Mid-Summer Beer of the 

Year goes to …

It’s time to vote for my Beer of the Year.

Okay, it isn’t time yet. It’s only the middle of July. So it’s time to vote for the IPA Tales Mid-Summer  Beer That Most Rocked My Socks Off Award

To be fair, to be considered for this prestigious honour the beer must have been consumed multiple times. No one-offs, no matter how outstanding.

So that eliminates eight outstanding brews right off the bat. These beers, in another dimension, one in which I drink exotic and awesome beers all day long, would be vying for the big prize. But alas, I had them just three times or less.

My four finalists, in no particular order, are: My Bitter Wife from Great Lakes, Dernier Volonte from Dieu du Ciel, Rhyme & Reason from Collective Arts and Smashbomb Atomic from Flying Monkeys.

But first, a few words for those eight wonderful brews that could have been contenders but for the sad fact that I didn’t drink enough of them. Don’t blame the beers. Totally my bad.

From Beyond the Pale, we have Super Guy Imperial Rye Pale Ale, which I found on tap at Buster Rhino's in Oshawa. Powerful stuff at 9.1 per cent and 90 IBUs, this beer is another reason why I'm falling in love with rye pale ales. It's billed as a malt forward beer but I notice hops - grapefruit, orange, pine - and plenty of them right off the bat. Rate Beer scored it a 94. I scored it higher.

From Montreal’s famed Dieu du Ciel brewery, I enjoyed The Alchemist Moralite at C’est What after Toronto’s spring ComicCon. This most delicious brew, a collaboration with The Alchemist Brewery of Vermont (home of the legendary Heady Topper) that I will probably never see again, was exceptional. Silky smooth and quite aromatic. A very, very good beer.

Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point Breweries in San Diego was one of the spectacular American beers I tried on my Florida trip in April. This seven per cent grapefruit-forward hop bomb was a massive hit with me and the world – it scored a perfect 100 on Rate Beer. With a nice bitter and boozy finish, this was a gem of a find that I wish I had bought more of. Awesome beer!

Witchshark, the nine per cent Imperial IPA from Bellwoods, came with huge hops and a top notch bitter finish. I fell in love with this beer instantly. Enchanted, I was. Really need to go back to Bellwoods for more.

I was super impressed with the All Day IPA from Founders. This session ale is just 4.7 per cent and 42 IBUs, but it packs a powerful hoppy punch. It’s honestly hard to believe it’s less than five per cent alcohol. There’s a strong grapefruit taste and the beer is nicely balanced. The best sub-five beer I’ve had by a long shot. I really could drink this all day.

I made my first visit to Toronto’s famed Indie Ale House in late spring and while there was no Cockpuncher IIPA in the bottle shop, they did have Instigator, their signature IPA. This was real special. Pours a cloudy orange and packs a pungent punch in the nose with citrus hops and then bam! right in the kisser with a bitter finish of tropical fruit and pine. Really smooth – almost creamy – and it boasts an intoxicating aroma. Awesome label too.

Need to go back there too.

When my brother sent me some IPAs he had found on a B.C. business trip, it was Fat Tug I was most looking forward to trying. It did not disappoint. At seven per cent ABV and 80 IBUs, it has some punch of its own, along with a strong aroma of citrus – especially grapefruit – on the nose and on the tongue. Some pine and biscuit malts helped give it a delicious bitter finish. An outstanding beer. One of my all-time favourites and Rate Beer’s too. It scored 99.

And then there was Immodest IIPA, the real star of my drunken day At Donny’s Bar and Grill following my return from Florida. Another exceptional beer from Nickel Brook, this nine percent, 85 IBU hop daddy tasted like a grapefruit and orange smack upside the head. It poured a cloudy orange with a thin head but it was so hoppy! A real lip-smacker. Damn fine beer.

As for the final four, My Bitter Wife showed up in Toronto LCBO outlets in the spring and I didn’t wait for this seasonal offering to make its leisurely way into Durham Region, driving into Don Mills one Saturday to snap it up. Well worth the drive.

This aggressively hopped seven per cent IPA – produced as a tribute to Carrie Nation, a “nearly unstoppable force” behind the temperance movement and one who was known for her violent attacks, hatchet in hand, on bars and public houses all over the USA – was fantastic.

I got the usual grapefruit but also something tropical. Mango, I’m thinking, which is also how I would describe the colour. Bitter and boozy, this beer is not big on aroma but very big on taste. I soon adopted My Bitter Wife as my top IPA choice through the spring and into the summer, with a strategy of see one, buy one. And repeat. Sadly, supplies have since run out.

