Since it is December, we are in that phase of the year when people talk idly about abolishing The Beer Store. You’ve got Martin Regg Cohn over at The Star doing a reprise of last year’s column. It’s a good party piece, but it’s unlikely to accomplish anything. Even Anindya […]
Accounting for Taste
The second of the studies that the Ontario Convenience Store Association released in August is a good deal more broad in scope than the first. It is entitled An Economic Analysis of Increasing Competition In Retail Liquor Sales in Ontario. It is also written by Dr. Anindya Sen from the […]
The OCSA vs. The Status Quo
One of the interesting things that happened in Ontario’s beer scene this year is that the market is becoming increasingly contentious. The increased interest in beer is making it so that the status quo is becoming somewhat untenable. There are 155 craft breweries open or in planning as of this […]
The OCSA vs. The Beer Store
Periodically, the Brewer’s Association releases statements that I find a little bit suspect. This is mostly because they’re a lobbying group and their purpose is being optimistic about craft beer. I’m all for defending your own interest. After all, does it not say in the Talmud, “If I am not […]
Devil’s Advocate: Brewer’s Association
Arriving in Burton-On-Trent by train, you get a real sense of what William Blake must have meant by “dark satanic mills.” The landscape is one of rolling hills interspersed with small lakes and marshes until you’re suddenly confronted by the expansive brick warehouses and towering breweries that were the pride […]
On Marston’s and Legacy
2 Here’s an interesting thought: Craft beer in North America went through a lot of growing pains on the way to being where they are at the moment. There were years of struggling to make English styles of beer as authentically as possible (hard to do in San Francisco) and the […]
London Craft Beer
4 Ed Note: Inevitably, marching into another country and talking about a situation I don’t have a complete feel for has the potential to rustle feathers. As such, I have changed the subtitle of my blog for the week to reflect that possibility. One of the things that has interested […]
Real Ale and Craft Beer – Live from the GBBF
1 One of the really nice things about having a column with a big circulation is that people send you things to review. Sometimes, it’s not even beer. At one point about a month ago, three books cropped up. One of those was Pete Brown’s Shakespeare’s Local, referred to here by […]
In Which I Review Two Books About Beer
A couple of weekends ago, I signed a contract to write a new book with m’colleague Alan McLeod of A Good Beer Blog. The book will be called Ontario Beer: A Heady History of Brewing from the Great Lakes to the Hudson Bay. We’re just kids in a candy store […]
Beer and History: Mesopotamia at the ROM OR Sumer Lovin’
12 The other day, I got a haircut. This is not news in and of itself, even though I’m relatively pleased with the haircut. During the smalltalk that goes along with a haircut, I mentioned that I write about beer. It turns out that the stylist had intended at some point […]