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...

One Endgame teaser... and Beer Mail

So which beer was Thor drinking in The Avengers'
Compound? Turns out it was a Creature Comforts
Brewing (Athens, Georgia) Athena Berliner Weisse.
Seems the God of Thunder is a big fan of craft beer!

So anyway, I saw Avengers: Endgame on the Sunday of opening weekend with Beer Bro Glenn and, well... holy shit, go see it because Marvel is never gonna top this one. Like... ever!

Just insane and you never see what's coming. And both Marvel and the Russo Brothers, Joe and Anthony, who directed Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, The Avengers: Infinity War and now Endgame, basically begged the fans not to offer up any spoilers on social media, launching a gigantic campaign with the #DontSpoilTheEndgame hashtag on Twitter and other social media.

Well, I'm not giving you an Endgame spoiler but rather more of a teaser. Don't worry. It's not really about the movie. Not about who lives and who dies. Also not about who comes back from being a pile of ashes or who doesn't after that Thanos Snappening. Or who can actually make it through a three-hour movie without a washroom break? I didn't. Twice. (But I googled when the best times were during the movie for a pee break.)

No, my teaser is simply: What beer was Thor drinking at the Avengers' Compound in upstate New York during an early part in the movie? Take a look at the picture.

Yeah, yeah, Thanos is the "Mad Titan" and all
that crap but... does he, in fact, make a good
point here? I mean, don't we all get a little
pissed when a brewery we love has a special
release and by the time we get there, all of the
beer is gone? Imagine half the competition...

You can tell it's not a macro. We all know every macro in existence. That's not one. Not a chance. So I tucked that away in my often-befuddled brain as something to check out when I got home.

But, of course, the movie was so awesome I could think of little else for a while. Then on the Monday, I got this nagging feeling I was supposed to look something up. Natch, I couldn't remember so I carried on with my day, knowing at some point, out of the blue, it would hit me. And, of course, it did as I was turning towards my beer fridge and saw a God of Thunder action figure nestled among others. Thor's beer! So I googled "What beer was Thor drinking at the Avenger's Compound" and *poof* up it popped up.

Because the scene was part of a trailer showed on TV before the movie was released - the scene where Thor approaches Captain Marvel for the first time - it seems that beer had also caught the eye of a healthy handful of Athens, Georgia residents who recognized the beer from their hometown craft brewery, Creature Comforts. The beer itself was their 4.5% Athena Berliner Weisse, a wheat-based sour. And yes, the beer is named after the city it is brewed within as a tribute.

The story had been discovered by Jess Baker, the editor-in-chief of CraftBeer.com, herself a former Georgian and self-proclaimed "Marvel fangirl" who dug a little deeper.

You may have guessed its former use but Creature Comforts Brewery
was originally a Chevrolet dealership back in the 1940s before becoming
Snow Tire Company. As a heritage building, the independent brewery
left some historical components to the exterior as you can clearly see
when it was transformed into a craft brewery in April 2014. Excellent!

As it turns out, according to Baker, the Russo brothers are big craft beer fans and since Marvel Film Studios uses Georgia as location in a lot in its filming, they became big fans of Creature Comforts, as well.

So did the brewery know of its eventual inclusion in the movie that is likely to be the biggest blockbuster of all time... until Marvel's next blockbuster? Uh, can we get a Georgia "Hell yeah!"??

That's because the studio would, of course, legally have to approach them to use their product on film. Obviously, the answer was going to be yes. And to the brewery itself, there was some additional symbolism to the beer chosen for the scene.

Chris Herron, who co-founded the brewery with Derek
Imes, Brewmaster Adam Beauchamp and David Stein,
is shown here in their website photos. As it turned out,
all of the Creature Comforts folks were ecstatic with
their beer's cameo appearance in Avengers: Endgame.

As brewery co-founder and CEO Chris Herron happily told Baker, "We think it is fitting that Thor, the God of Thunder, would drink Athena. The Greek Goddess Athena is, of course, the Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare."

Added Baker in her entertaining piece published a few weeks before the opening, "At this point, Thor, Cap, Black Widow and the remaining Avengers need a whole lot of wisdom on their side." 

Well, sure, as well as some quality craft beer from Athens, Georgia, the Quantum Realm and a few other key variables such as... oops, I can say no more. But as Baker noted, the beer's appearance in the movie means "No. 1: The fine folks at Creature Comforts survived Thanos' 'Snapture' at the end of 'Infinity War' and they're still making beer. No. 2: Craft beer survives Thanos! No. 3: Thor, the God of freaking Thunder, who has a choice of any beer in the Nine Realms, chooses to drink Athena - a craft beer!" Like I said, her piece was a really fun read and hey, I readily admit I share her enthusiasm for both the MCU and craft beer in general.

