The LCBO lads who know their beer

When Great Lakes Brewing's Octopus Wants To Fight IPA
finally landed in selected liquor stores (quite a few from
the looks of the inventory search I did) this month, beer
drinkers danced in the streets. Which isn't very safe...

As a Beer Store employee, I am asked on occasion if there's any rivalry or ill will between the LCBO and the Beer Store. To be perfectly honest, no, not that I've ever noticed.

Perhaps on the corporate level, I could see if there was some competition. For years, we were owned by two, then three Canadian breweries (now foreign-owned) where as the LCBO has always been owned by the Province and neatly deposits over $3 billion a year into their coffers. That's a big slice of cheese. So yeah, there's probably some business versus government jockeying there on the upper-tier level (though not that I've ever heard.)

But to worker bees, such as my co-worker Jay-Dawg and myself, we've always felt some comradery talking to LCBO employees, especially those who know their craft beer. There's an LCBO in Burlington at Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road where I constantly sought out new craft beers. The stocker for the beer section (whose name eludes me) knew both me and this column well and was always on the look-out for new additions on my behalf. I usually walked in after my shift still in my Beer Store uniform, often to be greeted by, "Hang on, Brew-Ha-Ha (90% sure he didn't know my name, either), I've got something new in the back for you!"

LCBO's Ryan wishes they had Sawdust City's Ol' Woody
Alt and Gateway Kolsch in their stock whereas Jay and I
would be thrilled to add Lone Pine IPA and Golden Beach
Pale Ale to our line-up. The grass is always greener, eh?

Recently, Jay told me I just had to go to the LCBO closest to his place at Walker's Line and Dundas. "There's a guy in there who does 'Ryan's Picks' and they're always really good choices." Indeed, when I arrived last week, a big cardboard thumbs-up plaque saying Ryan's Pick were adhered to the display of Great Lakes Brewing's Octopus Wants To Fight IPA, my Best of 2015 IPA choice (beating out its own GLB stable-mates Maniacal Hopshop, Karma Citra and Thrust!) True to Jay's word, Ryan knew his stuff. While another customer and myself made short work of a full tray, taking a dozen each, it became immediately apparent that the shelf life of Octopus would never be an issue at Donny's Bar and Grill as I had to stop in again later during the same week to restock this juicy treat. And it seems that once again, I'll have to go back for more.

Great Lakes Brewing's head brewer Mike Lackey holds up
the Golden Tap Award they won for their Thrust, an IPA!
He is standing in front of the brewery's now-famous Tank 10.

But when I went back the second time, I saw this big dude stocking the shelves off a pully-cart and checked out his name-tag. Sure enough, I was face-to-face with Ryan. So we instantly started talking beer, first engaging in the age-old LCBO-Beer Store game of "Beers You Guys Stock That We Wish We Had." For Ryan, it was simple. "You guys carry Sawdust City's Ol' Woody Alt and Gateway Kolsch. I wish we had those." Staring with lust at his store's Sawdust City Lone Pine IPA and Golden Beach Pale Ale, I told him we would gladly do a straight-up swap! Two of my and Jay's favourite beers. Pointing out his favourite beers (a healthy number of them), it was clear Ryan loves his pale ales and in fact, the only style he confessed he hasn't had much practice with yet was stouts. That I totally get. Once you dive into craft beers, stouts are always the last style to fall as it's a dark, forbidding threshold to the newcomer. It took me a while too but after I had my first Nickel Brook Bolshevik Bastard Imperial Stout, not only was I instantly sold, I also wondered why it had taken me so long.

It's back! Coming out at the same time as Octopus
Wants To Fight IPA, GLB also released their popular
Robohop Imperial IPA.  All grapefruit on the nose,
this 8.5% monster claws its way down your throat
with some bitter pine and citrus notes. What can I
say? It's better than the movie and I loved that movie!

While there, I noticed that his co-worker had slapped his Matt's Pick on another favourite on mine, Collective Art's Ransack The Universe Hemispheric IPA. "Oh yeah," laughed Ryan. "It was my pick but then we didn't have it for a couple of weeks and when it came back, Matt slapped his name on it." He asked where my Beer Store was located and when I told him Rebecca and Third Line in Oakville, he instantly noted, "Oh, you work at Hopedale. I know that area pretty well." There you go - straight from the "It's a small world but you still can't swim to China" file. But I knew I had a beer in my car that Ryan has never tried - Smuttynose Brewing's (Hampton, New Hampshire) Finestkind IPA, The reason is simply this: not only have I never seen it at an LCBO, my Beer Store is the only place I've ever found it. Not sure how we lucked out. But after I walked out with a handful of Octopus, as well as a couple of GLB Robohop Imperial IPAs and a couple of Driftwood Brewing (Victoria, BC) Fat Tug IPAs, I came wandering back into the store with a Finestkind IPA. A gift for Ryan. You see, no matter where you work, craft beer lovers are one big happy (hoppy?) family. "Got a little Beer Store/LCBO love going on there?" quipped Jay. Sure, they sell booze; we sell booze. They deal with (sometimes surly) customers; so do we. To me, we're one big tribe and it's all about helping others find great new tastes.

You know, I talk about #shoplocal in this column
all the time but Great Lakes just did that on a huge
scale, buying new fermenting vats from a local
Etobicoke manufacturer. At (guessing) $25,000 to
$35,000 a pop, that is one helluva local investment.
THAT'S how you show community comes first!!!

