And a Happy 2nd B-Day to Beau's

It also happens to be Beau's All Natural Brewing Co.'s 2nd birthday today.

Beau's has seen tremendous support since starting up two years ago and over the winter I had a chance to catch up with Steve for some pints at Beerbistro and got my hands on some lovely swing top ceramic bottles of their Lug Tread Lagered-ale and Bog Water Dirty Brown Ale which I posted about here.So, Happy Birthday to the big family over in Vanleek Hill who will be holding a grand party no doubt.

Congratulations Steve and crew, keep up the hard work and producing your excellent beers!

Happy 141st Birthday Canada!

Happy Birthday Canada. Wow, 141 years young.  As a proud Canadian I plan on drinking a bunch of Canadian craft beer to celebrate our national birthday.

Will it be one of the beers that Canadians pride themselves with?  No.  It's sad that people still believe that Molson Canadian, Labatt Blue, Sleeman's etc..... are still Canadian.  Molson is co-owned by Coors in Colorado, Labatt is owned by Inbev (a Brazilian and Belgian giant) and Sleeman is owned by Sapporo of Japan. Together, the three brewery conglomerates own and run the Beer Stores across Ontario, make up close to 90% of all beer sales in Canada and do it on the backs of sexy marketing and not the quality of the beer in the bottle.  The brewers of these beers are talented people, yet the accountants and marketing suits primarily dictate the direction of the breweries.  So, as sentimental as these national icons are, they will not be consumed by me today.

Anyway, back to Canada's birthday.  I plan on celebrating with a bottle of Garrsion Weizenbock during the afternoon and ending the night with a Swan's Buckerfields Extra IPA.  Both excellent beers, one from Canada's west coast and one from the east coast.  

Hope all you beer geeks out there in Canada have a great day and enjoy some celebrated independent beers from your local region.

Cheers!

Suggest a Toronto Pub

Something a little fun for today's unofficial holiday. While I sit here at work, I am thinking of a nice cold pint in my hand and wonder where I'll get one after work.

I plan on spending a couple hours in a Toronto pub tonight for a report tomorrow and I am asking readers to recommend one of their favourites for me to try.

I'll you have to do is click on the 'comment' icon at the bottom of this message and leave your suggestion. Don't be shy. I'm up for anything, with the exception of a large chain pub. So suggest away.

Tonight is Volo's $5 pint night, which I try to get to monthly, so I might end up there for a pre-drink before heading out.

OCB Podcast: Part Two

Part Two of my interview with the Ontario Craft Brewers was posted today on their blog. We talk about beer and food and some future predictions for the beer industry in Ontario.

On a side note, I made it out to a Cameron's cask night after that interview was recorded and encourage anyone else who has thought about it to do so.

Christian's Pub: St.John's NFLD

George Street in St.John's NFLD is terribly busy in the late hours of the night as drinkers take over the pub/bar laden street and party well in to the night. During the day however, things are a lot quieter and it is then that my fiance and I stumbled into Christian's for a quick pint before gearing up for our 'McDeir' pub crawl.

The wedding party we were traveling with had planned an evening out with the bride and groom to be, and it was decided a famous St.John's pub crawl was in order. Everyone knows about George Street right? It is a small street located just off the main road in downtown St.John's and features a stretch of drinking establishments of all styles. The street is closed to vehicles after noon and the only time cars or trucks venture down the street during the early morning hours are when delivery trucks come to stock up the establishments with more beer and food.

Anyway, Christian's pub. It turns out that Christian's is the oldest operating place on George, dating back to 1979. According to my shoddy math skills, that would make Christian's 29 years young, quite an accomplishment in the pub business. My fiance and I arrived just after a so-so meal at the Green Sleeve pub down the road, (not really a pub - fake Irish pub with loud Justin Timberlake playing) and as we walked up to the old brick weathered buidling and in through the front entrance, I immediately knew I would appreciate it.

The first thing you notice as you walk in is how dark it is. The lights have been dimmed down, allowing just a glimmer of light from the light fixtures. We grabbed a seat by the window so we could watch the people traffic while enjoying a nicely poured Quidi Vidi Honey Brown. Throughout our visit I noticed that not many pubs served any of the 2 craft breweries on tap, but Christian's had Quidi Vidi and that was better than Labatt's Blue Star.

