Spearhead's special touch & Steamwhistle's surprise

A couple of comments - not at all negative - about this
Spearhead Brewing Hawaiian Style Pale Ale caught the
eye of the President and CEO Josh Hayter. So he actually
responded... in a way that neither of us had anticipated.

Allow me to set the stage here, if I may. On May 6, I took flight from Toronto's Pearson Airport to Las Vegas. When I left Ontario, it was maybe 5C, wet and, well, miserable. As it had been for quite some time.

So I spend more than a week down there. It was 30C, sunny, glorious and Vegas being Vegas, very neon, very loud and very fun. Seeing the sun again - or rather, finally seeing the sun - totally recharged me. I felt somewhat human again. Or at least, as close as I ever come to that. The jury's still out. And I figured, hey, I'm not back home until May 14th. By then, it had to be nice, right? Mid-May?

So on May 14, I land in Toronto about 10 am. On the walk through Pearson, I can see through the plate-glass windows that it's overcast, dull gray and had probably rained the night before. The asphalt looked damp. But I'm inside so I figure, well, at least it's probably warm out there.

Step outside to get a cab. It's 5C, still wet, still miserable. The same shit I left. But now in Mid-May. I'm not... what's that word people use?... oh, right, happy.

So this would be Spearhead Brewing President and
CEO Josh Hayter. As you can see, he's not a suit and
tie kinda guy. In fact, there has been rumours that he
sleeps with a baseball cap on and maybe doesn't even
take it off in the shower. Just a regular guy, who also
happens to own a craft brewery. So there's that, too.

But I'm not telling anyone in Ontario anything they don't already know for themselves. We're all living through this garbage weather and in the case of our friends in select areas of the Muskoka Region, add some serious flooding on top of that. So maybe inclement weather consisting of gray days and rain isn't the biggest of my worries. I mean, at least I'm not kayaking through my living room.

But hey, certain politicians assure us there's no such thing as Climate Change, right? I think I've even seen a Republican or two tell us that God will take care of the Earth. (God's ears perk up at the mention of his name. "What? You stupid idiots! I gave you scientists!!")

Anyway, just a few hours after my return, something happened that brought a big ol' chunk of sunshine to my day. The post dude knocked on the door with a package for me. It was from Spearhead Brewing in Kingston and contained two of their new Mojito Radler and two of their Chardonnay Summer Ale. Four cans of Summer landed in my lap, courtesy of Amanda, who takes care of the brewery's social media (among other responsibilities.) Naturally, I was so jazzed that I lined them all up and posted them on Twitter for my homeys and homettes in the Brew Crew to see.

Josh told us a pretty funny story about how he had a
wild night drinking their Big Kahuna Imperial IPA.
His wife had to help him to the hotel room and she
was none too impressed. Hey, it happens to all of us!
In my case, FAR too many times. Many will confirm.

Later that evening, Steve from Southern Ontario Beer Boys saw the pic and posted his own of the brewery's flagship Hawaiian Style Pale Ale, noting, "Partaking in this tonight. Needs a little more pineapple for my liking. Just saying."

I replied that I had "first had it in 2013 and thought it was loaded with pineapple! I think Cool was contract brewing it then. (They were.) But since then, so many have come out, using actual pineapple or puree that yeah, this has lost a wee step. Nothing they can't tweak, though."

And that was that. Just a couple of comments about the beer Steve was drinking at that exact moment on Twitter. Happens 18 million times a day, I'm sure. At least 300,000 with my group each night alone.

Well, that night eventually turned into the next day and sometime that morning, Steve and I (and everyone else) got a bit of a surprise. I guess Amanda saw our exchange and showed it to brewery owner Josh Hayter. He decided to response. By video! I kid you not. I mean, here's this totally regular guy in jeans, T-shirt, ball cap, sitting on a chair, holding a beer and basically talking directly to us.

My first ever mailing from Spearhead was their brand
new Big Kahuna Imperial IPA way back in early April.
Amanda had initially messaged me, introducing herself
and eventually asked me for my mailing address. Now
despite being in the Witness Protection Plan, I gave it
to her anyway because, well, she seemed very genuine.
And then, *boom*, these bad boys landed at my Casa. 

