Lake of Bays vacates Albertan shelves

Darren Smith, owner of Lake of Bays Brewing in Baysville,
Ontario illustrates that brewing vats are often used as a
personal jacuzzi by owners when the brewers go home. Not
even 30 years old, Smith posed for this shot in a 2011 Great
Canadian Beer Blog story on his then-brand new brewery.

Go East, Young Brewers...

With all due respect to Horace Greeley, who took a previously-published 14-year-old phrase, shortening and refashioning it for an 1865 New York Tribune editorial entitled "Go West, Young Man", these days, things tend to be coming back east. Especially if you're an Ontario craft brewer. It seems the "New West Partnership" (NWP) has claimed another eastern victim.

Okay, quick recap. Back in 2010, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia created a pact whereby they would lower trade barriers between the provinces. Hey, good for them and all that, right? That was until the Alberta government released its 2015 October budget and in it was a punitive tax for craft brewers outside those three western provinces. In fact, for a six-pack, Ontario brewers were taxed $1.50 more than the NWP-inclusive craft brewers.

Muskoka Brewing was the first to yank their products from Alberta shelves, realizing that a pact meant to boost those province's economies was actually incredibly unfair and in essence, exclusionary to Ontario brewers.

Don't let the sweet smell of this hold you back. There is none of that
on the tongue. In fact, this is, so far, the most interesting lager I've
had so far in 2016. Lake of Bays is constantly coming up with their
own specialty beers that are so incredibly unique. Great job, guys!

Muskoka was quickly followed by Steam Whistle, which subsequently filed an injunction against the tax. And then there were three. As of last week, Lake of Bays Brewing, out of Baysville, Ontario, yanked their products off Albertan shelves.

In a carefully-drafted media release, likely penned by owner Darren Smith, Lake of Bays said, "As a mid-sized craft brewery located outside of the so-called New West Partnership, our tax rate on beer sold within Alberta jumped overnight from between 10 and 20 cents per litre to $1.25 per litre" (34 ounces) when the Alberta budget came down. The brewery went on to say they had no advance warning of the out-of-province tax hike, "the effect of which was an immediate spike in the price of our beer to Alberta wholesale customers and consumers." Since they had just hired additional sale reps to manage "the significant sales growth" in the province, "we attempted to soldier on for a few more months but found the added tax burden was simply too much to bear."

Made with real Ontario maple syrup, this 7% Belgian Blonde
Ale is definitely a dessert sipper. A special occasion beer,
it's maple on the nose, more so and nuttiness on the tongue...

Well, Alberta, I'm not sure what to say. I'm glad you've reduced the inter-provincial trade barriers between your two neighbours. Wicked awesome. Polite golf applause. I sincerely hope it makes up for the fact you've totally boned over your province's craft beer drinkers. Proving once and for all that for every positive action, there is an equal and opposite government reaction. (Red Foreman moment: Dumb-asses!)

So, of course, while I feel badly for Albertan drinkers because I want everyone to enjoy Ontario's craft beers, let's take a look at some recent Lake of Bays specialty beers and see what we get to enjoy here. I've had a bottle of their Stone Hammer Oak Aged Amber Lager in the back of my fridge for a while. The problem with somehow being shunted to the back of my fridge is similar to being at the back of a plane. It takes a while before you're going anywhere. But quite by coincidence, the day before Lake of Bays made their announcement, I saw it back there and decided to crack this bad boy open.

Often overlooked due to my penchant for super
hoppy IPAs, Lake of Bays' 10 Point IPA is a
good example of a hybrid North American and
British-style IPA. It doesn't go all west coast on
your taste buds but there is some tangy to this

I'm glad I did. I got a whiff of sweetness on the nose that spooked me a little at first. I mean, sweet as not how you want any lager tasting. On the first sip, that concern was gone as this beautifully-coloured 6.5% beer was both fruity and tangy on the tongue. There was no initial nod to the oak until the aftertaste when I got it ever-so-slightly. It's always fun seeing what magic a brewery can perform with a Plain Jane lager. This was "sawing a woman in half" level of magic. Exceptional lager.

