Cameron's throws a 20th Birthday Bash!

You gotta love Emilyhay's enthusiasm at Cameron's
Brewing's 20 Anniversary Party on September 16 as
she dressed up as a VERY tall pint of Cameron's beer!

An interesting (but somewhat heart-breaking) thing happened to me when I moved from Burlington to Oakville at the beginning of September.

With the move, my hometown homeboys, Nickel Brook Brewing, were no longer a stone's throw away. Instead of being five minutes down the road and around the corner from me, they are now 15 to 20 minutes down the highway. Not far away, I grant you, but I'm used to them being around the corner from me.

Normally, this would drive a craft beer lovin' Nickel Brook loyalist like myself to the point of despair, anxiety and quite possibly reckless damage to private property. I would likely cradle a Headstock IPA to my chest and heave great tears of sadness... wail anguished cries... howl at the Moon... bite the head off Ozzy Osbourne on stage at a concert. You know, the usual stuff people who've lost their shit do... things that could land you in court but may not, depending on whether or not you're caught. Well, that's what I hear, anyway. Obviously, I'm far too busy with my many church groups to know the crazy, sinful stuff that goes on out there. (Was that thunder?)

Micha, who is also Cameron's Ottawa-area sales rep, bastes
one of the two pigs on the spit for the afternoon's events on
behalf of The Crackling Pig Spit-Roast Company. Was it any
good? Hell no. It was only frikkin' delicious! And hey, there
was plenty of great craft beer to wash it down the gullet...

What was I to do in Oakville? Well, as it turns out just a stone's throw away from Donny's Bar and Grill's new locale, is yet another of Canada's finest (and most heavily awarded) craft breweries, Cameron's Brewing. Hmmm, clearly it was time to check the Convenience Factor, I decided, because heaven forbid I ever be inconvenienced even slightly. That's for other people, not me. Nickel Brook had spoiled me.

So I plugged my new address and the brewery's address on Invicta Drive into Google Maps to suss out the almighty Convenience Factor. Hmmm, it seems Cameron's is 1.9 kilometres (1.2 miles) away and all of a three-minute drive - or a one-minute flight if some day, I mutate and grow wings. (It could happen - you don't know.) Yes, this would suffice nicely as it is actually closer to me than Nickel Brook was by a couple of minutes.

So within a day of being here (okay, fine, the same day I landed), I was down there to stock up on their fine products, notably their 12 Mile India Pale Lager. I don't drink many lagers any more, opting for various members of the ale family, instead (okay, fine, 95% of them are IPAs). But man, I truly love that 12 Mile India Pale Lager.

Earlier in the month, I had also noticed on Twitter that their 20th Anniversary Party was being held there on September 16th. So I quickly slapped my $20 on the counter and said, "Deal me in!" Quickly realizing the nice lady at the counter had no visible playing cards, I added, "... for the big party!" (It's always good to forewarn your new local brewery know that perhaps your deck is missing a few cards as well. It's a courtesy thing.)

In a two-person poll between myself and the person
who does social media for Beau's All-Natural Brewing,
it was thusly determined - in a landslide victory - that
Marybeth had the Best Smile Of The Day! Not only
that but she was serving me their specialty Cranberry
Derby Berry-Infused Pale Ale. Perfect on a hot day!

Within a day of buying my ticket, I was messaged by an old Toronto buddy, Craig (aka Foggy) saying that he was going and would I be there? Foggy lives at the western edge of Mississauga now and is nearly as close to Cameron's as me. (Nearly but not quite. I'm still the King of Cameron's Brewing Proximity.) And yes, they're my new hometown homeys so I'd be there.

Sweetening the pot for both of us was guest appearances at the birthday bash by Steam Whistle Brewing (Toronto), Wellington Brewing (Guelph) and... ohhh yasss, Beau's All Natural Brewing (Vankleek Hills). Now that's what you'd call the Fab Four. (I'll let them fight it out to see who's stuck being Ringo.)

