The Best of 2018 - The People, The Places

The very day of his passing, Hamilton cartoonist-
artist extraordinaire David Buist did this caricature
of Marvel Comics' legend Stan Lee in his classic
"slinging Spider-Man's web" pose. It was a death
that rocked a lot of us comic geeks, despite his age.

One of the things I like to do when a year ends is review the "Dead Celebrity List." It's a macabre exercise to be certain but a year-end tradition nonetheless and in the case of 2018, well, that was a macabre year that deserved to close in a macabre manner. The list is always chalk-full of actors, athletes, musicians, as well as various and sundry miscellaneous types. But the thing is half the time I read the list, I'm like, "He/she died? Really? Don't remember that." That speaks to two things. One, even long after high school, I do not pay attention in class. And two, it speaks to the transient nature of "celebrity" in today's electronic age.

To be certain, some deaths do register strongly because they scrape the bone. Robin Williams is a good example. I remember him first as Mork from Ork and yet, a generation later, my son remembers him first as the Genie in Aladdin, one of the more comically brilliant cartoons ever produced. In more recent years, insanely-gifted musician Chris Cornell's death gave me both long pause and immeasurable sadness because it was awful to see someone so talented die that young, like Williams, taking his own life.

But in 2018, it was the passing of Marvel Comics' legend Stan Lee that stunned me, leaving me in a daze for a week. I mean, the guy was 95 years old and I still couldn't accept it.

Damn you, Thanos! Damn you all to bloody hell! RIP, Stan.

Like many, I enjoyed his cameos in Marvel movies so much that I found myself doing a mental checklist. He was still alive for the filming of Captain Marvel, being released in March (which I think may prove to be their best yet) and then Avengers: Endgame, being released in April, pretty much the most-anticipated flick of the year. So he'll be in those, which will be bitter-sweet to be certain. And then... that's it. Damn.

But anyway, enough musings from a comic geek - let's get to the business at hand. Ahh yes, with January 2019 now three-quarters gone, it's time to finish up my Best of 2018 list. The entire list was prepared by January 1st. At times, it takes me a while to write these because my quiet basement room is called the Batcave for a reason. I have crimes to solve. You get that, I'm certain. So anyway, let's finish this ugly bastard off so I can continue with 2019 beer stories, which are on pause until this is done. I'm sure you all remember the rules. No repeat winners from any previous years, Ontario beers and breweries only and, yeah, Beer Bro Glenn is really old. (That's not relevant in the least. Just fun to say.)

One of my favourite brewery stops last Summer was the day my
son and I traveled to Bench Brewing in Beamsville. You drive
through some amazing wine country vineyards on your way and
the brewery itself keep the front of a 100-plus year old school-
house as part of its facade. It was the best of old and new there.

Best Sour: This choice is far from the sourest beer I had in 2018. However, it is the one I drank the most. Once they finally opened in the Summer, my son and I drove out to Beamsville on a Lazy Sunday to visit our friends at Bench Brewing at their brand-new facility. Frikkin gorgeous! The brewery was already pretty well-known to me as they were contract-brewed by Nickel Brook for two years prior to their opening. So I found many Bench beers landing in my hands long before Bench had a roof and walls of their own. And the one I enjoyed the most was Bench's Citra Grove Dry-Hopped Sour. More tart than heavily sour, the 6% beer offered tons of Citra hop, giving it a tasty orange and citrus taste. I always grab a couple of these whenever I see them. Great beer, great brewery. (Previous winners: 5 Paddles Skull Pucker Sour IPA, Bellwoods' Motley Cru 2016, Bellwoods' Jelly King.)

Best Milkshake Beer: While Milkshake IPAs seem to get the most attention in the Wild Wacky World of Lactose, I left this particular category open to all styles. Why?

When I first bought the Collective Arts' Liquid Art Fest
IPA, the woman at the counter seriously warned me to get
it home and into the fridge as soon as possible. She also
said to store it upside-down so the puree didn't pool at the
bottom of the can. Within two weeks, the same beer was
sitting on LCBO shelves, getting very warm. No one died.

