahhh, Twitter spam attached to the words "flight delay." (Barnstormer is chasing it down with Twitter.) No biggie but imagine mentioning a Bolshevik Bastard on Twitter and receiving Spam tweets asking if you thought Comrade Josef Stalin was a fair and just leader. Or mentioning Great Lakes' Harry Porter on Twitter and then having a huge owl crash through your back window with a cease-and-desist order from Warner Brothers. Social media has its pitfalls. But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...

When the tail wags the dog

No, gas at the Husky gas station up the street from
my work is not 70 cents a litre. This is just some
picture from Google, However, it does illustrate
my point that this little independent rules the big
boys in my turf and I find that to be enjoyable...

With oil prices hitting the crapper across Canada, there's an interesting situation going on up the street from my Beer Store. You see, as I drive north towards the highway, there's four gas stations all grouped together near one corner - an Esso, a Shell, a Petro-Can (all big corporations) and a lonely little Husky - an independent gas station that has about 500 franchises across Canada. If that seems like a lot, it's not. There's probably that many Shells, Essos and Petro-Cans combined in the Toronto area alone, much less across the country. So Husky is the little guy. The nebbish one who gets picked on in the high school cafeteria.

Except we have something of a "Revenge of the Nerds" thing happening in Gasoline Alley these days. When I come into work in the early morning or early afternoon, the Husky is always a few cents cheaper per litre than the big guys. However, when I leave work either in the early or late evening, all the stations are the same price. Throughout the course of the day, the big boys jockey to match the Husky's gas prices, I assume, under instructions from their corporate overlords. Except the Petro-Can, a government-owned business, which may believe it's superior and stubbornly leaves it a few cents more. That's foolhardy. It's all gasoline. We don't care who sells it. We all burn through at least a tank each week.

When I popped into Rib Eye Jack's Ale House this week, my Muskoka
Brewery rep Vince Cusick was there with his sweet new Mad Tom IPA
wheels. I actually have no idea what kind of vehicle this is because, well,
I didn't look. But that is one sick ride right there. And I have a Ford
Focus, dying to be painted with really cool craft beer stuff! Any takers?

If it was Toothless Bob's Gas and Bait Emporium, all we would ask Bob is this: "Is that actual gas you're pumping there, Bob?" and if he replied, "Well, it's a lot like gas," we'd all be, hey, for 80 cents a litre, close enough. But the other day, I came in and the Husky was at 87 cents a litre while the other three were all hovering at 90 cents/litre. When I left work, all of them were 83 cents/litre. At some point during the day, they had matched the independent so my little Husky went, "Heh, heh, heh, you wanna play price wars, mi amigos?" and dropped it even lower, forcing the big boys to buckle at the knees.

For my American readers, all this litre nonsense calculates out to about $3 a gallon. I know your gas is cheaper but ours is heavily-taxed for roadwork, infrastructure, medicare, group homes for left-handed pipe-welding wayward nuns and penguin habitats. The big stuff.

The evolution of a label. When Great Lakes Brewing
started on February 12, 1989, their labels (top) were
a tad, well, basic. Thanks to the artistic wizardry of
Garnett Gerry and graphic design work of Fabian
Skidmore, the brewery has the country's best labels
so Happy Birthday to the great folks at Great Lakes!

Anyhow, kicking and screaming my way back to the point with the Husky gas station, sometimes the little guy holds sway over the big guns. Sometimes, the tail wags the dog (ironic as the Husky is the only among them that actually is a canine.)

But these days, are the craft brewers the tail that's wagging the humongous mainstream brewers dog? At first blush, no. The big boys are Great Danes; the small crafties are chihuahuas, yapping at their 90% marketshare heels.

However, let's look a little closer. At about this time last year during Super Bowl 49, American giant Anheuser Busch ran a minute-long Budweiser commercial called "Brewed The Hard Way" that was meant to be a kick in the nuts to craft brewers. During the ad, a dude with a handle-bar moustache and beard (because, of course, all craft beer drinkers look like that, notably the women) is shown sniffing his beer while a gravelly voice intones that "macro brewed, beechwood-aged" Budweiser is not made to be "fussed over." Well, sure, being as Bud is brewed primarily with rice, that recipe certainly wasn't "fussed over" so for gawd's sake, don't smell it. But there's some nice consistency there on A-B's end.

