Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion: The Newbies!

THUG'S LIFE: That's the bunch of us in Little Beasts Brewing, hanging
by the kettles and vats. From left, it's Josh, myself, Hago, Joe, Candice,
Glenn and Paul. Just a group of quiet and shy Beer Geeks out for a day
of fun and sober reflection. Just kidding - all of us got seriously trashed.

Okay, gang at Cheers, it's time to wrap up the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017 with a look at the final two craft breweries - Little Beast Brewing and Town Brewing. As you may or may not recall, thus far, we had taken a shiny white stretch limo to the site of the upcoming NEW Brock Street Brewing, followed by the actual Brock Street Brewing on Hopkins Street and then 5 Paddles Brewing just up the same street.

Now between the second and third stops - 5 Paddles and Little Beasts - well, let's just say the wheels started falling off our little wagon. For reasons I can't even imagine, three of our group were sharing what appeared to be a cigarette in the parking lot. Not sure why they were sharing as smokes are cheap and readily available here. It's a mystery.

Candice snapped off a selfie of herself and Glenn in
the limo. As you can see, this was one of the very rare
instances where our nice driver Gus had the partition
down. Most of the trip he had it up due to volume. Our
volume. We went full Spinal Tap and dialed it up to 11.

But when we seven - myself, Joe, Hago, Candice, Paul, Josh and Glenn - all climbed back into in the limo, Joe had purchased two bottles of 5 Paddles' Maple Paddler to share for the ride to Little Beasts. At 10%, two bottles of Maple Paddler, even split seven ways, still did a bit of drain bramage, especially to those sharing that funny concert-smelling cigarette. And we had already piled back a fair few pints. So let's just say, that group you see above, all happily in front of the vats and kettles at Little Beasts, well, we were nicely numbed from the elements at that point. But that was the entire purpose of the day - to roam the Whitby countryside, stopping for some great craft beers along the way. And no one needed a wild day out more than our young, talented carpenter Josh. His work truck had broken down just a few days prior and his initial $700 mechanic bill quickly spiraled upwards to close to $1,200. Mere weeks before Christmas. He needed to end his week on a high note!

But as we go along here, I will provide little secrets of our day. Okay, Little Secret #1 - since Candice was aboard with six guys, some of which she did not know, there were assurances from all the guys that no one would "go full Weinstein."

Our man, Josh, has a helluva way with his phone's
camera as he snapped off yet another beauty at Little
Beasts Brewing. I'm not sure which Beasts beer he was
having here but they have a very cool logo and labels.

As it turned out, one of our group had first volunteered and later became paid to work with the Toronto International Film Festival and had actually met the morally-repugnant Hollywood producer. I was curious. "Look, it's unfair to base anything on a person's looks but man, he just looks sleazy. Was he?" I asked. (Granted, I asked this, knowing fully what he has been accused of so looks or not, that's what his image will always be.) Our man absolutely confirmed that there was an air about the man that was quite unsettling. Let's just say his Spider-Senses were tingling when they had a brief encounter. It's pretty telling, indeed, when a guy creeps out another guy.

But back to the fun stuff - the business of drinking! Our third stop, Little Beasts Brewing, was highly anticipated by me as I has heard Glenn sing their praises after his first visit. Created by Brewmaster Erin Broadfoot and brewer-partner John Henley, it opened just a few months ago but when we arrived, it was hopping. The word has spread quickly. I was hoping either would be available for a quick chat as it's fun talking to the pros but Erin and John were a little tied up at that exact moment. It seems they are the only two employees and were quite busy pouring libations for thirsty customers.

Holy crap, look who met us at Little Beasts Brewing! It's
Paul The Beer Guy, something of a Durham Craft Beer
Legend to us all. Paul had earlier commitments but had
promised Hago at some point he would join us. Awesome!

Erin, a graduate of the Siebel (Brewing) Institute in Chicago, is also a former brewer at 5 Paddles while John was a home-brewer and both have their Beer Judge Certification Program credentials. The brewery's name "revolves around the most important part of the brewing process - the yeast!" Erin said in a media release back in May. "It's the little beasts that create the final product that we all love." Add to that the fact that they have one of the coolest logos in Ontario craft beer and you have one bitchin' product.

Lemme tell you first-hand their La Saison d'ete is a saison unlike any other I've had. The 6% brew is clearly jacked up on hops, unusual for the traditionally-mild style as both orange and spice (the latter meaning probably a funky Belgian yeast) pop on your nose. I don't want to call it a hybrid because I have no idea how they brewed it but it was like they mixed an IPA's hops with a saison's yeast. I will tell you this - it works very well!!! Just an unbelievably hoppy, poppy, spicy, tasty treat!

Aside from the group shots, this is my favourite photo of the day
as Hago is book-ended by Paul The Beer Guy and Matt Allott,
the co-owner of Manantler Brewing in Bowmanville, who also
joined us at Little Beasts because he'd never visited the brewery.

Little Secret #2 - Okay, because I booked the limo for the day, it was assumed I was the one paying full-freight for it. Not so. Both Hago and Joe made significant financial contributions towards our sweet ride which I happily accepted so it was by no means a one-man show. It seems Christmas caught the best of all three of us.

Okay, in limo-related moments, when we got to Little Beasts, Hago wanted out first so he could film us getting out of the Big White Beast. That lead to the Quip Of The Day when Beer Store Buddy Paul yelled at him, "No Upskirts!" That, of course, refers to the paparazzi's penchant for trying to take shots up the skirts of actresses struggling to get out of fancy cars. Frankly, if I wanted a picture of underwear, I have a drawer full of them at home. Fancy-ass superhero ones! Nothing Julia Roberts wears is gonna be as cool as mine. But the time spent at Little Beasts was also a reunion of old friends and new as both Paul The Beer Guy and Matt Allott, co-owner of Manantler Craft Brewing in Bowmanville met our group there.

When Pauly Met Glenny! My Newmarket Beer Store
Brother Paul first met both Glenn and me at the Great
Lakes Brewing 30th Birthday Party back in February.
Since then, their paths have crossed frequently as Paul
comes down to Oshawa to visit his mother and often
pops into Buster Rhino's Southern BBQ as it has the
best craft beer selection in all of Oshawa. Great place!

I had never met Paul so that was great and Matt, gawd bless him, came with a trunk full of Manantler beers and swag! Once again, Joe stepped up and insisted on buying my goodies so I now own a Manantler t-shirt and got bottles of their Liquid Swords IPA and their Polar Vortex White IPA. I have yet to try the Polar Vortex but I enjoyed the Liquid Sword the other night and it's a dandy. At 6% and roughly 65 IBUs (international bitterness units), this has a very forward citrus scent with some pine tones while on the tongue, heaps of grapefruit. Just a beautiful job on this one! And we were all thrilled and grateful to see both Paul and Matt there, contributing to the day's adventure! You guys rock the house.

Now because Liquid Swords was inspired by the 1995 Wu-Tang Clan album/song of the same name, Paul had bluetoothed his phone into the limo's sound system and soon we had seven people in close quarters yelling/singing the lyrics out to Wu-Tang Ain't Nuthin To F**k Wit along with the song. (I only knew the chorus line but that's always where I truly shine for every song ever.)

And that left our final stop - Town Brewing - another one that opened this year.

At Town Brewing, Candice illustrates quite well how
we all went from being reserved (well, not quite) to
being very "served" which is very true. My memory
of Town was kinda fuzzy at best but I have many of
their beers at my pad, which I (oops) stole from Paul.

