Landing at Huntsville Brewhouse

In TV and movies, this is what's known as an establishing shot. If it's a
crime show, they show you the outside of a police precinct. A comedy?
You are shown the bar or pizza place or office where it's taking place.
In this case, this is where 13 craft beer lovers landed to brew an IPA this
past Saturday. Will it be any good? Oh baby, we are counting on that!!

The funniest thing to me about our Lake of Bays Brew Day at Huntsville Brewhouse on April 13th is that people kept thanking me for organizing it.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret, folks. (*Looks left, looks right, whispers*) "Brew Days organize themselves..." I was just the guy taking down names. However, I will happily take credit for the amazing crew we pulled together for this beer-fueled event even though, well, Twitter did all the heavy lifting there, too.

But let's start at the beginning. Tim Glazin has been my Lake of Bays sales rep for, well, I don't even remember. However, we know we do go back to the days when the brewery had a deal with the NHL Alumni Association and they put out those sweet-ass single hockey player bottles. That deal eventually died but some of those singles were pretty sweet.

Hey, it's Lake of Bays' owner Darren Smith,
both in human form and then cartoon form,
courtesy of Hamilton artist David Buist. Darren
was a great part of our day, sitting right with us
for a goodly portion and, well, just having fun!

So whenever Tim would pop into my Beer Store, we'd talk craft beer, hockey and Tim's biggest love, classic cars.

So way back in January, Tim texted me to see if he and Lake of Bays Director of Sales Rob could stop by for a chat at my Beer Store. (What? You don't have craft beer reps in your phone? Geez, catch up!)

The one snag? On that exact day, I was in Guelph at Wellington Brewing with the IGBrewCrew help to make what would become our 5 Out Of 5 Foreign Export Stout. (It was fantastic - thanks for asking.) So we made our meeting a week later.

Sure as shootin' possums in a hedgerow (I have no idea what that means - I just made it up), the guys showed up a week later and we talked beer. One of their questions was about their new release Starboard New England IPA, a beer I had given a mediocre review. It tasted pretty good but was not really to style. Not being a brewer, my advice was just three words. "Juicier. Fruiter. Hazier."

That's when I found out about Huntsville Brewhouse. You see, Huntsville Brewhouse is the Lake of Bays property where, under the watchful eye of brewer Andrew Walsh, they test out new products which may or may not make the final cut, have their recipes travel 24 kilometres (15 miles) south to the brewery to become actual Lake of Bays beers. It's like their Test Market but with really funky experimental beers and fantastic food. Also, from an outsider's perspective, a brilliant idea if you can afford it. Like, this is MY idea of a dynamite Science Lab!

(Quick side-note before I continue. They did revamp the Starboard. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you this part but they drank it side-by-side with Collective Arts' Life in the Clouds Hazy IPA and basically asked themselves, "Okay, what are they doing right that we are not?") End result? A fantastic NEIPA.

Hey, it's looks like Huntsville Brewhouse's brewer Andrew Walsh got
BUISTED!! As in David Buist drew him as well. Full props to Andrew
as he patiently walked us through the process of brewing our own IPA.

Long story short, the chat at the Beer Store came with a damn enticing offer from Rob. How would a group of us like to head up to Huntsville, brew our own beer and test-taste a bunch of their experimental beers?

Uhhhhh, okay? Sold! So I threw the offer out there on Twitter and said inbox me if you're down. Oh yes, people were down - many people. So I gathered names, pulled together the group and, well, that was my oft-applauded organizing end of it. Frankly, it was as easy as drinking the new, improved Starboard. In the end, 13 of us ventured to Huntsville for the day of eating, drinking and merriment!

This would be the Rowdy Table. Clockwise from lower
left, we have Graeme, Curtis, Danny, David, myself,
Joel, Matty, Glenn and Hago. This would also be the
table most often chastised by Director of Sales Rob for
speaking out of place. And by table, I mean me. At one
point Rob asked me, "You were that kid at the back of
the class always wisecracking, weren't you?" Guilty...

In the end, with two exceptions to me, it was a group of us who regularly chat and swap beer stories on Twitter but have never actually met. The two exceptions were Beer Bro Glenn, who I've know since college and Soldier Boy Hago, who I've known for a few years and also my son David's #1 favourite other Dad. But also coming along for the let's-make-a-beer ride was Hamilton Craft Beer Couple Paul and Kristal (@craft_couple), their friends Paul and Colleen, who own a cottage near the Brewhouse, Graeme (@needmycaffeine), "That Canadian Beer Guy" Curtis (@BeerFromCanada), Sudbury Danny (@SudburyHomebrew), Hamilton cartoonist extraordinaire David (@david_buist), Ottawa Joel (@ottawahockey) and Ottawa Matty (@heatherington84). Paul is also a founding member of the Southern Ontario Beer Boys (@SOBeerBoys), which does a fantastic job of fundraising - mostly through empties collection - for the Hamilton McMaster Children's Hospital. So, you know, it wasn't all rowdy hooligans. They were good people there, too. It's nice to have that balance. Also, an equal amount of Montreal Canadiens fans to Toronto Maple Leafs fans in the group so like I said, you take the good with the bad. And Paul and Kristal? Boston Bruins fans! So for the name of inter-group harmony, we all kept our jerseys out of the mix for this Sacred Brewing Of The IPA Day. Except for the occasional taunt. Because... hockey reasons.

And this was the Well-Behaved Refined Table with Hamilton Craft Beer
Couple Paul and Kristal bookending their two friends Paul and Colleen,
who own a cottage very close to the Huntsville Brewhouse. That fellow
at the far left? Our dude Rob Walcot, Lake of Bays' Director of Sales.

Okay, now maybe two weeks before the Main Event, I got a phone called from Huntsville Brewhouse Head Brewer Andrew Walsh, asking about the style because, of course, he has to make sure they had the necessary hops and malt on-hand. Because I was the only one in our collective who had done a Brew Day and I had already done a stout, we quickly settled on an IPA. I'm not even lying a little bit to say that our group was thrilled with the style selection.

So that's the stage set for April 13 Brew Day. How did Brew Day and our IPA go? What experimental beers did we taste? And were the Police, EMS and Fire Department called in to restore order? Well, come back Sunday to find out all those answers, more anecdotes and much more because Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I'm outta here! Trying to keep these things shorter than War and Peace. Until then, I remain...