Halifax!

Hello from Atlantic Canada! I made it to the other coast!

Now, I know I was supposed to get all the way to Saint John's but in case you don't know (like I didn't) it's a serious (and expensive) bitch to get up there if you don't have a car.... so I decided that getting as far as Halifax is good enough for me! Newfoundland will have to wait for another trip.... which means there HAS to be another trip!

The microbrewery I hit up was Garrison, which opened up in 1996 and is located right by the famous Pier 21. I chatted with Sam the bartender, whose zombie apocalypse beer pick (Belgian IPA) was not available for tasting, so I had some of their Unfiltered Imperial IPA instead. Tasty!

                                                         Glorious!!!

Next up, I went to the Heart and Thistle brewpub, which is all the rage in Halifax, to sample their Catholic School Girl IPA:

It's an IPA infused with orange and ginger... and man, you get that ginger! It's a bit more of a savoury beer in my mind and the ginger sends a nice warm jolt from the back of the throat to the cockles of the heart. That being said, the orange offers a refreshing quality to the beer.... I wouldn't sit and drink it on the patio when it's +30C, but I can see it as a nice patio in the fall beer.


First night in Halifax I went out with some cool people I met at my hostel and we went down to the Lower Deck Pub (the place to be on Sunday nights, dontchaknow?). The Keith's is poured freely and large dudes circle the crowded, long picnic tables with mugs of it ready for the drinking! By the time the band started the place was completely full and you find yourself singing and clinking glasses with those around you..... it was exactly how I imagined the east coast to be!

And of course I went on the Alexander Keith's tour.... There is nothing really said about the modern making of the beer but the tour is kinda like going to Fort Edmonton Park or the Ukrainian Village: people dress up and sing and give you some beer. It's worth the $18 ticket. If you go to Halifax do the tour. You'll have fun!

So, there you have it! The Great Canadian Beer Adventure 2011! Hope whoever the hell actually reads this thing had fun following along!

Les Belles Bieres du Montreal

Montreal is a city full of delicious food, sexy people, and all the beer in the world. It's an amazing place and I spent five days there taking in all of the above!

First of the two famous Montreal brewpubs which are a must for the beer lover is Brutopia:

I tried two beers there: Jeanette the waitress' zombie apocalypse pick IPA and her summer recommendation, a Cherry Wheat Ale.

The IPA was pretty good, but not zombie apocalypse material. It pours a nice amber colour and has a good head on its shoulders (haha!). You get a nice citrusy hops on the nose but I found the taste quite metallic.... Meh at best.

Now, the Cherry Wheat Ale.... that's the ticket. In case you don't know, it's hot as hell in the summer in Montreal. All humid and sexy and whatnot. So, you need a nice easy drinking and refreshing wheat ale to make the days bareable. This is that beer!

You get the cherry smell right from the beginning and as you can see, it pours a nice hazy orange/goldish colour. Its got a great cherry tartness to it but still finishes just a little sweet... So well balanced, so drinkable, soooooo gooooood!

Next stop was the go-to brewpub of Montreal and the reason for my visit: Dieu Du Ciel!

I met up there with a friend from high school, Zach, and together we hammered a few down.. I'm just too excited!

First one I tried was a cask conditioned American IPA. To be clear, cask conditioned means it's served out of the vessel it fermented it, like back in the olden days. No forced carbonation or filtration here. No sir! What does that result in? Real Ale.... and that's something that's not so easy to find at the local pub.

But, back to the beer

Look at that head! And it lasted the whole way through... I was sipping it for over half an hour and yes... still a nice foamy top! Know what that means? Protein! It's so good for you it's not even funny.

It's hard to tell from this dark picture but the beer is a hazy dark amber colour and has barely a hint of carbonation. It's served at about 4 degrees so you get all that good flavour. Hops are there from the word go and  they offer a floral/grapefruity taste. The mouth feel is really something.... it feels like your mouth is puckering in the sofest way possible.... I know that sounds ridiculous, but so is this beer!

Next I tried some of Zach's Imperial Stout au Cafe... how regal.

This bad boy is strong at 9.5% and it's very very dense and savoury, so they only offer it in half pint servings. Not a bad idea. It's got an extremely creamy mouth feel and tastes like a chocolate laced coffee orgasm. Yes, that's how I want to describe it. You want it, don't you?

Finally, I tried an English Mild Ale (4.2%). I tried this instead of our waitress' zombie apocalypse suggestion. I just wasn't in the mood for a Belgian Blonde that night....

This is a good session beer. Nice amber ale: fairly light on hops with a very smooth finish... It's the kind of beer you sit and sip while seriously discussing zombie apocalypse survival strategies. Or it's a nice beer to sip and take in the amazing atmosphere. Dieu Du Ciel a small spot with wooden chairs and tables haphazardly strewn about and full of people loudly chatting in english, french, and wacky combinations of the two.... Perhaps it's heaven?

In conclusion, this place is awesome! Go there! Now! Also, the beer list is ridiculous, so plan on spending a few hours (or days) glued to your chair.

Next up, Halifax! Canada's ocean playground.... or something.