Since drinking would be involved, I cabbed it there, likely being the shortest, lamest fare that poor cabbie had all day. But to our mutual benefit, that kept the cabbie-passenger chit-chat to a minimum. ("Beautiful day, eh? I wonder how long we'll... oh look, we're here!") Yes, I suppose I could have walked there but it seems counter-productive engaging in physical fitness on your way to drink beer. Besides, I have some pretty sweet abs already, nicely located under a protective layer of beer gut. Not to mention, I get winded walking the trash to the curb.

The good thing about seeing Noah and Jasmine
from Steam Whistle at the Cameron's Birthday
Bash? You just KNOW they're gonna bring that
unfiltered Pilsner with them! And they did! Yes!

I didn't see Foggy at first but I did see Bill Coleman, president and co-owner of the brewery. Now Bill knows me from working at the Beer Store just up the hill from his brewery and he greeted me as he always does. "Hey, it's Social Media Guy! Glad you made it!" Now, truth to tell, I have no idea if Bill knows my actual name but frankly, who cares? I think Social Media Guy is a solid handle. I'll happily go by that. Beats the hell out of "Hey, it's I Saw You Passed Out In A Ditch Guy!" (No, he's never seen me passed out in a ditch. As for who has, that's between me and the Halton Police. Those records are sealed, dammit.)

We had a quick chat before I moved along, as I knew he had many people to talk with at the event, including Oakville Mayor Rob Burton and Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn... not to mention dozens and dozens of Cameron's fans. Also, I seemingly have a prior obligation to be Social Media Guy (and I was) so there is that. It's a heavy and onerous burden to shoulder but... yeah, just shitting you. I drink copious amounts of beer and post about it. It's totally a fun, engaging and socially-productive hobby, not some awful addiction. Even my doctor - let's call him Doctor Nick - said so. (Disclaimer: Some sentences in this column may contain trace amounts of fiction. Other sentences are outright fiction.)

I asked Foggy to pose with the hops growing on the
back of Cameron's property and as you can see, he
couldn't have been happier to oblige. Apparently,
asking Foggy to stop drinking long enough to take
one picture is a flogging crime in some countries...

When Foggy's lady friend, Denise, showed, we made the rounds of the booths. Well, actually, Foggy and I had already made the rounds so let's call Denise's arrival Round Two (okay, Round Four). Now Denise is a Coors Light drinker so were we able to find beers to her liking? Much to my surprise, yes, we were - several, even. We'll get to those in a minute.

But there was a surprise visitor for me on this, the most noble of days. Unbeknownst to me, my coworker Adrian, aka Squeegee, was also there with a posse of his young buddies. I was walking around innocently (your definition of that word may vary) being Social Media Guy when I heard someone call out, "Hey, Donny!" My first thought was, of course, "Please don't be the Halton Police..." (What? I grew up in Oakville - it's a natural response.) I've seen co-workers in hundreds of social settings before but I honestly had no idea he'd be there. Given his age, I probably should have texted him about it first because he's usually (by that, I mean always) glued to his phone. He's the only guy I know with five GBs of data on his phone and he blows past it halfway through the month. My plan is three GBs a month and don't even think I've come close to using to using 1.5 of it any month. Squeegee's phone must have some GB-swallowing porn app that I just haven't found yet would never ever use because that's just wrong. Shame on you, Squeegee!

You're rocking the shades there, Squeegee. Here, he's
holding up the three sampler tickets that came with
admission - or as me and Foggy called them "the
Amateur Tickets." Given the hilly terrain you can
see behind The Squeeg, you were bound to spill at
two of the four ounces. So Foggy and I opted for
buying more of the 12-ounce tickets, you know, so
we could enjoy our tasty beer rather than wear it.

Okay, time to talk beer because that's what I'm supposed to do here. When we entered, all of us were given a 12-ounce (355 ml) plastic cup with a ticket for the bigger glass plus three more tickets for 4-ounce samplers. Also the funky sunglasses that you see Squeegee proudly wearing. Obviously, Foggy and I snapped up more 12-ounce tickets to have a proper size beer once those four tickets were used. You can't accurately review a beer on a sample and well, I am lauded far and wide for my accuracy (said no one ever.)

