This 55% beer should be drank in small servings whilst exuding an endearing pseudo vigilance and reverence for Mr Stoat. This is to be enjoyed with a weather eye on the horizon for inflatable alcohol industry Nazis, judgemental washed up neo-prohibitionists or any grandiloquent, ostentatious foxes.

The End of History: The name derives from the famous work of philosopher Francis Fukuyama, this is to beer what democracy is to history. Fukuyama defined history as the evolution of the political system and traced this through the ages until we got the Western Democratic paradigm. For Fukuyama this was the end point of man’s political evolution and consequently the end of history. The beer is the last high abv beer that BrewDod will brew, the end point of their research into how far they can push the boundaries of extreme brewing, the end of beer.

Beer

Beer, Beer, It’s you I hold dear.
I hold you with love, you hold me from fear.
Ale, Ale, Tell me a tale.
Sent from above, you never shall fail.
Drink, Drink, No time to think.
Another one gone, another to sink.
Beer, Beer, Forever be near.
To sing me your song year after Year.

Don’t believe everything you read | Beerology |

I just read this article online about a study that attributes “60% of deaths in Ontario” to “5 unhealthy habits” and I am very annoyed. Why is it that people in the media seems bent on making beer seem unhealthy?

This article annoyed me for two reasons. The first is the way that the author lumped drinking in with smoking, stress, bad diet and lack of exercise, calling them all “unhealthy habits”. This is not right. Unlike smoking, stress, bad diet and lack of exercise, which are all unequivocally bad habits (that is to say that having just one cigarette is less healthy than having zero cigarettes etc…) Many studies have concluded that there are a range of health benefits associated with moderate alcohol consumption and, more specifically, moderate beer consumption. In fact, if you look at  the study that is being referenced in the article (which was presumably not assembled by a member of the media) it lists the five detrimental habits as: smoking, unhealthy alcohol consumption, poor diet, physical inactivity and high stress. That’s more accurate!

The second thing that annoyed me about the article is that author Andrew Moran chose to single out beer, writing: “put down that can of beer”. Why? Why beer? For some reason, the media really likes to push the notion that beer is unhealthy when it is, in fact, the lower alcohol option. If we’re talking about the health risks ofalcohol, then maybe steering people to the lower alcohol option would be the responsible thing to do.

Then, of course, the photo that was chosen to accompany the piece is of a beer, re-inforcing the notion that beer is unhealthy. Ugh! I’ve included a segment of the photo on the upper left there. Doesn’t that beer look appealing and healthy? It does. You know why? Because it is healthy.  I understand that a photo of a cigarette is not aesthetically pleasing, but if the photo has to be a drink, why not go with a cooler or a rum and coke? I’m sure that the sugar content in either of those drinks makes drinking even just one of them “unhealthy”.

I don’t know why the media continues to vilify beer. It’s something that I’m fighting every day and articles like this one just make me mad.

 by Mirella

Le Bilboquet Brasseur Artisan, Saint-Hyacinthe (QC)

       Founded in 1990 by Luc Demers and Brigitte Favreau, Le Bilboquet was originally intended as an original local bistro serving microbrewery beers (which was not common at the time) in the warm irish pub atmosphere. In 1993 they decided to brew their own beer by modifying parts of their establishment into a brewhouse. On February 17, 1994 they served their first homemade beers. Brewing had at first humble beginnings. The annual production of 60 hectoliters (1584 gallons) consisted of three products: the Métayer Blonde, a brown beer and a red ale. Le Bilboquet holds the fourth oldest microbrew permit in Quebec. 

       In 1996, the new owner, François Grisé, made some improvements by adding a glass-window to give access to the magnificient terrace. The same year, Le Bilboquet expanded into a lounge. More recently, they opened another section to meet the increasing demands of its clientele. The bistro can now welcome 180 people inside and 70 on the terrace. 