Dernier Volonte, the fantastic Belgian IPA from Montreal’s legendary Dieu du Ciel Brewery (again), is exactly why Montreal is on the must-visit list.

The beer is a creamy and deliciously smooth delight. It poured a cloudy orange with citrus, some stone fruit and spices on the nose with a nice biscuit malt backbone. An exceptional beer. Really top notch.

I have no idea why I waited so long to try it. But I buy it whenever I see it. Which isn’t often.

We have a winner. I seem to like this one

Rhyme & Reason, the only non-IPA finalist, made the final four on the strength of its citrus deliciousness and wonderful balance. Classified as an extra pale, this 5.7 ABV brew from Collective Arts (soon to be called Arts and Science Brewery once a merger with Nickel Brook is finalized) has punched above its weight from the moment I tried it.

A real go-to beer for me.

The last finalist is the first craft beer I fell in love with. The IPA which got me started on this beer blogging path: Smashbomb Atomic IPA.

The beer chimes in at six per cent alcohol and packs 70 IBUs in a classic grapefruit-forward hop bomb. So good, always. My fridge is usually stocked with at least a few of these. There are two in there right now.

Sorry. Just one now.

And the winner of the IPA Tales Mid-Summer  Beer That Most Rocked My Socks Off Award is: My Bitter Wife.

Congratulations Great Lakes Brewery. You can come to Oshawa anytime to claim your prize. Please bring beer.

*

A few more facts and figures from last weekend’s Durham Craft Beer Festival:

• I mentioned that a full house of nearly 800 people attended the festival. That was the capacity, but people come and go and nearly 1,500 tickets were sold
• More than 10,000 – 10,650, to be exact – samples of beer were sold in just under eight hours. That's a beer poured every 2.5 seconds. That works out to 1,570 litres of better beer
• There were zero fights. zero disorderly, and the security team said they were “super impressed” with the behaviour of the crowd.
• Host Darryl Koster said the brewery who gets the ‘above and beyond award’ was, Lake of Bays Brewing Company who actually went to the LCBO and bought beer off the shelf so they could keep serving festival goers
• The first beer to be poured out: Thrust! An IPA from Great Lakes Brewery
• About 1,200 kilos of ice was used to keep the beer cold

 Cheers!

Red Racer, Red Racer finally headed way, way down under

It has taken nearly three months and several trips to the Post Office, but beer for my bud in far-off New Zealand is finally, as they say, in the mail.

The quest to get some Red Racer IPA to my pal Steve, a former college roommate now living in Wellington, New Zealand, has turned out to be a far longer project than I anticipated. Part of it can be attributed to my special skills at procrastination and part of it to insane postal fees to ship anything bigger than a letter to distant destinations.

(I should note for the record that it is illegal to ship beer without a special permit. I don’t think I have customs officials on this blog’s read list but if I do and you are one of them, please to ignore everything you’ve read so far. I’m sending pictures of beer to Steve; just like the one below. Not real beer. Just so we have that straight.)

The idea of Steve needing good beer is laughable on its own anyway as he lives in Wellington, one of the world’s great beer cities. (Seriously. This place would give San Diego a run for its money as the IPA capital of the world.) But he can’t get Red Racer IPA, the pride of Surrey, B.C. And he really, really wants to try Red Racer IPA.

Pictures of beer, Mr. Customs guy.
Just pictures

See, back in the last century Steve was living in Vancouver and he made ends meet with a variety of jobs, from working at a nude beach to serving pints to thirsty patrons at the Grouse Mountain ski resort in suburban North Vancouver. That’s where he ran into Gary Lohin, a fellow bartender who went on to fame and fortune as the brewmaster and co-owner of Central City Brewing, probably B.C.’s best know brewery.

Lohin’s signature beer, Red Racer IPA, has won bushels of medals at the Canadian Brewing Awards and I can personally tell you it’s an awesome IPA.

But Central City does not ship their fine ales to New Zealand and Steve was long gone down under before his pal started up the brewery.

And so began the quest to get him some.

But before you think this was a selfless act of altruism, I should mention that this mission would not have happened if I hadn’t lost a bet.