This Redline Brewhouse's Signal Boost West Coast
IPA landed in my Beer Mail, courtesy of Hamilton
Craft Beer Couple Paul and Kristal. It seems they
popped into Redline over the weekend and had this
available in their Goodie Grab Box! Hey, I'm down!

The story continued after the release when she saw the movie and by gawd, there was Thor drinking yet another Creature Comforts' beer, as well as a brief glimpse of him in a brewery T-shirt. But I'll attach that as a link at the end as I have told enough of Jess Baker's story already. Time for her to tell the rest of this Asgardian tale. Excelsior, Jess!! Fantastic read for both a Beer Geek and a Comic Geek, such as myself.

I have my own yarn to spin here and it's called Beer Mail: Endgame! No one turned (or got unturned) into a big pile of ash in my story. But rather, it's connected to our big Lake of Bays' IPA Brew Day at the Huntsville Brewhouse in mid-April. (I think I may have mentioned it in passing in this very space. Once or twice, maybe.) But you see, there was a group of us - 13 in total - and within that group was a separate sub-group that sends Beer Mail to each other across the different corners of the province. Since that involved Canada Post getting a whole lot of our coin, we decided to simply do our Beer Mails when we finally met in person. Not that we don't like handing Crown Corporations our cash.

Two of Ottawa Matty's beer were leading the race, neck-
and-neck until I had this Beyond The Pale Brewing Saison
Tropicale. Okay, this saison was insanely juicy to the point
that, if blind-folded, I never would have guessed a saison.

Okay, okay, we don't and would much prefer to spend it on beer.

So what I want to do here is look at some of the Beer Mail I received and since I can't go through it all (we're talking dozens), simply pick my favourite from each of my Beer Mail Buds.

Now Hamilton Craft Beer Couple (as they're known on Twitter) Paul and Kristal suggested since we were all meeting in Huntsville that we should do a Bottle Swap. The others and myself noted that we each would be getting so much beer that day via our unposted Beer Mails, that more wouldn't be necessary. However, I said we'd all be happy to give them some beer and receive exactly zero back. I mean, we got so much beer, it took me five trips from the car to get it all in the house. And I'm that guy who tries to retrieve ALL the groceries in one trip. So anyway, when the time came to do the beer swaps, Paul had a box of beer in front of him and basically insisted that we all take something. Anything! Well, I didn't want to let the pair down so I peeked into the box.

When it came to Ottawa Joel's beers, there could only be one
winner as this Waller St Brewing Black Imperial IPA was so
outstanding that I was practically willing to get into my car and
drive to the Nation's Capitol to buy out their retail. Crazy good!

I, being me, spotted a brightly coloured label and pulled it out of the box. (So yes, marketers, to this guy, catching my eye counts.) Much to my surprise, it was a new release from Barrie's outstanding Redline Brewhouse, their Signal Boost West Coast IPA. A new Redline beer? Suddenly, I didn't feel so guilty about plucking a free beverage from Paul and Kristal's Bottle Swap Box. (To be honest, I can't remember what I brought for them at this late point.)

As for the Signal Boost? Well, every once in a while, a strong west coast IPA comes along, slaps me upside the head and says, "What's with all the haze love, bro? Have you forgotten you started with us?" This was damn good. Grapefruit, orange, apricot (mmm, apricot *Homer Simpson drooling face*) in a neat little 6.3% package. So thanks, Kristal and Paul! It was fantastic!

Okay, Ottawa Matty was, hands down, the toughest from whom to pick a favourite.

Hamilton artist-cartoonist David Buist's cartoon for Dominion
City Brewing's Sunsplit IPA (shown here liberally cropped)
was so good, the brewery itself wanted to know if they could
get prints made to put up on the brewery's wall. The dude's
got some righteous talent. Hopefully, that actually happens!!

Eventually, Ottawa Joel sent me a list of who got what from which breweries between the pair of them. I was never sure but apparently, the guys split up so there's be no duplication (which is very smart.) So Matty got me some beauties from Stray Dog Brewing, Beyond The Pale Brewing, Brasserie Tuque de Broue and Perth Brewing. Stray Dog had a fantastic session stout, Perth had a crazy good Session IPA and Tuque de Broue had a Maple Wheat that was awesome.

But in the end, I had to go with Beyond The Pale's Saison Tropicale, which was just nuts! Being as this is the same brewery that created Aromatherapy Vermont Style IPA, which was one of my first really big NEIPAs a couple of Summers back and Yummy! North East Pale Ale, a little hazemeister which was also part of Matty's package, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that they'd find a way to go crazy with a saison. But this was the juiciest, most flavourful saison I've probably ever had and I have had a few beauties, notably from Whitby's Little Beast Brewing, in the past.

Orange, mango, pineapple all collide with Belgian yeast in this little bomb blast called Saison Tropicale, that's 7.7% and 55 IBUs. Just a fantastic and very different interpretation of the style.

