Reviews

I’m always happy to receive beer from Grand River Brewing. I got to know Bob Hannenberg a little bit during a stopover in Philadelphia on the way to the craft brewing conference in San Diego last year. I like Bob, and generally speaking, I like much of the beer that […]

They Send Me Beer: Grand River Brewing

January 11, 2013 in LCBO Releases / Reviews / Shameless Plugs tagged Grand River / Jubilation Winter Warmer / Russian Gun / The Galt Munitions Misadventure of 1856 by admin

I’m always interested when something I’m not expecting happens. For instance, I didn’t expect the brewers at Black Oak to start up their own label. They’ve been a bit cagey about it as the thing has developed and I don’t think that anyone knew quite what to expect. It was […]

They Send Me Beer: Radical Road Brewing Canny Man

January 6, 2013 in Reviews / Shameless Plugs / The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged black oak / Canny Man / Jon Hodd / Radical Road Brewing / Simon DaCosta / Young Hearts Be Free Tonight by admin

These days when I go to a tasting for a new brewery, I’m always a little bit leery. The sheer number of startups in Ontario at the moment suggest to me that we are in a boom period for craft beer. If you want to look at it objectively, you […]

It Takes A Village – Liberty Village Brewing Company

November 15, 2012 in Reviews / The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged Liberty Village Brewing Company / Ontario Craft Beer by admin

One of the best things about traveling to San Diego last month was that I got the chance to try Pliny The Elder from Russian River on tap. I can tell you that I didn’t get it. I had had it in bottles before; a couple of times in fact. […]

Pliny The Elder and Citizen Kane

June 4, 2012 in Reviews tagged Charles Foster Kane / Pliny The Elder / The Simpsons / Vinnie Cilurzo / Wouldn't Get A Bit Upset If He Was Really Broke by admin

People have already written about Bellwoods Brewery. I sort of suspected that would happen out of the gate. It seems like everyone in beer in Toronto has been there. I knew it was going to be a big deal when my next door neighbour, Dave, mentioned in passing that he […]

Bellwoods Brewery

May 12, 2012 in Reviews / The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged Bellwoods Brewery / Luke Pestl / Mike Clark / Ossington by admin

You know how sometimes, you acquire a bottle of beer that’s going to be really, really good? The temptation is to chill it and serve it immediately, but that’s not always the best course of action. You will have read about the beer on some rating site and it’s got […]

In Which I Refrain From Making Any Puns About WVRST

April 26, 2012 in Accounting for Taste / Reviews tagged A Banger In The Mouth / Schneider Weisse / Susanne Hecht / WVRST by admin

Some time ago, I was asked whether I’d be interested in judging a competition. As I haven’t actually received formal BJCP training yet, it wasn’t a beer competition. It was something of a departure from my regular activities as this was for the Barry Callebaut Intercollegiate Chocolate Competition. I’m sure […]

In Which I Eat A Very Large Amount Of Chocolate

April 23, 2012 in Non Beer Writing / Reviews tagged Balancing Chocolate Elephants / Barry Callebaut / Chocolate / Humber College / Intercollegiate Chocolate Competition by admin

Brewers will tell you that the summer is their busy season. You’d never know it based on the amount of activity happening this month; So far we’ve had a festival at The Only Café and a couple of beer launches. I don’t really talk about the Only Café very much, […]

Hogtown and Double Trouble OR Let’s Do Launch.

February 8, 2012 in Reviews / The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged Double Trouble Brewing Co / Duke of Devon Toronto / Hogtown Brewers / Hops and Robbers / King Pilsner / The Only Cafe by admin

One of the things that I find irksome about living at Yonge and Davisville (aside from the inevitable late night taxi fares, which are one of the apparent hazards of being a beer writer) is the fact that otherwise intelligent people who live south of Bloor seem to think of […]

Can Beer Bars Survive North Of Bloor?

January 6, 2012 in Reviews tagged Beer at Don Mills and Lawrence / Beer at Yonge and Eglinton / Beer in North Toronto / Bier Markt Don Mills / Capitalist Buytopia / Coco Rogue by admin

When you receive an email from an organization called The Society, inviting you to a private dinner, there are a number of possible responses. They range from bafflement (which I experienced fairly significantly) to a sense of impending dread that you might be on the radar of the illuminati or […]

The Social Ramble Ain’t Restful

October 4, 2011 in Reviews tagged Being exceedingly well behaved in public / Gilead Cafe / Jamie Kennedy / The Inebriati / The Society by admin

St. John's Wort

Beery Musings And Amusing Beers