I'm gonna start with Steam Whistle so I can address an ongoing matter. The downside to the Internet is it brings out all the trolls and frankly, it's kinda lame to read craft beer snobs constantly shit on the brewery because it makes just one beer. Here's what I think about that: 1) They have built their reputation doing precisely that... so shut your stupid pie-hole and 2) It's an outstanding example of a Canadian-made Czech-style pilsner... which brings us right back full-circle to shut your stupid pie-hole. Since two-cents no longer exists in Canada, that's my nickle's worth on that subject. Nice talk. Thanks for coming out.

Okay, I love seeing Steam Whistle at these event because they always do one thing... really, really well. They bring their unfiltered version of the beer along for the ride, as well as the regular version.

Nick from Wellington brought both their
outstanding Upside IPA and the Prickly
When Poked Pear Saison which was a
collaboration brew with Cameron's gang.
I'll be reviewing that Upside IPA soon.

Every single person I know who has tried the Unfiltered version at a Beer Fest has said the same thing. "This is great! Why don't they bottle and can this one, too?" While in essence it's the same 5% beer, the lightly cloudy unfiltered version adds a little more tanginess to it. Not hugely so but just enough to differentiate itself from the original. Like everyone else, I'd love to see this on the shelves... but then they'd be kinda screwing up their own tagline. Also it's fun to look forward to at beer fests.

Moving onto Beau's and the beautiful smile of server Marybeth, she had brought Lug Tread Lagered Ale, which I've enjoyed dozens upon dozens of times and a newbie, Cranberry Derby Berry-Infused Pale Ale. Okay, Foggy and I both enjoyed the hell out of this one. At 6.3%, this pale ale had some kick and was rife with very obvious cranberry on the nose. The brewers threw organic flaked oats into the mix, giving it a familiar breakfast tinge into the back-end while maintaining the berry's natural tartiness. Marybeth told me it would be part of the brewery's Fall Mix Four-Pack so you have that to look forward to as it'll be on LCBO shelves very soon. Try it, you'll like it.

Okay, the hosts had four specialty casks (as well as kegs of their core three and the 12 Mile IPL at another tent) at the event and I wanna talk about two of the casks.

Thomas at the Cameron's Cask Tent offers up their
Brett Golden Ale, made specially for the event. I did
like it but I want to have words with Brewmaster
Jason Britton over the Hoppy Birthday IPA there!

Truth to tell, I've always preferred kegs over casks as I find beer in casks to have a much lower carbonation levels. Turns out I like bubbles in my beer - it's a mouth-feel thing. That said, I will sample any cask offering because the taste shines through regardless. Using the Big Boy cup, I tried their Brett Golden Ale, which I did enjoy but it was a bit on the warm side. That's the other problem with casks - given their shape, all you can really do is put a bag of ice on the top and hope for the best. With kegs, you can stick them in a garbage can and surround them with ice! But it was a nice brew. I probably enjoyed the funky yeast qualities a little more than Foggy, who was crinkling his nose at it. But he confessed that it wasn't quite at the optimum temperature for tasting and well, he wasn't wrong. Also, like me, he likes a little more carbonation than casks afford. That said, if you look at the picture of Thomas holding the ale up, you will note that casks do result in a pour with a decent head.

Which brings me to the damn tasty Hoppy Birthday IPA... and a wee bone of contention with my new brewery. I forgot to make note of the ABV for this but it was certainly over 6% and lovely grapefruit. But I'm standing here (in my Spider-Man underwear) wondering why my new hometown brewery doesn't have a regular IPA or Pale Ale.

The horseshoe pitch, set up in the gully of their
backyard was a popular attraction for the happy
drinking crowd on a beautiful sun-drenched day.

Brewmaster Jason Britton has created an excellent Rye Pale Ale called exactly that... though it's become increasingly difficult to find. That RPA came second after being created for the 2011 Bar Volo IPA Challenge. But it's not exactly a west coast IPA. And just three Summers back, he released their California Sunshine American Pale Ale that was so good, it won my Pale Ale of 2014. It has since vanished. Now don't get me wrong. I will happily drink the 12 Mile India Pale Lager, as well as their Ambear Red Ale until the cows come home. (And if those cows do come home, I will also wonder how I woke up in a farm field. Again.)