Steve’s a Toronto Maple Leaf hater and while I usually try to ignore his barbs, I couldn’t turn down a wager on the Leafs making the playoffs, especially as they were sitting pretty at the time - seven points clear in the middle of March, in fact. But there's a reason you should beware the Ides of March and the season went south fast as my Leafs went 2-14 to close out the final month, missing the playoffs by nine and ending their consecutive seasons in the playoffs record at ... one.

Steve in his favourite place: The Malthouse

Much to the delight of Steve, of course.

We had bet beer on the outcome. (What else?) Red Racer against some excellent New Zealand IPA.  Epic Hot Zombie Panhead or something.

I figured this beer mailing thing would be easy peasy. I must have forgotten the difficulties I had shipping US beers from Florida earlier in the year. Be careful with my beer!

Six would do the trick, I thought, and bought Headstock from Nickel Brook; Boneshaker from Amsterdam; and Mad Tom from Muskoka to showcase the best of Ontario IPAs. The ones available in cans, anyway. (I've seen baggage handlers do their thing. No way am I sending bottles.)

Then I added a trio of Red Racers, made an educated guess to the weight and checked with Canada Post to see what it would cost to ship it.

A zillion dollars, they said. At least.

"Uh, how about four beers instead of six," I asked Steve, with one of the two 'extra' beers already in my glass. "You don't need to do this, Glenn," assured my five foot 19 pal. "It sounds too expensive."

"No worries," says I. If I can get the package under two kilos it's just $27. I can do $27."

So I carefully bubble wrapped and re-bubble wrapped two Red Racers and two Headstocks - a little Ontario vs B.C IPA Challenge, as it were - and wrapped it again in cool Spider-Man paper and took it to the my nearest Canada Post outlet for mailing.

2.136 kilograms, said the scale. "$68," said the humourless man behind the counter.

And back home I go to try and trim 136 grams from my package. Which I hoped would be less painful than it sounded.

It was many days later before I was back at Canada Post - a different outlet this time - with my slimmed down parcel of goodness, ready to be weighed again and feeling like a punch-drunk boxer trying desperately to make weight for one final prize fight.

"2.069 kilos," says the young lady at the scales, flashing me an 'I know you're up to something look' at the same time. "$68."

I innocently asked her if she could just "call it two kilos" and she looked at me like I was asking her to commit treason. "What's in it," she probed suspiciously. "Gifts," answered I. "Figurines. For my nephew."

And back home I go. Again.

If you're at the airport and see a package looking
anything like this, do not draw attention to it.
Look away. Look far away

The package, which at this point has been re-wrapped so many times it could have played a stunt double in the The Mummy (the classic 1999 Brendan Fraser version), now felt exactly like three cans of beer wrapped in Spider-Man paper.

Which, as noted above, is illegal.

So I re-wrapped it again, minus one of the cans of Headstock. (I'm not fighting Canada Post on this one. Three beer is what you're getting Steve. Besides, I was thirsty.) And took it back, once more, to Canada Post. I hit up a different outlet once again, where I met a really nice young lady who filled out the necessary forms for me and charged me $27 for my package, now weighing in at a svelte 1.75 kilos.

Success.

There's still loads of time for calamity to happen here, however, as my $27 gets me the cheapest and slowest route to New Zealand. My beer, which was shipped from Vancouver to Oshawa in the first place, will go on ground transport back to Vancouver. Upon arrival at our most beautiful city, my package will go on the back of a sea turtle working under contract and we will all hope for the best.

Six to eight weeks, she said, though I say it will be there sooner. It's wrapped in really cool Spider-Man wrapping paper, so as long as the turtle didn't see Spider-Man 3, I should be okay.

The sooner the better, because it's impolite to remind Steve that I won the return bet on the Stanley Cup Final - how did your Rangers do old pal? - until I have delivered on my end of the bargain.

I can taste that Epic Hot Zombie Panhead already. I'm hoping I get it before Christmas.

Oshawa’s Craft Beer Revolution

Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks would have been more than a little surprised at the turnout for the Durham Craft Beer Festival in downtown Oshawa Saturday afternoon.

A near-capacity crowd of close to 800 people packed a closed-off Ontario Street and an open-for-business Buster Rhino’s Southern BBQ for the festival, which featured 12 brewers and more than 40 different brews from across Ontario.

This is Oshawa, that bastion of bland beers, that land of limp lagers, that headquarters of homogenized hops, that …well, you know where I’m going with this. The craft beer festival is another step in the evolution of Durham Region’s largest city from a burgers and Budweiser burg to a shawarma, sushi and southern BBQ centre with a taste for brews that runs from bitters to Belgian IPAs.