Ottawa Joel, in the meantime, grabbed us beers from Brasserie Etienne Brule, Waller St Brewing, Cassel Brewing and Dominion City Brewing. Now one of the Dominion City beer, Sunsplit IPA, had to be ruled out of this little competition right from the get-go. Why? It was selected as my Best IPA from 2018. So I already knew how great it is!

Given some of the outstanding beers that Danny got
me from Sudbury's Stack Brewing, I suspect my
selection of their Birch Pale Ale as their best will
surprise him a little. It shouldn't. Hugely unique!

Not only that but I have placed two mail orders from Dominion City and half of each delivery was six Sunsplit IPA. So yeah, let's just slide this out.

So while Cassel made a top-notch coffee and milk brunch stout and Brasserie Etienne Brule made a dynamite little black pale ale (my first ever), it was much easier to pick a favorite from Joel the second I opened the Waller St Black Imperial IPA. This is hardly my first Black IPA rodeo. I've been in that saddle many times. But you know what? I think this might be the best I've ever had. Actually, let's just say it definitely is and be done with the guesswork. Huge chocolate and licorice on the dark side, big (and I mean, humongous) pine on the IPA side, all blended into this 8.5%, 90 IBU black magic. Just a phenomenal beer. Take a bow, Waller St brewers! Seriously.

Okay, Danny, who hails from Sudbury, was faced with a different problem when assembling Beer Mail for us all. While Matty and Joel has to split their time between Ottawa breweries and I have access to pretty much any brewery from Toronto to Hamilton, Danny was frustrated because Sudbury only has one brewery, Stack Brewing. He was bemoaning that fact when we all just said, "So what? Bring us a bunch of Stack beers!!"

Among Ottawa Joel's beers was the Dominion City's
Provincial IPA With Centennial (hops). So here I am,
chopping wood with the beer up front. Yeah, right, like
I do physical stuff ever. This is a brewery photograph.

I mean, I'm not sure how accessible Stack's inventory is to the Ottawa guys but I don't see much of it down in the GTA. Okay, dude, we all said, just overwhelm us with Stack!!!

So he did exactly that. While I had enjoyed just one of these previously, we got everything - a Black IPA, an Altbier, a Chocolate Cherry Stout, a sinfully delicious Imperial Stout, a Sour IPA, just some fantastic beers.

But Danny, a Montreal Canadiens fan, became an unwitting part of the Maple Leafs playoffs run when I drank nothing but Stack beers during a crucial Game 5 between Boston and Toronto - a game the Leafs won to take a 3-2 series lead. Well, hockey fans are as superstitious as hockey players so when the series went to Game 7, I took the remaining Stack beers I had, added some more of their Belgian Blonde that I found at the LCBO (on sale for $2.80/can!) and crossed my fingers that the Stack Magic could work twice. Unfortunately, it didn't. Boston won but let's be honest, I was asking a lot of the Sudbury brewery. And I think both Habs' fans Matty and Danny and Ottawa Senators' fan Joel were kinda sorta (very) mildly rooting for my Maple Leafs for one reason. We all hate Boston.

Ahhh, yes, it all comes back to Thor, doesn't it?
Well, as you can tell from this T-Shirt, our noble
God of Thunder doth love his beer. You'll see how
much in Avengers: Endgame. Though at this late
date, if you haven't seen it, you likely never will.

So, anyway, the Stack beer that I enjoyed the most wasn't the best of the bunch. That would be the Helter Smelter Imperial Stout. No, in this case, I picked the most unique. That was their Birch Pale Ale. Why? Because they actually used birch in the brewing process. The brewery said there's hints of mint and wintergreen in the 6.5% pale ale. Yeah, honestly, I didn't get any of that. You know what I got? A crap-ton of wood - pine and apparently birch. And I loved it. It was the most unique beer I've had since... well... the last most unique beer I've had. But I tell you, as I drank it, while watching my Leafs lose Game 7, I thought, "Well, at least this is a very cool beer." When you're losing, any port in a storm, right?

Okay, I'll be back in a bit with some cool beers from Beer Bro Glenn that I'm not including because this is long enough and we exchange beers several times a year. But that second Avengers: Endgame teaser involving Creature Comforts Brewing? Well, you can find it in Jess Baker's uber-cool story that I'll just call: God Of Thunder Or God Of Beer? But Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...

World's best IPA coming to Huntsville?

Behind Lake of Bays owner Darren Smith, addressing our
group and asking us (me, specifically) not to jump on the
furniture, are his two social media mavens, Emma, left and
Jackie, right. Now these two ladies have a riot with our group
of Beer Warriors on Twitter, especially before we all arrived.

Before I jump into the fun that 13 of us all had at our Lake of Bays' IPA Brew Day at the Huntsville Brewhouse on April 13, a couple of shout-outs to the Baysville brewery squadron.