Because at this point last year, I was still a little dubious over the addition of lactose in IPAs. However, I found a stout with lactose that I loved so with that in mind, to begin this category, I left it wide open to all styles. But soon, a Milkshake IPA very much attracted my (and others) attention this year - Collective Arts Brewing (Hamilton) Liquid Art Fest IPA, a Milkshake IPA loaded with passion fruit, mango and vanilla. Unlike many other Milkshake IPAs, the vanilla and glucose do not add an unusual or off-putting sweetness or mouthfeel to the beer. If anything, their addition thickened it and this was one of the best New England style IPAs I've had. Very tropical, very mango and yet another winner from Collective Arts. Some of the premiere beers in Ontario, being brewed right there in The Hammer. (Previous winner: Merit's Neapolitan Milkshake Stout.)

Best Fruit Beer: An unusual category, yes. But some Ontario breweries had done a handful of exceptional ones so...

Yes, it's a shaker pint glass but I do employ that Excalibur Resort
and Casino glass from time to time if I don't have a brewery glass.
Why? It's got that cool-ass dragon logo. I want a dragon as a pet.

I tend to veer away from the style but when I hear something has either cherry or blueberry in it, well, I'm a little less resistant in checking it out. My favourite fruits. Once again, that glorious old bastard Beer Bro Glenn got me another real beauty from our friends John and Erin at Little Beasts Brewing in Whitby. The 6.5% wheat beer (that is either red or purple, you decide, I can't tell) has beautiful whiffs of vanilla but is back-end blueberry and wheat malts all the way. According to the brewery, they aged it with 75 kg (165 pounds) of blueberries from the Saguenay Lac St-Jean region of Quebec. I say 75 kilos of blueberries is a lot. Hell, I'd go as far to say a shit-ton. Probably stained their teeth just brewing this. Fantastic! (Previous winners: Turtle Island's SMASHed Cherry Ale, Lake of the Woods' Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale, Wellington's Rhubarb Saison)

Best Belgian Style Ale: Every once in a while, usually the late Autumn as things cool down, I get a hankering for a big-ass Belgie! Why? They warm you when there's a chill in the air.

When Sawdust City's Sam Corbeil gets together with Nickel
Brook's Ryan Morrow every November 5th for both their
birthdays, big things happen. Like a 11.05% big beer every
year! This year's Belgian Quad With Oak and Cherries was
the freakin' bomb, man! Honestly, you didn't taste the ABV.

Well, this year's best came a little later - November 5th to be exact. You see, that's the shared birthday of Sawdust City brewmaster Sam Corbeil and Nickel Brook-Collective Arts' brewmaster Ryan Morrow. Every year, they put out a BIG beer that has 11.05% ABV and varies in style each time. (My greatest regret is never having tried their Triple IPA, brewed back in 2015.) And when the Barrie Craft Brewery Invasion 2018 made a stop at Sawdust City, well, you can be damned sure I filled my little wagon with this year's 11-05 Belgian Quad With Oak and Cherries. Big malts, big cherries, a touch of sweetness and a whiff of oak from the barreling, all hiding the big booze in the glass. Oh man, this was gorgeous! Dangerously so! (Previous winner: Great Lakes' 30th Anniversary Barrel Aged Belgian Quad With Cherries)

Best Ontario-American Collaboration: Here's where we briefly step outside Ontario's border with a glance towards our neighbours and friends to the south. During the past Summer, there was meant to be this big Canadian-American Beer Festival where New York and Ontario breweries would get together and brew some collaboration beers.

Maybe Thin Man Brewing out of Buffalo couldn't get across the
border but dammit, their collaboration with Redline Brewhouse
did!! This hazy bastard was off the hook with tasty goodness!!

