(Ed. Note: Every Christmas, they send me books to review in the hopes that I will publicize them. I’m usually writing my own book and I’m not sold on the strategy. Anyone can sell a book at Christmas time. Everyone needs help selling them at any other time. Welcome to […]

Book Review: Beer, Food, and Flavor by Schuyler Schultz

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(Ed. Note: When leaving your blog to languish untended for several months, you want to give it a bit of an airing out before moving back into day to day possession. This piece on a trip to Windsor is lamentably delayed, but it has been kicking around the cobwebs at […]

In Which I Visit Windsor

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An oddly large portion of the subject when we talk about breweries selling out has to do with the concept of indebtedness. Internet response to the news of an acquisition is laughably predictable. There’s typically a certain amount of moderately witty badinage followed by exasperated outrage, threats of boycott and […]

Why do Breweries Sell out (Part Two)

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One of the questions that people seem to ask more and more frequently these days is: “Why do breweries sell out?” Ultimately, the motivations behind such a decision have not changed much since the advent of industrialization in brewing in the late 18th and early 19th century. This is a […]

Why Do Breweries Sell Out? (Part One)

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Sitting here in a hotel room and looking across the river at Detroit’s skyline, it seems like an odd time to talk about a trip I recently took to the other end of the province. The difficulty with writing the Ontario Craft Beer Guide is that Ontario is four times […]

Ottawa and the Ontario Craft Beer Guide

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A little under a month ago I was sitting in Chaucer’s in London, Ontario with a group of beer writers and Matt Brown. Matt is the mayor of London and I’m afraid I made a bad impression by referring to him as “your worshipfulness.” It was the third stop on […]

And in Every Town

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There’s always something a little dispiriting about a delivery you’re not expecting showing up at the apartment when you’re out of town. All you can really do is buzz the guy into the building with instructions to leave it in front of your door and hope that the neighbours don’t […]

Beer and Food: Estrella Damm Tapas Journey

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(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

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The Cicerone Certification Program announced today that it will be introducing a level of certification between Certified Cicerone and Master Cicerone. The press release was worded in a rather interesting way of whose nature I am dubious. It reads: Previously, the only way for a Certified Cicerone to advance in […]

Fun With Numbers: Sums and Sommeliers Edition

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I tweeted the following yesterday: Dear Brewers: Remember to register your trademarks internationally. It doesn’t cost much and prevents you looking stupid later. With the amount of coverage that’s been going on about Blue Moon coming to Canada under the sobriquet Belgian Moon, you’re probably wondering why that happened. It […]

That Old Belgian Moon – Why You Should Register Your ...