I picked up this beer while on the road and I was immediately in a fix, dealing with cultural confusion. As a son of Scots I know that Belhaven is a fine and reputable brewer of Scots ales bought last year by Greene King...yet I know IPA is not a Scots style. I have discussed this before in …
A can of beer from Barrie. Mmmm. Robert Simpson Brewing is a brewer that does not make it to the east end of Lake Ontario. I picked this one up a few weeks ago at the Queens Quay LCBO in Toronto. The BAers, who have some reservations at 21% nay, call it a cream ale - which to me means a warmer …
I like press releases. They give me a strange sense that someone somewhere out there has thought about this blog for the seven seconds it takes to add me to their email circulation list. It's the little things that give joy, you know. • Well, this news has made me think that I may try to make a …
I've wanted to try this comparison for a while. Sgt. Major's IPA from Fitzroy Harbour in the Ottawa Valley is a unique beer in at least the eastern side Canada in that it attempts to take on the US style on its own chewy hoppy terms. Hop Devil IPA from Victory in Pennsylvania is one of the classic …
Mixing beer has a venerable heritage - whether it is the black and tan with Guinness floating upon a higher gravity lager or Newcastle Brown with its pre-made mix of 1/3 older stock ale and 2/3 fresh...or is it the other way? But recently I have taken to 20% good raspberry lambic with 80% oatmeal …
Barley wine. Sorta like winter warmers times two that have funnier names. No insanely massive hopping or extreme exotic malts, though there is a bit of each. More like a lack of water really. Two other favorites of mine are Old Foghorn from Anchor and Druid Fluid from Middle Ages. • Old …
Another new guest author from the south of the border has joined the team, Scott Gordon of • Evanston, Illinois near Chicago. He sent me some information about Reconstruction Ale by the Abita Brewing Company from near New Orleans and I thought it would be a good intro to a review of some of the …
Art by John Neville • A weekend's worth of work, these three large format Belgian Abbey style doubles brewed in Pennsylvania, California and New York from left to right above. I wrote a bit about four doubles just a little over a year ago, including the Ommegang. I repeat it here as the standard …
Last fall I reviewed the Weyerbacher Brewing Company's Old Heathen Imperial Stout and the Imperial Pumpkin Ale and when I was last down south I picked up this mix of five more of their brews. Weyerbacher has a new web site which is worth checking out. In their history section they explain some of …
What is a winter beer? A beer brewed for winter? Is it that simple? CAMRA's annual National Winter Ales Festival is aimed at old ales, stouts and porters but that is not what the US understands by the term. As the Magic Hat offering is called "a dark wheat ale" on the label you can expect to find …