Two year old Enjoy After makes the grade

It was nearly the eve of the LCBO's strike deadline last week when I walked into an outlet in Toronto and was reminded that the Crown Corporation - one of the world's largest purchaser of alcohol - does serve a useful purpose every now and then.

The potential work stoppage was averted at the 11th hour, as I and many, many others predicted. But the negotiating ploy did its job, driving up sales to Ontario customers who were worried they might not get their hands on their booze in time for the Canada Day weekend.

But I'm not here to criticize the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. The union has a reputation to keep, the employees have families to support and management has the Ministry of Finance watching their backs and their bottom lines.

No, I'm here to praise them. Because I walked out of that outlet, located conveniently en route to my childhood home in Downsview, with several hard-to-find beauties, including Rochefort Trappiste 10 from Belgium, one of the highest rated beers in the world, and Brew Dog's Elvis Juice, an IPA I hadn't tried from my father's hometown in Scotland.

The real prize was a special bottle from California, the last one on the shelf in fact: Stone Brewery's Enjoy After 07.04.16 Brett IPA.

I have had several versions of their Enjoy By series of Imperial IPAs, where you are reminded that IPAs are meant to be enjoyed fresh, with the 'enjoy by' date inscribed right in the name of the beer.

But their Enjoy After series spins that convention on its head by adding Brettanomyces, a wild yeast that brings about "charmingly unpredictable complexities of spice, funk, acidity and more" as it ages.

In short, it's an IPA that is meant to be aged.

The only confusion I had was the date on the bottle. It was ready to be 'enjoyed' nearly a year before, but the store's Beer Guy said he had only just received it a week or so ago.

Does that mean it had sat in an LCBO warehouse for a year, awaiting shipment? Probably, but I already said I wasn't here to criticize the LCBO, so I'll leave that speculation to the investigative journalists out there.

I had an Enjoy After beer in my hands. That was good enough for me.

The liquor store was my first stop on a busy day which included another visit with my parents and their lawns and an after lunch itinerary with four breweries on the agenda.

I had mentioned my desire to see Rainhard, Shacklands, Indie Ale House and Bellwoods breweries - all in one afternoon - in a previous blog and I am happy to report I accomplished my goal, AND added the LCBO stop as well.

There's no need to list every beer I bought on the trip (been there, done that too many times) but there were a few which stood out.

Farmhouse IPA from Shacklands was another interesting beer from a brewery I'm going to start calling the King of the Funk. They used a Saison yeast with west coast hops to produce a beer that gave me the bitterness up front instead of the finish. More Farmhouse Ale than IPA, with funk, spices and citrus dominant, and quite good.

Armed ;N Citra from Rainhard. Most excellent

Rainhard had its usual stellar lineup, with Total Clarity, a new IPA that is now made with the brewery's house yeast standing out. I picked up a couple of those little cans of Armed 'N Citra as well because I had somehow forgotten just how good this American Pale Ale is. Smooth and light-bodied at the same time, with a huge aroma of citrus and tropical fruit and a whole lot of deliciousness.

Indie Ale House was my priority stop because of the release of Cock Puncher, their signature 11 per cent (!) Imperial IPA, and this piney hop monster didn't disappoint. But then it never does.

I also made sure to grab another couple of bottles of Rabbit of Caerbannog, a White IPA I discovered on my last visit that checked off all my spicy and citrus boxes.

(I even found myself recommending it to a customer at Buster Rhino's who was indecisive as to what to pick from our beer fridge. She gave me the thumbs up, so I'm glad I was able to spread the good word about this beer.)

The last stop was Bellwoods, and though there was nothing new and exciting at the Hafis Road location, old favourites are favourites for a reason (hello Jelly King!) and I went home happy.

But it all comes back to the Enjoy After IIPA from Stone Brewing, and I shared that with Jess and Dylan the next night post shift.

Despite its great age, it was declared an impressive beer by all three of us. Even Kolsch-loving Dylan (who, to be fair, does love his Boneshaker IPA) said it was really good, a sentiment echoed by Jessica.

She liked it enough to think about further ageing the bottle of Enjoy After 04.20.17 a friend picked up for her and Matthew on a recent border run.

Which got me thinking - again - about why my bottle was only now arriving in the LCBO system so long after its release, but only for a moment.

It was funky, smooth, a bit spicy and there was tart citrus hovering in the background. It was my first two year-old IPA and I liked it.

Let's leave it at that.

***

I was working at the bar a few night later when I ran into Dave, the Brewmaster at Falcon Brewing in Ajax and a regular customer. With Dave was Joe, a buddy and amateur brewer from Portland, Oregon - one of the world's great beer capitals - and he was raving about Canadian beer and the Toronto beer scene in particular.

We chatted about Portland and the love its citizens have for craft beer, I told him about the Stone Enjoy After beer from the previous weekend and I recommended a couple of local beers for him to try from the tap list.

He, in turn, promised to go home and spread the word about all the world class beer we are producing in Canada.

Thank you good sir.

Cheers!