NHL All-Stars, then "Important" beers

The best ever? Well, he sure as hell was the best
I ever saw. Boston's Bobby Orr, Number 4, was
the defenceman who showed others that, yes, a
defencemen could be offensive and score goals.

This past weekend, the Hockey Hockey League's All-Star game was played. One side won, the other lost and no one cared because the weekend is mostly about fun, skills competitions and showcasing the world's best hockey players on the ice, all at the same time.

In fact, St Louis' ultra-talented Russian player Vladimir Tarasenko, a member of the "losing" team was asked in all seriousness about his disappointment at losing this meaningless game. The Varoslavl native, just 25, looked at the interviewer and coolly said, "I really can't talk about this game seriously." Ooooh, Soviet Smackdown in Aisle One...

But because this is also the NHL's 100th anniversary, there was a lot of outside entertainment, such as the league's compilation of the 100 Best NHL Players Of All Time, many of whom were honoured. As well, sportswriters were asked to compile their own lists of "which single player was each franchise's most memorable of all time." Thank gawd I'm not a sportswriter because I would be hard-pressed to name a single player from hockey hot-beds such as Columbus, Arizona and Nashville, much less their best ever.

But back to the Top 100 List, which the NHL diplomatically released in alphabetical order, rather than ranking the players. Which is smart but also a little too safe for my liking.

My best Toronto Maple Leaf would be Darryl Sittler,
the only player ever to score a 10-point night in the
history of the NHL. It's a 40-year unbroken record.

The Top-Three, according to pretty much everyone who's ever watched hockey in their lives, are Wayne (The Great One) Gretzky, Gordie (Mr. Hockey) Howe and (Number Four!) Bobby Orr. Depending on who you ask, where they live and their age, either Gretzky or Howe are generally considered as number one. Hard to disagree... and yet, I do. I think Bobby Orr was both the smartest and the most skilled hockey player I ever saw. One reason, most likely, is that I watched him when I was a child. That's when impressions hit you the hardest. I missed much of Howe's career due to not being born yet reasons. He started in the NHL in 1946 and finished in 1980, the only player ever to play in five different decades. And I watched Gretzky as a young adult, a time when impressions are harder to come by. Though in all honesty, for a guy who's the same height and weight as me (read: scrawny) to excel at that level? Unbelievable. He rewrote every record in the book, outside of goaltending.

But no, it was Bobby Orr at whom I marveled. That's interesting for two reasons. One, I'm a diehard Toronto Maple Leaf fan and Orr played for Boston. But two, I think it was the first experience that taught me at a young age even though someone may be on the "other" side, skill and excellence are to be admired regardless.

This photo of former HNLer Chris Pronger mashing pop star
Justin Bieber into the end-boards during the NHL Alumni-
Celebrity hockey game on Saturday night was all the talk of
Twitter on Sunday. Truth is it was just a light little pin but I'll
include the video at the end because it's funny to mock Biebs.

Orr's end-to-end rushes were a wonder to behold. He redefined the way defence was played in the NHL. I remember my Mom joining me one night as I watched Boston play Toronto on TV and when Orr set up shop behind his own net, I told her, "Okay, watch what he does." And she watched in awe as Orr skated through the Leafs from one end to the other, scoring a goal. "Does he always play like that?" she asked. "No," I admitted, "sometimes, he's even better."

As for the best player in the history of each individual franchise, that was both easy and hard for the sportwriters. Some were self-evident. In Chicago, it had to be Bobby Hull. In Detroit, it had to be Howe. But with 17 Montreal Canadiens and 11 Leafs on that Top-100 List, well, this would be trickier. In the end, most Montreal writers leaned towards Maurice "Rocket" Richard, the captain my grandfather described as "the most explosive player I've ever seen. There was no way to stop him." And in Toronto, it seemed Davey Keon, who won four Cups with the Leafs in the 1960s, got most nods, although I noticed one writer leaning toward classy Swedish captain, Mats Sundin.

When Wayne Grtezky, then an LA King, passed
Gordie Howe as the all-time points leader in the
NHL in October 1989, Mr Hockey made sure to be
on hand for the feat. Gretzky finished his career
with 2,857 points. The next closest is Jaromir Jagr
with 1,897 points. Gretzky holds 60 NHL records.