But first, it's time for Little Secret #3. Our limo driver, Gus, was a much beloved and very key component to the day. But since I rented the limo, only I knew his real name. (Unless he told us. I don't remember.) Guys and one lady, the man who shuttled us from brewery to brewery was actually named Ghassan. When I met him in the parking lot to settle the bill beforehand, I asked him his name. He told me but then said, "But please call me Gus, okay?" Just as well. We would have been butchering his real name by the end.

Now brings us to Town Brewing which actually just opened a month before our big day! However, the brewery, created by founder Jeff Talmey and Head Brewer Tim Ferriman has clearly caught Whitby by storm as the 5,000-square-foot facility was jammed when we arrived! Keep in mind that by this point, it was late afternoon - prime craft beer drinking hours. At this point, because he was meeting his wife, Aimee, and daughters Tiana and Meadow (such sweet girls) in Whitby at her aunt's house for an early Christmas dinner, Hago had to switch to water. I can't decide whether that was a blessing or a curse for the guy as we were all pretty blasted at this point. But I do remember it being a loud, festive and fitting finale to the day. By far, it had the most "play space" of the four breweries that day.

As we were dropping Hago off at his early Christmas
dinner on our way back, Josh snapped a selfie with
him and paid tribute to Hago's 20-plus years in the
Canadian Armed Forces, telling Hago it was a real
honour to drink and shoot the shit with him all day.

Maybe next time, we'll start with Town out of fairness so our (or at least, my) memories will be clearer. I suppose we all could have drank a little less before we got there... nahhhhh.

Now, I did enjoy their Leap of Faith Series' IPA while there but I inadvertently took all of Paul's Town beers the following morning when I went home. So I want to single out their Square Wheels Wheat IPA today. The 6.8% and probably 70 IBU ale is tons of fruit and spice on the nose with much more of the same on the tongue. The wheat malts give this tasty beverage a beautiful haziness so hey, Paul, thanks man! (I may be a brazen thief - by honest error - but I am also a courteous klepto.)

We shortly after dropped off Hago with his family and somehow he says he managed to hide his condition from them. (Doubtful - they knew what he was doing all day. But because he's a great partner and father, they probably all smiled and were glad he had a good time.) And then it was back to Buster Rhinos Southern BBQ for the rest of us. Our day was coming to an end.

But that bring us around to Little Secret #4 and that belongs to our man, Joe.

In this brilliant Josh Beaven photo, you see Candice on the left, Paul
pushing the luggage trolley filled with our beers and me on the right
heading to the check-in at La Quinta Hotel about 50 metres down the
road from Buster Rhino's. I dare say we came in like a wrecking ball.

When we were all introducing ourselves and what we did, Joe told us he was the General Motors liaison to the Canadian Auto Workers Union. Very true. But he left out that he is also the Vice-Chair for United Way of Durham Region. Or that he became a grandfather for the first time to his daughter's new-born son, Jack, just three weeks prior to our big day. Or that he has an extensive guitar and amp collection. Turns out Joe, the calmest of the bunch, was the biggest rocker in the limo!! Also he's a great (and very generous) guy who was just thrilled to be part of the action.

Gang, that's a full wrap on the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017 and it was one of the best days ever! Our squad of craft beer lovers was the best squad ever! And I sincerely thank the other six for making the day so damn much fun! But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...

Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion: The Big Guns!

Well, here's a crew that a church group wouldn't want to see up close
and personal. But lemme tell you, if you're a Whitby Craft Brewery,
we were a welcome sight. In this Hago photo, from left, that's me, Big
Joe, Josh, Candice and Glenn all packed into a supposed 20-person
limousine. Seven of us fit in there just fine but 20? Not a damn chance!

Last time, I regaled you with the tale of how seven people came together to mount the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017 on December 9 - or as some of you might call it, last Saturday.

It was a story that was both epic and biblical in size and scope... but only if those words were seriously redefined in the last few days. But what it actually was in this case? Loud. Rowdy. Ridiculous. Very drink-y. And a whole lotta fun packed into one day.

Okay, a quick recap: Hago, Joe, Candice, Glenn, Paul, Josh and myself all hopped into a limo to visit Whitby's four craft breweries one sunny day.

What did our dude Hago think of our first (well, second)
brewery stop? I believe that's a two thumbs-up rating and it
doesn't go higher than that. Because that's all the thumbs we
have. Seriously, look at your hands. I'm not lying about this.

We had fun. The End. Oh, hang on. Lemme check my notes. Okay, there's more.

Now when we last left off, we were standing at the site of the NEW Brock Street Brewing on the corner of Brock and Dunlop Streets in downtown Whitby. Had a great chat with the builders, looked over the plans, froze our arses off and I had to use the porta-potty. I gave it three stars on RateACrapper.com - didn't wow me but I'd use it again. (Now I'm afraid to check and see if that's a real website. It could distract me for a few minutes... or six hours.)

So where do we go from the new Brock Street Brewing? Well, we went to the OLD Brock Street Brewing on Hopkins Street. Now Hago had a bone to pick and he wasn't shy about voicing it. "Is this is on Hopkins Street, why aren't we calling it Hopkins Street Brewing?" When I pointed out that it was probably because it was jammed full of tasty Brock Street Brewing beers, he paused and shrugged, "Good enough."

And so it began. The drinking portion of the day. Not that we're big on that or anything.

Yeah, I could have had any one of us pose with Brock
Street Brewing co-owner Mark Woitzik but I asked
Candice to, thinking that I'd get an even better smile
from him. Frankly, it looks like my evil plan worked.

Well now, this was a hell of a start. Already, brewer co-owner Mark Woitzik had set up the site visit and was happily on hand to greet us at the brewery. Also, right there, another co-owner, Victor Leone, was working the bar and front foyer with happy greetings to us (and many others, as he was really hustling his buttocks up front.)

The place was jumping. They had the two-person band, Soulbound, in for the day, playing in the back with the vats and it was a crowded scene, lemme tell you. But except for a couple of shared beers along the way, it was finally time to jump feet-first into some seriously good craft beer and no one in my wrecking crew seemed opposed.

I have enjoyed many of their beers, mostly their core brands (their Irish Red is one of the best traditional red ales in the GTA) but when I saw their 3:10 To Yakima West Coast IPA on tap (a newbie! Or so I thought...), I felt like hit the jackpot in Vegas, baby! Well, if someone invented a Beer-Related Jackpot.

Reviews towards the end but yeah, pretty damn good. When I caught up to Mark near the vats, he asked what I was sampling. When I told him, his face lit up.

In this poignant and beautiful moment, photographer
Josh Beaven captures the image of some obviously
homeless man at the bar in Brock Street Brewing.
I think it's very community-minded to let the needy
into your establishment, especially as the weather
turns colder. Wait a minute. Never mind. That's me.

"What did you think of the new branding?" he asked. While all their core beers have remained faithful to their traditional branding, with four new/old ones - the 3:10 to Yakima, the Premium Bohemian Pilsner, the Pumpkin Spiced Harvest Lagered Ale and the Munich Dunkel Lager - they finally branched out and enlisted artist Spencer Afonso to draw them some unique and very colourful cartoon labels.

So I was brutally honest. "I love them, man. They look great!" Okay, perhaps not that brutal. Maybe the opposite. I'm still not that familiar with your Earth customs. But they're colourful, fun, well-drawn and hey, breaking from tradition can be a good thing. A growth thing. A some... thing. Okay, I just like rebranding and jazzing things up.

But the thing is one of our Group of Seven, everyone's favourite carpenter, Josh, has ties so strong to the brewery that we walked out with tons of swag. Now don't get me wrong. A large part of me is big on paying for what I walk out with as these people are craft brewers trying to make a buck. And you should pay for that. They make a great product so you pay for it. Simple, decent and fair equation, right? I will always stand by that. But you see, apparently, co-owners Mark and Victor didn't want us going thirsty in the limo.