At the top of the list has to be Darren Smith, the owner of Lake of Bays. Now in his early-30s, he started the brewery in 2010, meaning he was... *stops cold, counts on fingers*... in his early-20s when he started the whole shootin' match up. In fact, he was still completing his Economics degree at McGill University when he decided he wanted to open a brewery. A property became available in Baysville at that exact moment and *bam* he became the youngest craft brewery owner in Ontario. Hell, nine years later, he may still be. Now despite fighting off a cold, Darren hung with us all day, answering any questions we had - and we had plenty so more on that in a bit. Having the King in your courtyard at your disposal all day long? Priceless. For everything else, such as the copious amount of beer we all bought on our way out, there's MasterCard. (Las Vegas, credit cards and craft beer will be the ruin of me yet. Oh hell, throw in Huntsville, too.)

Brewer Andrew Walsh walks Hamilton cartoonist David,
Sudbury homebrewer Danny and "That Canadian Beer
Guy" Curtis through the steps of brewing our IPA. Now
because Andrew is used to walking that space alone, he
brought us into the brewing area just four at a time. 

Next on the Praise Deck is Rob Walcot, the brewery's Director of Sales, who acted as the Headmaster to our group of unruly hooligans (again - mostly just me) throughout the proceedings. We had come from as far away as Sudbury, Ottawa and Hamilton for this event and Rob kept us in focus (and as a Focus Group!) all day. Great guy. Lots of praise thrown in his direction from the group-at-large.

Of course, there's my LoB sales rep, Tim Glazin, who got the ball rolling on this day by arranging the meeting between Ron and myself. Now if you know Tim, he loves his classic cars and he missed a big car show just to hang with us. That, my friends, is not only a big deal, it's likely unprecedented in this man's life.

Okay, you can't make a beer without a brewer and on this day, we had on our team one of the best around - Andrew Walsh. You see, Andrew is responsible for the experimental batches that come out of Huntsville Brewhouse. If the beer meets with public acclaim at the brewhouse, the recipe is shuttled down to Baysville where it becomes part of their regular line-up. And as we saw with Starboard NEIPA, they are not afraid to tinker with and improve a released beer.

Barrie Beer Bro Hago, right, could sense that Shwa Beer Bro
Glenn was starting to slow down as he raked the spent grain out
of the mash-tun so he jumped in with a Bro Hug. We had to
carry four of these barrels - only half-filled - up to the sidewalk
and lemme tell you, they weigh a ton. Brewing is hard work!!!

And finally, a quick nod to two young ladies, Jackie and Emma, the brewery's social media squad, who were having as much fun with this event prior to our arrival as we were. I singled them out for praise while there and as it happens, their boss, Rob, just happened to be standing there when I did. A happy coincidence (well, if you believe that there actually are coincidences.) Ladies, we have so much Twitter fun with you on a daily basis and your ability to keep up with and outwit our motley collection of goofballs is admirable. (*Looking back at our gang's various tweets*) Okay, so it's not much of a challenge, not at all really, but still...

Okay, quick recap. So 13 of us all drive to Huntsville Brewhouse to make an IPA. I just explained the brewery side. Our side was: Graeme (who needs his caffeine), Curtis (That Canadian Beer Guy), Ottawa Matty, Ottawa Joel, homebrewer Sudbury Danny, Paul and Kristal (Hamilton Craft Beer Couple), their friends, Paul and Colleen, Hamilton cartoonist (and my co-pilot on the trip) David, Barrie Soldier Boy Hago, Beer Bro Glenn and myself.

This photo, which I think was taken by Sudbury
Danny, gives you a pretty good idea of the limited
space we were working with in Huntsville. It's not
surprising that we went in four or five at a time.

So we go through all the big introductions and a healthy handful of "Quiet, Donny!" moments. (I call it enthusiasm. Others use different words.) Then brewer Andrew explained that he and I have talked previously, we agreed we're going to do a west coast IPA and then he throws it open for our flavour profile suggestions. Those came fast and furious but since it's a west coaster and not a haze bomb, it's The Usual Suspects - grapefruit (of course), some pine, a little orange, some tropical fruit, perhaps apricot, super light malty back-end (y'know, if at all.)

Then Andrew asked if we have any favourite hops. Of course, the Big C's come out - Cascade, Centennial and Citra. I threw out Idaho 7, which I have come to truly love, and by gawd, yup, it was there. In fact, I think I heard about eight or nine hops in total and yes sir, almost all were on site. And Andrew was game to jam as many of them in as possible. (You can read all about it in my future PhD thesis: "Why We Love Andrew.")

So then why Andrew was plunking all the variables for our brew into his laptop, Rob walked us through the day. We would make the beer, of course, but we were also official tasters-judges-critics for some of their experimental beers.

Come on, Cartoon Boy, put your back into it! David
Buist helps pour the malt into the mash-tun. So you
know, David's job is with a Board of Education out
in Brant County so yes, we had a very animated and
interesting conversation about the Premier with us
coming to the conclusion that the man is a disaster.
Plus swearing as I am couching our real words here.

