Yearly Archives: 2013

I don’t pretend to understand the Alberta beer scene completely. After all, I was only there for about five days, and there’s only so much information you can process. Fortunately, brewers like to talk. While the column this week is about the unique beer hall scene that Alberta has developed […]

Craft Brewing in Alberta – An Outsider’s Perspective

March 2, 2013 in Accounting for Taste / The North American Tour tagged Alberta / Calgary / Craft Beer / Edmonton / Hog's Head / Village Brewing / Yellowhead by admin

I know. It’s March. I chose a short month. Deal with it. PABST BLUE RIBBON What can you say about Pabst Blue Ribbon that Dennis Hopper hasn’t screamed in the middle of an ether binge? Well, there’s the big important thing, which is that PBR more or less defines the […]

Discount Beer February – Sleeman Products

March 1, 2013 in DISCOUNT BEER FEBRUARY / Reviews tagged Maclay's / Old Milwaukee / Pabst Blue Ribbon / Upper Canada Dark / Upper Canada Lager by admin

One of the best things about Molson, from the perspective of DISCOUNT BEER FEBRUARY, is that I have contacts over there. Once I explained what I was trying to do with a survey of the Discount beer section of The Beer Store, and that I really only needed two bottles […]

DISCOUNT BEER FEBRUARY – Molson Products

February 28, 2013 in DISCOUNT BEER FEBRUARY / Reviews tagged Carling Lager / Keystone Lager / Old Style Pilsner / OV / Stockholm Syndrome by admin

Probably the highlight of Alberta so far was dinner at Charcut Roast House, which has garnered a reputation as one of the best new restaurants in Canada. I didn’t realize, when I saw it on the itinerary exactly why I knew what it was. It turns out that the chef […]

Beer and Food – Charcut

February 23, 2013 in Beer and Food / The North American Tour tagged Beer and Food pairing / Charcut / Connie DeSousa / Kirk Bodnar / My Dinner with Andrew by admin

One of the benefits of getting out of Toronto is the contrast that it necessarily provides. Recently, I went to a bar called Thirsty and Miserable in Toronto. I like Thirsty and Miserable. It seats about twenty five and as many as can stand around nodding to the punk rock […]

Water Music and Continental Treat

February 22, 2013 in Reviews / The North American Tour tagged Alberta / Continental Treat / Edmonton / Thirsty and Miserable by admin

I have been a little bit surprised by the willingness of the large brewers to engage with Discount Beer February as a concept. So far, Labatt, Molson and Sleeman have all jumped on board and have either sent, or are sending, samples. I suppose it’s not that strange when you […]

Discount Beer February – Labatt Products

February 13, 2013 in DISCOUNT BEER FEBRUARY / The Beer Store tagged Brava / Busch / Discount Beer February / Lakeport Pilsener / Lucky Lager / Plate / Plate of Shrimp / Shrimp by admin

(Much of the background information for the following comes from Allen Winn Sneath’s excellent book Brewed in Canada. I borrowed Ken Woods’ copy, but you should probably buy your own.) The DISCOUNT BEER CATEGORY at The Beer Store exists for two reasons: 1) Canadians didn’t drink enough Amstel in the […]

Discount Beer February – How We Got Where We Are

February 6, 2013 in DISCOUNT BEER FEBRUARY / The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged Bill Sharpe / Brick / Dave Nichol / Labatt / Lakeport Brewing Company / Minhas Brewery / Molson / President's Choice by admin

WHOSE BABY IS THAT? The first thing that you have to know in order to understand why the James Ready brand exists is that the Oland family, scions of Maritime brewing, had extraordinarily bad luck with their breweries based in Halifax. The brewery burned down in 1878 when fire from […]

Discount Beer February – James Ready

February 5, 2013 in DISCOUNT BEER FEBRUARY tagged James Ready 5.5% / James Ready Original Ale / Obligatory Gertrude Stein Reference / Pleasant Surprises by admin

I have currently been writing professionally about beer for two and a half years. Next week will be the beginning of my third year with Sun Media. I’ve discovered that if you write about beer all the time, you run into a few small problems that nag at you. The […]