Of course, it kept going with Gravel Voice saying, "Let them sip their pumpkin peach ale. We'll be brewing us some golden suds." Yeah, while I do agree with Bud on the pumpkin part (foul things) in beer, I recently had Nickel Brook's Peach Berliner Weisse and quite liked it. (I am softening on sour beers - more on that soon.) But as explained in my last column, I am colourblind. Does pale thin yellowish now qualify as golden? Seriously, I don't know. Of course, the ad caused what I like to call a Twitter-Shitstorm with craft brewers and associations slamming it loudly and frequently within seconds. From the sidelines, all this craft beer lover could think was: "It's Bud. Who cares what they think?"

Yes, why sip your pumpkin peach ale when
you can shotgun 17 Buds, put your head clean
through the drywall at a Frat Boys Toga Party
and then wake up in a bathtub hours later??
The obvious preferred activity is the latter!

But let's be honest about it. It's not like craft beer drinkers are gonna be wooed to Bud by the commercial so I honestly believe it was actually aimed at their American arch-rival, SAB-Miller. I mean, craft drinkers aren't going to defect to The Pale Side... but Miller drinkers might. And lo and behold, by Autumn 2015, A-B InBev decided to try and buy out SAB-Miller for 1,000 kajillion dollars (I rounded up.) It's being dragged out in front of the Anti-Trust Commission and will be for some time.

Again, that's not the interesting thing in Beer World about last year. No, it's this. After running that Super Bowl commercial, Anheuser Busch-InBev then went out and bought five notable craft breweries before the year was done!!! First up was Seattle's Elysian Brewing which brews an *ahem* pecan pumpkin peach amber ale. If irony was ice cream, we'd all have brain freeze right now. Next to fall to the AB-InBev's Brinks Truck Approach To Business was LA's Golden Road Brewery and then all was quiet until one week in December when they snapped up Arizona's Four Peaks Brewing, London, England's Camden Town Brewery and Colorado's Breckenridge Brewing. On top of this, they already owned my beloved Goose Island Brewing from Chicago, purchased in 2011 and then in 2014, plucked up New York's Blue Point Brewing and Oregon's 10 Barrel Brewing.

RateBeer recently informed us that my Nickel Brook's
Kentucky Bastard was the best beer in Ontario for 2015,
based on ratings. As you know, Bastard is created by aging
the Bolshevik Bastard Imperial Stout in a bourbon barrel
for a year. The result? A delicious beer becomes decadent!

I maintain this is the tail wagging the dog. Why? Because now the big boys are in the corner, being forced to acknowledge the craft breweries have value! So much value, it involves a dollar sign followed by a shitload of numbers. I say 10 years ago, no way! Hell, they probably pretended the little crafties didn't even exist. Now the tail is wagging with such strength, it's stinging the dog's eyes. That's the tail owning that ugly inbred mutt's ass!

Okay, enough on AB-InBev and especially Bud because it is making me crave Chinese food (stupid rice) and I have a lasagna cooking. Let's look at which tails are wagging the big dogs in Donny's Dawg Pound!

Gotta start with my homeys at Nickel Brook whose Kentucky Bastard Imperial Stout was recently ranked 2015's number one beer in Ontario by RateBeer. Not only that, the most recent vat of my beloved Headstock IPA out of their bigger Hamilton facility was bang-on to its former hoppy goodness. Oh happy days!

Say, who's that on the Hellwoods label?
Could it be, I dunno, maybe Satan?!?!?! 

The brewers struggled at first with the five-time-larger vats but patiently kept tinkering with it until my favourite IPA was returned to its former glory. A slow process, to be sure but I continued to buy growlers of it from my Burlington retail outlet through the year to monitor its progress and each time, it got a little closer. Now, it's there!

And of course, Bellwoods Brewing out of Toronto (another favourite) won RateBeer's Best Ontario Brewery for 2015. Well deserved as these guys continually crank out phenomenal beers! Recently, I had their Hellwoods Imperial Stout at Rib Eye Jack's Ale House and lemme tell you, it was sinfully delicious. Nothing but rich, thick, boozy aroma on the nose, the 10% treat was all chocolate and plum on the tongue. It tasted as if it may have been barrel-aged to boot. If I had sold my soul to try this, Satan would be begging me to take it back. "Please, it burns, it burns!" Sorry, loser, no refunds. I stated that clearly on Kajiji and Craigslist when I sold it to you. (Hey, 50 bucks is 50 bucks.) Also has nothing to do with this beer so...