There were literally dozens of breweries involved. It was gonna be awesome... Wellll, that kinda fell through. I forget why. Doesn't really matter. But dammit, Redline Brewhouse in Barrie and Thin Man Brewing out of Buffalo were bound and determined to do the challenge regardless and stuck to their plan. Well, that is, until the gang from Thin Man got denied at the border on their road trip to Barrie. Since both breweries got together to create the recipe for their Squeeze Across The Border (oh, the irony) Hazy IPA, Redline simply went ahead and brewed it. Barrie Beer Bro Hago, who told me the back-story on this one, showed up in Oakville with some goodies on Summer day and this beer was among them. Geezuz, they threw everything into this one. American Cascade, Chinook and Equinox hops in the boil, Australia Enigma hops in the dry-hopping, three yeasts from England, Belgium and Germany. Malts that are probably also relevant but we don't care right now!!! Seriously, everything. In the end, they (meaning Redline, I guess) created a big, hazy beast!

On the left is Cameron's Brewmaster Jason Britton.
On the right is a Jack-Hole who makes Jason's life a
living hell by constantly pestering him about brewing
more hoppy beers. Surprisingly, the J-Hole kinda got
a win as Cameron's is now in the middle of a special
growler-only run that is fantastic. Thank you, Jason.

It was banana, it was peach, it was melon, it was... fantastic! At 6.4% and 55 IBUs, it was pretty much bang-on for a fantastic New England Style IPA. An excellent recipe from both breweries. (Previous winner: Collective Arts-Thin Man-Sloop Brewing's Smooth Maneuvers New England Style IPA)

Best Brewery Only One-Off: This one comes with a quick story. Cameron's Brewing is, of course, just down the hill from me. Three minutes away. On occasion, I do bump into brewmaster Jason Britton there. When he sees me, he does the "Homer Simpson backing into a bush" GIF... but he uses doors, scrambling backwards desperately trying to find the door-knob. Why? I pester him about hoppy beers and making an IPA. Nag, even. Cajole, oh yes. The poor guy. I'd feel bad except, you know... the actual feelings and stuff involved in that so *ugh* effort. Okay, fast-forward to the Ontario Brewing Awards 2018 in September. At one point, my buddy Drunk Polkaroo and I find ourselves standing face-to-face with Jason at the facility's north-end bar. Cameron's had won a bunch of awards - six in total. So, of course, I ask, what's next? This time, he was ready for me, telling us that they were about to release a healthy handful of one-offs that we would be very happy with. He wasn't lying.

Adam at Sawdust City (also @SawdustCityAdam)
holds up the two Mystery Bottles that brewmaster
Sam Corbeil had asked him to gift to our group.

He started with a couple of hopped-up pale ales, the second of which was Hazy With A Chance Of Hops, a triple dry-hopped American Pale Ale. It was a sessionable 4.7% brew that oozed peaches, plum and definitely a heapin' helpin' of oat malts. Oh man, I think he's done six or seven specialty brews at this point but dang, that was my favourite  by far. Sometimes, being a colossal pain-in-the-ass actually works out for a beer lover. (More likely? I'm too clueless to notice when things don't work out.)

The Sawdust City Mystery Bottle Riddle: Okay, when we ventured out on the Barrie Craft Brewery Invasion 2018, we were treated like gold. Gold, Jerry, gold! It's like they thought we were a different (way more important) group or something. But the reality is Ontario Craft Breweries have long bend over backwards for their clientele. We help pay the bills, the staff and upkeep on the stainless steel canning line so yeah, they like us. They really like us! So when we landed at Sawdust City Brewing on December 8th, our tour guide dude, Adam, gave us the big tour, answered every question no matter how dumb Glenn's were (Oh, bazinga! I tease because I love) but at the end, there was a Mystery Surprise! (*Cue eerie music*)

♫ You ugly! You ugly! Your Mamma say you ugly! ♫
This beer has floaties only a sewage waste disposal
employee could love. But hot damn, if it wasn't one of
the tastiest beers I had all year! Nice job, Left Field!!

