When David visited Rib Eye Jacks

Hey, buddy, ready to go eat some wings?
"Oh yeah!" Ain't nothing my boy loves
more than wings and fries. Except steak.
Yeah, no DNA test needed here, Maury...

I remember getting a call at work one night. It was my ex-wife and son David's Mom. She had a pretty serious emergency on her hands.

"David just asked me a comic book question and I don't know the answer..." Well, no kidding. If you asked my ex to even name a comic book character, after Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, she's pretty much lost. Even then, if you asked her to list Superman's powers, she'd shrug and probably say, "He can fly, right?" I believe she tolerated my comic book addiction when we were a couple simply because I tolerated her getting her way 100% of the time. Also, it seems I had little choice. Guys know what I'm talkin' about.

Back to David's comic book question. After researching Supergirl online all day, he wanted to know how Kryptonite affected her. Okay, so a pretty serious Father-Son talk... if like he and myself, you're seriously immersed in the superhero world. So I took my break and sat down in the office to talk. "Supergirl is Superman's cousin. On Krypton, their fathers were brothers. So Kryptonite has the same effect on her as him. Green Kryptonite can kill them both."

But I knew he wasn't done with me yet as every question David asks is followed up by a huge arsenal of back-up questions. No wonder his Mom was flummoxed.

David had a chance to meet co-worker Jay-Dawg and
sweet Cara when we stopped in to Rib Eye Jack's.
And they watched him consume a mountain of food.

"What about all the other colour Kryptonites?" he asked. Okay, this is why I instinctively took my break. The follow-up questions. So I ran through all the Kryptonites. Off the top of my head, there were about 10 Kryptonites other than green in total, some with pretty bizarre effects, even by comic book standards. Keep in mind too that I'm colourblind so if Superman was actually trapped between Green Kryptonite, which actually kills him and Red Kryptonite, which just makes him lose his inhibitions and moral compass, well, he'd be screwed if he was counting on me. I'd be yelling, "Goddammit, dude, just point to the right one!"

So with all his questions answered, he was happy to go on with his night while I went back to work. But that, in essence, is Daddy's job. Mom is there for all the serious stuff - school, social interaction, proper nutrition, clubs and camps - y'know, the big ticket items. Daddies, we're all about comic books, superhero movies, piggyback rides, junk food and not telling Mom the things we did - y'know, the fun stuff. Mostly because we're still big kids ourselves. Those are the parenting cards as they are dealt. Blame society, not me.

Ah yes, the reason I brought David to Rib Eye Jack's.
So he could meet Tiffers, who has been quite insistent
on a meeting for a while. There ya go - wish granted!

But the thing is David and I are pretty tight. Whereas I come from a long line of people who probably aren't that thrilled to be related to me (yeah, I'm looking at you, Uncle Bob, you racist old bastard), David seems pretty happy with me as his Daddy. As such, David appears on my Facebook feed quite often so he gets a lot of attention from others. One of the most notable is Tiffers, aka Tiffany, who is one of my favourite pieces in the Rib Eye Jack's Ale House puzzle. Tiffers was quite insistent I bring David in as she was dying to meet him. So a few Saturdays back when I had him, I promised we'd stop in. But a problem arose when his Mom wanted him back Saturday morning, instead of the traditional Sunday. Now here's the trick with co-parenting. You have to pick your battles very carefully! I thought about pushing to hang onto him so I could keep my promise to Tiffers but in the end, I decided "But I really wanted to take our son to a bar tonight!" was likely a weak defence. So I explained that to Tiffers. She wasn't mad. No, she was... disappointed. Geezus, is that chestnut in the Mother Handbook? And it is the biggest guilt trip you can lay on a dude. Tiffers isn't even my Mom and I still felt as guilty as shit!

Watching my son at play with the ladies.  He schmoozes,
he charms them, he plays them with his lady-killer self.
I have NO idea where he got that mad skill. Not from me.

So you can bet your ass that when I had David last week, I made sure he landed at Rib Eye Jack's. My tolerance for guilt trips is once a month. As we arrived, my coworker Jay-Dawg and little spitfire server Cara were just leaving. They promptly did a 180 and joined us in the corner booth. Oddly, despite our long-time shared history over the past 11 years, Jay had never met David, something neither of us could believe. However, they did have one connection. "Remember when I worked for Willie? That guy I worked with, Jonny, is Jay's brother," I told David. He immediately lit up and told Jay, "Your brother is a great man!" While Jay laughed that "I don't think anyone has ever referred to him that way before," it was pretty clear David remembered the huge, enthusiastic reaction he always got from Jonny when visiting. They were like best buds.

The Cameron's Brewmaster Selection Pack!
Comes from Oakville, just like my son David!
I was chopping at the bit to get this four-pack
as it has two new beers in it, including an IPL.