Again, I find myself disagreeing. I have little doubt Keon was outstanding although I only saw him play towards the end of his career. No, for my money, it would be Darryl Sittler, who set a record over 40 years ago that still hasn't been broken and quite possibly never will be. He notched 10 points in a single game on February 7, 1976 in an 11-4 win over Boston. When Sittler sat with seven points after the second period, the team statistician came into the dressing room to tell him he was just one point behind Rocket Richard's record of eight points. So just 44 seconds in the third, Sittler scored, the start of a personal third period hat-trick to finish with 10 points on six goals, four assists. As a Leaf (and just plain hockey) fan, I have never seen a performance that astounding in my life. And yes, Sittler is on that Top-100 list. Eight players have had eight-point nights since then but no one has hit nine, much less ten.

So anyway, it was the usual All-Star hijinx and fun for the elite players in the annual no-defence, all-firepower exhibition game. But another list popped up on Facebook, posted by my beer writing buddy Drunk Polkaroo over the weekend.

Dogfish Head's 90-Minute Imperial IPA landed on
my patio, courtesy of Beer Bro Glenn. Its unique
brewing method landed it on the "Important" list.

Foodandwine.com published their list of "The 25 Most Important American Craft Beers Ever Brewed." Unlike the NHL's list, this list weighed in more heavily on beers that historically influenced craft beers' growth in the US, rather than strictly taste and popularity. Using the results of votes from 21 brewers, brewery owners and beer writers, it was a fascinating read. The single criteria was that the beers were made after 1960 and fell into the expected benchmark of craft beers.

Anchor Brewing out of San Francisco had four of their beers on the list, mostly as a nod to their birth in 1896 and then rebirth under new ownership in 1965 - with countless closures and bankruptcies in between. New owner Fritz Maytag, grandson of the Maytag Appliance founder, is credited with ushering in the age of craft beer in America with his innovative brewing techniques. While perhaps considered milder fare in this day, these beers were hugely cutting-edge at that time in the 1960s, a humongous step above and away from the macro norm. Of those four beers, I have enjoyed their Steam Lager, Liberty Ale and Porter.

Like me, Polkaroo has only had 10 on this list (no doubt creating a Must-Find List for both of us) but while there is cross-section in the middle, we have each enjoyed a few the other hasn't. And one beer, New Albion Ale, is gone for good as the brewery closed in 1982.

So this beer Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale is in cans
and why is that a big deal? Turns out it was the first
American craft beer to be canned. Prior to that,
every single craft beer produced was in a bottle. 

Not two days before he posted the list, I alerted him to the presence of Oskar Blues (Lyons, Colorado) Dale's Pale Ale four-packs in the LCBO, a beer that incidentally landed at #15 on the list. You see, this beer, a solid pale ale, made it on the list not for its taste (which I'll get to) but rather the brewery's innovation. Back in 2002, Dale's Pale Ale was the first craft beer to be put into cans. All previous efforts were bottled. According to craftcans.com, that initiative paved the way for some 2,162 different American craft beers in cans these days. Hard to imagine there was a time where canning wasn't common for craft beer but as you can see, just 15 years ago, it was a different story. Granted, I knew none of this when I bought the four-pack. I believe that's called serendipity, which, in my case, translates to "blind-ass fluke."

Now Dale's is a tasty pale. As befits a 6.5% beer that hasn't changed its recipe in 15 years, there is a little more caramel malts on the nose than today's pale ales but on the tongue, the four hops used step up, giving it some grapefruit and a little bitterness.

Yeah, you pretty much knew these two would be on the list,
didn't you? Russian River's Pliny the Elder and The
Alchemist's Heady Topper are automatic inclusions for
any list of significant or relevant American craft beers.

I had no idea at the time I was drinking something historically influential. Had I know, I probably would have put on pants. According to the website wearebeerstuds.com, Dale's Pale Ale is the best-selling six-pack of craft cans in America today.

John Lennon wasn't the only person with a fixation on the number nine. Back in 2001, Delaware's Dogfish Head created a bomb-blast of a double IPA that leans heavily on the nines as well with their 9%, 90 IBU (international bitterness units) 90 Minute Imperial IPA. Checking in at #23, the beer was credited to be the first whereby brewers continued to add hops through the brewing process - now commonly called continuous hopping. Beer Bro Glenn dropped this one in my lap last Summer (as well as their 60 Minute IPA several years ago). Very fruity with pineapple and mango on the nose, this beer understand the importance of malt balance, which comes through on the tongue. Just a monster of a beer.