Looking at the camera, he responded: "Hey SO Beer Boys, this is Josh Hayter. I'm president of Spearhead Brewing and I saw you guys chatting about my Hawaiian Style Pale Ale on Twitter and I thought I'd chime in here. So, Hawaiian Style, you're absolutely right. It's not very pineapple-y, it's not a fruit beer. It was never actually intended to be. The Hawaiian Style is a hop-forward, west coast style pale ale. What we do with the pineapple - and we use real juice - is we actually use it just to cut the bitterness off the top of the hops. So you're still getting all that hops flavour through without getting all the bitterness to it. We do understand that there's a lot of really great fruit beers out there and to stay in line with that and be on the cutting edge, we have our new Mojito Radler we just put out if you want to give that a try. It's got a lot of lime and mint flavour to it. And we also have our Chardonnay Summer (Ale) that we brew with actual Chardonnay juice in the process. So thank you guys, if you have any other questions and any comments, feel free to shoot them to us directly. Cheers!"

This is Steve and my face after we saw Josh's video
response to our late night comments about their
Hawaiian Style Pale Ale. A video? Holy frijoles!

Then he took a big sip of his Hawaiian Style Pale Ale and the video ended. You ever see that cartoon wolf whose jaw drops to the table because he sees a pretty showgirl? No? Okay, well, I'm a comic geek as well as a beer geek so I'll let Plastic Man (to the right) illustrate what I'm talking about here. We were stunned but, like, not in our usual way. Stunned thrilled.

Since I tag 10 people every time I post a picture, the responses to the video started to come in one at a time. Brew Crew Buddy Graeme saw it early in the morning, even before I had and commented, "That's a company I will support hands down right there." In a message to me, Ottawa Matty concurred. "Josh's response was above and beyond to me and really got my respect. I have since bought (a handful) of Hawaiian Style Pale Ale and will continue to support them." And so it went, all morning and well into the afternoon. In fact, Josh bantered with us a little on Twitter that day. It was a blast.

These two beers - the Chardonnay Summer Ale and
the Mojito Radler - were fascinating twists on any
traditional beer style. The Chardonnay used actual
grape must in the brewing while the Mojito was a
crazy take on the new-school radler styles out now.

In actual fact, the Hawaiian Style Pale Ale and I go back a few years. I started this blog in June 2013 and when the year was ending and I did my first Best Of list, Hawaiian Style was my first ever Best Pale Ale.

As for Josh himself, in 2016, he took over the brewery from founder Dimitri van Kampen, who created it as a contract brewery in 2011, working out of Cool Brewing in Etobicoke. Josh's singular goal? To build an actual bricks and mortar facility in Ontario. It didn't take him long. By Spring 2018, they had finished construction on their brand spanking new 16,000-square-foot brewery in Kingston. And with the brewery in place, Josh knew it was time to also expand beyond the brewery's Core Four beers - Hawaiian Style, Moroccan Brown Ale, seasonal Belgian Style Stout and Sam Roberts Band Session Ale.

So he tasked 40-year veteran and internationally-respected Brewmaster Tomas Schmitt and his son, Head Brewer Jacob Schmitt to get creative with what was coming out of Spearhead's fermenting vats. I would suggest they are succeeding nicely in that regard and that before long, Spearhead will find its own place in Ontario's craft brewery hierarchy.

When Josh took over the brewery, Spearhead had established a nice
base with this Core Four - the seasonal Belgian Style Stout, their
flagship Hawaiian Style Pale A;e, the Moroccan Brown Ale and the
Sam Roberts Band (Yes, THAT Sam Roberts) Session Ale. All solid.

Three new beers out this Spring and each is pretty impressive. Let's start with the Big Kahuna Imperial IPA, the first ever IPA from Spearhead. Boy howdy, at 10% and 100 IBUs, this one will take your head off. Pine followed by pine with some more pine on the back end! It's like Tomas and Jacob snapped a huge branch off a pine tree and just started slapping you upside the head with it. And be warned, even though you do get an inkling of it with some boozy warmth on the throat as it's going down, this one will knock you onto your arse. It's a hop bomb!

