Harry Porter and the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean is coming to the LCBO

Posted on by Ben

BBB Harry porter

Great news for fans of American porters, bourbon, vanilla, and JK Rowling-related puns: Great Lakes Brewery’s excellent “Harry Porter & the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean” will soon be available at the LCBO.

Sources at Great Lakes have confirmed to the staff at Ben’s Beer Blog (yes, that’s just me chatting with Troy) that the rich, creamy, bourbon-y, vanilla-y porter that has developed a devoted following as an occasional GLB one-off will be the latest beer to join Great Lakes’ popular Tank Ten series and will appear on LCBO shelves in early February.

In order to properly launch the beer, Great Lakes will be throwing a party on February 6th at The Loose Moose (event poster below) which will feature an appropriately rich and delicious lineup of dark GLB beers. In addition to Harry Porter & the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean on tap, in cans, and on cask, there will also be Harry Porter & the Fairgrounds Coffee Bean, a Bourbon Barrel-Aged Porter with Vanilla Bean, and one more as-yet-unnamed surprise beer made with cherries. Continue reading “Harry Porter and the Bourbon Soaked Vanilla Bean is coming to the LCBO” →

Why you should send me free beer

Posted on by Ben

Free Schlitz

In case there was any doubt, allow me to make something clear: I routinely receive free beer.

As you might also imagine, most beer writers do. In fact virtually all beer writers with any sort of respectable following have probably received at least a few free beers and I imagine a handful of them got into the beer writing biz  for the express purpose of receiving free beer.

Shocking stuff, I know.

That earth-shattering revelation aside, you might not realize that there are actually some mixed feelings about how we should talk about the fact that virtually all of us receive freebies. On the one hand, there are some beer writers who thoroughly enjoy flaunting their freebies. The job of a beer writer isn’t exactly one that typically makes a ton of dough so the beer perks might be considered something like the job’s “benefits.” For some, I imagine, bragging on social media about being among the first to try the next experimental offering or new one-off from a brewery are simply extensions of those perks. Continue reading “Why you should send me free beer” →

I want to be the Beer Mayor of Toronto

Posted on by Ben

Beer Mayor

I am running for Mayor.*

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while but about which I’ve always been hesitant given a few obvious obstacles, not the least of which is my fondness for beer.

This past year or so though, the current mayor of Toronto has shown me that people with drinking habits far more serious than mine are capable of winning an election.

Indeed, he’s even shown that one can hold onto their seat in public office–and even register to run for re-election of that office–despite being photographed with now-dead criminals, admitting to smoking crack cocaine while serving as the mayor, drinking and driving, and making reference to “eating pussy” on live TV.

So I figure, what the hell. If this guy can do it, I can totally be mayor.

So I’m running for Mayor.* Continue reading “I want to be the Beer Mayor of Toronto” →

My uncle doesn’t give a shit about craft beer

Posted on by Ben

Not my uncle

My uncle doesn’t give a shit about the The Beer Store monopoly.

He also doesn’t really care to ponder the finer moral issues of the LCBO. 

Instead, he’s content to consume large amounts of Budweiser and, when the mood strikes him, Bud Light, and he has been happily doing so for virtually all the years I have been alive.

I think you’ll agree then that my uncle is a consumer of beer. Yet, if you were to scan the conversations currently happening in relation to beer in the province of Ontario, there’s not a lot out there that would interest my uncle.

Indeed, “raging against the Beer Store” and “bitching about the LCBO” probably rank among the most popular of all tropes when it comes to beer writing (see: this blog)–and with good cause. That the Beer Store–a foreign-owned private entity–is allowed to exist as the only alternative to the province’s state-run liquor distribution seems to me to be a fucking travesty. Similarly, said state-run liquor distributor, the LCBO (which I happen to thoroughly like) is far from perfect. Continue reading “My uncle doesn’t give a shit about craft beer” →

Let’s talk about contract brewing

Posted on by Ben

Cool Expansion Before

It’s that time of year when everyone begins to trot out their end-of-year reviews and we look back on the year that was in beer.

And as we beer writers all surf through our own stories from the previous year in an effort to slap together an SEO-friendly list of happenings we’ve already written about, I feel like there is one item of significance that will get overlooked in a lot of people’s round-ups. It’s the fact that Cool Brewery in Etobicoke is currently wrapping up renovations that will see their space increased by 20%–renovations that have added  four new 330-hectolitre fermentation tanks, vastly increasing their production capabilities.

As they themselves noted in a recent edition of their newsletter, COOL NATION NEWS! each of these tanks will hold the equivalent of 96,800 bottles of beer.

As you probably know, it’s unlikely that those bottles will all be filled with Cool Brewing’s own brands of beer, Cool Lager, Buzz Hemp Beer, and Stonewall Light. Instead, it’s far more likely that the space will be dedicated to Cool’s other, increasingly lucrative business; namely, renting out their space to contract brewers. Continue reading “Let’s talk about contract brewing” →

Local listomania!