Tim, our Lake of Bays sale rep, popped into my Beer Store recently. Always great to see the guy, Tim had just come from a Mississauga restaurant where he was dropping off two entries to the Canadian Brewing Awards - their Wild North Midnight Bock and Spring Maple Belgian Blonde Ale. I asked him why they hadn't included the Stone Hammer in contention and while he wasn't certain (my guess is there was none left to enter), he did happen to have an extra bottle of their annual Spring Maple Belgian Blonde Ale handy for me. "My favourite thing about this beer," Tim said, pointing to the back label where it noted it was made in partnership with the Ontario Maple Syrup Producers' Association, "is that there are no artificial flavours. That's real maple syrup being used in this." If you don't think that makes a difference, keep in mind we live in a world where lemonade is made with artificial flavours and yet furniture polish is made with "real lemons." That's messed up.

This is why it's important to go to Beer Festivals.
You never know when the owner himself might be
pouring you a pint of their brew. Cheers, Darren!

Okay, right off the top, this is a sipper and a sharer. Nothing but maple syrup on the nose, at 7%, this combines the syrup with caramel and some nuttiness on the taste. An excellent dessert and special occasion beer. But share it. With this much sweetness, you may not want to drink it by yourself. Although I did. Because I'm such a damn trooper.

I'm not sure I've ever reviewed their 10-Point IPA. To those who don't hunt (which includes me so I'm not sure how I know this), I believe 10 points refers to the amount of tips on a buck's antlers. If I'm wrong, hey, shoot me. (Okay, in retrospect, that probably wasn't the wisest thing to say to hunters.) At 6% and a very low 45 IBU (international bitterness units), this combines west-coast sensibilities with some proper British mildness. You get both grapefruit and roasted malts on the nose while on the tongue, a little bit of both citrus and toffee. A true hybrid North American-British IPA, this one is a good starter for someone looking to step up from pale ales. Not a hop bomb by any stretch, I do think it's a perfect gateway beer to those big-ass IPAs. Try this first and then maybe step up the rankings to the heavyweight hop division. 

We just added this pale ale to my Beer Store roster so of
course, it's getting a taste from me. All new products must
be personally inspected by me. It's a rule of the workplace.

In much the same vein was the McAuslan Brewing (Montreal) St Ambroise Pale Ale. It boasts a nifty 35 IBUs so it's smack-dab in the middle of malty and hoppy. It does incorporate Cascade, Williamette, Golding and Hallertau hops into the mix, has a beautiful amber colour and still has that bready malt on the nose. Lightly fruity on the tongue, it does have a decent linger time. Just 5%, we have us a decent session beer that is also a step up from the milder British style. Lots of brewers finding that balance these days. That's a good thing because given my preference for hugely-hopped, high-alcohol beers, it was beginning to look like building a heavily-harnessed zip-line from my couch to my fridge was going to be my best option for continued survival.

Okay, next up we'll look at some of the winners from Thursday's Ontario Brewing Awards as over 600 entries flooded in this year, representing a 50% jump over last year and a 65% jump in brewers.

I saw this on the inside of my Smashbomb
Atomic IPA cap. It's like Flying Monkeys
Brewing is looking through my back door.

That's almost half as many as entered last year's Canadian Brewing Award where 1,235 beers bellied up to the bar.

To contrast this year to previous ones, in 2015, the OBAs saw 400 entries from 68 brewers while the previous year, just 251 entries came from 46 brewers. As expected, there were a lot of new names in this year's entries as craft breweries continue to open in this province, as well as a fair number of new categories that I don't recall from previous years.

Roger Mittag, the OBA organizer and one of the judges, marvelled in a media release prior to the April 28th event, "It seems like such a long time ago that we started the Ontario Brewing Awards. It was easy back then - ask for submissions, collect the beers and do the judging in one night. Wow, how things have changed!"

A lot of the winners are very familiar to me, both the beers and the breweries, so we'll take a look at that, as well as the increased categories, one of which had no winners. And if you entered but didn't win, please remember this. I have a buddy who was recently rejected by a woman who told him, "You deserve better than me." He actually thought that was kinda nice. I didn't have the heart to tell him it's also another way of saying, "Hey, I'd rather insult myself than date you!" How should help you if your beer didn't win? It shouldn't. But aren't you glad you're not him... you still have beer. That's a win in my books. Okay, guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. Until next time when we look at the OBAs, I remain...