Category: Craft Brewing

The best beer I’ve ever had: Jeff Broeders

Posted on by Ben

Recently, I shared an occasion that had me considering the emotional connection one can have with a beer-drinking experience when I wrote “The best beer I’ve ever had.” I put the call out to other beer folks and asked them to detail their “best beer” experiences for me for a series aptly titled, The best beer I’ve ever had.

For this entry, Jeff Broeders, Niagara College Brewmaster and Brewery Management Program graduate and head brewer at The Indie Alehouse, talks about his best beer experience.

(A few things should probably be noted here: First, Jeff was hesitant to nail down a best beer and emphasized repeatedly this was a best beer “experience,” second, the post below is the result of a conversation that was transcribed from a shitty recorder and recalled from an evening of more than one beverage at Jeff’s place of employment.) 

I don’t really have a “best beer I’ve ever had,” I have a lot of great experiences. For me, really any time that I can go to a brewery and chat with a brewer, that’s a great beer experience.

I mean you can’t beat that. When you go taste a beer and talk about the process, that’s the best possible beer experience, you know? Chatting with the brewmaster who made the beer, drinking it out of the tank, having them explain where it is in the process, what it really is that you’re drinking and what they plan on doing with it. That for me is the ultimate beer experience.

Honestly, that’s why I like to think I made the best decision of my life three years ago getting into this business. For me, being able to sit and talk about a beer is priceless. When you sit with someone who knows beer, the beer’s always going to taste better.

But if I had to pick a single moment, I definitely had a moment with the Monk’s Cafe Sour Ale.

That small bottle was my introduction to sours, and I love sour beer.

It was just around the time I got into craft beer, and I was in Buffalo at Premier Gourmet and I just happened to buy it. It was one of the few microbrews I bought while was there and when I drank it, I was like, “Holy shit.”

Sour beer just doesn’t taste like normal beer and it opened my eyes in terms of how complex a beer can be.

That beer cost me $400–because I went back about a month later and bought every single sour beer that Premier Gourmet had.

$400.

I love sour beer.

Where to brew your own beer in Toronto

Posted on by Ben

An edited version of this post appeared on blogTO’s “grocery store” section back on June 18, 2013, but because I’m not sure anyone has ever read blogTO’s grocery store section (I didn’t even know it existed), and because it means I can simply copy and paste to plop some content on my blog this week, I’ve opted to repost it here. Lazy!
What are your thoughts on “you brew” facilities like Fermentations?

Fermentations Toronto

In the argument about micro- vs. macro-brewers and the conversation about who brews the best beer locally, we tend to forget that there is another option when it comes to beer drinking, namely, making it yourself. But when few have the time, inclination, space, or knowledge to set up their own homebrewing operations, are there any commercial places in Toronto one can go to brew a batch of beer themselves?

Well yes, as it turns out–but just one. Continue reading “Where to brew your own beer in Toronto” →

Amsterdam’s 416 Local Lager: So how’s the beer?

Posted on by Ben

416 local lager

Unless you’ve been napping, you’ve probably noticed that Amsterdam brewery has made some big moves in the last little while.

They moved their brewing operations to a big space in Leadside, the recently opened their massive brewpub on the water and they’ve made some less than subtle changes to their branding as of late.

One interesting little change, though, that seems to have escaped most people’s attention (or interest?) was the fate of Amsterdam’s 416 beer.

416 was originally created to celebrate Amsterdam’s 25th anniversary and was billed as an “all-natural, unfiltered and unpasteurized wheat beer with a distinct citrus aroma.” Indeed, the marketing push that I remember surrounding the 416 Urban Wheat seems now like something of a preview to Amsterdam’s current more serious efforts to hype their products and the beer even enjoyed such distinctions as it’s very own URL! (http://www.416urbanwheat.com/ is still active as of this posting). Continue reading “Amsterdam’s 416 Local Lager: So how’s the beer?” →

Hops and Bolts: So how’s the beer?

Posted on by Ben

20130717-072235.jpg

You may or may not have seen the intriguing art that festoons the can of Mad and Noisy’s Hops and Bolts at your local LCBO store or plastered on walls around the city and in print ads in newspapers and magazine. And you may or may not have, like me,  seen the cool art and the word “hops” figuring prominently in the name of the beer and thought, “Fuck yeah” and happily bought an eight-pack of tall cans with no hesitation.

And if you’re like me, you were thoroughly disappointed. Continue reading “Hops and Bolts: So how’s the beer?” →

When it comes to beer, all that really matters is taste

Posted on by Ben
"They really should have served this in a stange."
“They really should have served this in a stange.”

Obviously I like the process of making great beer.

I appreciate the effort that goes into the act of making beer, the attention to details, the thought that goes into choosing the right ingredients, the adherence to traditional styles or conversely the use of innovative new techniques.

I have an appreciation of the work that goes into making good beer.

However, I feel it needs to be said that none of that shit actually matters.

All that really matters is taste.

You can worship at the altar of the beer-making gods, study techniques and principles of brewing and find new and crazy ways to forward the art of beverage crafting, but unless you can put your pint of beer in front of someone who will say “That’s a good beer,”….who cares? Continue reading “When it comes to beer, all that really matters is taste” →

Hogtown Ale Cans Are Coming to LCBOsHo

Posted on by Ben

Hogtown Ale

Good news for fans of Toronto’s own easy-drinking Kölsch: Cans of Hogtown Ale will soon be coming to the LCBO.