Posted on by Ben

Hey dudes,

In case you’re wondering where I’ve been (Shh, I like to pretend there are people that frequently check my blog hoping for new content), I’ve been focusing my beer-and-booze-related writing efforts over on blogTO, a site where I actually get paid a little bit to write.

In case you missed it (Shh, I like to pretend there are people who actually click the links I share on twitter and facebook), I’ve written a few list-focused posts for blogTO as of late, and the result is that, if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve now got all your Ontario beverage options covered for a while.

So I have provided the linked images below in order to cover all your local-drinking and Ben Johnson-reading needs until I have some time to devote to Ben’s Beer Blog again; but that might be a while because I’m currently working on a number of–you guessed it–list-focused posts for blogTO. Continue reading “Local listomania!” →

Big Rock SAAZ Republic Pilz is coming to Ontario

Posted on by Ben

*an earlier, stupid version of this post was written as though SAAZ Republic Pilz was Big Rock’s first foray into Ontario. As Toronto Star Beer Columnist Josh Rubin helpfully pointed out, Big Rock beers have actually been here for about 20 years. This post has been revised to reflect the fact that this Big Rock Brewery is indeed the same Big Rock Brewery that currently has Big Rock Grasshoppper Wheat Ale, Big Rock India Pale, Big Rock Light Lime, Big Rock Traditional Ale, and Big Rock Warthog Ale all listed at The Beer Store. Yes, the entire conceit of this post–which was intended to be a transcript of my initial thoughts on the news–has essentially been destroyed, but I’m going to try to salvage the thing anyway because I don’t have time to rewrite it and oh great the baby’s crying I have to go. 

Saaz PPilsner

A couple weeks ago, the interwebs were all a-twitter with news that one of Canada’s oldest craft breweries–Calgary’s Big Rock Brewery–was bringing some new beer to Ontario.

The obligatory press release explained that the first of a series of new beer releases here would be SAAZ Republic Pilz, a pilsner with “a distinct but mild bitterness on the front end followed by a slight hop middle and a clean, refreshing finish.” It also explained that this release represented the first of of a total of three new beers slated for release in Ontario.

I don’t really know how I feel about this release, so, in order to convey my thoughts on the news, I’ve attempted to transcribe the conversation that occurred between the conflicting optimistic and typically dominant cynical voices in my own brain whilst drinking one last week.

Continue reading “Big Rock SAAZ Republic Pilz is coming to Ontario” →

Dispatch from the Samley Cup

Posted on by Ben

Image

Monday night, seemingly by chance, I found myself at the judges’ table of Samuel Adams’ 3nd Annual service industry homebrew competition, the Samley Cup.

I’m not entirely sure who dropped dead or otherwise decided that they couldn’t be a part of the decision-making for the event, but the result was that I got a last-minute email and this angry, eff-bomb dropping beer blogger found himself seated among an esteemed panel of beer folks who actually know what the fuck they’re talking about.

We were tasked with choosing a winner among seven finalist teams of homebrewers, all there representing an Ontario bar and all vying for the top prize: a trip to Boston to tour Samuel Adams brewery. Since the event was held at the Bier Markt on the Esplanade, it was sure to be a good time worthy of a mayor; however, we were out on the mainstage of the bar and, sadly, not in the Rob Ford cocaine room. Continue reading “Dispatch from the Samley Cup” →

The best beer I’ve ever had: Fabian Skidmore

Posted on by Ben

As part of my ongoing series, The best beer I’ve ever had, I put the call out to other beer folks and ask them to detail their “best beer” experiences for me.

For today’s installment, Fabian Skidmore, bartender at Danforth craft beer staple, The Only Cafe, shares his story.

coleman

Ah, the things we do to get us through university.

I spent a lot of time digging holes, painting walls, cleaning things, chopping veggies as quickly as I could while ducking and dodging flying pots and pans originating from unstable, drug addled chefs.

One day, I even helped re-wire a house.

Continue reading “The best beer I’ve ever had: Fabian Skidmore” →

The world’s easiest beer-making kit

Posted on by Ben

IMG_1669

The emailed press release was intriguing.

MB Bottle Brew was boasting that they had launched the “World’s Easiest Beer Making Kit.” It was supposedly an all-natural, preservative-free, fermented-in-the-bottle-beer that takes just two minutes to make and is ready to drink in 10 to 12 days.

Perhaps most interestingly to a guy who spends a considerable amount of his paycheque on beer, MB Bottle Beer was touting the fact that it costs half the price of regular beer.

My Spider Sense was telling me to hit delete because a beer that advertises itself based on its low price point and the ease with which you can make it yourself typically suggests to me that it will taste like toilet.

But there was something about the email that I kept coming back to. Maybe it was this part: Continue reading “The world’s easiest beer-making kit” →