Periodically, the Brewer’s Association releases statements that I find a little bit suspect. This is mostly because they’re a lobbying group and their purpose is being optimistic about craft beer. I’m all for defending your own interest. After all, does it not say in the Talmud, “If I am not […]
1 As a beer writer, I only get invited to events at restaurants infrequently. When I get an email suggesting that I should go to a dinner hosted by Thailand’s ambassador to Canada, it’s something of a rarity. This is an important governmental figure from another country. It would be downright […]
Beer and Food: Linda Modern Thai
1 The nice thing about planning an event like the Feast Of St.John for Toronto Beer Week is that I’ve managed to create a certain amount of context for myself over three years or so that I’ve been writing about beer. I’ve collaborated on beers with a number of breweries, frequently […]
So You Want To Be A Brewer: Lazarus Breakfast Stout
Arriving in Burton-On-Trent by train, you get a real sense of what William Blake must have meant by “dark satanic mills.” The landscape is one of rolling hills interspersed with small lakes and marshes until you’re suddenly confronted by the expansive brick warehouses and towering breweries that were the pride […]
On Marston’s and Legacy
2 Here’s an interesting thought: Craft beer in North America went through a lot of growing pains on the way to being where they are at the moment. There were years of struggling to make English styles of beer as authentically as possible (hard to do in San Francisco) and the […]
London Craft Beer
4 Ed Note: Inevitably, marching into another country and talking about a situation I don’t have a complete feel for has the potential to rustle feathers. As such, I have changed the subtitle of my blog for the week to reflect that possibility. One of the things that has interested […]
Real Ale and Craft Beer – Live from the GBBF
1 One of the really nice things about having a column with a big circulation is that people send you things to review. Sometimes, it’s not even beer. At one point about a month ago, three books cropped up. One of those was Pete Brown’s Shakespeare’s Local, referred to here by […]
In Which I Review Two Books About Beer
1 When I started writing about beer, it was because I was trying to establish some credentials in order to get into brewing school. I did manage, subsequently, to get into brewing school, but then there was a book deal. I found that commuting 5 hours a day to Niagara College […]
So You Want To Be A Brewer: St. John Marzen
A couple of weekends ago, I signed a contract to write a new book with m’colleague Alan McLeod of A Good Beer Blog. The book will be called Ontario Beer: A Heady History of Brewing from the Great Lakes to the Hudson Bay. We’re just kids in a candy store […]
Beer and History: Mesopotamia at the ROM OR Sumer Lovin’
12 The other day, I got a haircut. This is not news in and of itself, even though I’m relatively pleased with the haircut. During the smalltalk that goes along with a haircut, I mentioned that I write about beer. It turns out that the stylist had intended at some point […]