Old Toronto Beer Tour

Throughout my entire cross country adventure, I've kind of just showed up at breweries and demanded they wet my whistle! In Toronto, however, I actually went on an organized beer tour..... It was seven hours long and it was awesome!
It's called the Old Toronto Beer Tour beerloverstour.com and it's hosted by Oliver Dawson, a former employee of Upper Canada Brewing Co as well as actor and opera singer. After Sleeman's took the company over in 1998, however, he left and started doing beer tours, first in Europe and then in Toronto. And we should all be very thankful for that!

The group of beer lovers meet up at Steam Whistle Brewing bright and early at 11am for lunch and for the only actual brewery tour. It's awesome because you get to have tasty sandwiches and drink beer with other people who also love beer.... and most likely sandwiches.

As far as Steam Whistle Pilsner goes..... it's o.k. It's a triple filtered Czech style pilsner, which is refreshing and delicious on a hot day when all you want is some delicious fizzy lager that tastes like a nice pilsner. It's got a distinct yet very smooth  noble hops character, which doesn't linger... so you are chungging it down before you know it! Good party beer in my opinion.

Also, fun fact! On each bottle of Steam Whislte there is the inscription 3fg, which stands for 3 fired guys. That was supposedly the original name for the brewery when it started in 1998 because the three guys that started the brewery were fired from Upper Canada Brewing Co. after it was bought out by Sleeman's.... how bout that!?

At about one o'clock, if I remember correctly, we board a yellow school bus and head on to the next brewery, Amsterdam Brewery. Before that, however, we are taken to the Canada Malting Silos, which is a Toronto Heritage site, and given a brief history of the immigrants who came to Toronto and recreated the beer cultures from their homelands.

Back to the beer at Amsterdam: that's where the real tastings start to happen and when the writing in my notebook starts to get a little harder to read.....

At Amsterdam we tasted a lot of different beers (lagers, IPA's, etc) but the most interesting was the Raspberry Wheat Ale. It's interesting because it sort of tastes like a sour lambic type beer (that's a blended Belgian style that's fermented with wild yeast). They use real raspberries in the recipe, not syrup, so you get a real raspberry smack on the nose and the it continues to punch you in the throat with tarty tarty goodness!

Once back on the bus we were given another sandwich, and yeah, you want it!

After that we were taken to the Cork Town district of Toronto to look at the outside of the historic Dominion Brewery as well as take a tour around the neighbourhood (many brewery workers back in the day would have lived in the area). And of course, after this little walk we're treated to another sample of beer at the Dominion on Queen bar.

The tour finishes up at Mill St. Brewery (unless you pay extra for the beer dinner at Granite Brewery), where of course a few more samples are to be had.....

Thank goodness I had my friend Mike to pick me up! So much beer! (insert Homer Simpson drool noise)

Next up: La Belle Province! Montreal, Quebec....

Oh Ottawa!!

As you can see, I am not dead.... I just haven't been updating due to having lots of fun and going on trips to Niagra Falls and sweaty sweaty gay bars..... I have arrived safely in Montreal, however, and since its freaking hot outside right now, I've decided to update in the comfort of central AC.. ah!!!

I hit Ottawa to visit Beau's Brewery but we got sidetracked by visits to the Parliament and a super scary ghost tour of the Ottawa jail. So, instead of going to the brewery itself, my friend Mike, his super upbeat friend Natalie, and myself picked up some Beau's Organic Lagered Ale and reviewed it on our own:

This is a largered ale, which means it uses ale yeast but it ferments at the cooler lager temperature and it ferments longer than an ale yeast would. This results in a crisper, lager-like ale that still has some of the spiciness/fruitiness that an ale tends to deliver.

In my opinion it's a little hops heavy and it leaves a long lasting bitter aftertaste. It's not bad but I find it a little off balance.

Mike commented that it left his mouth feeling soft and Natalie enjoyed that light carbonation that the beer offered.

In the end, we all liked Beau's Organic Lagered Ale, but none of us are prepared to pick it as the last beer we drink before our brains are eaten by zombies..... I give it 2 Stephen Harper love handles out of 5.

Next up: The Old Toronto Beer Tour

Winnipeg's Half Pints Brewery

O.k, so I didn't have the greatest time in Winnipeg this last week; my back acted up and I was hurting quite a bit while in town. I pushed through the pain enough, however, to make it out to the Half Pints Brewery (the only craft brewery in Winnipeg) to sample some of their beers and take an extensive and informative tour.

David Rudge, the brewmaster, is a self proclaimed brewing addict (as in addicted to brewing beer, not drinking it) and every Saturday he hosts the nearly hour and a half tour of the working brewery. Most brewery tours I've been on have lasted about twenty minutes; so, if you really want to hear and see the whole process from beginning to end, this is the beer tour for you!

As mentioned before, my back was not feeling great the day I saw Half Pints, and as such, I didn't take any extensive notes and now I can't remember anything in particular about what I tasted (good thing this isn't my real job ;-))

So, instead I will leave you with a few pictures from the brewery and the knowledge that it is available in Edmonton at the ever impressive Sherbrooke Liquor Store.

My next stops are Toronto and Ottawa..... I will write something down this time.