St. John's Wort

Beery Musings And Amusing Beers

The Ontario Beer Revolution

“It’s really a root. The fabric is just there to keep the leaves from getting burnt.” The sun will burn in and the tobacco crops that show themselves a gnarled fading yellow back from the road and across an stretch of loamy soil are proof of that. It is the […]

Despatches From The Road: Norfolk County

October 10, 2016 in Ontario Craft Beer Guide / The Ontario Beer Revolution by admin

I had finished my Heritage Toronto walk on the Lost Breweries of the old city, the third of four for the summer, and had managed to remember nearly all of the regular talking points. Headed east over the Don, I was kicking myself for confusing the High Park Johns. Surely […]

The Long Trudge: Collingwood

September 1, 2016 in The Ontario Beer Revolution by admin

(ed. note: This is longer than usual. It is hard to have a discussion about nuanced topics in short form. If that’s what you’d like, Buzzfeed is looking for 12 Readers Who Can’t Believe What Happened Next.) You may have noticed that when they announced the changes to Ontario’s beer […]

LCBO 12 Packs and Grocery Store Sales

August 10, 2015 in The Ontario Beer Revolution by admin

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

The question, as always, is “do you believe they’ll do it?” The idea of beer in grocery stores is presently transitory. It exists only in an article in Martin Regg Cohn’s column in the Toronto Star. His word, although convincing and no doubt backed by leaks from the provincial government, […]

A Word of Advice To The People Of Ontario…

March 16, 2015 in The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged Beer in Grocery Stores / Ontario Beer / The Beer Lorax by admin

If you’re a brewer in Ontario you are probably weighing the changes that The Beer Store proposed yesterday. I’d like to review them for you. First of all, there’s the concept of ownership. On The Beer Store’s conference call last night Ted Moroz made much of the idea that by […]

A Word of Advice for Ontario Breweries…

January 8, 2015 in The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged The Beer Store by admin

Since I started writing about beer about four and a half years ago, the Ontario situation has become more and more interesting. There are more breweries competing for market share and there’s increased media coverage of the beer retailing problem. Martin Regg Cohn, for instance, has been on fire of […]

The Ontario Problem

December 30, 2014 in Accounting for Taste / The Ontario Beer Revolution by admin

“Such is the uncertainty of Human Life we know not the moment we may be called off – the hand that guides this pen may ear another day be stiff and cold” – William Helliwell. April 7, 1837 These were the words of William Helliwell on finding that a maltster […]

The Ghost Tour

July 9, 2014 in Shameless Plugs / The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged Lost Breweries of Toronto / William Helliwell by admin

(Editor’s Note: I once had an aunt who wrote letters to politicians. I believe she once lambasted Prime Minister Chretien over the rise in the price of a head of cabbage. It seems that the frivolity of subject has skipped this generation even if the letter writing impulse has not. […]

In Which I Realize I Have An MPP

April 22, 2014 in The Beer Store / The Ontario Beer Revolution tagged Calm Reasoned Debate / Economic Development / Eric Hoskins / The Beer Store by admin

In undergrad, a friend of mine adopted a principle that allowed him to spend more time playing cards than doing coursework. While he was very interested in doing his best when it came to the courses pertaining to his major, he viewed elective courses as something of an intrusion into […]

On Mediocrity

April 6, 2014 in Accounting for Taste / The Ontario Beer Revolution by admin