But Jason, I beg of you, I do need one or ideally both. I'm on my freaking knees here. (No, I'm not but he can't tell. Shhhh.) Nickel Brook has spoiled me rotten with their Headstock IPA and Naughty Neighbour APA. I can still get either of those at my Beer Store but I need my new hometown homeys to show me they can spoil me more by having an IPL, an APA and an IPA. What will it take? My first-born son? (Say no unless you want to quadruple your grocery bill.) A large amount of cash in an untraceable Swiss bank account? That's probably doable through illegal means so if you can turn a blind eye to that. I'll do whatever it takes. Legal, illegal, moral, immoral... I'll go there!

I got some Going Going Back Back to Cali Cali IPA sometime in May,
stopping into the Barrie brewery on the way home from Boys Weekend
in the Spring. How was the 6.1%, 81 IBU IPA? Hella hella tasty tasty.

And, of course, besides Hoppy Birthday, Cameron's has been linked to IPAs in the past so this isn't uncharted turf. Back in the Spring, Cameron's brewer Curtis Jeffrey ventured up to Barrie to create a collaborative IPA with his old college roomie, Redline Brewhouse's head brewer Seb MacIntosh. The resulting effort was a nod to the music of their youth called Going Going Back Back To Cali Cali IPA, a song penned by the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. That was a damn fine IPA, which, of course, is encoded in a brewer's DNA. So Jason, in the immortal words of Clint Eastwood, "Go ahead... Make my IPA..."

A man and his van! Cameron's co-owner and president Bill Coleman
poses beside the Camerons-Mobile, which can often be seen in the GTA.
Hmm, maybe it's Bill that I should be bribing to get an IPA going, eh?

Before we punch out here, let's look at the beer that macro drinkers Squeegee and Denise both ended up loving the most. That would be Cameron's own Captain's Log Lager. Both waxed poetic over the virtues of that crisp, fresh beer... although phone zombie Squeegee more likely texted it.

Okay, gang, that's it for today but more coming soon. Beer Bro Glenn dumped a pile of American goodies on me so I'll be looking at those. Co-worker Patchy has his girlfriend bring me back a pile of IPAs from the Canadian east coast so they're on deck. Beer Store daughter Sassy Cassy brought me a bunch of beer from two Thunder Bay breweries, as well as an IPA from South Africa so there's that. And high school sweetheart Christine is returning to here from California in a couple weeks and I still haven't written about the IPAs she smuggled me in June!!! (Yes, I'm that far behind - weird Summer.) So guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. Until next time, I remain...

Sunday's fun day with the Polkaroos!!

Is there anything like a Sunday afternoon at Merit Brewing, located on
James Street North in Hamilton? Well, since Beer Bro Glenn, back left,
and myself, back right, didn't know, we were fortunate enough to get an
invitation to do precisely that from Mister Drunk Polkaroo and Missus
Polkaroo on September 4. Both this and a trip to Rust City Brewing!!

With Labour Day having come and gone, the Summer is over for most of us.

Cottage days are dwindling down to a precious few weekends. Kids are back to school. College and university students are back at the books... that is, if they still use books.

Here's a quick question as a former college and university student: do they still make you buy $100-$200 books from which you will need the information on exactly one page? I'm not suggesting that was a scam but... holy shit, is that a goddamn scam!! I'm also not suggesting I smell collusion between the tiers of higher education and the publishing industry but something stinks worse than warm Bud Lite. I do remember, back in my day, refusing to buy those expensive textbooks. I relied on a completely different method of obtaining the necessary scholastic information. I cheated like hell. What can I say? I passed.

Say, it looks like I have been to Merit Brewing
before as my faithful sidekick and son, David,
is pointing out the new Hamilton landmark in
this picture. These guys make great beers!!!

