St. John's Wort

Beery Musings And Amusing Beers

Yearly Archives: 2015

“Wait’ll you see this bridge. They spent a million dollars on it.” The van is passing through the North Carolina landscape just west of Mills River. It’s some of the greenest country I’ve ever seen, and for good reason. The rainfall in this part of the Appalachians is enough to […]

Sierra Nevada Mills River

May 5, 2015 in The North American Tour tagged Sierra Nevada by admin

The Background St.Ambroise sold a couple of years back to Brasseurs RJ and the quality has kept up. Originally helmed by Peter McAuslan and Ellen Bounsall, the beers have been and continue to be largely English in their influence. While we tend to see a lot of Belgian influence in […]

Review and Food Pairing: St.Ambroise Erable

May 4, 2015 in Beer and Food / Reviews tagged Fenugreek / Maple Beer / Sotolon / St.Ambroise by admin

“You know, Andy, when I was your age…” was the way that I’d started the sentence, and I immediately wished that I hadn’t. There’s nothing to make you feel old like having to explain your context to your younger brother. Before Andy was born, I was given my first cellphone […]

Review: Local Leaside

May 3, 2015 in Beer and Food / Reviews tagged Craft Beer / Leaside / Local Leaside by admin

The Background Grand River started brewing in Ontario in 2007, but the site that they’re on in Galt has actually been producing alcohol for something like 200 years. Absalom Shade had mills there and eventually managed to vertically integrate the whole community. He sold seed and milled grain and made […]

Review: Grand River Olde Defiant

April 24, 2015 in Reviews / Uncategorized tagged Bob Hannenberg / Grand River / Olde Defiant by admin

The Background When I came back to Ontario from university out east, there were basically two Ontario beers at the LCBO that I could be sure were going to be quality. This was before “Craft Beer,” a term which emerged around 2007, so it was just beer. Those beers were […]

Barn Door Brewing Company Winter Porter

April 22, 2015 in Reviews by admin

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Let me tell you about how things change in Ontario. In 1837, the rebels in Upper Canada met at breweries. They met at John Farr’s brewery and they met at John Doel’s brewery. John Doel was a Methodist. He wanted exactly the same thing that the rebels wanted: responsible government, […]

How You Win in Ontario

April 18, 2015 in Shameless Plugs / The Ontario Beer Revolution by admin

Sawdust City’s situation provides a revealing look at the current beer retailing situation in Ontario. Here we have a brewery riding the crest of the current wave of craft beer’s expansion and they’re handicapped somewhat by the market. I’ll explain what I mean. At the moment, there is one product […]

Sawdust City’s Spring Seasonals

April 9, 2015 in Uncategorized tagged Princess & Girl Pants Meet The O.D.B / Princess Wears Girl Pants / Sam Corbeil / Sans Pants / Sawdust City / There's no Way of Knowing / Twin Pines IPA by admin

“You’re number two” says the greying Asian man to the bartender as he’s walking in the door of Habits Gastropub. I’m confused temporarily and take it as either a set up for a punchline or a low normal motivational chant. It’s quickly explained to me by co-owner Michelle Genttner that […]

Habits Gastropub House Saison

April 6, 2015 in Reviews tagged Chris Conway / Christina Coady / Doug Allen / Habits Gastropub / Saison by admin

The first thing that I noticed walking into Left Field’s brewery on Monday was how much calmer and happier everyone seemed to be now that the place is finally opened. There has been rejoicing on social media about the fact that it is now possible to buy their beer in […]

Root For the Home Team

April 1, 2015 in Reviews / Shameless Plugs / Uncategorized by admin

Background For reasons that I don’t completely understand, the people at Molson keep sending me things to review. I think this is due to the fact that I try to be fairly objective when I review a product. This always strikes me as somewhat odd because an objective review of […]

Review: Rickard’s Radler

March 22, 2015 in Reviews tagged Labradoodles / MolsonCoors / Rickard's Radler by admin