He presented us with two corked-and-caged 750-ml (25 ounce) bottles with no labels. What are they, we asked. Well, that's the thing because we don't know, said Adam. Turns out like a half year earlier, they'd found a crate of them in the basement with no identification whatsoever. Brewmaster Sam Corbeil had instructed him to pass two along to us. What they actually are is shrouded in mystery around the brewery (though I suspect the brewers could pinpoint them to a large degree - if not exactly, close enough). So we happily took them and by "we," I mean Hago and myself as we will both readily acknowledge, "It's all about us." We're all about entitlement so if you give us bright red MAGA hats, I can assure you, we will burn them as quickly and effectively as possible. We're very efficient that way. Also, the fire speaks to me from the depths of Hell is pretty. A month back, Hago enjoyed his first. His assessment: "Grapefruit, citrus on the nose, light fizzy head like champagne. Earthy, maybe wine barrel aged. Sour, my guess. Sour saison." I saved mine for New Year's Eve. My notes: "A shit-ton of sediment. Sour but not hugely so. Definitely barrel-aged but straight (oak). No bourbon or wine. Probably 6.5% ABV. Lots of apricot. I'm thinking Apricot Berliner Weisse?" (Halfway through the bottle, I dropped that ABV to about 4%.) So we both agree on a barrel-aged sour but with differing flavour profiles. And he was bang-on about the carbonation. Exactly like champagne. So who's closer? We don't know. Matt says nobody knows. Well, damn. But hey, that was a fun way to end 2018! The Mystery Bottle from Sawdust City!

The Fugliest Beer of 2018: Ontario Craft Brewers, this wasn't even a contest. It's like Left Field Brewing (Toronto) looked at The Alchemist's (Vermont) Heady Topper DIPA and said, "Really? That's the ugliest you can go?"

Did we keep Collective Arts Brewing's No 5 IPA alive?
Well, a quick answer would be "yes." But a far more
accurate and honest answer would be "uh, no." But hey,
here's more awesome art from Hamilton's David Buist!

Part of their "Prospect Series" where the brewery takes a single hop and gooses the crap out of it in an IPA (they've done about 10 so far), their Prospect Double Dry-Hopped Simcoe Single Hop IPA was a big ol' bucket of pulpy ugly. It was so chunky, Campbell Soups was ready to file for copyright infringement. Okay, the beer itself. Yeah, tons of melon and grapefruit but there was something else there I haven't run into with a lot of New England IPAs. Pine. Seriously, I always thought the east coast yeast knocked the west coast pine out but it was here on the back-end. At 6.1% and roughly 55 IBUs, I kept buying this from the Oak Park LCBO... until it was gone. Every last fugly one of them. Left Field, your gang blew me away with this one. Nicely done.

Is IPA No 5 Alive?: The question before the Ontario Craft Beer Courtroom is simply this: Did we #keep5alive? To bring you up to speed, Collective Arts Brewing (Hamilton) released their IPA No 5 sometime in the Spring. It was 2018's "Broadway Smash Hit" beer.

Rage Against The Beer Machine? While Drunk
Polkaroo may appear like he's about to drop the
hottest tracks of 2019, he actually screaming at
Surround Sound Imperial IPA to stop tasting so
damn good. But beer speaks. It does not listen.

While all of Collective Arts numbered IPA series have all been great (except one that we shall never ever mention again), the No 5 was so spectacular that as Ed Grimley would utter, "We all went completely mental, I must say." It was a New England Double IPA with Simcoe and Citra, 8.2%, probably 70 IBUs glass of glorious hops that had us all raving. How good was it? Well, before they even came out with the next one, about 30 or more of us started a #keep5alive campaign on Twitter. Did it trend? Go viral? Well, no, it's not a Kardashian. It's actually something of societal value, dammit. And man, we kept at it for a while. Finally, the brewery relented and our favourite multi-media person, Toni Shelton, let us know that #5WasAlive! It was Steve from the South Ontario Beer Boys that let me know it was available on tap and now called Surround Sound Imperial IPA when we were all at the hugely-successful, fund-raising Brewers' Ball Baseball Tournament in September. So I grabbed a growler on my way home. It was excellent... but not the IPA No 5 I remembered. Turns out what the brewers did was keep the recipe but change the hop profile with each release. I think they've released four or five different ones now. Every single one has been fantastic. But did we save Collective Arts IPA No 5? The honest answer? No, not exactly. The brewery sorta kinda resurrected IPA No 5 but it's not quite the original. Like Zombie IPA No 5?? If you listen, you can hear, "Grains... grains..."

