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It’s hard to say exactly why the wheels came off the lecture. It was probably a combination of things. There was news out of the UK last week that Marston’s was going to stop using its Burton Union system for yeast propagation, and having been there just over a decade […]

So You Want To Be a Teacher – Reminisce

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When I got hired to teach in 2017, I was a subject matter expert. I didn’t have any teaching experience to speak of, except for having been an instructor at a music camp in high school. I also had a dread of public speaking which I overcame in about a […]

So You Want To Be A Teacher – Recall

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A quick question for you.  Which country uses coolships in the production of an iconic beer? The answer is Belgium. Also Germany, Czechia, England, America, Canada, and very likely others. I’m standing in U Fleku beneath ceiling beams that carbon date to the 1350’s staring at the coolship they use […]

So You Want To Be A Teacher – Rebuild

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Matt Pearson said to me, “take off your glasses.” It’s a weird request, coming from a guy I barely know, but since we’re in public, I do it. “Close your eyes and turn around in a circle three times.” This is not Simon Says, and besides, we’re in the middle […]

So You Want To Be A Teacher – Redux

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Hello, Minister. I’m writing to you today to express my hopes for the alcohol industry reform that is currently tabled for discussion within the province. I’m an odd duck in regards to this situation in that I’m periodically referred to as an expert and have made a minor career out […]

An Open Letter To The Minister of Finance

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  (ed. note: I always thought it would be fun to cut a heel promo.) I want to tell you something really important about your brewery.  It’s going to sound patronizing, and it’s going to sound obvious, and it’s going to sound as though I am being condescending. Possibly, I […]

Breweries: Let’s Talk About Your Website

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Recently, there was a pretty well written piece about taxes that showed up in the wake of the Ontario Craft Brewers’ charm offensive to get the public onside and prevent brewery closures within the province. It’s over here at baytoday.ca and written by Stu Campaigne interviewing New Ontario Brewing’s Mike […]

Some Thoughts about Ontario Beer Excise and the MFA

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How do you write about Craft Beer at this point? It seems like idiocy to waste the better part of an afternoon on it when you can feel the immiseration of society happening in real time and you could be making money instead. Being a sensory expert is difficult in […]

In Which I Buy Time With Placeholder Text

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It’s hard to believe that it has been more than five years since Godspeed opened, but time has been dilatory of late. Weeks can pass in a blip, while a sun dappled afternoon might seem to stretch on indefinitely. The tendency is to make the good parts last, and that’s […]

An Everyday Beer

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For part three in this series, I want to talk about inflation and its larger role in society as it pertains to the beer industry and some of the factors that we’ve already discussed. I’m not an economist. I’m just comparatively good at parsing data and paying a lot of […]

How is the beer industry in Ontario doing? Part 3