He had to arm-twist (*cough*) but eventually we agreed to taste-test all these funky brews, complete with score-sheets and comment sections.

But first, we had to start our beer, which involved four or five of us following Andrew into the brewing area. He had pre-selected the malt we would be using - don't remember which it was - and we each took a took pouring it into the mash-tun. This was trickier than it sounds because inside the bag was a separate plastic liner to preserve the malts and we had to be careful not lose our grip on that while pouring. Otherwise, Andrew warned, we would be creating the world's most plastic-tasting beer.

As the last group of five in there, Andrew laid down the brew-room rules. Number one of which was: Do not step on any hoses. We all nodded in accordance. To which Andrew then added, "Donny, get off the hose." I looked down and, yup, I was pretty clearly standing on a hose. Y'know, I'd like to say that was my last mistake of the day but then again, I'd also like to say I'm filthy rich. Neither would be true.

Anyway, we got our brew started but we'd be back to rake the used malts out of the mash-tun, carry four really heavy buckets of it up five stairs, later pour in some hops and... well, actually, that was about it. Pretty much everything else rested on Andrew's shoulders.

Barrie Beer Bro Hago and Lake of Bays owner Darren show us
the "Elbow Bump." This was used instead of shaking hands as
Darren was coming off a cold and didn't want us to catch it. For
his part, Hago, usually the most precision-orientated among us
because of his military training, actually started off in Baysville,
rather than Huntsville, because he didn't read the instructions!!

But our day was far from over. As food continued to shuttle out from the kitchen towards our group and the beers flowed freely, we had some free time with Darren Smith at our table - that is, the rowdy table, the poor man. So naturally, the group started quizzing him and I gotta be honest, he was all-in, open to any question. Someone in the group lobbed him a softball. "What's your favourite Lake of Bays beer?" He thought about it for a second and came back with their new 4.7% Sunseeker Tangerine Pale Ale, which is quite nice, very orange and should be a summertime hit for many, myself included. I followed up the easy lob with a slightly harder slider. "What's your favourite non-Lake of Bays beer?" eliciting some "ooohs" from around the table. Now that he had to think about for a bit but he came back with Duggan's No 9 IPA, an old-school Toronto favourite that's been in and out of circulation for many years. I believe it's back in but can still be a tough find. And, of course, he talked about the brewery, the brewhouse and pretty much anything else we wanted to know.

Andrew had them bring out samples of the different hops (pellet form)
for us to smell and get a sense of the difference. However, Jackie and
Emma saw this shot I posted on Twitter and cracked that's what was left
of all the hops at the Huntsville Brewhouse when we finished up our beer.

To be honest, his appearance was completely unexpected even though I helped coordinate the day on our end. I mean, Rob and Andrew had a firm handle on the event so Darren joining in and having a good time, well, that was truly just a bonus for all of us.

Eventually it was time to start rating some of their experimental beers and while I usually keep notes on voice recorder, I completely forgot so I enlisted Matty's memories of the day as he and Joel were posting them on Untappd. First on deck was an unidentified radler, which like the rest, came with a tasting sheet.

The Beer Mail Exchange! You see, this group mails A LOT of beer back
and forth throughout Ontario through Canada Post. But since we were
all meeting in Huntsville, we decided screw the hefty postage and just
hand-deliver our next Beer Mails to each other. From the left, that's
Ottawa Joel, Cartoonist David, me, Ottawa Matty, Sudbury Danny,
Shwa Boy Glenn and everyone's favourite soldier Hago, taking the pic.

Now to me, a radler is grapefruit juice mixed with (usually) a lager and as such, I neither drink them nor know much about them. That became readily apparent when I tasted it and said bluntly (a bit loudly, as well) "This is not a radler!"

Poor Rob kept shushing me as I repeated my insistence a few times. Well, turns out it doesn't have to be grapefruit in the mix and this was, in fact, a cranberry-apple cider-beer mixture the brewery was calling Red Sky at Night. Gotta be honest, for a guy who refuses radlers, I quite enjoyed this, as did the balance of the group.

We got slightly altered versions of Peach Paradise Milkshake IPAs, their Paddle On Session Ale, as well as the Sunseeker Tangerine Pale Ale, Darren's current favourite.

Chef Brian came out to talk to our group during the
festivities and I gotta say, the food at the Brewhouse is
Top Shelf (little Lake of Bays humour there.) We had
delicious trout tacos (SO GOOD!), freshly-baked huge
pretzels, flatbread bruschetta and these shots of funky
tomato soup on a spice high. Just fantastic food here!

But there was also some newbies in the mix - a Scotch Ale they're testing (wonderfully malty and bang-on in style), a new Stout (which I quite liked but they had one on tap I liked even better - I'll get to that) and finally, the show-stopper, a potential Double IPA release that, frankly, we all raved over! Damn, it was good!