This devilishly-handsome dude is Matt Allott, the
owner of Manantler Craft Brewing way out there
in Bowmanville, which looks unusually tropical
in this picture. For service above and beyond,
Matt is our Craft Brewery Executive of the Year.

But it was again Steve from SO Beer Boys who sought out the silver lining here. While he wouldn't say it was for the better, he would "say for a more interesting and continual experience as we now have four reincarnations of Surround Sound this year. Bring it on, Collective Arts!" Grains... grains...

Best Craft Brewery Executive: The first time I met Matt Allott, the now-owner of Manantler Craft Brewing in Bowmanville was December 9, 2017. It was the day of the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion and while he couldn't get away for the full day, he skipped off for a short stint and met us at Little Beasts Brewing. And while I hadn't met Matt prior to that, I knew all about the brewery itself from Beer Bro Glenn, one of their biggest fans since their opening day. In fact, on their Legends Stout Series, Glenn's picture was one of four labels, all featuring early supporters of the brewery. Originally, Matt's brother Chris was the owner, along with the then-brewmaster and two silent partners before he bought them out. Then, Chris brought Matt in as an owner but as Glenn says, "Chris started making bajillions on Bitcoin" (one Bitcoin equals $4,700 at the moment) and the business was handed over entirely to Matt. But that day in Whitby, Matt arrived with a trunkful of Manantler swag and it quickly became a "take my money" frenzy around him. My sick blue Manantler T-shirt has seen the neon lights of the Las Vegas strip and will once again in a few weeks. (But where?)

When Matt Allott posed with both Lady and Drunk
Polkaroo during the Golden Taps-Ontario Brewing
Awards, none of us were aware of one thing. That
Matt was the only one with enough foresight to tape
Polk's big moment at the mic after his huge win...

Still, here's the thing. Every time Matt knows Glenn is planning a trip to Oakville, specialty beers get set aside before they're sold out. And Glenn has brought some beauties to me - several of them winners in the Best of 2018. While that is all more than enough for me to honour the dude, there's one more thing. And to me, it's pretty big. You see, at the Golden Taps-Ontario Brewing Awards in September, the set-up was simple. Winners were announced, they came up on stage, took a bow or curtsy (some of those burly bearded brewers did a mean curtsy) and then exit stage-left. Except when Drunk Polkaroo won the Best Beer Writer of 2018, he didn't just bow. He took the opportunity to grab the mic and thank a lot of people. It was a spontaneous gesture, much like Polk's actions tend to be. A few days later on Twitter, Polk noted he wished he'd had that speech taped. It was all off-the-cuff so of course, days later, even he couldn't remember what he'd said. Within a few minutes, Matt responded with two simple words: "I gotchu." On his phone, Matt had taped the whole Polk moment. He was the only person in the entire room who thought to do so. And right then, he posted it for Polk to relive. A moment caught in time. Ontario Craft Brewers are always thanking us for our support. But it's moments like that where we realize, "Wow, they really take care of us, too." That's pretty cool. Whatta community. And, Matt, you make us all proud. (Previous winners: Mark Woitzik of Brock St Brewing, Garnet Pratt Sidell, formerly of Side Launch.)

. 

Pretty much the only pair in Hamilton who can give Drunk
Polkaroo and Lady Polkaroo a run for the money in the
Cutest Couple Award would be Grain & Grit Small Batch
Beer owners Joe and Lindsey Mrav. I was impressed with
this place the second I walked through the door and thus
returned so many times over 2018, that it feels like home.