The L shaped bar is located to the right as you enter and is surrounded by numerous bar back stools, enough to accommodate 10 people or more and metal racking above holds rows and rows of glassware. There are a couple of regulars sharing a fun conversation with the barmaid (or do I say 'server', who I actually believe is Christian?) and they made us feel welcome by incorporating us in their discussion. Typical Newfoundlander. There is a bunch of spirits adorning the shelving behind the bar along with bags of chips, cigarettes and cigars. It reminds me of pictures I've seen of the old public houses that acted as convenience stores at the same time.

Each table features a big bowl of complimentary popcorn, which is always nice if your just visiting for a pint. The tables themselves appear to have been there since opening day back in 79' and possibly came from somewhere before that. Old and weathered. There is roughly 5 booth surrounded tables on the main level of the two story pub that offer an intimate setting for patrons. The walls come alive with many old framed photographs of Newfoundland history and I spent a couple of minutes peering over them all. It had a museum feel, something I love. There is a lot of wood throughout the pub providing the warmth of a rustic cabin.

There were only two things that didn't sit well with me during our visit to Christian's: 1 - The huge flat screen television looking very much out of place in a pub with so much character; and 2 - Christian's has one of those jukeboxes that individuals can select their own songs and one female in the pub cranked an AC/DC song. Nothing wrong with AC/DC, but the pub was so quiet and relaxing and then all of a sudden I'm at a rock concert. I was pleased to see, and hear, the barmaid (Christian?) turn it down to an almost acceptable level.

Unfortunately we didn't make it back during the crawl, but at least I got into a real pub. With the exception of the YellowBelly (which wasn't open yet (today is the day)), Christian's was definitely the pub for me and the best one I got into during my visit to St.John's.

Railway City Brewing in the News

Nice little article in the London Free Press newspaper today about Ontario's newest craft brewery - Railway City Brewing Co. in St.Thomas.

Quidi Vidi Brewery: St.John's NFLD

Back in 1996, David Rees and his business partner took advantage of an abandoned fish plant on the shore of the Quidi Vidi (pronounced Kiddy Viddy) harbour, just minutes outside of St.John's, and opened the Quidi Vidi brewery.

Quidi Vidi is a beautiful little fishing village with clapboard housing painted in bright colours protected by large cliffs on the opposite side of the harbour. The brewery is nestled right on the shore and offers a magnificent view through their upstairs lounge and paints a wonderful picture of simpler life.

A large group of us arrived at the brewery after walking around Signal Hill through mist, fog and wind, and the smell of malted barley called out to us. We gathered upstairs in the lounge and sampled from the QV line-up and listened to the brewery's next door neighbour as he played the guitar and sang folk tunes.

I had the opportunity to steal Rees away from another large event that was taking place at the brewery for a brief sit down to discuss his brewery and his beers. Rees, a engineer by trade, loves coming into the brewery everyday and has one of the nicest offices I have even seen. It over looks the harbour, the quaint village and the rock cliffs, has a tasting table and nice leather furniture, but enough about that. Let's talk about the beers.

QV makes a number of beers that are available at the brewery, the Newfoundland Liquor Commission and corner stores throughout the province and their only 1 of 2 craft breweries in Newfoundland (the other being Storm).

Eric's Red Cream Ale - a 2001 Silver medalist at the World Beer Championship
Honey Brown
Honey Brown Light
QV Lager
QV Light
1892 Traditional Ale
Cranberry Cloud - (beer based cooler)
Mummer's Brew - seasonal (didn't brew last year)
Iceberg Beer - currently in development
High Torque - a 7% alc. beer that was nowhere to be found

I made my way through the entire line-up and found the 1892 (the flagship beer) to offer the most flavour and aroma. I didn't care much for the two QV lagers, Honey beers or the Cranberry Cloud though, which was disappointing. Rees stated he has plans for three more flavoured beer based coolers: Blueberry, Pineapple and Orange. I wasn't able to sample the brand new Iceberg beer as it is still in the developing stages, but I did see the packaging and a bottle with the lightest looking beer I've ever witnessed. The Iceberg Beer is made using, well, Iceberg. The ice is melted and used in the brewing process. Niche market?

The brewery gets alot of visitors as the area is a tourist magnet and their retail store was fairly busy for a foggy Friday afternoon. Rees led us through the brewery, giving us a personalized tour and speaking to the basics of brewing beer. Many of the people I was with are Coors drinkers and have never stepped foot in a brewery and they had a great time learning how beer is produced.

