Ben's Beer Blog

If you’ve been around the beer scene in Toronto for any length of time, you’ve probably heard some variation of the “Mill Street is about to be bought out by Molson/Labatt” rumour.

Recently, I heard such rumblings again and this time the source had it that it was “a done deal” and that Molson was simply having their lawyers dot the Is and cross the Ts.

Curious about yet another Mill Street sale rumour, I took an unprecedented step to get to the truth of the matter: I asked them. Here’s Steve Abrams, co-founder of Mill Street, responding to my email about the latest “impending sale” rumours:

Hey Ben,

I can officially and unofficially say no!

These rumours are crazy. Not sure who keeps starting them, but I have my theories!

Thanks for checking in.

So there you go. All cleared up. None of the big guys are buying Mill Street.

Until the next cycle for this rumour in a couple months, obviously.

I
n case you were not aware, there is a thing called “butt beer.”

No, I’m not talking about pouring beer into your butt (although that too is a apparently a thing–don’t’ Google it). I’m talking about a special kind of beer concoction that a certain Very Large Canadian Brewer creates during their brewing process.

Now first of all, it should be said that my story of Butt Beer comes only from one source and that source speaks about Butt Beer from experience working at said Very Large Canadian Brewery. Accordingly, even though I won’t be naming my source or the Very large Canadian Brewery, please take this tale with a very large disclaiming allegedly. I’m not looking to get sued over something called Butt Beer, OK? Continue reading “Let’s talk about Butt Beer” →

The Friday Link Roundup is a feature wherein Ben’s Beer Blog lazily points you to other beery things worth reading on the interwebs this week.

	I wasn’t even aware this was a thing but, according to Cool Material there’s long been a war brewing over who can make the world’s strongest beer. Read how it all went down.
	Over on his blog, Pete Brown waxes philosophical on serving good beer and being twattish, as is his wont.
	A little while ago, Charles Benoit, the cofounder of organic unaged whisky making Toronto Distillery Co. sounded off on The Beer Store Debate & Ontario’s Policy Quagmire on the company’s blog.
	Because why not, there is Lollyphile! a “San Francisco born & Austin raised candy company” making beer flavoured lollipops. Order yours in IPA, Lager, or Stout.

And finally, it’s not beer related, but it’s about drinking and down right Canadian. Here’s Farley Mowat, RIP, on the three cardinal tenets of rum drinking in Newfoundland.

“…The first of these is that as soon as a bottle is placed on a table it must be opened. This is done to “let the air get at it and carry off the black vapors.” The second tenet is that a bottle, once opened, must never be restoppered, because of the belief that it will then go bad. No bottle of rum has ever gone bad in Newfoundland, but none has ever been restoppered, so there is no way of knowing whether this belief is reasonable. The final tenet is that an open bottle must be drunk as rapidly as possible “before all to-good goes out of it.”