Anyways, back to Labour Day Weekend. I needed to do something fun and relaxing. I had spent the entire month of August moving out of the Burlington complex that housed Donny's Bar and Grill into a new (but old and very familiar) locale about 25 kilometres (15 miles) to the east. After all that, I needed to cut loose and have some fun. Fortunately, others in my craft-beer-drenched circle were faced with remarkably similar situations.

Turns out that while my move is over and I look toward the last of my unpacking, my old college buddy, Beer Bro Glenn, is in the middle of doing what I was a month ago and is busying packing up his life for a new locale sometime by the end of this month. As the erudite Mr. T wisely espoused to us all in the past, "I pity dah fool." Moving ain't fun. But on the Labour Day weekend, Glenn had a rare Sunday off from his two jobs. In fact, rare Sunday off is a bit of a misnomer. I think he works every day but Christmas. So he's like the opposite of Santa Claus in, well, pretty much every way imaginable. Except the belly.

"I need a Lazy Sunday!" Glenn hollered at me in a text. (Glenn is the only guy I know who can send you a text and you just know he's yelling.) Okey dokey, then, I knew just the couple to enlist for that. So I reached out to Robert, aka Drunk Polkaroo, to see what his Labour Day weekend plans were for him and his lovely wife, Kat.

The same thugs (except Kat who's a sweetheart) but a new
locale - this time, Rust City Brewing. While the brewing
component won't start until next month, they still have a
huge assortment of other breweries' beers, including tons
of Bellwoods Brewing beverages. That was a tasty stop!!

Turns out Polk himself was to the end of some crazy-ass 20-days-in-a-row stint at work and it looked like he'd be working until 5 pm on that Sunday but would have Labour Day Monday off. Time for a new plan? Well, no because, you see, his boss finally walked up to him and said bluntly if Polk dared to show his face at work on the Sunday, he would tie him to his car bumper and drag him all the way back home. Perhaps even tie him up naked before the ride. So basically, if even Polk's shadow was seen within a two mile radius of the store, his boss was gonna go full-tilt Game of Thrones on his ass.

And with that, the ball hockey nets were back in the middle of the road and it was "Game on!" for Sunday Fun Day. Since Glenn was driving down from Oshawa, it seems that Hamilton would be our drinking destination on that Sunday as the Polks know that turf all too well.

Shown here in a Hamilton Spectator photo taken by
photographer Karon Liu, Merit Brewing co-founder Tej
Sandhu holds up a flight of Merit's finest. Tej spent a
great deal of time chatting beers with us because of his
friendship with the Polkaroos! I will be looking more
closely at Merit Brewing in this space very soon because,
well, my beer fridge is jammed solid with their product.

And as our craft beer loving hosts for the day, the Polks did not disappoint as they know Hamilton about as well as I know that the bowling alley sells you nicely-worn-in shoes for just $3 a pair. (What? Seriously? You just rent them? I have 17 pairs, all equally ugly. Also, very little traction.)

Our first stop was Merit Brewing at 107 James Street North, basically around the corner from Collective Arts Brewing, right on the lake. I know this because my son and I popped in there a few months ago to grab some goodies. Now was my chance to get even more. (I will deal with those in the very near future with a solo piece on Merit since my beer fridge is presently jammed with their brews.)

But I had a mission, so to speak. It seems like I might be the only IPA lover in Ontario who has never had a milkshake IPA. And I knew Merit had their Breakfast Fruit Loops Milkshake IPA on tap. Polk and Glenn were dumbfounded, wanting to know how it was possible I had somehow missed the Big Milkshake IPA Trend from the Summer of 2017. It wasn't intentional, I assured them. It was a busy Summer, I didn't have time to seek them out and I simply hadn't come across any. So I was eager to dip my tonsils into this latest brewing craze.

That's something like 60 pounds of Fruit Loops
dumped into a brewing vat for the creation of
Merit's Breakfast Fruit Loop Milkshake IPA. Bell
City Brewing in Brantford has done similar beers
with their Breakfast at Tiffany's Cap'n Crunch
Amber Oat Ale and their Breakfast at Tiffany's 2
Cinnamon Toast Crunch Porter. Funky brews...