My man, Josh, wore his Brock Street Brewing pride on
him all day long. Due to his gifted woodworking skills,
he has helped them with finishing touches on many
projects, including the retail outlet in the new Brock
Street Brewing coming to craft beer lovers in June! I,
on the other hand, had a gnarly Spider-Man shirt on.

They seemed so genuinely happy to see us that turning down a gift, however generous, would be pretty rude. So when they gifted each one of us with their delicious (and outstanding) Signature Series Red Leader Oatmeal Stout, I was thrilled. And when Victor waved off our bar charges, it was, like, whoa sweet! And when Josh walked out with a 12-pack of their Blonde Lagered Ale and 20 taster glasses on the guys for the limo ride, well, it was beyond generosity. Oddly, in all the confusion, I forgot to buy a Brock Street beer glass but somehow managed to end up with eight little tasters at home. I can see those coming in handy when friends visit in the Summer. (I could make eight friends by then. You don't know.)

But this has always been indicative of Brock Street Brewing. I have been there many times with my son and staffers didn't know me from Adam but we have always been treated like gold. The young ladies are always so sweet to my son so you can imagine the weight that carries with me. Beyond that, the fact that Josh has found lots of work with them and they are so supportive of his side-projects that they actually sell them... well, that all makes me pretty happy. That's what community is all about and no one does community like Brock Street Brewing.

Dammit, Josh takes some pretty great photos with that
phone of his! Here's Glenn on the right, Hago on the
left (who appears to be feeling a large pain in his neck
because of Glenn on the right) and 5 Paddles co-owner
Spencer McCormack at the bar in the background.

That they are literally around the corner from my life-long friend, Johnny and his wife, Trish, who I visit a couple of times a year... well, let's just call that a happy quirk of serendipity. If you're in Durham Region, visit them. Just tell them Don sent you. If that results in confused looks, well, hey, who cares? They have beer.

Okay, from Brock Street, let's move to Hago's favourite Whitby brewery - 5 Paddles Brewing. Although if I'm being honest, I love these guys, too. Their Juice Campbell is one of the best Vermont-style IPAs ever and don't even get me started on their Skull Pucker Sour IPA, a dynamite sour that Hago got me hooked on.

Once again, we got the royal treatment. Co-owner Spencer McCormack made sure he was there that day to show us a good time. Hell, he even try to educate us so you have to admire his gritty pluck there. And Spencer did not disappoint. In what must have been a feat similar to herding feral farm kittens, he got us all in the back to check out the real deal back there.

He walked us through the brewing process, the history of the company... well, pretty much whatever we asked. When I asked him where the washroom was, the dude totally nailed the directions with military-like precision - something our favourite soldier Hago really appreciates.

Aside from the Elvis sideburns, which are really very
sweet burns, co-owner Spencer took us all in the back
and kicked the shit out of us. With knowledge, I mean.
A brewery guide who helped build the place from a
dream to the reality it is today. Great guy, great place!

Since they opened in June 2013, the five owners, Spencer, Mike Bray, Ian Mills, JP Tibensky and Ed Woods - all of whom initially met at the Durham Homebrewers Club -  have released over 160 beers in every style. Hell, this past October, they had five different pumpkin style beers alone - one each week - in an annual event they've come to call Pumpkinpalooza. I'm the opposite of a pumpkin beer guy, believing as I do that pumpkins belong in pies, not ales, but if they made a good porter or stout one, count me in.

Okay, then, why don't we investigate some of these new beers from the two established Whitby breweries? (Brock Street opened its doors in April 2015 so that will give you an idea of how recent the newbies are when I'm calling Brock Street established.)

But since that was our first stop, let's start with their Red Leader Oatmeal Stout from the brewery's Signature Series. We all shared a couple of bottles of this black magic in the limo after they landed in our hands.

Veering wildly from their traditional branding, you
can see cartoonist Spencer Afonso is having some
fun with the new-look labels, including their new-old
3:10 To Yakima West Coast IPA. So far, Brock St
has seen four of Afonso's labels - with more to come.

At a low 4.7%, this was one smooth, silky stout. Big hints of chocolate and coffee ran wild with the oatmeal malt background quite prominent. This was a little beauty that Brock, Newcomer of the Year in the 2016 Ontario Brewing Awards, was probably wise to separate into the specialty line. But maybe if we ask nicely, they'll start to can it and include it in their regular line-up. It would be a treat to see this warming brew in their retail fridge on an ongoing basis.

The 3:10 To Yakima West Coast IPA is, at 5.5% and just 55 IBUs (international bitterness units), an easy-going IPA. It's not gonna blow the top off your head with hoppiness but that said, I actually slightly preferred it to their Double Vision Imperial IPA. (This actually happens often - the flavour of a brewery's single IPA edging out their Double IPA in my mind.) It has a strong citrus nose and some light pine and orange on the tongue. I had unwittingly picked a very nice, somewhat low ABV (for an IPA) beer to start my adventure. Solid enough that I'll always grab some of this whenever I'm there. As well as their Irish Red. And their Porter. And anything new with a Spencer Afonso label.

When this picture popped up on their Facebook
page two days before we all hit Whitby, Hago
alerted me immediately! 5 Paddles has always
been crazy and creative with their labels and as
you can see, they've done a Dr Seuss take-off with
their Dr. Juice! Double IPA. This may surprise you
but I picked up several bottles of this. Crazy, eh?

And here's the thing about that crazy fun art by Alfonso. According to my Newmarket Beer Store Bro Paul, it's a shiny new suit on the same fellow. "The art for that one (3:10 to Yakima) got crazy. It used to be a train station sign." Here I thought it was a new beer but it turned out I just never saw the old label. (The magic of rebranding, people!)

Before we leave Brock Street here, let's give some well-deserved credit to their master brewer, Blayne Caron, who attended the prestigious VLB (Versuchs und Lehranstalt fur Braurei) in Berlin, Germany and is cranking out some phenomenal brews with his team. (In case you're curious what VLB's name translates to, it's "Research and Training Institute Brewery.") Blayne and his team have created 126 separate beers in every style since they opened two years ago. Great job, gang.

Moving up the street to 5 Paddles Brewing where the owners are the brewers, well, they had a few beauties in the fridge for us on this fine day. And the most anticipated by most of us was their Dr. Juice! Double IPA. In fact, when we all got home and enjoyed it, some of our gang was feeling a little inspired by the Dr Seuss-style label that they tweeted about it.

Okay, the interesting thing about the 5 Paddles V Bines
Wet Hopped IPA is that the hops were grown in the
backyards of the five owners. Thus they were proud to
announce: "This is as fresh as an IPA can be!" Kewl...

First on deck was Barrie Beer Brother Hago: "I would drink it in a bar, not allowed to in a car!
I would drink it in a glass, I would drink it off my wife's ass!
This rhyme just got loose, it's time to enjoy my Dr. Juice!"

Okay, his poor wife Aimee's soaked butt aside, not to be outdone, Beer Bro Glenn instantly replied: "I would drink it in a pub and I would drink it in a tub!
I would drink it with Hago-I-Am and I would drink it by the kilogram!
But I wouldn't drink it with a goose because I want to drink my Dr. Juice!"

Well, I couldn't let this go unchallenged, could I? "Hago, you better have your wife's consent unless you want to be paying rent!
Glenn, for liquids, we use litres, not grams, which makes your rhyme a total sham!
But for now, boys, let's just call a truce because I wanna drink my Dr. Juice!"

If you're thinking of opening a Twitter account, be warned! This is the crap we think is clever. And compared to most of what you'll find on there, it actually is! (Scary.)