        Since then, Le Bilboquet has become a family affair. Mr. Grisé’s brother, Benoit has taken over the brewery which underwent major transformations over the years. It now offers a wide variety of beers. 8 of them are always available on site; 4 are available year-round and 4 according to the season! 

L’Affriolante 

  • Alcohol Content 7% ABV
  • Type Amber Spiced Ale
Pours a deep bright-orange amber color with a large enough foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of spices and honey is quite wonderful, lots of spices and honey and hint of fresh resin. Taste is malty off the bat, spice and dark fruit roll in, raisin, honey, moderately bitter, slightly sour when it was cold but not as it warmed.  The honey character is there for sure, with a little waxy honeycomb flavor too. Amber malt, and maybe a whisper of toasted/smoked malt. Nice length finish and great balance.

La Corriveau

  • Alcohol Content 5.5 % ABV
  • Type Oatmeal Stout
Pours chestnut, hitting the glass and giving off a simple dark walnut black / brown body. I could just barely see through this thing. Head is very capped and large, and foamy. A nice chocolate light cocoa coffee brown. Dark chocolate, roast and espresso in the nose, with no hint of sweetness. The flavor has good tones of unsweetened chocolate, toffee and roast coffee plus hints of oak and licorice.  Dark chocolate is immediately noticeable. It is slightly bitter perhaps from the roasted coffee flavor. In the mouth this beer is thin, but smooth. A pleasant tingle of carbonation on the tongue. This beer goes very well with blue cheese.

Colonel Cornwallis

 
  • Alcohol Content 5.5 % ABV
  • Type India Pale Ale

 Pours a medium amber color with a large soapy and frothy off white head. There is a low amount of carbonation showing, and there is fairly decent lacing. The head stuck around for several minutes and leaves a ring on the glass. Aroma is of malted barley and lightly bitter hops with some light floral notes also discernible. Taste is not as bitter as most IPA I know and tends to be more of an English floral type of IPA with some fruity ester and medium caramel malt.

MacKroken Flower

 

  • Alcohol Content 10.8 % ABV
  • Type Scotch Ale
Pours a dark mahogany that shows through as a clear copper when held up to light. The head is big and frothy, receding slowly and leaving very good lacing.Aroma is sweet with lots of caramel, vanilla and a hint of rich honey. There is a bit of dark, sugar-dipped dark fruits. Flavor is equally intense, same aspects, very sweet but in a refined malty way, underlying slightly dry hop presence throughout on a full-feeling body.  Good blend of a port wine and scotch taste. Higher alcohol, but not overwhelming. Lighter carbonation, which is good. Brings out the creaminess. This is an amazing beer.

L’Archange

 
  • Alcohol Content 5% ABV
  • Type Hefeweizen
Poured from a bottle to a weizen glass, hazy off-yellow with a light white head that dissipates quickly into a fine ring of lace. The smell is of  iconic wheat beer aroma, doughy yeast, pale malt, spicy and peppery notes with a touch of banana and coves. Taste is nothing like the smell but instead it’s sweet, with lemon notes and a faint whisper of banana. Stays sweet towards the back with an icing sugar flavor on the back. Mouth feel is crisp, clean, refreshing, very pleasing.

Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with something other than Guinness - By Josh Rubin | thestar.com

Did your pub run out of Guinness? Do you feel a bit contrarian? Or maybe, you just like the idea of supporting a small local brewery instead of a massive, international conglomerate.

No matter what the reason, you might want to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday with something other than a pint of Ireland’s most famous liquid export.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. After exhaustive research (I swear, honey, it was all for work), here are a few suggestions for alternative St. Paddy’s Day tipples:

Go Local

There are plenty of fine stouts from Ontario breweries. Among them are dry Irish-style stouts such as Mill Street Cobblestone Stout, Durham Black Katt, and Keefe’s Irish Stout. All three of those are, broadly speaking, in the same vein as Guinness. Also like Guinness, they’re best sampled on draft. Okay, they’re only available on draft, served from a nitrogen tap (the same kind which gives the big G its famous creamy head).