If the beer was as beautiful as the brewery and its surroundings, Quidi Vidi would be a standout in the craft brewing world.

Cameron's Cask Night: June 26th

From Cameron's Brewery: Following last month’s infamous Mesquite Smoked Ale with BBQ Master Jason Rees (perhaps the best Cask Night yet) this month’s Cameron’s ‘Let’s Drink the Cask Night’ will be on Thursday June 26th, from 6:00 - 8:00pm

Cameron’s Cask Nights are a casual and intimate monthly event at the brewery. The guestlist only event is free of charge and mainly a chance for us to share a glass of our latest creation with our friends, supporters and our local community.

For those who have not been to the brewery before, this is a great chance to meet the folks behind the scenes and to tour our facility. As well, it’s a great time to pick up some brewery fresh Cameron’s beer.

We will be tapping the Cask at approximately 6:15pm.

Whole Foods Markets have graciously donated some delicious food for the event. The food will be available at 6pm.

As always, the event is capped at 60 people to keep it intimate and to ensure everyone gets a taste of the cask. RSVP’s always come flooding in, so confirm your attendance as quickly as possible.

Due to the good weather and overall cheer at the brewery, we encourage everyone to invite a guest (or a few) to join them this month. Just indicate how many people will be coming with you on your RSVP.

For any questions or to RSVP (if you haven’t already), email mike@cameronsbrewing.com

Our on-site retail store will be open throughout Cask Night for those that want to pick up beer for the weekend.
For more information or to get directions, visit this Cameron’s link.

We also now have a blog so check it out.

Hope to see you all on Thursday.

Cheers.

YellowBelly Brewery & Public House - Part 2

I left off at the tasting of the three YellowBelly beers in part 1, so that's where I'll start off.

The four of us headed back up to the main floor to sample an American Wheat, and their English Style Pale Ale before going back downstairs to sample an Irish Red.

American Wheat: Light in body with a green apple aroma and lightly acidic. Liam will be using this beer to attract the Coors Light (#1 selling beer in Newfoundland by a large margin) drinkers. Similar in style to a Big Rock Grasshopper. It would go well with YellowBelly's haiwian pizza and the fish and chips (cod!).

YellowBelly Pale Ale: This was my favourite of the three. A nice English Style pale ale with a good cascade hop aroma and flavour with a medium body and at 4.5% it will make a very sessionable beer. I found it to be similar to that of Granite Best Bitter in appearance and taste. This is a beer that I would sit at the bar and drink all day.

Irish Red: Another beauty. I forgot to snap a picture of the beer in the glass, but let me tell you how attractive it was. A nice big thick head sat atop the glass above a dark red beer. Very malty with notes of chocolate, the aroma jumped from the glass and cried out to be drank. I was impressed as was my new friend Frank. Actually, the Irish Red is in the picture above. Liam is on the left, Craig is on the right.

Some Fun Facts about YellowBelly

• The YellowBelly is slated to open this Friday - June 27th for a grand opening and re-open Monday for full service to the general public.
• 500-600 people can comfortably enjoy the many YellowBelly floors
• The number 1 question St.John newspaper reader asked in 2007 was "When will the YellowBelly open for business?"
• Growlers will be available for purchase at the pub 7 days a week. Flynn also has plans to open a retail store down the street to sell merchandise like glasses, hats, t-shirts and even beer.
• Liam will brew some seasonal beers once they get up and running smoothly. St.John's stout is slated to be released in the fall.
• When Flynn purchased the building, it was listed as having 7200 square feet of space. Once boarded up rooms were found in the basement and elsewhere throughout the buidling, the square footage rose to over 10,000.

Why Called YellowBelly?

Irish immigrants used to fight in the streets of St.John's, just like the movie 'Gangs of New York' portrayed. One such group wore a yellow sash around their waist and were known as the the Yellow Belly's. Craig thought the name was catchey and paid homage to a piece of the past.

Liam McKenna pouring me a American Wheat

YellowBelly Brewery & Public House: St.John's NFLD - Part 1

Imagine my disappointment as I stood in front of such a lovely old building at the corner of Water and George street and noticed construction still taking place in the YellowBelly Brewery and Public House in St.John's. I had come so far and was looking forward to spending my entire week in St.John's only brew pub, and it was still not opened for business.