Well, if I show Brock Street's sign, I gotta do the
same for our friends at 5 Paddles! This picture was
my first visit in August 2016! As you can well see,
my wardrobe has not improved since that point!

So what were we talking about again? Oh right, the beer!!! Okay, so how was this Dr. Juice! Double IPA that it inspired that much bad poetry? As Crocodile Dundee would say, "It was noice!" At 7.5% and a low low 45 IBUs (really?), it had some nice grapefruit on the nose with a wee touch of pineapple while the tongue was citrus-packed. I would buy it once again... but I would not buy it from a hen... because you should really stick with the authorized licenced seller and that's 5 Paddles.

Which brings us to their V Bines Wet Hopped IPA. As you know, wet-hopped IPAs use actual hop buds rather than the traditional pellet form and traditionally come out in September. As the label explains, it involves: "... picking hops off the vine and putting them straight into the kettle." Thus earning the subsequent claim: "This is as fresh as an IPA can be!" But this one had an additional twist. The five brewery owners grew these hop vines in their backyards. It doesn't get more personal than that. And was it fresh? Well, let's just say the Prince of Bel Air called and he wants his title back. So yeah, pretty damn fresh! At 6.2% and around 55-60 IBUs, it was orange and citrus on the nose with some sly pine on the back-end.

Okay, you thugs and slugs, that's all for the first half of the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017 but I'll be back tomorrow to wind this all up with the new guns in town - Little Beasts Brewing and Town Brewing. Not to mention, special guest appearances from craft beer legend Paul The Beer Guy and Matt Allott, co-owner of Manantler Craft Brewing Co. in Bowmanville. Keep in mind, we've already been to two breweries at this point so shit gets a little cray-cray for the second half of the limo ride. If you want a sneak peek from another set of eyes, as blurry as they were, here's Beer Bro Glenn's account of the day called simply: I Can't Believe No Charges Were Pressed!!! But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until tomorrow, I remain...

Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion: Prelude

This was our meeting place in Oshawa prior to the limo's
departure for Whitby. And I gotta say I was blown away
by the craft taps and fridge selection there. The owner,
Darryl Koster, has done a phenomenal job here. One of
the best craft beer bars outside of Toronto I've been to.

The day of the Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion 2017 was less than a month in the works. Beer Bro Glenn has long been bugging me to visit him in Oshawa, pointing that he's made countless trips to Burlington (and Hamilton and Oakville) to visit me but I had yet to return the favour. Finally, one day, on Twitter, I relented and said, "Pick a date." He almost immediately did - December 9.

Now the pot was sweetened considerably since two new breweries, Little Beasts Brewing and Town Brewing opened up this year in nearby Whitby, adding to the always considerable firepower of the town's craft beer mainstays, Brock Street Brewing and 5 Paddles Brewing. Damn right, I'll visit you, Glenn. For your delightful personality, sparkling repartee and those four craft breweries just miles apart!! (Please don't take that bold print at the end of the sentence as an indication that part is a little more emphatically said than the first two points. It totally is. Just don't take it that way.)

When the Brewery Invasion day was posted on Twitter, one-by-one, interested parties spoke up. First on deck was Twitter friend Josh, a carpenter by trade, who has done a lot of wood-work for Brock Street Brewing.

An on-site builder points out to Josh, left, and Joe, right, where
the brewing portion of the facility will be set up. The on-site
tour was arranged for us by Brock Street co-owner Mark
Woitzik, who, frankly, is one helluva guy. Couldn't be nicer!

Also in quickly was Barrie Beer Brother Hago, as was Paul, my buddy from a Newmarket Beer Store who I finally met at the beginning of the year at the Great Lakes Brewing 30th Anniversary Party in Toronto. Sales Rep Charles from Nickel Brook was down for the action but at the last minute, he got waylaid when he had to attend his brewery's launch of Kentucky Bastard Imperial Stout. Turns out he was the only one in the entire brewery with his Food Handling Certificate, something very necessary for the event. Which begs two questions - 1) Why is there not a second person there with that? And 2) You need a certificate to handle food?

I mean, I've been feeding my kid for 26 years without any formal training. I'm probably just lucky that I haven't been thrown in jail for that.

But as scientists say, "Nature abhors a vacuum" so two more stepped in to take Charles' place. Candice, the brave lass, was a last-minute Glenn invitee, a friend of his from Buster Rhino's Southern BBQ.

You like our ride? It was very shiny and white. Unfortunately, for our
driver, Gus, it was also very, very loud and rowdy. Oddly, the more
breweries we visited, the louder and rowdier we got. Go figure, eh??

Because she was with us in the (not so) confined space of the limo, I felt the need to tell the guys at the beginning, "There is a lady with us so no one goes Weinstein here." That's a pretty messed-up sign of these #MeToo times, having to reassure someone of their safety. Granted, given the crew of dudes we had, it was an unnecessary alert but it gave Hago to opportunity to yell, "You never go Full Weinstein!" That would become our catch-phrase for the day. Yelled out many times. Very loudly in the limo. Because yes, we're just that juvenile. Harmless and geeky but dammit, ladies, we'll always be juvenile. Yes, Candice knew she was in a limo filled with idiots... but nice idiots.

Victor Leone, who co-founded Brock St with Mark and
Scott Pepin, holds up their Bottomless Growler. Not
quite bottomless but one heck of a deal nonetheless.
Buy the growler for $30 and you get five refills of their
core line-up. My Math thinks that's about half-price!

And then there was Joe. You see, Joe, who's a pretty big deal in the General Motors sector of the Canadian Auto Workers Union, was sitting at the bar when I arrived at Buster Rhino's Southern BBQ in Oshawa. (I'll talk about The Shwa briefly in a minute.) Glenn introduced me and I asked if he'd be joining us. No, no, he assured me, just having a quick pint. Fair enough. But as more and more of our crew arrived, our table got louder and goofier. As he sat off to the side, I think Joe was chuckling and figuring this might be an adventure he was up for. So when I asked him a second time, he parked it at the table with us instantly. Game on for Big Joe.

And thus the Group of Seven was created. I've heard tell that a group of Canadian artists called themselves that but I think they're all dead so... you know, up for grabs now. Okay, lemme backtrack just a little. Since I was coming from Oakville, I took Highway 407 all the way in to the Simcoe Street exit and then south downtown to Buster Rhino's on King Street East. I have never been in The Shwa before but to be honest, in the rest of the GTA, well, it doesn't have the best of reputations. It's actually thought of as, well, not the nicest of places.

This would be my Beer Bro Glenn and his "Craft
Beer Brain" t-shirt in front of the vats at 5 Paddles
Brewing. This is Glenn's "distinguished" look. It
doesn't happen often. It's like a solar eclipse - rare!

Well, lemme tell you what I saw driving down Simcoe. I saw new townhouse developments and high-rises, both in the making and recently completed. I saw vibrant businesses. I saw tons of trees and beautiful old century homes. And I saw many, many people out enjoying their Saturday.

So I asked the Shwa residents at our table what the deal was - where was this bad rap coming from? Well, they all conceded, there were less desirable areas in the city. And what else exactly? Oakville has those. Hell, Toronto has 128 of those. Every town and city has those.

This place is getting dissed for reasons that are 10 or 15 or 25 years old. I call bullshit on this, man. Oshawa's not some ugly stain of urban blight. From what I saw, it looks like it's on the cusp of booming. I thought it was a pretty cool city. And the place we all met - and later, the hotel I crashed in - had a lot to do with that. Not to mention, four members of the Group of Seven live there and they are all awesome, cool folks. And that's what makes any city strong - its people. So kindly sell your anti-Shwa snake-oil elsewhere. This dude ain't buying it.  But let's keep this bag o' bones rolling.

