Is it because Canadians are jumping on board? Does that make me uneasy about an article about Canadians and beer cocktails? Canadians have this way of making any movement, you know, both earnest and bland at the same time. I worry about these things. It is tough enough dealing with messing around with good beer. But adding stuff to the already good stuff to make it better? That's really tough. So, I am always on the watch for the mapled effect the northern cousin anytime and especially when I read examples like this Canadian Press article:

Sure, maybe you've had a shot with a beer chaser here, or, in more reckless moments, a boilermaker — in which the shot glass of liquor is dropped directly into the pint of beer. But the new trend goes far beyond that, with mixologists looking for creative new ways to blend beer and booze. Grier was introduced to the beer cocktail after watching Canadian beer writer Stephen Beaumont concoct some at a cocktail event a few years ago. Beaumont got his inspiration from northern France, where he says beer cocktails are surprisingly common. "Once I tried a couple over there, I just had to give making my own creations a shot," he said in an email. He sees beer cocktails falling into three categories — beer blends; beer mixed with something else, such as juice, spirits or other flavouring ingredients; or beer used as a flavouring ingredient in a cocktail.

Awkward! Turtle! Did you notice the Canadian use of "reckless" up there? Madness. Sheer madness adding one ounce of spirit to a beer making it move from 5% to maybe - craaaazy - 6.2%, But Mr. B. saves the day even if only by email. I entirely accept the beer + beer = cocktail formula. I, after all, invented the Corn-vel. I am also fine with the idea of beer plus strong drink, especially port and porter. But gin? Why take a perfectly good herbal sour beer and make something else of it? That is what I do not get. But maybe that is my issue. Is each beer a creation that needs to be treated with respect for its own integrity or is it an opportunity based only on taste to make news tastes using it and using it up? That is what I do not yet know. The "bloody bull" example does not help me any more than my own experience with two and juice at the Midtown twenty-five years ago.