And speaking of great new tastes, I think it's Beer O'Clock at Donny's Bar and Grill so let's put our drinking hats on, shall we?

Okay, both the Beer Store and LCBO stock the Double Trouble Brewing beer on their shelves. The tiny Toronto outfit, contract-brewed out of Guelph's Wellington Brewing. has two products that they regularly swap out - their French Press Vanilla Stout and their Revenge of the Ginger IPA. In Winter and Spring, we have the Vanilla Stout. When Summer rolls around, they sub in their Ginger IPA for its six-month haul. Now here's a safer stout that would be a good launching pad for LCBO Ryan. When I went on the Toronto Craft Beer Cruise two summers ago, the Vanilla Stout had just been launched by the fledgling brewery and was a huge hit on the boat. In fact, I believe it was the only sell-out of the cruise. At just 4.8%, it's hardly a paint-peeler but it has some really great qualities in its darkness. Very reminiscent to me of Mill Street Brewing's Vanilla Porter, the French Press portion of its name alludes to the coffee malts used while the vanilla speaks for itself. With both coffee and vanilla in there, I'm not sure if this is a morning alarm or a tasty dessert but like peanut butter and chocolate, they blend beautifully. Wafts of vanilla hit your nose once it's poured with both coffee and cocoa blanketing your tongue. A great effort!

It took me a little while to warm up to Stouffville
Brewing's Red Falcon Ale but once I did, I quite
enjoyed it. Certainly a light, smooth amber ale.

Double Trouble isn't the only outfit that swaps out products. About a year ago, we did likewise, sending my buddy, Gordo, up to a north-central Oakville Beer Store while subbing Jay-Dawg into my south-west store. Not long after he departed, I went up to see Gordo's new store and its stock (when it comes to craft, not all Beer Stores have the same products) and of course, to miss if he missed me. When he saw me, he naturally blubbered like a tween at a One Direction concert. It was pretty sad. Tossing him effortlessly into a bin of broken wine bottles, I went to see what beers they had in stock that we didn't. That's when I came across Stouffville Brewing's Red Falcon Ale, a new one to me, also contract-brewed out of Wellington. Grabbing a couple, I gave it a shot at home. At first, quite frankly, I was not a fan. There wasn't much to the smell - rare for an amber ale - and it had an odd tinny mouthfeel. However (and this has happened before), as I continued, I warmed up to it considerably. The caramel tweaks started to nicely show up and by the end, I thought, hey, that's actually not a bad beer. Sometimes, beers, like people (Gordo), can be slow starters. This was one of those.

Landing on Ontario shelves from Terrebonne,
Quebec was the Brasserie Les 2 Frere's Hickson
IPA, a milder IPA offering. Not great, not bad.

The brewery, which rebranded as Falcon Brewing, just released its Laggar Falcon, a pilsner that's running with the slogan "It's pretty falcon good" so in the name of that cleverness alone, I shall seek it out.

Several months later, Gordo excitedly texted me a picture of the Hickson IPA which had landed on his shelves from the Brasserie Les 2 Freres (Two Brothers Brewing) out of Terrebonne, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal. Now Gordo, our resident Molson Canadian drinker, is the first to admit he thinks IPAs "taste like turpentine" but bless his pointy head, he's always on the look-out for me. At 6.2% and just 53 IBUs (international bitterness units), this is obviously a mildly-hopped IPA which is not exactly my speed. with some small citrus on the nose and a lightly peppery finish, this beer neither entranced nor repulsed me. It was a medium offering that frankly could use an Amarillo-Cascade kick to the butt.

Last year's purchase of Mill Street Brewing by giant Labatt may have sent shockwaves through the craft beer community but as a new Toronto Blue Jays season has been started at the SkyDome (you only call it the Rogers Centre if you're young enough that your pants stupidly hang below your ass), there has been a real bonus to the ballpark's beer choices.

Now batting for the Mill Street team is new West Coast
Style IPA, the brewery's first real effort at a hoppy one.
It will be landing at Beer Stores and LCBOs in a month.

You see, Labatt has always controlled the beer selection at the Dome and even ousted the across-the-street Steam Whistle Pilsner two years ago after one season on tap. In fact, the team is named the Toronto Blue Jays as a nod to Labatt's Blue. So basically, if you went to a Jays' game, it was an "enjoy that $12 tallboy of Bud" kind of day. However, with their purchase of Mill Street, now on the Dome's Beer Roster are Mill Street's hugely popular Organic Lager, the tasty 100th Meridian Amber Organic Lager, the even tastier Tankhouse Ale and newcomer West Coast Style IPA (which I haven't had yet.) Jay thinks the West Coast Style IPA will be a Double-A player at best while I am thinking Mill Street will finally hit that IPA home run. We'll know within the month when it lands on our shelves. But throw in the Hockley Dark and Labatt's own Goose Island IPA (a pretty good pale ale) and Honker's Ale (a decent ESB) and hey, we finally have some choices at the Dome. If I'm gonna pony up that kind of cash, I want a beer that I can at least enjoy. I have my fingers crossed for that IPA but even if it's a strike-out, I have my beloved Tankhouse and 100th Meridian in the bullpen. That's like having both Tom Henke and Roberto Osuna warming up. But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...