This is what the NEW Brock Street Brewing will look like
by this Summer. And bottom right is the retail component
that holds a special place in Josh's heart as he will be the
one putting the finishing wood-work into place. Too cool.

During the meet-and-greet at Buster Rhino, swag was exchanged left, right and centre. When Hago arrived, he brought tons of Redline Brewhouse ball-caps and other trinkets, courtesy of our old friend, Kaitlyn Krawczuk. Actually, she's quite young but through my job, I've been dealing with her since her Flying Monkeys Brewing gig several years back. Josh gifted me a sweet Brock Street Brewing t-shirt, which was appropriate since our first stop would be Brock Street Brewing. But not the established one on Hopkins Street that I know and love. (It was the winner of my Spirit of Craft Beer Award in 2016.) No, this is the new Brock Street Brewing on the corner of Brock and Dunlop Street in Whitby. Yes, Toto, there will be a Brock Street Brewing on Brock Street very soon.

You see, Brock Street co-owner Mark Woitzik arranged for us to have a meet-and-greet with the builders right on the site.

Bob, quickly renamed Bob The Builder by us, points to the corner
where the retail component will be created. It was nice as the poor
builders waiting on frigid site for us to finally show up in the limo.

That, in itself, lead to some humourous exchanges as he had given me his cell number. I called him first but he had the furnace guy with him and had to get back to me. When he called back, I was at work and had to yell to my coworkers, "Someone take my cash register! I have a real live brewery owner on my phone!" Honestly, I've never seen them move quite that quickly.

But it was a great start to the day as the builders walked us through the entire process on the cold and barren lot with just the foundation poured thus far. Josh sidled up beside me at one point and we looked at where the retail component was to be built. What I saw is what was there - dirt, a fence and some concrete. Not Josh, who will (in the near future) be putting the finishing wood-work into the retail. "I'm already planning out in my mind what I'm going to be doing there," he smiled.

Here's a damn good example of Josh's handiwork - the
pop-up bar built at the Oshawa Centre Shopping Mall
by Josh and his team. It opened at the beginning of the
month and has been a haven to thirsty shoppers since.

Like I said, I saw what was actually there. But Josh saw what was going to be there. I love the creative mind at work and to be an integral part of the final product? Young guys like Josh, a Millennial, will always make me believe the future is in capable hands. Besides, when we went around the table, introducing ourselves and telling the others what we do, Josh said he was a carpenter. I had to yell, "Hey! You're like Jesus!" I can't believe we didn't get kicked out of the bar before the day started. And if you're a devout Christian reading this (okay, that's highly unlikely), I meant the Mexican guy, Jesus, who's also a carpenter, not that Son of God one. (This blog's seriously gonna land me in Hell.)

Okay, that's it for today but I'll be back in two days with the low-down on all four craft breweries in Whitby as the story of this day-long oddysey is just beginning to unfold. And believe me, it's even more epic than Homer's Oddysey (which is like this old ancient-Greek poem that, frankly, isn't all that epic.) But hey, here's a taste of our day, created by our videographer, Hago, that I can only call: Hago's Epic Look At The Whitby Craft Brewery Invasion. See ya in two days but for now, guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...

Once upon a time... in Kenora...

This is how you know you're coming into Kenora.
A big four-post sign that informs you of such. So
there you go. And yes, it also tells you that you are
in the Lake of the Woods region! There's like a
kazillion lakes up there and from what I was told
during my short stay, the fishing was damn good.

A long time ago... in a galaxy far far away... Oh, wait, Legal Department is telling me that's a movie intro. Star... something. Lemme try again.

Once upon a time in a town far far away, (*looks around* "We good? Okay, then...") I started a long and illustrious (that word is being loosely and repeatedly used here) Journalism career in a place called Kenora. It's a small town in the north-west corner of Ontario, which was about as close to Manitoba as you could be in Ontario without saying, "Okay, I guess technically, I live in Manitoba."

It was the mid-1980s. The hair was big and the music was bad. I could take the hair - well, at least much better than the Ozone Layer did - but oh man, no one could touch that gawd-awful techno-pop. In 50 years, students will be looking back and asking, "This Norwegian group, a-ha? Was their music intentionally played in prisons or detention centres to demoralize the inmates?" The problem was that crappy music got played repeatedly on MTV, which stands for Music Television but they stopped doing the music part years ago. As a rocker, some bands held me steady through those turbulent times, such as Motley Crue, Van Halen and Def Leppard but they were the minority. It was all skinny-ass guys playing keyboards in shiny yellow pants with hair that stood straight up for about two feet.

This, my friends, is Husky the Muskie (a type of
fish though I'm not sure why I feel the need to
explain that.) It's a statue that's about 30 feet high
right at the waterfront and it was absolutely my
favourite part of Kenora. A gigantic fish homage.

But back to my illustrious Journalism career. When I got hired by the Kenora Daily Miner and News, it was my first paying full-time gig out of college. It was a daily newspaper (not sure if it still is) which is what all journalism graduates hoped for at the time. No, it wasn't the Toronto Star or the Globe and Mail but, you know, you gotta start somewhere.

There was no Internet back then so I had to look up on a map where Kenora was located. Whoa... north. Like way north. Pretty much the same latitude as Winnipeg, Manitoba, where both my parents were born and raised. I had heard their Winter horror stories many many times. But my late father assured me before I left that "It's not that bad. It's a dry cold, not a wet cold. It's a lot easier to take." Okay, not to speak ill of the dead, but that was a humongous crock of shit right there. It got so cold that I was wondering if hordes of penguins would be showing up soon. And yes, I realize that penguins are indigenous to the Antarctic on the southern-most end of the planet but you know, in case they got uncomfortable with the unbearable warmth of the Antarctic, they could wander up to the frozen tundra of Kenora. My mother, oddly, never spoke to me about the temperatures up there. She knew what I was in for come Winter-time and she wasn't about to soft-sell me on it.

When we were discussing the Northern Brewing
Alliance Mix-Six and the subject of the Lake of the
Woods' Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale surfaced on
Twitter, brewery owner, Taras Manzie, shown here in
a cbc.ca photo, was quick to jump in and explain the
brewing process for his beer. He was really great.

But I landed there in June, just after Journalism School graduation and at that point, it was a beautiful Small Town, Ontario. Packed with people because it's cottage country, it was - and probably still is - a very vibrant small community. I settled in very quickly. In retrospect, I now realize my attitude shifted with the weather. The colder it got, the more *ugh* I became. Being from the far more southern GTA area, I just wasn't used to a downward shift in temperature going quite that far downward. I've never seen mercury actually disappear in a thermometer before.

However, after a couple of months there, I had familiar company - my Beer Bro Glenn. My newspaper was looking to hire another reporter. Glenn hadn't found anything yet after graduation so I suggested him. Management still trusted me at that point - further proof that management is seldom, if ever, right - so on my word and the strength of his phone interview, Glenn got hired.

So he and I had all sorts of beer-induced blasts - of which I remember precious little - and because we were both getting paid jack-squat (a legitimate form of currency back then), we shared a decent two-bedroom apartment and likely survived off Kraft Dinner.

The Lake of the Wood Brewing Company set up shop in the town's old
firehall back in 2013. The big windows are where the firetruck doors
used to open. I tell you this - Glenn and I would have loved to see this
town attraction back in the day. Granted, not many micros back then.

Which one of us was the bigger slob (totally him) is still the subject of much debate (again, him) but man, we did have some fun up there. Again, as far as I remember.

