Month: November 2012

You Should Already Be Drinking: Railway City Brewing Company’s Beers

Posted on by Ben

Unless you live in a cave somewhere, you’ve probably already tried Railway City Brewing’s Dead Elephant IPA. It’s a perfectly solid little IPA that, for my money, ranks up there with Great Lakes Brewing’s Crazy Canuck among the best of the easier to drink Ontario IPAs. That is, for me, Muskoka’s Mad Tom IPA currently rules supreme when it comes to my go-to IPA, but when I’m looking to pick up a slightly easier to drink, hoppy Ontario beer, it’s a virtual toss up between a few cans of Crazy Canuck and Dead Elephant.

Which is to say: I dig their style.

Sadly, unless you live around St. Thomas, you likely haven’t been introduced to too much else that Railway City has to offer which, as it turns out, is a real shame. Continue reading “You Should Already Be Drinking: Railway City Brewing Company’s Beers” →

Drifting into the argument like wild yeast…

Posted on by Ben

Opinions in Ontario brewing are a lot like assholes and IPAs: These days, everyone has one.

There seems to be a lot of beer writing occurring as of late on the subject of beer writing itself—so I thought I too would jump on the masturbatory, navel-gazing bandwagon and offer my two cents and pretend that this little space I’ve carved out on the internets has any sort of influence at all.

The “conversation” largely began on the prolific and insightful “A Good Beer Blog.” Author Alan McLeod had offered up his opinion (as beer writers are wont to do) on an interesting little project being conducted by a co-operative of Ontario brewers who, in a nutshell, are attempting to brew beer adhering to ancient Belgian techniques that will, hopefully, see the beer fermented by wild indigenous yeasts the Brewers are hoping will drift into the open brewing vessels.

This is a broadly simplified explanation, and many other media outlets have done a much more detailed job, so feel free to seek them out if you want more information on the project (though be forewarned, none of them seem to answer my first question about the whole process, namely, won’t birds poop in the beer?!). Continue reading “Drifting into the argument like wild yeast…” →

High Octane Local Beers to Fight the Mid-Autumn Chill

Posted on by Ben

With this bloody cold nip in the air, but still a couple months before the official start of Winter, we’ve entered a nasty, windy, often wet part of the year frequently devoid of sunshine, but without any of the charms that snow can bring.

Accordingly, it’s a time of year that’s best suited to a certain kind of beer with a hearty dose of that most comforting autumn ingredient–and I’m not talking about pumpkin.

No. I’m talking about my old friend alcohol. It’s cold and rainy out and it’s a time for comforting oneself with strong drink. So in the spirit of this drab season, here are some potent local offerings that just might serve as a welcome port in the storm.

Continue reading “High Octane Local Beers to Fight the Mid-Autumn Chill” →