Given a recent tweet from the PC Party of Ontario claiming that if they win the election they will bring back “buck a beer” pricing in the province of Ontario, I feel like I now have to whip out the calculator again. Actually, it’s not really a math problem, but […]
“Buck A Beer” Is Absolutely Not Coming Back
1 Here’s an idea: Let’s take the three star Michelin chef at his word. Maybe if you’re going to think more about food, you need a deeper well of reference and to break the problem down into components. I tell the kids in the beer appreciation class at George Brown that […]
Salt Peanuts
It’s warm in the sun on Carlaw and the line outside the black box theatre is full of people in new clothes for the season; girls in summer sheath dresses and guys in light sports coats. It’s a Haspel and madras affair and a real fashion statement in a double […]
In Which I Visit The Estrella Damm Gastronomy Conference
It’s hard to know what to write anymore. It’s not writer’s block exactly. It’s where we are in beer culture. The dirty little secret is that craft beer in Ontario is succeeding even now. Even despite the fact that we are in a correction. You can order it online and […]
In Which I Talk About Where I’ve Been
You’re still angry about beer taxes, aren’t you? Despite the fact that I illustrated in my last blog post (in January! Remember when I used to review things? Now I just sit here with a fountain pen and a calculator debunking propaganda from lobby groups!) that the escalating federal excise […]
Fun With Numbers: Provincial Excise Tax & The Price Floor
Hi there! Aren’t you angry about TAXES? The Toronto Sun this morning says you should be angry! About TAXES! Taxes on companies which go to pay for roads that they use?! Taxes that pay for your aunt Barb’s splenectomy?! ANGRY! TAXES! RABBLE! Beer Canada would sure like you to be […]
Fun With Numbers: Excise Tax Remittance Edition
1 “If you’re looking for the real thing, he can show you where it went.” – The Band It was July first and I had been booked to appear at one of the reopening weekends for Ontario Place. In principle, speaking as a historian at a Canada Day celebration during the […]
Supper’s Ready
6 “The more it stays the same, the less it changes.” – David St. Hubbins Aging in a Craft Beer context is odd. There are people who turned 19 today who will always have thousands of options and may never see a macro brand. The great joy of teaching Beer Appreciation […]
The Village Green Preservation Society
2 “It is a world within the world, and, if there be such places between the things of the world, places built in the gaps, then surely there are things there, and places between them, and things in those places too.” – William Gibson I never went to Mascot Brewery. Not […]