Best Brewery (aka The Spirit of Craft Beer Award): Way back in February, Beer Bro Glenn and I did a Hamilton tour that included two new breweries in the west end - Fairweather Brewing and Grain & Grit Small Batch Beer. We loved both but it was hard to ignore Grain & Grit as it was 1) Set up in an old auto repair garage with limited space and 2) We were served by the owner himself, Joe Mrav. Okay, co-owner because let's not forget his wife, Lindsey. But it was a quiet February night, cold as sin, so we had Joe's ear the entire time we were there. For starters, how were they cranking out such low-ABV with such high-IBUs, not mention mind-blowing aromas and flavours? Their session IPA, Light Ray, was 4.5% but 80 IBUs? Their flagship IPA, In The Palms, is just 5% but 90 IBUs? Be this dark wizardry? No, chuckled Joe, their brewmaster, Alex Sporn, a German native, was just that good. While I was out having a smoke, I scouted. It's a small set-up so naturally, I went around the back to see if there was room for expansion. Looked pretty open back there. So I broached Joe about knocking out the back wall and creating more space. Nope, he replied, someone else's property. They're landlocked. You know what that means? They will always be a small batch brewery! There is something about that I very much dig. A purity to it that can never be tainted by big moves. Regardless of style, Alex manages to put a fresh new spin on it and they simply created some of the best beers I had in 2018. I will hop in the car just to go there on a Sunday. (With Fairweather across the street, it's a two-fer.) Joe and Lindsey, I love your cozy cool little joint!

When Nickel Brook released their four-beer Mystery
Pack towards the end of 2017, Beer C - what ended up
becoming Wicked Awesome IPA - was clearly my choice.
To that end, I pushed hard on social media for people to
select it as their choice. I cajoled. I persuaded. And if the
need was there, I threatened. Well, if "I will steal your
beer" can even be considered a threat. To many, it is.

Small place, big heart, fantastic beers! (Previous winners: Longslice Brewing, Brock St Brewing, the Barrie Craft Beer Mafia - Redline, Barnstormer and Flying Monkeys)

Best Beer of the Year (aka The Wingman Award): If you follow me on Twitter, this one should come as no surprise. While Muskoka's Summerweiss Tropical Wheat and Left Field's Laser Show Vermont Style Imperial IPA were both strongly in the running, I've given them their awards because in the end, there can only be one Highlander. This year, that was Nickel Brook's (Burlington) Wicked Awesome IPA. The other two reached for the stars. But Wicked Awesome actually grabbed it. But let me take you back to late-2017 when Nickel Brook released a Mystery Pack - four beers simply labeled Beer A, Beer B, Beer C and Beer D. They were, in order, a low-ABV stout, a session Hazy IPA, a full-ABV (6.5%) Hazy IPA and a Dry-Hopped Sour (because if there's one thing Nickel Brook needs to work on, it's their Sour Game?? Riiight.) Clearly, to me, Beer C was the obvious choice. But others started to make their own arguments for some of the other beers in the four-pack. I was shocked. I was appalled. I was aghast. Clearly, independent thought was running rampant in Ontario Craft Beer Circles. How could this happen? Is this not how anarchy begins?

Believe me, we thank our local brewers on a
daily basis. Whether craft beer drinkers
realize it or not, we are very spoiled here in
Ontario. I would put our beers up against
any beers being brewed anywhere. Truth.

So, of course, I pitched the laurels of Beer C whenever and wherever I could. Online, to friends, in bus shelters, at my many church functions (*cough*), basically, to whomever might listen. In the end, the tropical fruit bouquet of the deliciously-tasty Beer C was enough to garner 34% of the four-way vote - a clear majority, not spoiled by archaic and antiquated systems such as Electoral Colleges (dafuq is that crap?). Within a month or so, Beer C was redubbed as Wicked Awesome IPA. All was right with the world. I could sleep soundly once more. And last year, to me, it was the best in the Province. Well done, my Burlington brothers and sisters. (Previous winners: Great Lakes' Canuck Pale Ale, Collective Arts' Ransack The Universe IPA, Muskoka Mad Tom IPA)

And with that last winner, we finally have a wrap of The Best of 2018. Yes, it took me nearly a month into 2019 but there was an unusually large spat of crimes that needed to be solved from the Batcave. With the use of my Bat Technology - a phone, a laptop, a tablet, a TV and, of course, the Bat Fridge - all crime in Oakville has been solved, except for people who park poorly. I'll leave that to the locals. But I wanna to single out two people who handed me some real winners this year - Nepean Beer Store Beer Brother Ben (who pretty much owned the hoppy section) but mostly, Beer Bro Glenn who brought me beauts throughout the year. These two made this list. Back soon with a look at the #IGBrewCrew's Invasion of Wellington Brewing on January 11 and the beer we created! But Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. Until next time, I remain...