But that other stout on tap? Well, Andrew created a coffee stout called Java the Hutt that they goosed with nitro at the tap. Although the brewery decided not to release it, we all thought it was fantastic. I think we're all kinda hoping they still will consider it as a seasonal release at least. Think of their Nightwatcher Oatmeal Stout (which is great) but with coffee instead... and on nitro! I tell you, it was damn good!

Except for a couple of us, this would be the first time the group was meeting in person. I mean, we talk on Twitter all the time but up close and for real is always different. One of the funnier things to me was Matty's shifting accent. You see, both Joel and Danny's homes had a strong French presence growing up so yeah, they had that cool Franco lilt in their speech from the start. Matty did not. Until he got drinking and then suddenly the French accent became a little more and a little more pronounced.

There were a lot of beers we enjoyed up there in Huntsville
but the one we drank the most, as well as the one we all
purchased the most on our way out the door? This one.
Their Starboard New England IPA. Just a fantastic beer!

So, of course, I called him on it because that's what guys do. He laughed and admitted that, yeah, when he drinks, that French accent, well, it kinda sneaks its way in there.

And just today, their social media squad of Jackie and Emma, told us on Twitter that our beer is coming to the finish line! They said it was dry-hopped on Monday with Idaho 7 (yes, my hop!), fermenting at 20C and then on Thursday, it was crash-cooled from 20C to 0C. It's apparently 5.9% (perfect - we all suggested around 6% or so) and was ready to be filtered. So we're getting close here!

So they asked everyone involved to suggest some names. Hamilton Craft Beer Couple Kristal and Paul liked Bucket List IPA since brewing a beer is something a lot of people in our group had on their bucket list. I went with Huntsville Brew Crew IPA which is both unimaginative and pretty dull all at the same time. I have a gift. Danny liked All The Hops (certainly true) or Hopstravaganza. But Joel threw out DIPA: Donny Is Phantoming Again! Okay, obviously, this needs explanation.

Except for me and David, the guys do not know about this cartoon. You
see, when the boys all caught up to me in a Huntsville motel, they found
their way into my room, watched the Leafs play Boston and snapped a
selfie of themselves around me while I was sawing logs. They are, from
top left, counter-clockwise, Cartoonist David, who drew this, Ottawa
Matty, Sudbury Danny, Ottawa Joel and Shwa Boy Glenn. While the
selfie was hilarious, it was a soft focus in a dark room with David's and
Glenn's heads chopped off. So David stepped up to capture the moment!

You see, David and I arrived at Huntsville Brewhouse at about 12:30 pm for the day. Matty and Joel were the only two there before us. And we drank and drank and ate and then drank some more. At about 6:30 or so, I was out front having a smoke when I realized, man, I'm knackered.

So I asked the waitress where the nearest motel was (about five minutes on foot up the road), grabbed a sixer of Starboard NEIPA and basically just disappeared without saying anything. Checked in, turned on the Leafs-Bruins game and promptly fell asleep. My friends call that "phantoming" as in "Where's Donny?" and the answer is "Oh, he phantomed again!" So Hago phoned me, asked me where I was and I told him. Next thing I know, these guys were knocking on my window. I let them all in and fell back asleep while they watched the game. There had to be 25 empty cans of Starboard in my room when I woke up in the morning. One was mine. And that's the whole story, Your Honour. Anyway, that was our day and this weekend, I will be writing about the best beers I got from these gents and one lady. But Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...

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...

The calm amidst the storm...

There was one keyboard warrior who DMed me
but just would not shut up about my last blog on
Flying Monkeys' Sparklepuff. Basically called
me every name in the book but I tell you this.
I'm gonna "miss" him now that he's blocked.

Some interesting reaction following my last one, which looked at the controversial Flying Monkeys' Sparklepuff Triple IPA.

For my friends, Drunk Polkaroo and Linda Beer, it seem to further spur the intensity of their battle against the beer's obvious inconsistencies (some great, some straight-up drain pours), with both being adamant that the beer should have been recalled. Based on the pictures of mine (all great) and the pictures of others (nasty looking), it's impossible to deny that. The pictures in the blog told A Tale Of Two Beers, rather than one.

As a homebrewer, Linda, who got a really bad one, was adamant that the beer never should have been released but since it was, should have been recalled the instant trouble was spotted. Polk, one of Ontario's most respected beer writers and videographers, got two good ones but felt likewise and was abhorred with the brewery's lack of reaction and continued distribution of a beer that he felt is, at best, a 50/50 shot. And they both agreed on one thing. The brewery was now off their radar, if not forever, certainly for a long while to come.

But it was a couple of DMs inboxed to me that caught my attention, more so. One was a woman who asked why I continued to post the beer's picture when I knew there were bad ones out there. Well, because I never got a bad one, I told her.