At first, it was one of four beers on my paddle but after sampling it and being puzzled by the taste, I got a pint of it from the bar. I have never talked about "mouthfeel" in this space because I've always found it to be an unnecessary description. Beer feels like beer in my mouth. Lagers feel lighter, stouts feel heavier, some are more heavily-carbonated but to me, they always feel like beer.

This certainly didn't. My first-ever Milkshake IPA felt, well, very weird. There was a strange thickness or creaminess to it that I found jarring. Polk suggested the heavy use of lactose in the mix was responsible for their unusual texture. Since he and Glenn are enthusiastic Milkshake IPA pros, having enjoyed them all Summer while I am but a rookie, I will try some more as I see them just to give the style a fair shake (no pun intended) but at the moment, this is not a style to my liking. The whole notion of a beer feeling somehow foreign in my mouth was as odd to me as a pizza having the texture of a salad.

That said, the 6% IPA was pretty tasty, dry-hopped with Amarillo and Citra hops, not to mention the additional candied citrus of the Fruit Loops.

In this Yelp photo taken by one of the Rust City
Brewing owners, the coffee house/brewery is
seen at night. We were, of course, there during
the day because we are not vampires. We are
just happy Day Drinkers. And night drinkers.

(All Fruit Loops are the same flavour - citrus - so everything you know about cereal is a lie! Cap'n Crunch has no naval experience! Tony the Tiger would maul you! Toucan Sam is probably a goddamn parrot! The Trix rabbit... no, wait, he likely is insane.)

It was just the weird-ass texture that threw me for a Loop (okay, I lied - all puns are intended.) However, the other beers I had were great and like I said, I'll deal with them in the near future because I have to get them all out of my fridge for consumption purpose to free up room for other brewers. It seems only fair and frankly, I'm the man for the job.

But I loved the feel and ambiance of Merit Brewing. Long wooden benches, friendly staffers, a menu consisting of various sausages on a bun with fries. And oddly enough, when co-founder Tej Sandhu joined us at our table for a chat, the issue of their fries came up. Spotting my HopCat T-shirt that my buddy, Cheesey, got me when we visited the 130-tap craft beer bar in Detroit, Tej told us his experience at a HopCat in a different Michigan city was the inspiration for their own fries. "We tried to get them as close to those HopCat fries as we could," he noted. Truth to tell, with 130 different taps of craft beer, I had no idea that HopCat was renowned for its fries?? I might have to try them upon my return to Michigan. (Yeah, right... because I'm there for French Fries, not the beer.)

On the left, we have the Bellwoods Goblin Sauce
Double IPA with Lupulin Powder. On the right, we
have their Monogamy IPA with Vic Secret hops. But
in the middle was our unlabeled mystery bottle. We
drank it blind before we finally asked. Turns out it
was the Monogamy APA with Mosaic hops. Glad I
asked Polk after because I thought it was Cascade.

From Merit, we were off to Rust City Brewing, quite literally around the corner at 27 King William Street. On the way, Polk mentioned that while they themselves won't be brewing until October, they nonetheless have the best selection in the city of other breweries' craft beer and their low mark-up was a helluva selling point.

"If a Bellwoods (Brewing) beer sells for $7 at their retail, Rust City sell it for $9," Polk said on the way. "They usually only go $2 or $3 over what they paid for the beer and they drive to the breweries to get the beer themselves." Truth to tell, when you factor in gas, it's almost cheaper to buy Bellwoods beers at Rust City than it is to take the drive into Toronto to buy them from the retail outlet. Except, of course, you can't take them home.

Despite being open since March, the brewing delay for owners Nancy and James Malcolm and Gabriel Spiegelshrift is that the City of Hamilton has strict zoning rules that prevent the creation of brew-pubs in the downtown core. However, after applying to City Hall for an amendment some time back, it looks like - fingers crossed - they'll be good to start brewing their own by next month.

Another Yelp picture by one of the owners shows
the amount of space they allot to Bellwoods beers
in their fridge. It's a brew bargain at Rust City.