So at Rib Eye Jack's, David did what David does. He made his patented "lady killer" googly eyes at a giggling Cara when she let her hair down. He happily gifted a Brock Street Double Vision IPA to both Jay and my beer technician Kylie. And Tiffers? Well, she got her hugs. And then some. "OMG, I love him!" she texted me afterwards. "I love how he calls you Daddy, not Dad. He is precious! I tried not to be too excited so I didn't scare him." Hah, not a concern with that boy. When he and I went to our friend Amy's birthday party a month ago, he plunked himself in the middle of a living room full of 40-year-old women and happily opened with, "So, ladies, how is everyone tonight?" When it was time to leave, I told him to say his goodbyes and there was an actual line-up of women to give him hugs. Watching the scene beside me was Dan from the Beer Store Draught Services who simply asked me, "Can I borrow him sometime?" The next time I returned to Rib Eye Jack's, all the ladies said the same thing. "He's a real charmer."

Okay, now since my little lady-killer was born in Oakville, let's look at an Oakville brewery today, shall we?

I've seen a lot of great beer pictures on this Instagram, Twitter
and Facebook this summer but this one of Cameron Captain's
Log Lager by beer writing buddy Drunk Polkaroo is, by far,
the best. Taken at a cottage, he said it took over 20 tries between
 himself and wife Kathryn before they finally nailed this picture.

That would be our good friends at Cameron's Brewing on Invicta Drive. Recently, they released their Brewmaster's Selection Four-Pack and I was on it like a fat kid chasing a wheel of cheese down a hill. (Okay, that's some bizarre imagery... even for me.) The reason? The pack contained two new Cameron's beers, their One Eyed Grouse English Style Ale and the one I really wanted, their 12 Mile India Pale Lager. The two core beers, the Captain's Log Lager and Ambear Red Ale were already hugely familiar to me.

I've told the lager story before in this space but here's the Reader's Digest version. Years ago, brought 12 Labatt Blue to a party. After I had a few, they vanished completely. The host says, "There's a beer fridge with leftovers in the basement. Help yourself." I go down, open the fridge, up front is a Cameron's Lager so I try it. It's a lot like Blue but with something else there. Turns out years later, I realize that something was flavour. End of story. There's always a can or two in my fridge, as well as other Summer Sippers, if I want a break from an IPA Day. (Doesn't happen often but does happen.)

Another cottage beachfront picture from Twitter, this
time of Cameron's Cosmic Cream Ale. While not
included in the Brewmaster's Selection Pack, this
beer has won 16 awards at the Ontario Brewing
Awards, the Canadian Brewing Awards and the US
Open Beer Championships in the last 10 years...

The Ambear Red Ale, formerly their Auburn Ale, has long been my Cameron's favourite, alongside their outstanding Rye Pale Ale. Using Cascade hops, this 5% baby packs some unexpected citrus to the nose with a smooth but tangy presence on the tongue. Love a good dark ale and this is one of the best.

The One-Eyed Grouse English Style Ale was a really nice surprise for me. This beer is a nod to Brewmaster Jason's desire to create a true British-style pale ale - so malts before hops, right? I was surprised when it poured a deep orange (I expected a paler colour) and had a bit of fruitiness on the nose. Tasted slightly hoppier than I expected but really on the tongue was mostly the malt-and-yeast combo for which British ales are famous. I have a buddy who quaffs British standard Old Speckled Hen regularly and I wanna throw one of these 4.9% ales at him to see if I can bring him to the Canadian side of the big pond. I also just wanna throw a beer at him. He's quite sluggish and sloth-like so I think I can nail him but good.

As that brings us to the 12-Mile India Pale Lager, the one I was truly after. I have only had two IPLs before - one from Creemore's Mad and Noisy outfit called Hops and Bolts, which I enjoyed and one from BC outfit Parallel 49 called Hoparazzi, which was less to my liking. So as a style, I'm still waiting to be sold.

Cameron's President and Co-Owner Bill Coleman, left,
holds up a Captain's Log Lager while long-time Oakville
MPP Kevin Flynn cheers with a Ambear Red Ale at a
recent event celebrating something I can't remember...

Okay, then, "transaction completed" as this IPL effectively made the score 2-1 for the IPLs. Fruit and citrus on the nose with just a wee touch of bitterness and tons of lager smoothness, this 5.2% brew is a delightful combination of the punchy IPA and easy-drinking lager styles. Guys and gals, all of the four were great but this made the pack!

One other thing I admire about Cameron's and it's a small thing, really. But then, life can often be found in the smallest of gestures, can't it? When I post pictures of beers from other Ontario craft breweries on Instagram, Cameron's media maven Jenny is pretty quick to "like" many of them. I think that's cool to be a player in the industry but still show your support for others. That, my friends, is the Spirit of Ontario Craft Beer.

And finally, to bring this all back to where I started this column with my boy, David. I remember we were out to dinner that night when his Mom told me she was pregnant. At first, I was shocked and not sure I was ready to be a father. That is, until I stood up, walked over to the restaurant's far wall and adjusted their thermostat to a lower, more reasonable setting. When the other diners stared at me in disbelief, I simply yelled, "Oh, put on a goddamn sweater if you're so cold!" Turns out I actually passed the Could-You-Be-A-Father Exam within seconds. Next up, I catch up with my homeys at Nickle Brook and check out more Summer Sippers like the ones from Cameron's. But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...

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