Fair enough, she said, "But it looked like you were bragging about #30 still being perfect while others were getting horrible ones. Isn't that a little inconsiderate? You were promoting a beer that could be a disaster for someone else."

Just as I was about to answer, I stopped. She was right. Certainly not my intention but, well, we all know that phrase about good intentions and the road to Hell. So I responded, telling her she was absolutely right. While I thought I was posting about my luck, I might have been seen as something of a dickhead to those who got clunkers. I thanked her for pointing that out because I had missed that perception completely. Okay, I now know I can be a clueless dickhead.

What started as a turbulent night took a 180 degree turn when Twitter
friend Leo Roose posted this picture of a 1965 can display pegboard
from the Red Lake Brewers Retail. It stopped all of us cold, turning
Friday evening into a night of nostalgic memories for many of us...

Her response? "Thank you for listening. It feels nice to know I've been heard. Don't beat yourself up. We all make mistakes." I like her. She was calm, reasonable, rational and showed me civilly where my mistake might lay.

As opposed to the man in my DMs who wanted to slay me in my sleep. He started off with me being a corporate stooge, Beer Store moron and the brewery's asshole shill. And that was just the beginning. No idea who he was. He had an anonymous name like XD117 (not that but like that) but we followed each other. That said, I follow over 1,300 people and am followed by over 1,100. Suffice it to say, I don't know most.

It's Leo on the left with a server on Trestle Brewing's
(Parry Sound) Grand Opening Day in June 2018. As a
14-year citizen of Parry Sound with his wife (they just
celebrated their 30th anniversary!!), Leo was pretty
pumped to see a craft brewery opening in his town.

I did try to answer him but he wasn't there to listen. He was there to yell through his keyboard. But just as R2D2 (or whatever) was really getting started, I got instantly sidetracked.

Twitter friend Leo Roose (@leo_rooster) posted a picture of his 1965 can display pegboard from a Brewers Retail (what the Beer Store used to be called) in Red Lake, Ontario. Yes, 1965, as in 54 years old. And he tagged me on the picture, thinking as a Beer Store employee, I might be interested in this piece from past. Uhhh, yeah. I needed a decent distraction from C3PO anyway.

Now before we get into Leo and his 3,000 vintage mostly Canadian beer can collection (Cottage Life filmed a piece on him and I'll include it at the end), lemme travel in a different direction for a minute.

I retweeted it to my Twitter page so friends could see it and holy crap, it stoked a lot of memories from Twitter friends. Now there are only 22 cans on that board because at the time, the cans were made of steel and drinkers believed that left a metallic taste in their mouths. So maybe 5% of sales at that point were cans. Everyone mostly stuck with bottles.

Of all the cans on that pegboard, this was
the one that hit me in ALL the feels. This
is the beer my Bumpa Ernie (my Mom's
father) drank when he lived with us from
1964 to 1968, the year he died. He sure
loved his Labatt's IPA. I really miss him.

Three beers on that pegboard got almost all of the attention on Friday night - the Labatt's IPA, the Labatt's Crystal and the Molson Golden Ale. Let's start with the Labatt's IPA, long since discontinued.

In 1963, we moved into our Oakville home when I was still a pre-schooler. Within a year, my Mom's mother died and it was decided that my Bumpa Ernie would leave Winnipeg to come live with us. My late father was a distant, perhaps even disinterested, parent but it didn't matter because my Mom was great. But when Bumpa arrived, I finally had an adult male to follow around and man, did I ever. If he was out back chopping wood, I was 10 feet away, asking him how he did it. I helped him stack the wood, taking the smaller pieces. I became his little sidekick, never far away. My favourite memory was curling up in his lap, his big arm around me as he smoked his pipe. I loved watching the smoke dance and twist as it rose. I loved the smell. It was Bumpa - so named because my oldest niece as an infant was trying to say Grampa but Bumpa came out. It stuck. His favourite beer was Labatt's IPA. When I saw it on Leo's pegboard, Bumpa was my first thought. He died in 1968 but the imprint of the life lessons he taught me and the affection he showed me were by then firmly entrenched within me, even though I was still a youngster. A great man, a legend to a small boy.

But I wasn't the only one with a grandfather who loved the beer. Beer blogger-vlogger Adam Kemp (@thebrewhead) jumped in to say he remembered his "Papa" drinking it.

Molson's big switcheroo on the Golden fans was changing
it from an ale to a lager. According the Stephen Beaumont,
it happened in 1983-84 and a lot of people were not happy.

As did my college buddy, Steve, now living in New Zealand. "That's the IPA me ol' Grand-dad drank, too. He always said it was the only beer among the Brewers Retail swill at the time that had any flavour."

