Let’s talk about gluten free beer

Posted on by Ben

Glutenberg

Gluten free beer in Canada has historically been a problematic idea for one very important reason: It’s literally impossible.

To be “gluten free,” according to Health Canada and the Canadian Celiac Association, a product must have no deliberately added ingredients that contain any gluten proteins from barley, oats, rye, triticale, or wheat, including kamut and spelt and any gluten levels in the product from accidental gluten contamination must be less than 20 parts per million (ppm).

To be “beer,”  according to Canada’s Food and Drug Laws, something has to be “the product of the alcoholic fermentation by yeast of an infusion of barley or wheat malt and hops or hop extract in potable water and shall be brewed in such a manner as to possess the aroma, taste and character commonly attributed to beer.”

So if a product is truly gluten free, it isn’t actually beer and, if a product is truly beer, it can’t be gluten free. So that’s the final word on gluten free beer.

See you later!

Oh, you’re still here?

OK then. Let’s talk a little more about gluten-free beer. Continue reading “Let’s talk about gluten free beer” →

Haiku reviews: Sawdust City’s Limberlost Farmhouse Ale

Posted on by Ben

Haiku reviews is a new feature wherein I invoke the brief and impressionistic style of poetry to devote exactly 17 syllables to reviewing a beer.

1

Sawdust City’s Limberlost Farmhouse Ale
barrel-aged gold smell
dry, yeasty, spice-forest vibes
deep, pure, musty lakes

What they have to say: “Named for the local Muskokan forest where our brew team captured the unique wild yeast strain we used to ferment this natural beauty, Limberlost farmhouse ale will be hitting our shelves Thursday, April 28th. Stay tuned for more of the story of our most original brew to date!”

Where you can get it: Limberlost will be available at the Sawdust City retail store in Gravenhurst and on tap in select bars and restaurants.

Want to send me a beer for the haiku review treatment? Drop me a line. 

Christina Coady: The Proost Questionnaire

Posted on by Ben

The Proust Questionnaire is a famous questionnaire about one’s personality. Its name and modern popularity as a form of interview is owed to the responses once given by the French writer Marcel Proust. Ben’s Beer Blog has co-opted this format in order to provide a revealing look at people making beer and working in the beer industry in Ontario. As such, I’ve renamed it The Proost Questionnaire, since “proost” is the Dutch word for cheers. Clever right?

Christina Coady brews beer at Toronto’s Folly Brewpub and writes about homebrewing for Taps Magazine. She shares her frustrations about sexism, the lack of trains in Newfoundland, and the fact that no one has made a decent Batgirl movie.

IMG_6670What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I find great happiness in a successful day, where I love the work and I meet the goals, then I come home to comfort. It’s simple, but it doesn’t always happen in life.

What is your greatest fear?
My parents are dearly important to me. I fear the day when I lose them.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Folly. It took a lot of work for us to get where we are today, and I am so excited for where we are headed.

What is your favorite occupation?

A long time ago, when I was just out of high school, I worked at the NFLD Rare Books Library at Memorial University. If I wasn’t brewing, I would love to be a librarian. Or work in a vineyard.

Which living person do you most admire?

My parents. They are some of the strongest people I know. Continue reading “Christina Coady: The Proost Questionnaire” →

Beer art spotlight: Sawdust City’s Spooky Action

Posted on by Ben

spooky action 2

If I had a dollar for every time a brewery released a beer that was implicitly tied to profound questions about the fundamental theory of quantum mechanics, the TV show The Flash, and a man’s love for his English bulldog, I would finally have my first dollar.

That’s because Sawdust City has released Spooky Action, a spiced barrel-aged imperial stout and the fourth installment in the brewery’s Winewood Series.

The idea for the above-pictured label image, which may now be one of my favourite beer labels, started when Sawdust City brewmaster Sam Corbeil was watching The Flash and a particular episode mentioned “Spooky Action,” referenced off-hand to describe how two characters had become “quantumly entangled” and ultimately became one person.  Corbeil wasn’t entirely sure the science reference was legit, but he liked the name for a beer. So he did some googling.  Continue reading “Beer art spotlight: Sawdust City’s Spooky Action” →

Let’s talk about glassware

Posted on by Ben

I‘ve never really been that into beer glassware.

My reasoning has always been thus: As with most things where I feel beer is being fawned over in an overly-precious way, fussing about glassware seemed to me to be just another way to detract from the best part of drinking beer, namely that it’s fun.

Whether it be contriving expensive classes that are meant to quantify our appreciation of beer, making products to protect them from the sun during the 20 minutes they’re in our glass, or inventing laser-cut crystal glasses that enhance specific styles of beer, my instinct when we put beer on too high a pedestal is typically to go a big rubbery one. “Lighten up,” I’d say to literally no one in particular. “It’s beer.” Continue reading “Let’s talk about glassware” →

Iain McOustra: The Proost Questionnaire

Posted on by Ben

The Proust Questionnaire is a famous questionnaire about one’s personality. Its name and modern popularity as a form of interview is owed to the responses once given by the French writer Marcel Proust. Ben’s Beer Blog has co-opted this format in order to provide a revealing look at people making beer and working in the beer industry in Ontario. As such, I’ve renamed it The Proost Questionnaire, since “proost” is the Dutch word for cheers. Clever right?