Yesterday the guys from Hogtown hosted a little shindig at the Duke of Devon to celebrate their first anniversary and to announce the arrival of their beer in cans. They also just received their LCBO product number, which means you could see their cans on store shelves very, very soon.

Incidentally, the Duke of Devon–the watering hole of choice for the company’s proprietors–was the first place to pour Hogtown Ale, so it’s good to see the lads have stayed loyal (also incidentally, the original Duke of Devon launch of Hogtown Ale was the first story I ever wrote for blogTO way back in January 2012–and yes, that makes the “first anniversary” math a bit hazy here so let’s not dwell on it). Continue reading “Hogtown Ale Cans Are Coming to LCBOsHo” →

Win tickets to the Back Alley Beer Festival at Stout Irish Pub

Posted on by Ben

Stout

Here are two things you should already know:

  1. Ontario Craft Beer Week officially kicks off on June 16th and continues until June 23rd.
  2. Stout Irish Pub on Carlton near Parliament is the best bar in Cabbagetown.

Here are two things you probably didn’t know but you are going to like:

  1. Stout Irish Pub is hosting the awesomeley named “Back Alley Beer Festival” on Saturday June 15 to put you and your liver through the paces as a perfect warm up to OCB Week by pouring beer from over 20 different great craft brewers
  2. I’m giving away four free passes to said awesomely-named event.

All you have to do for a chance to win is post a comment on this very post letting me know why you prefer to drink Ontario beer. I’ll randomly select two winners and each winner will win a pair of passes (so use your real email address when you sign in to comment).

Your free pass will include your admission (which the plebs will be shelling out $20 for) and five tickets each good for a 5oz sample drink.

TWIST: While I’ll select the winning comments at random from a hat (an actual hat!) every comment that I find funny will go into the hat twice, meaning you get a second chance to win if you can just make this dead-inside beer blogger muster a chuckle.

So….why do you prefer to drink Ontario beer?

Pot-sweetening update June 12: The folks at Stout have just offered up 10 Stout-branded frisbees as runner-up prizes. First beer, now frisbees? Can this contest get any better?!

The lost barrel of “Trombsterdam”

Posted on by Ben
This is actually the best picture I took of the beer. Make of my phone's choice of focus what you will...
This is actually the best picture I took of the beer. Make of my phone’s choice of focus what you will…

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be among a select group of “media influencers” chosen to attend a private dinner at the still-under-construction second location for Toronto’s Rock Lobster. Now if hearing “media influencers” and “private dinner” makes you picture an intense session of social media junkies instagramming the shit of their meals, you should know this: 1) You’re absolutely right, and 2) I don’t care what you think I ate an amazing seafood dinner and got an article out of the deal.

You should also know this: In addition to the aforementioned delicious meal, the evening provided some excellent libations. Barrel-aged cocktails are the name of the game at Rock Lobster so it was no surprise when a handful of good ones ended up in my belly that evening. What was a surprise though was the appearance of a collaboration I had heretofore never heard of: Trombsterdam, a seemingly-right-up-my-alley joint effort from Tromba Tequila and Amsterdam Brewing Company. Continue reading “The lost barrel of “Trombsterdam”” →

Old Man Johnson IPA is coming to Bryden’s

Posted on by Ben
Perhaps the beer should have been called "Dork in a sweatshirt"
Perhaps the beer should have been called “Dork in a sweatshirt”

A month ago, I contacted the folks at Great Lakes Brewery to see if I might come out to do little profile and photo spread for blogTO (a post that, aptly, ended up being called “Behind the scenes at Great Lakes Brewery“). When I called, the always congenial Troy Burtch, GLB’s resident social media dude and sales rep, said “Why don’t you come out and brew a collaborative beer with Lackey?” As you can imagine, my answer was something along the lines of “Fuck yes.”

And so on a rainy Friday last month, I got the opportunity to brew a beer with Mike Lackey, a guy who’s been making beer for over 20 years and who’s responsible for some of my favourite local options of the past little while. And when I say “brew a beer with” I mostly mean “added the stuff he told me to add then manned the brew kettle while he disappeared and reappeared sporadically to make sure I didn’t hurt myself/burn the place down.” Continue reading “Old Man Johnson IPA is coming to Bryden’s” →

Mill Street Brewery’s Beer Hall: So how’s the bierschnaps?

Posted on by Ben

Bierschnaps

On Wednesday I had occasion to finally get out to Mill Street’s new Beer Hall location (yes, secret revealed, I wrote a story about The Beer Hall for blogTO without ever having set foot in it. Sue me).

It’s a pretty spectacular place and despite what a handful of reviewers and snarky commenters have to say about the decor, I think most people will be impressed with the place–if only for its size. Pictures don’t really convey how bloody massive the place is and, given that Mill Street is embracing a “soft open” approach, the size of the place seems all the more cavernous given the sparse attendance (but expect that to change once word gets out about this place and once the absolutely massive patio opens later this month). Continue reading “Mill Street Brewery’s Beer Hall: So how’s the bierschnaps?” →