But as the weather turned, hitting minus-40 some December days (I won't bother saying Fahrenheit or Celsius because minus-40 is where they meet), my enthusiasm waned and I started looking longingly towards the highway heading south. But not Glenn. He really liked it up there regardless of temperature. I lasted from June to December and was gone. He lasted, I think, four or five years. Even when he eventually returned, he raved about the fishing and other manly-men activities up there. He once killed a bear with his bare hands. Sorry, typo. A beer with his bare hands. Less impressive. Still, Kenora had turned a Toronto city boy into a proper northern outdoor sportsman.

I have never been a big fruit beer fan. In fact, I finally
added Fruit Beer as a category in my annual year-end
"Best Of" lists last year because I finally had one I liked.
But this was a damn good fruit beer. The blueberry is
there but nicely understated and at 7.1%, it has balls.

I landed another newspaper job in Toronto shortly upon my return so I likely did the right thing for my illustrious journalism career, anyway. But it's funny how a little time can change your perspective. For example:

Me actually in Kenora: "Good gawd, it is so frikkin' cold here! My face hurts when I'm outside. It's too cold to breathe. This is both awful and insane!!"

Me a few years after Kenora: "Oh man, it was SO cool. It went down as low as minus-40 and you had to plug in your cars! Snow everywhere! Just beautiful country!"

But after three decades away, Kenora resurfaced in my life recently, thanks to the Northern Brewers Alliance Mix-Sixer that was the subject of my last column. Their Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale was part of that six-pack and I left it until now to fully expand upon my personal Kenora connection. All six months of it. The same length of time as most of my relationships. I'm not a love-em-and-leave-em kind of guy. Sometimes, I love 'em and they leave me. It's a coin-toss.

The Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale is actually the third
Lake of the Woods beer I've enjoyed. This was the second,
their Big Timber IPA. Is it, in fact, bigger than the great
outdoors and able to fell a tree with one mighty swing?

Now last column, I noted that Charles from Nickel Brook and I were discussing that Blueberry Ale before we had it because he thought he may have tried it the year before. Not even five minutes into our Twitter conversation, their Twitter person was on there, explaining how the beer as brewed.

I was duly impressed so I DMed Lake of the Woods to see who was keeping such watchful vigil over their social media account and brewery products. He got back to me quickly, introducing himself as Taras and offering up both his company email and personal cell number. "Wow," I thought, "This kid is good! Lake of the Woods is lucky to have him."

Unless I Googled them and realized that "Taras" was actually Taras Manzie, the frikkin' owner of the brewery! Colour me doubly-impressed!! We chatted behind-the-scenes about Kenora as he brought me up to speed on the town but I'll get to that after their beers because, technically, that's what this blog is supposed to be about... though as you can see, it seldom starts that way.

The very first Lake of the Wood beer I had was
their Sultana Gold Blonde Ale, which was, in
fact, typical of the style. Mild, mellow, a good
crossover brew for macro drinkers. Very clean!

And let's start with that Blueberry Ale that drew Taras into our Twitter conversation so quickly. A fruit beer is a tricky thing to pull off. Go too strong on the fruit and it may as well be a Five-Alive. Go too subtly and what's the point? Well, as Goldilocks famously said, the Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale was "just right." At 7.1%, this was the strongest-ABV beer of the Northern Brewers Alliance Mix-Sixer and the blueberry was nuanced enough that you knew it was there but that wasn't all you noticed. The fruit just played some nice rhythm guitar to the ale's lead guitar (it always comes back to music), which was, as odd as it sounds, beautifully carbonated. It really popped on my tongue. While Nickel Brook put out some awesome fruit-laden Berliner Weisses this Summer, as far as straight fruit ales go? Best I've had this year. Hands down. So frankly, hats off to their brewmaster Bernie Weiland for this one... if, in fact, he is their actual brewmaster and his name is actually Bernie. Brewmasters can be a mysterious and shifty bunch. Many are actively involved within the Witness Relocation Plan. True story. (No, it's not. Only some are.)

UPDATED CUTLINE: Through his wizardry of all things
Google, New Zealand's Stevil St Evil was able to track
down this young lady's name. She is Melissa Blind and
she was pouring Lake of the Woods Brewing samples at
the Northern Ontario Microbrew Festival, held back in
the Spring in Sudbury. The photo was found on the
sudbury.com website. So good digging by Stevil there.

That brings us to their Big Timber IPA. At 6%, I'm thinking the IBUs (international bitterness units) on this baby might be on the low end (55 to 60, maybe). It's got that caramel maltiness on the back end that you can't ignore. That said, I've always got time for a British-west coast hybrid and that's what this is. On the nose, some very strong orange but it's a heartier, maltier IPA... which is what you want in the north. The hops don't pop like a west coast but they are certainly there and there is some pine in the mix. Very nice. I liked it.

That brings us to their Sultana Gold Blonde Ale, which I had at a Rib Eye Jack's Ale House Beer Festival two years ago. Another brewery brought it and it was either Big Rock out of Calgary-Etobicoke or Big Rig Brewery out of Ottawa. Or maybe even someone else. Memory retention is not my forte. But folks - and it's important you know this - I don't drink to forget. I drink to enjoy. I just never remember anything. Okay, that actually wasn't important for you to know. Never mind.

Okay, I did the Math on this one. It's gonna take 114
beers at $7 to pay for this $800 sign. But that's not
including daily overhead. So more like 1,114 beers.
Also, where exactly is the green guy on the bottom
left running to? The john? A dine-and-dasher, maybe?

I'd shut up now but I'm kind of the only one in this room. Okay, the Sultana was a nice blonde ale. At 5%, it was mild, it was clean, it was refreshing. Good for its style but it's not a style I delve into all that much. (That said, neither are fruit ales and that Forgotten Ale floored me.)

Okay, done with beers. Back to Kenora because I know Glenn wants to know too. According to Taras, the Daily Miner and News is still around but perhaps "slowing dying, I think, like most printed news publications." No one and certainly not former journalists want to see that but to deny it would be foolhardy at best. But Taras, Glenn and I all have our fingers crossed for this particular publication.

But Taras, what's shaking in Kenora these days? "(It's) still very much a blue collar town in transition. Many businesses are doing what they can to support the push to a tourism-centric economic model."

Sweet. So how is a craft brewery faring up there? Wellllll... "It's very difficult getting the local population to embrace the craft beer movement, especially getting local bars and restaurants to carry our products."

Look way up to the top left of the map if you wanna
know where Kenora is. Like I said at the beginning, it's
as close to Manitoba without actually being in that
province. And baby, in the Winter, it's cold outside!

Well, that's exactly where north and south meet, isn't it? The macros still own the tap selection in most bars down here and micros have to slug it out hard for a single tap. But that's where it's frustrating for Taras because Lakes of the Woods has hired some 140 local youth to work in their brewery over the years. Maybe those kids' parents might just want to check it out?? If for nothing else than to embarrass your kid? Just throwing it out there. Support your local business and all. I'm not an Economics Major but I hear that actually works.

However (and this doesn't surprise me at all), the brewery is getting some amazing support from other northern towns such as Fort Frances, Thunder Bay, Red Lake and especially Manitoba residents. Says Taras: "The Lake of the Woods (cottage country) is like the northern Muskokas for Manitoba residents."

So my request of Kenora residents, my former neighbours (albeit briefly), is simply this.  Please embrace your local craft brewery!! It's a privilege to have one... not a right. Oh and if you like your Molson Canadian, Blue or Budweiser, try the Sultana Gold Blonde Ale! You might find a little something extra in the glass that you quite like. Also, never forget my illustrious journalism career. It's important for mankind to remember that. But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. Until next time, I remain...

Beast of the East - Go Forth to the North

You see this beautiful young lady? That's my niece,
Genny. And when she recently flew in from Halifax,
she came bearing a gift from Unfiltered Brewing's
brewmaster Greg Nash. Yes, she beer-muled a two-
litre growler of his outstanding Twelve Years To
Zion Double IPA. Holy Early Christmas to me!!!