Given its 33-year history on the American craft beer
landscape. Boston Brewing's Samuel Adams Boston
Lager was number two on this list. Only one craft
beer surpassed it. Founder Jim Koch famously said
back in the 1980s, "the big brewers spill more beer
than we make in one year." That set the early tone.

Rib Eye Jack's Ale House GM Steve was the generous benefactor when I first had (#5) The Alchemist's (Stowe, Vermont) Heady Topper Imperial IPA in the Summer of 2015 and (#7) Russian River's (Santa Rosa, California) Pliny the Elder Imperial IPA this time last year. Considered the two most sought-after but hard-to-procure beers in America, the Heady, first brewed in 2011 is the fore-runner of the dirty, unfiltered East Coast IPA style while the Pliny, first brewed in 2000, is the pinnacle of the clean West Coast style. Both, already reviewed at length here, are among the most explosive IPAs I had ever had and that will never change. Like I said, hard to find but if you ever do? You thank the Beer Gods.

Much like Anchor Brewing, Boston Brewing is considered a craft pioneer so it came as little surprise to me that (#2) Samuel Adams Boston Lager was this high on the list, despite being a milder style. Will it take the top of your head off? Hell no! It's a premium lager. It's not meant to. But in 1984, this was a huge step away from the macro as founder Jim Koch added a new ingredient to the lager style - flavour. Modern-day beer geeks may wonder what the big deal is but back in the 1980s and 1990s, this was a huge departure from the norm. And that's what this list is meant to be.

The Victory Brewing HopDevil IPA was a humongous risk for the
fledgling Philadelphia brewery back in 1995 as IPAs were not a
big deal at the time. But it was their flagship beer which proved
that a risky roll of the dice could pay off ten-fold. Very ballsy...

Back in the mid-1990s when Bill Covaleski and Ron Barchet opened Philadelphia's Victory Brewing, they came out of the gate in a big way with their (#24) HopDevil IPA. It was a risky move as IPAs were not a hugely-favoured style at the time. They could have lost their shirts. And yet, somehow, some way... it caught on like wildfire. Their Prima Pils clocked in at #9 on this list because it was the first pilsner with an infusion of hoppy taste. But of the two, I have only had the HopDevil, a gift from Rib Eye Jack's beer technician Kylie. Already reviewed once here, the 6.7%, 80 IBU IPA is described as the brewery thusly: "Bold, spicy and menacingly delicious." I won't disagree. Also one helluva risk that actually paid off.

Well, that's nine of the 10 beers I've enjoyed on the Big List so let's finish this off with the #1 - Sierra Nevada's (Fletcher, North Carolina) Pale Ale. I have poured through the over-220 columns I had previously written and the only mention of this beer I've had literally dozens and dozens of times is their attendance at previous Burlington Beer Festivals.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was the only beer that received votes
from more than half of the panel that created this list. That
speaks to both its taste and its place in craft beer history...

Had I been born with the shame gene, I'd be embarrassed but... meh. First brewed in 1980, Sierra Nevada owner-founder Ken Grossman, a home-brewer, said he was just trying to create "what we and our friends loved to drink." He admits he's still a little surprised at the beer's beloved longevity, despite the brewery's present-day worth of over $1 billion. The first to use whole-cone Cascade hops and four-row malts, the recipe has not changed - not one iota - in the past 37 years. Readily available in Canada, I think this RateBeer reviewer from Brazil said it best when he wrote of the 5.6%, 37 IBU ale: "Da garrafa, dourada, limpida, bem convidativa. Aromo citrico, come notas bem marcantes di pinho, leve frutado e um toque maltado." I'm not sure what more I can say beyond that other than it has some lovely citrus fruit on the nose with more and a touch of spice on the tongue. My Brazilian brother said it best, though.

Okay, back soon with more fun and games but before I go, I did promise to post that video of Chris Pronger lightly pinning Justin Bieber into the board at the NHL All-Star Celebrity Game so here it is at: Pronger Just Destroys Little Douchebag!!! But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here!!! Until next time, I remain...