Some of Oshawa’s maturity (and Durham Region’s, for that matter) can be attributed to changes in demographics over the past decade or so – we can thank the University of Ontario Institute of Technology for much of that – but it has also been entrepreneurs like Darryl Koster – the man behind Buster Rhino’s and the host for Saturday’s festival – for taking advantage of the opportunities.

Saturday’s event was an unqualified success, Koster enthused with an ear-to-ear grin as he took in the masses lined up to sample the better beers on display. “It went off pretty well, didn’t it? It’s been an amazing story today. Just incredible.”

What made the turnout even more impressive was the fact the festival was competing with the Whitby Rib Fest happening one town over.

Photo: NatayP'tatey

No worries, said Kerri King, Durham Region’s Tourism Manager – looking lovely as always – as she enjoyed herself at the festival. “There’s more than enough people to support both events.”

It was a great cross-section of people at the festival. Young and old, as well as craft beer vets and IPA rookies like my buddy Brian, who came along with me for the day. Brian, a born-and-bred Oshawa boy and lager head from way back, really was an old dog learning new tricks at the event. (Sorry Brian. I mean “old dog” like Randy Jackson interprets it. You know how we do, dawg.)

A lover of all crap – sorry, mainstream – beers and many of them, Brian surprisingly gravitated immediately to the hoppy IPAs. His first two samples were Flight Delay IPA from Barnstormer Brewing and Thrust! An IPA, from Great Lakes, and he loved them both. Props, Brian, ya old dawg.

The crowd favourite at the festival was local boys 5 Paddles from Whitby, who faced long lineups of thirsty customers most of the afternoon and ended up copping the People’s Choice Award for best brewer. They brought two beers to the event: A Strawberry Wheat and Dominatrix Black IPA, in addition to Steam Punk IPA on tap inside the bar.

Photo: Kristina Svana

I’m hit and miss with Black IPAs – Nickel Brook’s outstanding Malevolent Black Imperial IPA being a notable hit – so I let Brian take a stab at that one. Okay, but not too hoppy, was his pronouncement. The Strawberry Wheat was another story. I’ve been harsh on 5 Paddles before for not living up to promises on their IPAs, but this beer was all that was advertised. Strawberry on the nose, strawberry in the head (yes, I took a bite) and much more strawberry in the taste. Light and refreshing, this is an outstanding summer patio beer.

The Flight Delay IPA from Barnstormer was a bit of a letdown for me, especially after being told the beer packed 85 hoppy IBUs. Still waiting for those IBUs to kick in, gents. Brian liked it, though.

My pal raved about Thrust! from Great Lakes, and why not. This was Canada’s top IPA this year. I went for the Audrey Hopburn Belgian IPA and came away impressed. Very smooth; very nice.

Flying Monkeys was next and for the first time in my craft beer life, I walked away disappointed from one of my all-time favourite breweries.. The Barrie brewers brought five beers to the party (but didn’t bring Smashbomb Atomic!) and I gave Genius of Suburbia a go. This 5.2 ABV wheat ale left me wanting more and the 62 score from Rate Beer agreed. Brian sampled the excellent Hoptical Illusion pale ale and pronounced it terrible.

(Don’t worry, dawg. You’re doing great for a first-timer.)

Black Oak was next and we both loved their 10 Bitter Years IIPA and my notes started to get a bit hard to read after that. I know we visited Cameron’s Brewing (Rye Pale Ale for me – mmmm, excellent as always – and Pistols at Dawn for Brian – “malty but very drinkable”) as well as Nickel Brook (another of my faves) of Burlington, where I enjoyed a Payson Saison (tropical fruits and spices; sour and hoppy at the same time) and pal Brian went back to his new love of IPAs by trying their most excellent Headstock.

Photo:Natalie Miceli

We also hit up Spearhead Brewing for Hawaiian Style Pale Ale (Brian) and India White IPA (me) before we bought a couple of delicious Buster Rhino’s pulled pork sandwiches for sustenance. Then we took a break from the crowds and the sun to have a pint inside the bar. Both of us tried the Steam Punk IPA from 5 Paddles and both of us declared it ordinary. No kick and not much steam either.

Then it was time to visit some old haunts, Brian said, so we strolled down King Street for a bit to Riley’s, a two-floor pub with a large patio at the back. It was on the patio where I had a Steam Whistle Pilsner and Brian ordered a … Bud? Brian, no!