I could have done more research before my trip, but that would have taken the fun out of it. It's all about surprises, and surprised I was. I stood at the front door and said, "screw it, I'm going in anyway," before opening the old wooden door and stepping inside.

I asked one of the construction guys if Liam McKenna was around, the brewmaster and by all accounts a professional brewery start up guy (he has spent 25 years in the industry with over 20 or so breweries all over the world). He wasn't around, but Craig Flynn was, who happens to be the owner. Craig welcomed me deeper into the ancient building and started giving me a small tour through sawdust, 2x4's, drills and saws and showed me two of the five floors he is occupying. Because I was already late for the wedding I had travelled to St.John's for, I had to excuse myself and promised to return the following morning for a more formal tour with Craig and Liam.

Next Day: I woke up with blurred vision from the wedding activities the night before and headed downtown from our place at Memorial University. My head was splitting and the thought of sampling three of YellowBelly's beers was making my stomach curdle. I was glad to hear that Craig and Liam had a rough night as well. Frank MacDonald, a fellow Newfoundlander and reader of this blog, had contacted me earlier and after a brief chat he joined the three of us at the public house much to his pleasure. It was greet to meet a reader so far away, and let me tell you what a stand-up guy he is; he ended up driving my fiance and I to the airport after the tour.

Anyway, back to the brewery. Liam started it all off by telling us that the YellowBelly has been a five year project. Why so long? Some of the building dates back to 1749 and other parts to the early 1800's, so time, patience and extra attention had to be strictly practiced during the construction phase. It took two whole years to rip the inside out, fix the floors, install metal support beams by HAND (all five floors) and a lot more. Liam tells us about the stone walls that withstood the 'great St.John's fire' of the late 1800's and shows us a wooden support beam in the basement that bares scars from that fire. So I'll start the tour here.

Basement: This is one of my favourite rooms in the building. It has the feeling of a dungeon with its lantern style light fixtures dimly lit, the rock foundation and old fireplace remnants. This room will be used for special, intimate functions, out of the way of others. We continue through the room to the fermentation tanks and deep walk in refrigerators.

Main Floor (Street Level): Large windows on the Water street sidewalk let in a lot of sunshine (which is hard to come by in Newfoundland) and create a lovely glow in the main room. This is the pub area. A lovely bar runs down the length of a makeshift wall to the right as you enter from the street. Beautiful old shelving units surround the bar and will be used to hold artifacts that pay tribute to the location. It is also on this floor that passerby's can watch Liam brewing through two of the aforementioned large windows on the street level.

Upstairs #1: Kitchen and dining area. This is another great looking room. The floor boards were put together from old wood collected from the building and it took two solid weeks to lay the old planks. Two large garage door (windows) overlooking the famous George street will roll up during the nicer days and nights, allowing patrons to watch the activity on George. The stone walls, exposed wooden beams and supports and and old press keep the rustic theme to compliment the brand new kitchen. A wood burning pizza oven is the main feature and the Chef has terrific plans for pizza creations.

Upstairs #2: A huge events room with a large space for dancing the jig, playing the fiddle or hosting weddings, work parties or birthdays. Again, large windows overlooking Water street, exposed wooden beams and supports, old stone fireplaces and rock walls make this room as attractive and comforting as the rest.

Upstairs #3: A continuation of the events room, only this room is smaller and will provide more intimacy. A sloped roof is the selling point in this room. It has the appearance of an old hay loft you'd fine in a barn or an old cabin.

Throughout the tour we were walking up the 'staff' set of stairs, the public set is located on the other side of the building. It is an understatement to say this building is huge.

Part Two - Liam, Craig, Frank and I sample the three YellowBelly brews, talk about the name behind the brewery and I'll let you in on when it opens and some fun facts.

I'm Coming Home

My stay here in Newfoundland is slowly coming to an end as I sit in the St.John's airport watching flights come in left and right. Our plane was delayed as the early morning fog Newfoundland is famous for halted our plane from landing on time.

I have a lot to write about..it was a great time. I got to visit the Quidi Vidi brewery on the picturesque Quidi Vidi harbour, the Yellow Belly brewpub (great story coming up), did a George Street pubcrawl, drank with some locals and met a guy named Frank who is an avid beer lover and Great Canadian Pubs and Beer blog reader.