Next on deck, let's look at the Molson Golden. Seeing the beer created a lively talk between myself and Chris, (@IcemanFTW) who remembered the Golden cans from his Summers at his aunt and uncle's cottage. We talking about how the brewery switched it from an ale to a lager, much to the chagrin of Golden fans. Lagers were by far the favourite style at the time of the switch so Molson, already having Export as a huge-selling ale, revamped Golden into a lager, hoping to follow in the huge sales footprint of Canadian. It was a mistake. I said to Chris, "All the original Golden fans were going WTF?" He remembered that all too well.

Leo says this pristine Labatt's Blue can, then
called Pilsener, can get about $200 on ebay
since less than 2% of beer was canned back
in the late-1950s. That makes this a super
rare find, especially in such good condition.

"I want to say that was when my family switched to drinking Export. Mid-80's, right?"

At this point, the Dean of Canadian Beer Writing and multi-published author Stephen Beaumont (Mr. @beaumontdrinks - I always preface it with Mr out of deference) stepped in. "Yeah, it was the mid-1980s. Maybe 1983, '84 or so. I had a friend who was one of the WTF people. Switched brands immediately." 

And finally, Labatt's Crystal garnered some attention. I asked if Labatt's even still made it as I haven't seen in in the GTA for maybe four or five years.

My friend, Raeci Jane, (@raeraegck), who works at a Beer Store in Thunder Bay, was quick with the answer. "Fun fact: A couple of years ago, Labatt's planned on pulling Crystal from its line-up. Thunder Bay threw a 'Save Labatt's Crystal' Party and singlehandedly kept it around. The Beer Store here still brings in pallets every week and it is one of our most popular value brands." It's beautiful when a town can pull together like that. And the cause is beer.

Added Brayden, (@braydenmoore1) also from the Thunder Bay area, "I'm stunned that Crystal ISN'T popular in other places. It's ubiquitous up here." Even as a dedicated craft drinker, he noted, "I'm not ashamed to say that I've bought a case or two over my lifetime."

The Beer That Thunder Bay Saved! Here's
an old-school Labatt's Crystal, circa 1967 or
so. Labatt's was ready to lay it to rest but
Thunder Bay was having none of that bull.

So those were the main topics on conversation on Friday night but I would be remiss if I didn't mention a comment from Steve of South Ontario Beer Boys (@SOBeerBoys) who spotted a Black Label can on that pegboard. "Black Label... first beer consumed at 14... errr, 16... I mean 19. Yeah, that's when it was." I suspect we can all relate.

So how about Leo Roose, the guy that kicked off a great and lively night of conversation and memories with a photo of a Brewers Retail pegboard display from 1965 while TMX465 was busy burning up my inbox with an angry diatribe?

First up? How did he get a 1965 can display pegboard from the Red Lake Brewers Retail in the first place?

"It was Eugene Drominski, who was then the retired Beer Store Manager in Red Lake." (Red Lake is in north-west Ontario - think halfway between Thunder Bay and Kenora.) "It was he who saved it from the dumpster. I heard he might have it so I went and knocked on his door."

Okay, Pop Quiz, hotshots. This is the Molson Canadian
5-litre bubba from around 2000 or so. The LCBO was
upset with a part of Step 3 where it says, "Turn the keg
over..." And? Well, Molson employees had to cross the
words out with black magic marker. What was the rest
of Part 3? "...and you're ready to party." Whoa. Leo
says they felt it encouraged drunkenness. But he got a
very rare bubba here. Subsequent ones omitted the
"ready to party." Because bubba's were meant to sip.

And did he just give it to you? "No, I paid $100 for it but a few cans on there are quite rare so it was a bargain price. All of those cans were attached. I didn't alter or change them. The Beer Store did as labels changed over the years. I sure wish I had all the original cans."

As the guy who is basically the Stephen Beaumont of Canadian beer cans with well over 3,000 in his collection, Leo knows what cans changed during that pegboard's life and which remained.

"I'm guessing it hung on the wall for about six to seven years. In that time, the Crystal, IPA, Holiday, Cincinnati and Blended changed their designs." Seriously? He knows that? Yes, he does. But there's an awesome seven minute video at the end that you have to watch. This dude loves his beer... cans.

Anyway, Friday night was a blast with more than two dozen of us weighing in on beers that were on that 1965 Red Lake Brewers Retail can display pegboard. And believe me, Leo was in the thick of things.

"I enjoyed the feedback that followed. I could talk beer cans forever." A simple Twitter post to a stranger and it was the best Friday night I have had in quite some time.

As for STD1707? Well, I went back and read it eventually. It was quite lengthy and he demanded to know why I wasn't responding. Because I was having fun, PDQ548. My favourite insult, though? That I'm a Douche Nozzle. I'm afraid to Google it to see if it's a real thing. But I loved that one. Anyway, I unfollowed and blocked FLQ1908. Turns out the guy was something of a douche nozzle. Such a shame. But here's that video of our man Leo Roose which I have entitled: I Love Beer Cans, Man... Watch it. There's a test. But Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here. Until next time, I remain...