Their new Mojito Radler... well, I fully admit I approached it with some trepidation. I'm not a radler kind of guy. In fact, the only radler I've ever enjoyed was the Schofferhofer Radler out of Germany, which used a wheat ale mixed 50/50 with grapefruit, rather than the traditional lager-grapefruit mix. But brewers are getting pretty creative with their radlers in Ontario, going far beyond the traditional boundaries.

When this 16,000 square foot brewery opened in Spring 2018, Spearhead
finally shook off the shackles of being a contract brewer and got a real
opportunity to start brewing new, fun stuff. They're just getting started!

The only thing I know about mojitos is they are a rum, lime and mint cocktail that my now-grown nieces down like Gatorade. The mint spooked me, not gonna lie, as it was pretty prominent on the nose. But it as far more subtle on the tongue as this 2.4% offering jacks up the lime. Gotta admit, this was a refreshing little beverage that could be fun in the Summer. You know, if Ontario even has a Summer this year. I'll be honest - between this and Lake of Bays' new Red Sky At Night Peach Cranberry Radler, these Ontario brewers might just turn me into a radler fan some day. For that, I both thank you... and curse you. But I do appreciate the boundaries being pushed on a style of which I've always been dismissive.

Steam Whistle has been busy lately, first creating the separate
Von Bugle Brewing in an Etobicoke facility and then announcing
that they will be contract brewing New Belgium's Fat Tire
Amber Ale for distribution in Canada. Now do they have one
more trick up their sleeve? Turns out that, yup, they sure do!!

Which brings us to their Chardonnay Summer Ale. While I, of course, thought, "Well, they'll simply throw some grape peel into the mix and *bam* chardonnay style beer." But no, Tomas and Jacob got a little more creative than that. They collected up Chardonnay must (think peel, grape pulp, everything that doesn't end up in the wine), mixed it all with Aramis and Strisselpalt hops (the latter of which I've never even heard of) to create what could best be described as a white wine-beer hybrid. The 4.3% (definitely Summer style) ale is like nothing I've had in the past. It's light, fruity but you still know you're drinking a beer, albeit one with a heavy wine influence. I couldn't drink a lot of these but I will grab one from time to time. It's quite unique, at least to me. But I'll bet white wine drinkers will enjoy the hell out of this one.

Anyway, Spearhead has become a brewery to watch. And if we kinda forget that for a minute, I'm sure Josh Hayter will pop up on a video and say, "Hey! Where the hell did you bozos go?"

This has nothing to do with Ontario craft beer
but I saw it on Twitter and howled. American
macro brewer Rolling Rock has launched a new
feature called #PerfectlyAverageReviews where
they find dismissive, even insulting, reviews of
their beer and post them online. Gotta be honest.
I love when macros show a real sense of humour!

I recently mentioned on Twitter that I heard Steam Whistle had a big announcement coming up. Where did I hear it? From the same person that told me they were creating a new brewery in Etobicoke and then told me the name - Von Bugle. Next up, he/she told me that the beer style Von Bugle would be brewing was a Munich Lager. Then he/she sent me a picture of the new label. And finally, he/she told me that Steam Whistle would be exclusively contract brewing New Belgium Brewing's (Fort Collins, Colorado) Fat Tire Amber Ale up here for distribution across Canada. I don't know who this person is - their Twitter handle is some vague beer-related name - and the messages are always private, never in public, but he or she has been bang on every single time. And according to this insider, what's coming next was a surprise. Steam Whistle will be brewing a pale ale! Now whether it's under the Steam Whistle or Von Bugle banner, I do not know but I would guess the latter. It may even be a version of New Belgium's Dayblazer Easygoing Ale, for all I know. But my insider has never steered me wrong yet so we'll just have to wait and see. But, wow, big news!

Okay, Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here for today. But coming up next is a visit to my Beer Store by Beau's All Natural Brewing sales rep Adam Wilson and the little gift box he brought me. (Yes, I know I'm getting spoiled. Hell, Stevie Wonder could see that.) Until next time, I remain, as always...