Hey you. Yeah, the one with the dice.
Do you ever spend evenings in bars, drinking craft beer, and hanging out with friends, all the while secretly wishing there was a Settlers of Catan board in front of you?
Conversely, do you ever sit around with your best friends playing Risk into the wee hours, hoping someone will offer you a delicious, fresh, local beer?
If you answered yes to either of the questions above, you’re not alone. Continue reading “Board Games and Black Oak Beer”
There’s something downright folksy about new Norfolk brewery Ramblin’ Road. What with their “off the beaten path” style, the dropped ‘G’ in their name, the proud claims to being Ontario’s first Brewery Farm, it seems like it’s a company of simple folks who just opted to start making beer on their farm–I half expected the sample beers they offered to send me to arrive in a cart being pulled by a donkey.
The truth, of course, is that it is largely schtick. Sure, the brewery is located on a farm and sure the founders have a history in farming, but the reality is perhaps slightly less romantic than the down home image they seem to be putting out there. Ramblin’ Road brewery is actually a brewing venture by Picard Foods, a company that has for the last 20+ years farmed, processed, and distributed peanuts. In fact, you’ve probably eaten some of their snack foods. Ramblin’ Road came about when Picard opted to get into the brewing business and received a $1.2 million low-interest loan from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario in order to purchase brewing equipment. The name, labeling, and folksy attitude (and the slick website and social media campaign to get it out there) are actually the product of Blade Creative, a Toronto-based branding and advertising company that has been “building brand communities since 1991.” Blade Creative are also the folks who were nice enough to make sure Ramblin’ Roads beers got into my hands–by courier, incidentally, not donkey. Continue reading “Middle of the (Ramblin’) Road”
If you read blogTO with any sort of frequency, you’re probably aware that the comments section tends to head toward negative town in quite a hurry. Typically, I accept this as part of blogTO’s charm. Sort of a “Come for the news, stay for the angry urban snark (or, transversely chest-thumping 905er indignation).”
It’s all in good fun and comes with the terrain.
Sometimes however, the criticism gets under my skin a little. Specifically, I’ve noticed that any time I mention the folks over at Amsterdam Brewery, comments tend toward the sort that dismiss the beers the ‘Dam Good Beer folks are making as boring or bland. Continue reading “Amsterdam Takes Over Volo, Haters Shut Your ‘Dam Mouths”
Budweiser, to a craft beer drinker, and indeed anyone who might refer to themselves as a “beer writer,” is supposed to be anathema.
It is a relatively bland beer brewed with a rice adjunct and it has the distinction of being one of the world’s most popular beers largely by virtue of the fact that it is backed by millions and millions of dollars in marketing. It is brewed en masse, it is distributed by a foreign-owned multinational conglomerate, and its advertisements typically run the lowest common-denominator range of blatantly sexual or related to sports–and often blatantly sexual and related to sports at the same time.
Budweiser is the epitome of a “big brewery beer,” and essentially stands in opposition to all the things about the beer business that I like.
I should hate it.
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