A very good day

There are no breweries in my little corner of north-west Toronto but all I have to do is hop in my car and in 15 minutes I am absolutely spoiled for choice.

I have done plenty of beer runs from here but yesterday's little excursion was pretty special. The whole tour took about an hour and involved just four stops - three breweries and an LCBO outlet - but pound for pound it was one of my best trips.

And I only bought 22 beer.

The genesis of the journey was two-fold: I needed more Barn Owl #22 from Bellwoods and Robohop, Great Lakes' excellent Imperial IPA, was back (but only in selected LCBOs), and I wanted both.

The Barn Owl, a foeder-aged wild ale with apricot, was one of my two favourite beers of 2020 and when I learned there was still plenty in stock at Bellwoods' Hafis location - ten minutes from my house - I put the beer run plan in motion. It's pricey - $14 per 500 ml bottle - but the combination of funk, tart & champagne-like carbonation is irresistible.

As for Robohop, it sees the light of day once a year and has been a long-time favourite (especially the New England version), but a product search showed it was not at my nearest liquor store. No problem - it was at Jane & Dundas, and that's just 10 minutes or so from Hafis Road. And as it happens, there are half a dozen great breweries between them.

This could be a very good day.

Of course, with limited funds I had to severely limit my brewery stops, so after a little research, I chose Rainhard (in the Stockyards district) and Indie Ale House (in the Junction), fired up my pimped-out Chevy Spark and headed out to the wilds of west Toronto.

At Bellwoods I bought two Barn Owls (a rare treat, I told myself), a Jelly King Apricot (staying with the apricot theme), a Cat Lady IPA (haven't seen it in a while) and a Jutsu, which tends to go home with me after every visit.

The bill came to just over $40.

I turned south on Keele/Weston Road next and found Rainhard, where I bought a couple cans of Space Tank, which is their flagship Armed 'n Citra pale ale, except with Galaxy hops, and two cans of Hop Cone Syndrome, which won back-to-back silvers in the Imperial IPA category at the Ontario Brewing Awards in 2016 and 2017.

A good day for beer. And me

It is released each year, but I hadn't seen it since 2017 and I knew then I was going to regret just buying two, just as I regretted not stopping in at Shacklands, located literally NEXT DOOR to Rainhard.

Sometimes it sucks not being rich.

Anyway, the bill came in under $15.

Indie Ale House was just a few minutes further south, so I parked at the bank across the street (where the pigeons are) and wandered into their bottle shop for a chat with the young fellow behind the counter about beer and lockdown restrictions.

A couple of Happy Little Trees IPA was on my wish list (it's Kviek-yeasted, it's a homage to Bob Ross, what's not to like?), as was Zombie Apocalypse, their annual Imperial Stout release. I threw in a single of Lil Lush, a collaboration with Short Finger Brewing of Kitchener and I was out of there with only a $19 dent in my bank account.

I also had a nice chat about the pandemic with my server and left with a feeling of optimism I hadn't felt in a long time. I'm not sure I share his optimism that we could be out of this by summer, but it's nice to have dreams, isn't it?

That left just the LCBO stop on my agenda. and as I was already on Dundas it was just five minutes west to my final destination.

I had been to this location before and at each visit I was amazed at the selection of craft beer on display. There are local brews  - including beer I had purchased earlier in the day - from Toronto breweries I don't see in my north end LCBOs, never mind back in Oshawa. And the imported section - especially the beers from Belgium - was the bomb. 

There were Trappist beers from Rochefort and Westmalle, a whole line from Rodenbach (including a  Grand Cru) and assorted gems from Duvel and Chimay, just to name a few.

Like a kid in a candy store, I would be, if I had an unlimited candy allowance. But I don't, so I just picked up a Westmalle Trappist Tripel and a Rodenbach Belgian Sour before turning back to the domestic section.

I did find some PEI beer I had never heard of, so I grabbed a Snowbird Juicy IPA from Gahan Brewery, but the rest of my basket was filled with Ontario goodies, including a couple of the Robohops that drew me to the store in the first plasce.

Burst (also from Great Lakes), Artificial Paradise (Clifford), Square Wheels (Town) and a top-notch Imperial Stout from Sawdust City - Long Dark Voyage (Coffee Vanilla) brought the bill to just over $40 and sent me on my way home happy and just a little bit bullish for the future.

All that for less than $120. Money well spent, I say.

The cherry on top was the surprise package waiting for me at home: a four-pack of Belgian-style Stout (and a couple of Akwa, the world's finest hop-infused water) from my friend Josh Hayter (sexiest beard in craft beer) and his team at Spearhead Brewing.

A very good day indeed. 

#LetsTalk Day

Considering I have suffered from depression for many years and considering also that I have written about this very subject, you may find it surprising that I was not at all looking forward to Bell's Lets Talk Day.

Or maybe you're not surprised at all.

As I said, I've written about this before (Why I Haven't Written a Beer Blog), but not much has changed since that blog from four years ago. In fact, I'm probably worse off than I was then. I had knee surgery a year ago and have done very little re-hab since the sponsored sessions ended last March. That's also when I moved back home to help take care of my parents and since then I've put on 25 pounds to an already overweight frame and messed up both of my shoulders as well.

I'm also not working and my life on the dole has come to an abrupt end, and there is still almost four years before I qualify for my old age pension and I can live the life of Riley again.

There. I made a little joke, so there is hope.

I miss my family and friends too. A lot. But that's something we can all say. So what can I say that hasn't been said before, or even what I haven't said before? The more I talk the more I sound like I'm just complaining about my lot in life.

I know what I should do but I find it very difficult to discipline myself to do what needs to be done.

I promise you I'm going to keep trying. And when I can, I'm going to keep talking.

Thanks for listening.