Today, I shall tell you the story of two directions. This will be very different than the story of One Direction, a British-Irish boy band, which from 2011 to 2015 actually had two directions - way up and then way, way down. I don't know any of their songs but gosh, I miss 'em already. I think the cute one left. Or maybe it was the bad boy. Perhaps the one with asthma? I really don't know.

But since I am a little more multi-directional than One Direction, I will be going in Two Directions. I will be looking east and then coming back to look north. Take that, Zayn Malik! (Relax, I Googled it. Oh sorry, he's from One Direction - I probably should have explained that first.)

Okay, my sister, Carly, has four kids and all of them went to post-secondary in Halifax at Dalhousie University. But today, we're gonna talk about her eldest, my beautiful niece, Genny. After she graduated as a nurse, she stayed in Halifax and last October, she married her long-time beau, Rory. That wedding and my visit to four Halifax craft breweries that weekend was the subject of two blogs a year ago. Of the four breweries, each chosen for a different reason, one was a Bucket List destination - Unfiltered Brewing at 6041 North Street. That's because their brewmaster, Greg Nash, has a reputation of being the Hop Hellion of the Eastern Seaboard.

When his birthday came around on October 9, Unfiltered's Greg
Nash got a post from me on Facebook using this photo. I turned it
into a meme that simply said up top, "Hello, my name is Greg
Nash..." concluding at the bottom "... and I'm here to annihilate
your taste buds!" It got a lot of attention as more than 50 of his
Facebook friends hit it with "likes" and their personal greetings.

In the end, I had three of Nash's creations - his Double Orange Double IPA, the Twelve Steps to Zion Imperial IPA and his Riddle of Steel IPA, three beers ranging in ABVs from 7% to 8%. But - and this tells the larger story - the IBUs (international bitterness units) in the beers were a solid 70 for the Riddle but 100-plus for the other two. So malts are pretty much an afterthought in Greg's world. They're in there due to necessity and for balance only. 

As it turns out, Genny and Greg know each other. She was a waitress and he was the brewmaster of a brew-pub they both worked at while Genny was still in university. When I went to Halifax a year ago for her wedding and Genny found out we had visited Unfiltered Brewing, she was succinct. "I love Greg Nash. He's a genius!" she told me. And of that brewpub, all she noted was that it was "poorly managed" and that Greg was "under-utilized and under-appreciated." Hey, for all I know, that brewpub may have been the reason Greg struck out to co-create Unfiltered and if so, thank you, Poorly-Managed Brewpub!!! You have done us all a great service just by being shitty!

When I visited Unfiltered Brewing last October, you could
only get their beers in one-litre or two-litre growlers. But as
you can see, a canning machine has been added to their
operation in the last month. That may have made it easier
 for Genny to be my beer mule but hey, I'm damn happy
that she landed in Toronto with ANY Unfiltered product!

But Greg remembered there was a connection between Genny and myself when she visited Unfiltered just before flying to Toronto last month but he couldn't remember exactly what. So he asked. When she told him I was her uncle (she probably said her favourite), he handed her a 1.9 litre (64 ounce) growler of Twelve Steps to Zion Imperial IPA for me with his regards. Holy Snappin' Arseholes, Margaret, ain't that a fine how-do-you-do? According to Genny, his assessment of me was simply: "He's f--king funny." If providing a few laughs gets me one of Canada's best IPAs, just call me Jerry Goddamn Seinfeld. What a fantastic gesture!

The beer was exactly as I remembered. At 8% and 100-plus IBUs, it was pine and peach and citrus on the nose and just as fruit-filled and punchy as hell on the tongue. Just one helluva fantastic beer. What can I say? The dude knows his shit. And my niece saw that genius in Nash several years before I did... which is pretty damn cool. I graciously and gratefully thank you, Mr Nash. Quite frankly, your gift made my 2017. As Hawkeye Pierce would say, "You, sir, are finestkind."

The display at an LCBO of the Northern Ontario Mixed Six
Pack, which was, at first, a tricky thing to purchase for our pal,
Drunk Polkaroo. Three LCBO employees descended on his six
pack, which he quite literally had in his hands but could not
figure out how to ring it through. Charles from Nickel Brook
and I had far better luck the same day at our Oakville LCBO.

Okay, now it's time to shift our gaze to the north and by that, I mean Northern Ontario. You see, there are six craft breweries in Northern Ontario and they are starting to make waves in the southern portion of the province where myself and most of my beer brothers and sisters reside, as well as 90% of the Province's population. They are: Highlander Brew Co. in South River (home of the shenanigans from many a Boys Weekends), Stack Brewing in Sudbury, New Ontario Brewing out of North Bay, Lake of the Woods Brewing in Kenora, Sleeping Giant Brewing out of Thunder Bay and finally, Manitoulin Brewing on Manitoulin Island. For the record, Manitoulin has the best catch-phrase of the bunch on their cans - "You're On Island Time Now." That gives Northern Ontario a pretty cool sort of Caribbean feel. That's not true in the least but hey, I liked it. Anyway, these six created the Northern Ontario Brewers Alliance and recently released the Northern Ontario Mixed Six Pack - a box with one of each of their beers in a 473-ml (16 ounce) can. I point this out only because the majority (if not, all) of these breweries didn't even have canning capabilities this time last year. Things change quickly in the Ontario craft beer scene!

The only glass I own from the Northern Ontario Brewers'
Alliance is the Highlander Brew Co. glass. So all of their
beers were poured into this one just so they could, I dunno,
represent. But this is Manitoulin Brewing's Bridal Veil Pale
Ale, which I have enjoyed before as it's a plucky little brew.

Individually, the brewers decided which ones they would submit to the pack. "So, Johnny, let's tell the people in the studio audience what's in this pack!!!"

As mentioned last time, Highlander selected its Rye Road Pale Ale. Manitoulin puts its Bridal Veil Pale Ale in the sixer. New Ontario contributed its Bear Runner Blonde Ale. Sleeping Giant submitted its Northern Logger Golden Ale (actually, a Kolsch - get it? Logger Ale? Lagered ale?) Stack included its Panache Session IPA while lastly, Lake of the Woods passed along its Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale.

But this story started in a wacky way even before we all got our hands on the six-pack because one of us couldn't. As a matter of fact, our man Drunk Polkaroo actually had it in his hands and three different clerks at his LCBO couldn't figure out how to ring it through as it was not scanning. Definitely not a diss as both Polk and I are in retail and man, shit like that is frustrating! But every bar code has 10 corresponding numbers below and if you plunk those numbers in, it should ring through.

This was a really nice Session IPA from Stack Brewing in
Sudbury. Originally called Panache Pale Ale, I think the
brewery thought that saying Session IPA actually carried
a little more... what's the word again... oh yeah, panache!

Maybe they tried and that didn't work, either?

Regardless, the Polk situation kicked off about three days of Twitter chatter around the Northern Ontario Sixer that was as all over the place. Charles from Nickel Brook jumped on to say the Oak Park LCBO at Trafalgar and Dundas in Oakville was able to sell him one a few hours later. So I jetted over to it when my shift was over. The clerk has the same issues as Polk's had - it wouldn't scan - but she also had a paper list on her cash that she looked at, then popped in some numbers and *bam* sold for $19 even! (At $3.17 per can, this was a damn good deal.)

Charles later mentioned that he thought he might have had the Lake of the Woods' Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale a year ago and he found at that time, the blueberries in the brew were a little "lacking." But he added, hey, going into it with an open mind. Within minutes - not joking - Lake of the Woods was on the thread, noting, "Hey everybody! Well, we brew our Forgotten Lake Ale WITH blueberries - not syrup or concentrate or juice - it's a beer designed to taste like a beer brewed with blueberries, not a beer FORCED to taste LIKE blueberries artificially. Hope you enjoy!"