So stay tuned over the next couple of days....I'll try to post frequently as I shake this 5 day hangover.

Off to Newfoundland Bye!

This time tomorrow I'll be in St.John's Newfoundland, preparing myself for a busy week of pub crawling, brewery touring and lobster eating as my fiance and I head there for a wedding.

We'll be staying downtown until Sunday with plans of visiting the famous George Street for a couple of adventurous nights, staggering from pub to pub. We also have a scheduled stop at the Quidi Vidi brewery on the shores of the waters edge. Ron Keefe from the Granite (Toronto location) informed me last weekend that there is a brand new brewpub that just opened down George St that is being run by a terrific brewer who used to brew here in Ontario once. No doubt I'll be having my lunch and dinner's there.

Everyone visiting Newfoundland must get screeched in and I plan on doing so our first night there. I'm not much of a rum drinker so I'll keep it limited to just the one shot...maybe.

I'll have the laptop on the road and plan on posting some small pub profiles and some pictures during our stay.

Update on Steam Whistle Cans

Back on March 6th, I broke the news about Steam Whistle going to 500ml cans and that would be released by June 1, right at the start of unofficial beer season.

Well June 1st has come and gone and there has been no sight of them at the LCBO or Beer Store yet, and members of Bar Towel are wondering why. "Any word on the canned Steam Whistle? According to a brewery press release (posted on Troy Burtch's blog a few months back), the beer was supposed to be out June 1 at the very latest. Yet still no sign of it. Anyone heard anything?"

Here is Steam Whistle's response.

A general strike in Brazil has delayed the production and shipment of our canning filler so we have been delayed by several weeks. The cans themselves are here and the majority of the canning line is in place waiting for the arrival of the filler. We do not have a firm date unfortunately.

Hopefully it will be sorted out soon as Steam Whistle on the dock at the cottage is good times all around.

Victory Summer Cask Ale Festival

4 weeks until another Cask festival and I am already getting excited. Ralph from Volo introduced me to the world of Cask conditioned beers when I first starting getting into the beer scene and I've been hooked ever since. Granite's Best Bitter Special and Durham's Hop Addict are two of my favourite beers, both cask products. I am really looking forward to this one though as it gives me an excuse to get back to the Victory Cafe, a place I've only ever been to once and I loved it, it's my kind of pub.

Here is the press from the hospitable Maz:
When: Sunday July 13th 2008
12:00 – 7:00 P.M.
Where: The Victory Café, 581 Markham Street, Toronto

The Victory Café is hosting a cask ale festival on the patio this July as part of ‘Pedestrian Sundays’, the summer street festival in Mirvish Village, Toronto. The aim of this cask festival is to celebrate local traditional cask ales and to introduce new people to this wonderful product.

Cask conditioned ale, also known as ‘real ale’, is beer that is brewed from traditional ingredients (malted barley, water, yeast and hops) and matured naturally in the cask where it undergoes a secondary fermentation. This imparts unique characteristics and greater depth of flavour. Cask ale is a fresh, natural product and is free from the hemicals and preservatives found in many of today’s mass-produced beers.

There will be ten traditional cask beers on offer, all from local brewers. The full list of beers will be announced at a later date. (I will post more details as they become available).

Beer samples will be offered by the half-pint measure, purchased with a beer ticket available at the festival. A food buffet will also be available. The cost of admission is $6.50 per person, payable at the event, which includes a souvenir glass and two half-pint sample tickets. A $10.00 admission includes access to the food buffet. Additional beer and food tickets will be available at a reasonable price.

For more info contact Maz Brereton: maz@victorycafe.ca or 416-894-6105

Funny Pub Staff

"Hi, can I get a pint of Mill Street Tankhouse please?" I said to the nice looking waitress at a pub I will not name. I know they serve Tankhouse, that's why I'm there. It is the only craft brewery on tap there.

"Sorry, we don't have Tankhouse up here (patio) but we do have Keith's Red, which is very close to Tankhouse," states the waitress.

Weird. I am wearing my Mill Street shirt, which is hard to miss, and she still says that. "No thanks, Keith's Red is no where near Tankhouse, not even close," I say.

"Oh, I think so," she says as she bashes her eyelashes.

"I'll have any Mill Street beer, if you have it."

And a Belgian Wit I got - with an orange slice.