Moving to Oakville, just down the street from the house I grew up in (well, got older) is the gang at Cameron's Brewing who had a pretty big announcement last week.

Okay, I am digging the new look Cameron's Core Three!
Aside from finally being in 473-ml (16 ounce cans), the
designs are sleek and modern. In the craft beer industry
where image plays a large role, Cameron's wisely ditched
its 20 year old look, exchanging it for this superior one.

Entering their 19th year, the brewery had a top-flight Toronto design firm re-do their three core beers with some flashy new looks and new names. Gone soon are the Cameron's Cream Ale, Lager and Auburn Ale which are being replaced with the Cosmic Cream Ale, Captain's Log Lager and Ambear Red Ale.

Brewery President and co-owner Bill Coleman said in a media release, "The packaging design for the launch of our new cans offered a great opportunity to dive deeper into the soul of Cameron's brands and add a few layers of discovery." So they're not just slick new cans? No, says Coleman, "Our Captain's Log Lager features a lighthouse and unveils the true story that the first lighthouse keeper in Oakville was also the first tavern owner in the 1830's."

Under Cameron President Bill Coleman's glass
is the old-style Cameron's label that adorned all
of their Core Three beers. It was certainly nice
enough but the new look is a guaranteed winner!

"With Ambear Ale, we pay homage to the complex and intelligent Canadian black bear." Well, truthfully, black bears are not really all that complex - if you meet one face-to-face, it will disembowel you on the spot, though intelligently and with merciful haste.

The media release made no mention of the Cosmic Cream Ale but doesn't really have to because hey, it's outer space. We all like that as it is the final frontier. That's something I learned watching a documentary where anyone wearing a red ensign shirt was destined to die. They're all good beers but if I was to recommend one of the Core Three, it's the Auburn... uh, Ambear Red Ale. It is one tasty red ale. But the cream in Cameron's coffee to me will always be their Rye Pale Ale, a sexy bastard that once took gold at the Ontario Brewing Awards for specialty grain beers. I have always liked these guys, even when I was a mainstream beer drinker because one day, as a Labatt Blue drinker, I decided to try a Cameron's Lager, instead. (The actual story: I was at a party and finished all my Blue so this was in the fridge, as well.) It was like Blue but had something... more. Later, I discovered that "more" was taste and thus began my craft beer journey that even that 1830's lighthouse keeper/tavern owner could not accurately track. Because he's dead. ("He's dead, Jim!") Anyway, these beers, these cans - this week debuting in the LCBO!! If you want the Ambear, show up before I do.

When you are born on Valentine's Day, such
as I was, and go out drinking on Valentine's
Day, such as I did, this is how your beer laces
the glass. It's very sweet and special. Like me.

Two quick shout-outs to a couple more tails that wag the dog around these parts. Happy 29th Birthday to Etobicoke's Great Lake Brewing as they celebrated the big day on Friday. When I was selecting the Best IPA for my "Best of 2015" column, all four finalists were creations of brewmaster Mike Lackey.

And, of course, a quick "say hey" to my Bracebridge friends at Muskoka Brewery. When I caught up to sales rep, Vince Cusick, at Rib Eye Jack's Ale House last week, he was driving the sickest ever Mad Tom IPA vehicle. That's it in the top picture. When I posted the pic, Beer Bro Stevil St Evil, who enjoyed many a Mad Tom and Twice As Mad Tom at my place during his June visit, noted simply, "Seeing good ol' Mad Tom really big there. Yup, he's got the crazy eyes." Not said? Mad Tom also gave the pair of us some pretty crazy eyes, too.

Next up, an interview with Trafalgar Brewing and Distillery owner, Mike Arnold, who recently revamped his retail section, installing 16 growler stations!! Sketchy details about my Valentine's birthday at Rib Eye Jack's!! And thanks to Rib Eye Steve, my first ever Russian River Brewing Pliny The Elder IPA. During my birthday drink-a-thon, I somberly thought about all the money I have spent on beer in my life. I honestly wish I had it all back. Because can you imagine how much beer I could buy now with that money??? But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...