Iain McOustra, the brewmaster for Toronto’s Amsterdam Brewery reveals his affinity for chefs, the British overseas intelligence agency, and swimming off Caribbean islands.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Walking with my wife around the city. Stopping in at our favourite spots and wasting the day away eating and drinking.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Tracking down all of Pavement’s record store day releases.

What is your favorite occupation?

Brewing beer “not to style” but how I like it.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Harry Smith.

Which living person do you most admire?

Chefs. They all seem to be a little crazy.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Impatience and a tendency to respond without thinking. Continue reading “Iain McOustra: The Proost Questionnaire” →

This blog’s for you

Posted on by Ben

As you might be able to glean from the appearance of the website today, I have some changes to announce.

It’s something that has been in the works for some time, but for legal reasons, I haven’t been able to talk about it until today: Ben’s Beer Blog is proud to announce a unique partnership with AB InBev and, from this day forward, the blog will be known instead as Ben’s Budweiser Blog.

I know this will come as a shock to my many loyal craft-beer drinking readers but a few months ago, owing to my own increasingly dire financial circumstances, I went in search of sponsorship and advertising opportunities for the blog and, while I had some offers from larger Ontario craft brewers, none could compete with the offer I ultimately received from AB InBev through their local subsidiary, Labatt. Continue reading “This blog’s for you” →

Let’s talk about beer awards

Posted on by Ben

Beer Award

Beer awards are kind of bullshit.

They don’t really denote an absolute degree of quality or a level of excellence above all others in the field or category.

What beer awards often actually denote is simply a willingness on the part of a brewery to meet the demands of individual award ceremonies’ rules and style guidelines. That is, maybe a winning beer best met a certain judge’s understanding of the BJCP definition of a certain style or the beer adheres to the individual awards’ strict and often archaic style guidelines, but does that make the beer the “best” example of its kind?

According to the judges who blind-taste-judged the Ontario Brewing Awards, for example, Triple Bogey Brewing Co. brewed the “best” North American Lager in the province last year. But what does that even mean? Taste is subjective, right? You, for example, may prefer the taste of Great Lakes Brewery’s Golden Horseshoe Premium Lager. Who can say how or why those two lagers are different and what makes one better? Continue reading “Let’s talk about beer awards” →

Siobhan McPherson: The Proost Questionnaire

Posted on by Ben

The Proust Questionnaire is a famous questionnaire about one’s personality. Its name and modern popularity as a form of interview is owed to the responses once given by the French writer Marcel Proust. Ben’s Beer Blog has co-opted this format in order to provide a revealing look at people making beer and working in the beer industry in Ontario. As such, I’ve renamed it The Proost Questionnaire, since “proost” is the Dutch word for cheers. Clever right?

Siobhan McPherson brews beer at the Toronto brew pub and music hall, Burdock. She previously worked at the considerably larger breweries, Mill Street and Amsterdam. She reveals her weakness for horse tartare and how she misses an ’85 Chevy.

IMG_6695What is your idea of perfect happiness?

A warm partially sunny day on the sea with a garden near by and a never ending supply of bread and cheese and charcuterie and beer and wine. I guess you could throw in a few friends and lovers and a dog and a horse and a cat.

What is your greatest fear?

Rusting.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Doing all the things I want to do.

What is your favorite occupation?

Brewing. Designing equipment, creating recipes and techniques, and constantly learning.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

The witch in the village during the dark ages. Continue reading “Siobhan McPherson: The Proost Questionnaire” →

Sam Corbeil: The Proost Questionnaire

Posted on by Ben

The Proust Questionnaire is a famous questionnaire about one’s personality. Its name and modern popularity as a form of interview is owed to the responses once given by the French writer Marcel Proust. Ben’s Beer Blog has co-opted this format in order to provide a revealing look at people making beer and working in the beer industry in Ontario. As such, I’ve renamed it The Proost Questionnaire, since “proost” is the Dutch word for cheers. Clever right?

Sam Corbeil, brewmaster at Sawdust City in Gravenhurst, waxes philosophical about the fundamental states of brain matter, not smiling, and honesty when drinking.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Not sure. Haven’t been there yet. Still looking. But I guess that’s kinda the point.

What is your greatest fear?

Not getting the most out of my life as I can.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Not dying. Yet.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

Shyness.

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Hatred or Anger.

What is your greatest extravagance?

I waste a lot of water in my job. Water is pretty important.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Temperance I guess. I’ve been known to overindulge…on occasion.

On what occasion do you lie?

Usually on those occasions in which I’ve over indulged. Continue reading “Sam Corbeil: The Proost Questionnaire” →