Give your local craft beer-friendly pub a shout, and you’ll find they might have one of them available for this weekend’s festivities. One place that will be sure to have the Keefe’s is theGranite Brewery ( 245 Eglinton Ave. E.), the north Toronto brewpub where it’s made. At the Granite this weekend, they’ll also be serving up six different special edition stouts as part of their St. Paddy’s Day celebrations, including a maple stout, vanilla stout, and distinctly non-Celtic chocolate-chili stout.

Another good Ontario option, which happens to be available at the LCBO, comes from Hockley Valley Brewing. In addition to the dark roasted notes found in the dry Irish style, the Hockley Stout also has a hint of licorice.

If you don’t mind going outside provincial borders (at least in terms of where your beer is brewed), try St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout. It’s one of the finest stouts in the entire country and is also available at the LCBO. It’s a rich, full-bodied stout with notes of dark roasted coffee and a hint of licorice.

Go foreign

Some outstanding stouts hail from neither Ireland nor Canada.

Sinha Stout, from Sri Lanka, is the single biggest bargain in the LCBO’s entire beer selection. It’s just $1.95 a bottle, and is one of the world’s best examples of a “foreign export” stout. It has flavours of dark roasted coffee and chocolate, along with dried fruits, and at 8.8 per cent, packs a rather boozy wallop.

Another fine choice from across the pond is Samuel Smith’s Oatmeal Stout, which was one of the inspirations for the St. Ambroise brew mentioned above. It hails from the Yorkshire town of Tadcaster.

Go back to Ireland

If you want to avoid Guinness, but would still like to stick with something from the Emerald Isle, you can always hit the whisky section at the LCBO, or at your favourite pub. While the ubiquitous Jameson’s and Bushmill’s are perfectly fine, there are also more compelling selections, ranging from the smokey Connemara peated single malt, to the pricey but sublime Midleton Very Rare.

Slainte!

Pouring Ritual - Unibroue Beers

Microbrasserie Charlevoix - Baie-Saint-Paul ( Québec ) 

The picturesque region of Charlevoix, is known for its breathtaking landscapes, art galleries and bed & breakfasts, but also for its brewery: the Charlevoix Microbrewery! But before we associate Baie St. Paul to beer, there was a trigger that caused the beginning of this story. Frédérick’s love for beer had Belgian roots and it all started with a Chimay bottle brought home by one of his father’s friends. After tasting Chimay, Frédérick was conquered  and discovered beer tasting. He decided to follow the classes of Sherbrooke University, where he was introduced to home brewing. He then met Caroline Bandulet, who will later become his wife and partner and together they discovered they had something big in common - the interest for specialty beers.

They opened the gates of the brewery and the Saint Pub on July 3rd 1998 and since then it was obvious that the Belgian inspired brews were going to find a special place and will be honored in the already abundant Quebec market. At the Pub you can taste these brews accompanied by attractive dishes cooked with beer.

It was in 2001 when Nicolas Marrant joined the team. Nicolas completed a first internship at the prestigious Abbey des Rocs in Belgium and a second one in Quebec at the Charlevoix Microbrewery, where he befriended Fred. Together they started brewing ranges such as the Dominus Vobiscum and La Vache Folle. While Caroline is the designer of the labels, which I think we can all agree are a success, Nicolas and Fred have to both be fully satisfied with the end result of their product before they hit the shelves of specialty retail outlets.

Today I will talk about 2 beers from each Dominus Vobiscum and La Vache Folle ranges.

La Vache Folle - Imperial Milk Stout

  • Alcohol Content 9% ABV
  • Type Imperial Stout
  • Serving 500 ml bottle

Amazing stout that brings a perfect balance of sweetness and dryness. Pours an extremely dark brown with an inch brown head. Head is foamy, has volume and lacing is also present.  The impressive head forces a pour done in stages. It takes a little bit of time before is reveals itself in the nose, but once it warms up, this stout is quick to shine. Notes of licorice, roasted coffee, and caramel blend with a milky scent that comes from the lactose. Body is full and the taste is rich and full of chocolate, coffee, and malty notes. Finishes with a peculiar yet pleasant bitterness. The sweetness covers the alcohol and only after a long finish you can perceive the warmness of that old friend. A soft carbonation lends extra depth to the smooth and velvety body. An absolute pleasure, highly recommended.