The very existence of Merit a few hundred metres away tells us the city, thankfully, is not inflexible on the matter.

When we first arrived, I would have sworn we were in the wrong place. Along the left hand side is a huge coffee roastery section with a specialty selection. Like a number of smaller brewers (Craft Head Brewing in Windsor, for example), they specialize in both coffee and beer. And since those are my two favourite beverages - well, in actual fact, the only two beverages I ever drink, I could set up a cot in the back of Rust City and be set for life. How exciting for them, eh?

Well, our visit provided us with a unique opportunity as we noticed one of the Bellwoods bottles was unlabeled. So we grabbed their Goblin Sauce Imperial IPA (with Lupulin Powder), the Monogamy Double Dry-Hopped IPA with Vic Secret hops... and the unknown bottle. The bartender knew what the beer was but we did not and asked him to say nothing until we were done. Because that's how we roll. Foolheartedly and haphazardly into the unknown for decades now with no end in sight. Well, I shouldn't speak for the others. Maybe that's just how I roll. But I suspect, upon reading this, the others will all nod their heads and silently say, "Yeah, me too. But don't tell my Mom."

During their Grand Opening in May, Polkaroo posed
with Merit head brewer Aaron Spinney who had left
Sawdust City Brewing  (Gravenhurst) to create this
new venture in Hamilton with partners Tej Sandhu
and Jesse Vallins. A runaway success since Day One!

While Polk has enjoyed the Goblin Sauce in the past, I have not and lemme tell you... Bam, baby! The 8.5%, roughly 80 IBU (international bitterness unit) double dry-hopped Imperial IPA is loaded with fruity goodness on the nose with tangy mango, peach and berries on the tongue. The addition of Lupulin gives it that much more hop kick as Lupulin is the yellow powder that falls from the hop if you rolled it in your fingers. It contains all the essential oils and resin compounds from the hops. So it's basically super-charged hop gun-powder. Like I said... Bam!

I don't think I've had a Monogamy IPA (there are dozens of them at this point, each with different hops) that I haven't enjoyed from this brewery. And although the one brewed with Idaho 7 hops was my favourite, they've all been great. Vic Secret hops were actually unfamiliar to me but as it turns out they were first harvested in Australia in 2013. Maybe they're scarce around these parts. But the 6.4%, roughly 70 IBU IPA was more of the same - excellent - with pineapple on the nose and bitter pine on the tongue.

And that left the mystery bottle. We each drank some. Noses crinkled. It was nice, either a pale ale or IPA... but far too peppery.

Oh geezuz, it's that time of year where pumpkin
is added to everything, including ales. Pass! I
mean, to put it into teenage girl, I can't even!!

In the end, they told us what it was but by the time I sat down to this, I had forgotten. Polk was fairly (but not 100%) certain that it was a Monogamy Pale Ale with Mosaic hops. Up against the other Bellwoods beers we had enjoyed, this didn't fare as well but like I said, an odd peppery back-end to it. That said, it was a helluva lot of fun doing a blind sampling.

We stumbled back to Merit after Rust City and were planning to go to Fairweather Brewing but I had to call an audible. I foolishly waited until our return to Merit to eat - damn, that sausage and those fries were pretty good! - and at that point, I had a pretty big glow on. I don't mind that (actually, I like that) but I always try to call time-out at that point so that doesn't turn into sloppy-ass drunk. No one needs to see that. But hey, that hopefully means a trip back into Hamilton to visit Fairweather with the Polkaroos and others!

And since we're talking Polk here, the voting for the Golden Tap Awards end today and I'm plugging my pal for Ontario Beer Writer of the Year in this space. Just get onto the link and Beer Writer is near the bottom. Call him Robert Arsenault or Drunk Polkaroo - everyone knows him by either. So vote here at: We Love Polk 2017!!!! But guys and dolls, I am a million miles behind with these due to my turbulent Summer so expect an onslaught of Brew Ha Ha columns coming your way now that I'm settled. Don't say you weren't warned!!! Until next time, I remain...