New Ontario Brewing's Bear Runner Blonde Ale was a
nice, mild addition to the six-pack but they are pretty
willing to up the stakes for Northern Ontario Mixer, Part
Two, telling us that the next one will be dark. Very dark!!

Well, Shazam! Think a macro would jump into a conversation that quickly or at all if you had a concern about one of their products? Actually, never mind macros - think any corporation would do that?? Yeah, me neither.

As a craft brewery employee and a Prud'homme Level 2 Beer Specialist, Charles was thrilled with the response. "That makes sense as to why there's a subtle blueberry taste and not an overwhelming blueberry flavour. Cheers!"

Because the brewery jumped in so quickly (and effectively), it got its kudos from me, too, as I thanked them and added, "All of us seriously dig knowing how the brewers concocted their latest brew! We are curious craft lovers!" Now later, after some private messaging, I would discover the Lake of the Woods Twitter person talking to us was actually president and CEO Taras Manzie so that lead into a whole other conversation that's on deck for the next blog. But man, he was on that conversation instantly. And he thanked us for thanking him!

Marketing Meeting at Sleeping Giant: "Okay, folks, how
do we let the public know that we're a Northern Ontario
brewery?" asks the owner. Bob, the accountant, raises
his hand. "How about a lumberjack riding some kind of
bear-moose on the label?" Damn, Bob, you're a genius!

"We love beer and love beer drinkers. Happy to jump in, any questions anytime! This Northern Sixer is a lot of fun. Look for more in the future!"

Okay, two things there. Number one, a brewery owner was so prompt and chatty with us. That's pretty awesome, gang. And two, folks, Taras told us the Northern brewers aren't done with these Alliance Mix-Sixers just yet!

And that came up later. Admittedly, the Northern Six went pretty easy on us this time with milder styles but Paul on Twitter (@onepageeveryday), who had already enjoyed four of the six beers prior to this mixed pack release, addressed that by noting, "I was hoping for more dark malty offerings but I do love the idea of six far-away brewers combining force to get their stuff down here."

Holy Barney Stinson in a sharp suit, can you say "Challenge... Accepted?" Stack Brewing jumped into that fray quickly, suggesting, "We have a national gold (medal winning) Black IPA. Maybe next time?" (That would be their 6.6% Black Rock, which took gold at the 2016 Canadian Brewing Awards.)

When Paul on Twitter suggested the next Northern
Mixer pack go a little darker in hue, Stack jumped
into the fray to say perhaps an award-winning
Black IPA might be suitable? To brewery owner
Shawn Mailloux, I say abso-freakin-lutely, man!!

Minutes later, my main man, Brewmaster Brian Wilson (once again - no, not that one) at Highlander was in the Twitter mix, exclaiming, "Exactly! Don't be afraid of the dark. I'll hold your hand." (Brian's an awesome dude... but no. I will drink his beer, though. And maybe write him a sonnet or something.)

And just minutes after that, New Ontario jumped into the fray and asked, "Are we having a 'How dark can you go? The return of the darkest ale' contest? If so, let's brew!" Paul, I think you started something here... something really good!!

And the conversation continued on with new members jumping in. Graeme (@needmy caffeine) was happy with the six-pack. "I am liking this alliance thing. Please keep doing it and let's hope other breweries catch on and do the same."

One of the blurbs on the packaging make me chuckle so of course, I shared it. "I should point out that because it's the Northern Alliance Mix-Six, the box declares it 'Stump-Approved' meaning 'Pull up a stump and have a few around the campfire.' But here I am, drinking it in the house like a goddamn savage."

In a Robin Burridge story for the Manitoulin Expositor, the
three Manitoulin Brewing partners, Blair Hagman, Joet Dhatt
and Nishin Meawasige pose with their vats. The brewery just
officially opened for business this past June. When my man,
Hago, visited them in 2016, they were still operating out of a
garage. They have come a long way very quickly, I would say.

Fortunately, our favourite Sudbury resident, Gravy Boat Captain (@GravyBoatCpt) jumped in to put my mind at ease. "No, in the north, stumps are our indoor furniture. Also, in the Winter-time, campfire is code for the oven on with the door open." Truth to tell, I've never even asked him his real name simply because it's never gonna be as good as Gravy Boat Captain.

When I asked him what his choice would be for Stack's next entry in Northern Brewers Mix-Six, Part Two, he suggested either their Hawaiian Uppercut Belgian Sour Pale Ale or perhaps their Les Portes De L'enfer Biere De Garde (Farmhouse Strong Ale.) While Les Portes has won three medals - two golds and a bronze - at the Ontario and Canadian Brewing Awards, I still like the sound of that Black Rock Black IPA. Yeah, let's stick with that.

Okay, I looked at Highlander's Rye Road Pale Ale in the last outing, so let's look at the others in this go-around. Let's start with the Manitoulin Brewing's Bridal Veil Pale Ale.

Sleeping Giant co-owner and head brewer Kyle
Mulligan holds up my favourite brew of theirs, the
Beaver Duck American Pale Ale, which won gold
at the 2016 Ontario Brewing Awards. A tasty beer.

Okay, this provided a nice balance to the Rye Road, which was largely malt-driven. Since Bridal Veil Falls is an actual landmark in the Village of Kegawong on the island, they honour it with this nicely Cascade hopped 5% pale ale. Lightly citrus and grapefruit on the tongue, this is a little less hoppy than I like my pale ales but it pretty much hits the middle ground between the west coast and the caramel-driven British style. Balanced and decent.

The New Ontario Bear Runner Blonde Ale is, well, a blonde ale, which is a mild style that can often lure macro drinkers to the craft world. I don't drink many of them, much preferring the heavier or the hoppier brews, but for its style, I did enjoy it. At just 4.5%, it's nice to have lighter fare now and again. It almost had a wheat beer feel to it. Total patio beer.

The Sleeping Giant Northern Logger Golden Ale (which, as previously discussed is actually a Kolsch) is another easy-drinking ale. At 4.9%, there's some graininess on the nose, a light touch of fruit on the tongue. Also another good cross-over beer.

Excuse me, sign, but if you can buy craft beer
then you are, in fact, buying happiness. It's not
"almost" the same thing. It IS the same thing!!
Other than that... uh, nice penmanship there?

Which brings us to the Stack Brewing's Panache Session IPA. My affection for all things hoppy may be showing here but this was one of the package's stand-outs. At 4.5% and just 30 IBUs (international bitterness units), this packed a little more punch than its numbers indicate. Citra, Simcoe and Rakau hops are the driving force behind this lighter fare and give it some really nice citrus, melon and pine on the nose with more pine on the tongue. This is an excellent session IPA. Good choice for Stack!

But wait, what about that Lake of the Woods Forgotten Lake Blueberry Ale? Oh, my friends, that's being saved for next time. You see, Beer Bro Glenn and I both started our Journalism careers in Kenora way back in the mid-1980s and I had a chance to catch up with brewery owner Taras Manzie to see what's shaking these days in that quiet northern town. That's a blog unto itself. (Also, he seems like a great guy.)

But I'm leaving the final words on the next Northern Brewer Alliance Mix-Six to Paul, who requested of them, and I quote: "Malt, malt, chocolate malt. Dark and chewy." We really loved this Mix-Six but now it's time for you northern brewers to kick our southern asses with something dark and dirty. Bring out the black magic, you magnificent Northern Brewing Bastards! We can take it. And if not, that's on us! But guys and dolls, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...