I guess sometimes you can teach an old dog new tricks but he still comes back to the same tired old bone.

It was also on the patio where we ran into Lynn, a slightly wobbly woman who said she was hiding from the rest of her family parked in the main part of the bar. Lynn was an esthetician, which meant, she declared, that she “waxed crotches for a .living.”

Sure you do, Lynn.

After that experience we went back to the festival, where I spent my last two tokens on Headstock and another round of 10 Bitter Years. Brian was probably still looking for a Bud (or perhaps Lynn for a wax) so I’m not sure what he had. I know he wanted more Thrust! but they were tapped out. Damn the luck.

All in all, it was a great day in downtown Oshawa. Fabulous weather, enthusiastic crowds and world class craft beers. And not an old dog in the bunch.

Cheers!

Durham Craft Beer Festival

The better beer revolution arrives in downtown Oshawa this Saturday for the first Durham Craft Beer Festival.

A dozen Ontario brewers will be taking over Ontario Street and the adjacent Buster Rhino’s Authentic Southern BBQ restaurant for the July 12 festival, dispensing five-ounce glasses of deliciousness to craft beer fans from across Durham Region and beyond.

Many hands make a beer festival, but I have to give props for this one to born-and-raised Oshawa boy Darryl Koster, Buster Rhino’s patron and a downtown Oshawa champion, who has taken the lead in making this celebration of beer happen.

Experienced craft beer lovers and newbies looking to join the revolution will have plenty of different brews to choose from at the festival. The list of brewers and their beers (at this writing) include:

Steam Whistle Brewery of Toronto (Steam Whistle Pilsner); Railway City Brewing of St. Thomas (Dead Elephant IPA, Witty Traveler); Spearhead Brewing of Toronto (Hawaiian Style Pale Ale, India White Ale, Sam Roberts Band Session Ale); 5 Paddles Brewing of Whitby (Strawberry Wheat, Dominatrix Black IPA); Barnstormer Brewing of Barrie (Flight Delay IPA, Billy Bishop Brown Ale); Black Oak Brewing of Toronto (Saison Belgium Wheat Ale, Dubbel Entendre, 10 Bitter Years IIPA); Cameron’s Brewing of Oakville (Cameron’s Lager, California Sunshine APA, Pistols at Dawn, Rye Pale Ale); King Brewing of Nobleton (King Pilsner, King Vienna, Thornbury Cider, Barn Door); and Lake of Bays Brewery of Baysville (TBA).

Three of my favourites will also be there, and all three are holding a little something back as to what they’re bringing to the party. That’s okay – we all like secrets. Canada’s Brewer of the Year Great Lakes Brewery of Toronto has at least announced two of their offerings (Audrey Hopburn Belgian IPA and Canuck Pale Ale) but they’re also bringing one they aren’t telling us about just yet. Nickel Brook Brewery of Burlington has taken the TBA approach, as has Flying Monkeys Brewing of Barrie.

“They’re keeping it close to their chests,” said Koster of Flying Monkeys. “But they promised something good.”

As the brewery is home to Smashbomb Atomic IPA – my first craft beer love – and Shoulders of Giants IIPA, it isn’t likely this brewery will bring anything that ISN’T good.

Tickets are $20, which will get you a commemorative glass and five tokens. For $69 you can get the VIP treatment, which includes early admission, lunch (Koster may break out his pit boss card and smoke something special) and 20 five-ounce pours.

Tickets are available at the website http://durhamcraftbeer.com/

*

Speaking of Shoulders of Giants, this 10 per cent boozy bombshell is finally available at the LCBO. At least I found it at the Gibb Street location in Oshawa.

Where else it is available is anybody’s guess. The LCBO changed their product search site and they appear to have sacrificed user-friendly for cool design. I couldn’t figure it out and neither could pal Don, he of the world famous Brew Ha Ha beer blog. He eventually called someone at a local liquor store who told him it was available at three Toronto outlets and nowhere else.

I guess the two bottles I bought on the weekend were figments of my imagination. Sure tasted good.

*

After going 8-for-8 in the Round of 16 of the World Cup I was brought down to earth in the quarter-finals, only taking three of four games. My one miss was Brazil. I honestly thought the pressure of 200 million rabid soccer fans would get to them and Colombia – playing the best football of the tournament – would prevail. Colombia wilted instead and now Brazil, missing superstar Neymar (broken vertebrae) and captain Thiago Silva (suspension) must face a German team just now rounding into top form.