Dominus Vobiscum - Triple

  • Alcohol Content 9% ABV
  • Type  Abbey Tripel 
  • Serving 500 ml bottle

Pours an attractive hazy apricot golden hue with two fingers of fluffy, tightly knit paper white head sitting on top. Great retention with a steady flow of tiny bubbles that fuel it. The aroma is bitter orange peels, white pepper, flowers, apple and a creamy wheat malt finish…this aroma has it all !!  The tropical scent is a welcome touch.  The flavor is surprisingly much sweeter than the aroma lets on. The dry and yeasty characters rush the mouth first as fruity notes of lemon, pear and mango glide across the tongue. Bread notes in the finish with a bit of spice while the fruity hops sit on the middle of the tongue until the end. Mouth feel is medium bodied with lush, supple carbonation typical of a Belgian beer. No heaviness or sweet stickiness that would detract from this clean tasting tripel. 

La Vache Folle - Columbus Double IPA

  • Alcohol Content 9% ABV
  • Type American Double / Imperial IPA
  • Serving 500 ml bottle

Pours a filtered, copper color 3 fingers of egg-white  creamy head with a thin clinging sheet lacing on the glass. The aroma has a strong dose of caramel and sweetness along slightly herbal, spicy hops. The flavor is quite sweet even though the hoppiness is present and quite interesting, with notes of citrus and grapefruit and some tropical fruit like mango and pineapple, revealing its sharp and aggressive bitterness after a few sips. Some salty and spicy notes of pepper and cinnamon also linger for a while, leaving a dry and long aftertaste.  Medium to heavy mouth feel with medium carbonation. Big taste, big feel, very lively.

Dominus Vobiscum - Blanche

  • Alcohol Content 5% ABV
  • Type Witbier
  • Serving 500 ml bottle

Pours into a hazy, golden color, in the glass. The frothy white head was quite large at first, got retained as a thick film and left some minor lacing. Just the aroma alone is fantastic, freshwater, bitter spice, grains, a mild banana astringency and sweet malts. But the flavor in this one is really where it shines. Great wheaty malty notes the whole way through, typical corriander, but with a sharp bite of something else, some other spice in the finish, that makes it even more tasty and sets it apart from a lot of other Wit’s I’ve had. The high carbonation is not unpleasant at all, and it has a slightly tart, and dry finish. A tremendously complex brew that is well balanced and unbelievably drinkable

So there you have my take on 4 regular beers from Microbrasserie Charlevoix. Still to come : Hibernus, Brut and Lupulus, the 3 Stars of Charlevoix.


Barley’s Angels Chapters Starting in Montreal & Victoria | Canadian Beer News

MONTREAL, QC & VICTORIA, BC – Barley’s Angels, an organization dedicated to “involving women in the enjoyment of craft beer by creating environments where women can learn more about beer in a friendly, educational and supportive atmosphere,” will soon be expanding its Canadian presence with new chapters in Montreal and Victoria, joining those formed last year in Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

The Montreal group is being spearheaded by McAuslan Brewing, and will be holding its inaugural event “Bière 101″ on Thursday March 1st at 7:00 PM in McAuslan’s Centre St-Ambroise event space. The event will be led by Stéphane Morin – sommelier, founder of Effervescence magazine and beer-food pairing expert -  and will feature appetizers, beer and gift bags for the $20 admission price. Tickets can be reserved by emailing centrestambroise@mcauslan.com or calling 514-939-3060.

Out west, the Victoria chapter is still in the planning stages, with Lindsay McQueen – event coordinator at Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub – taking the lead and aiming for an official launch event on April 1st. 

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