So I’ll take Brazil.

The other semi-final has Argentina and Lionel Messi, fresh off their best performance of the tourney in beating a tough Belgium squad, against the Dutch, who outplayed but had trouble cracking the defensive schemes of Costa Rica. It took penalty kicks (and a gutsy goalkeeper switch) for Holland to come out on top and they go into this match as underdogs to La Albiceleste.

So I pick the Netherlands.

Sunday can’t come fast enough.

No internet for four days not so bad, but moving sucks

I never realized how reliant I am on the all-mighty internet until I was off the grid for a spell.

It’s been four days since I moved and I thought I’d be begging for Facebook or Twitter by now but, you know what? It has been kind of nice. Liberating, even.

Moving, however, is another story.

I hate moving. That’s a sentiment I think most people share. For the organized among us – you know who you are – it isn’t so bad. If you are one of ‘those’ people, you are probably wondering what I’m babbling about. Four days, man! The boxes should be unpacked by now and everything should be where it belongs. As for the internet and the landline, the organized types would have made those calls a week before the move – not the day before – and wouldn’t be in the situation I am currently in.

But that’s the least of my concerns right now.

It’s been a bit of a chore getting things settled here; mostly because the tenants who lived here before me were pigs and getting years of dust and grime off the walls and floors has been challenging. The stove needed to be replaced and the bathroom? That was another story all together. I have plumbers (as well as a very understanding landlord) here as I write this snaking out my bathroom sink – you don’t want to know what was in those pipes – and I hired a friend to help me with the bathroom cleaning two days ago because it was too much for me.

Bet you didn’t think you would be spending Canada Day on your hands and knees cleaning a bathtub with a toothbrush, huh Anne?

(Thanks also to Matt and Cam – my two oldest boys – and to Bobby and Katie for making the move go smoothly. I can’t forget my pal Steve either. He did as much work as I did lugging my stuff up three floors to my new apartment. You guys rock!)

I will make this apartment livable soon enough. It’s way bigger than my last place – that was the first thing the J Man said when he made his first visit – and the balcony is just divine.

The neighbourhood is nice and there’s a forested path just across the street that takes me right to Jake’s soccer fields in just a couple of minutes. Downtown is close as well. I tested just how close it is when I stopped in at Buster Rhino’s after a short work shift on Canada Day, where I was greeted with a chalkboard sign that said they had Thrust! from Great Lakes Brewery on tap. As this was the gold medal winning IPA from the recent Canadian Brewing Awards, I thought it was my patriotic duty to enjoy a pint.

How did you spend your Canada Day?

It’s been a couple of days since then and still the apartment is cluttered with unopened boxes and only some of my stuff is where it needs to be.

On the bright side, the Bell guy is here and I should be online soon. When he hooks me up I could go on Facebook, check my emails or see that my bank account is still in working order.

Or I could go for a walk.

*

One of the downsides of being without the internet is not being able to crow about my soccer picks. See, I went nine for 16 in the first round of the World Cup, which is not something I’d put on my resume if I wanted a job with a bookmaker in Vegas. But the Round of 16 proved to be a bit better for me.

Try eight for eight. That’s 100 per cent when I went to school and that is something to brag about. And me without the ‘net. No worries: I’m boasting about it now.

The quarter-finals will be upon us tomorrow in what has been a spectacularly entertaining tournament so far. We shall see if I can keep this streak going.

I’m going to start with a huge upset: I’m calling for the host nation and tournament favourite Brazil to go down to South American rival Colombia. Everybody’s underdog team – Los Ticos of Costa Rica – will also get their comeuppance in the second game at the hands of the Dutch. (Which is too bad, because the Costa Ricans have done the CONCACAF Region proud in Brazil.) Match number three has the Germans against the French, and while France is at the top of their game right now I have troubles betting against Germany in this one. So I won’t. The final quarter-final has Argentina against Belgium and I really, really want to pick Belgium to win because their form is fantastic and they make great beer. But Argentina has Lionel Messi.

*

Genie!

I would be remiss if I didn’t offer my congratulations to Genie Bouchard – Canada’s tennis darling – on reaching the finals at Wimbledon, the first Canuck to do that EVER. She will meet Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova, the sixth seed, in Saturday’s final. Meanwhile, Milos Raonic is one match away from a similar achievement. Raonic plays Roger (the legend) Federer in tomorrow’s men’s singles semi-final.

History in the making for Canadian tennis. Congratulations to both of them!

 Cheers!