Sour love at long last

I never thought I would ever be a fan of Sour beers.

My first experiences with the style were less than overwhelming. There was that Berliner Weisse from Nickel Brook (enjoyed - sort of - at Donnie's Bar & Grill in Burlington) and the sour Belgian Wild Ale from Goose Island (consumed at my pal Matt's sumptuous underground lair in Bowmanville), and both reinforced my prejudices: 

Sour beers suck.

And then along came Bellwoods and their Jelly King series of dry-hopped Sours.

Tart and delicious, these beers turned me around to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, sour beers didn't suck after all.

At least the dry-hopped versions didn't.

First up was Jelly King Plum from the brewery, and then I tried the regular Jelly King a week or so later on tap at the bar, and I was off to Sour beer heaven. Even the Blackberry version, which looked and tasted like blackberry juice (as opposed to beer) didn't change my new-found opinion.

Paradise Lost (Mango) from Blood Brothers

I'm a fan.

I was already pencilling in Jelly King as my Sour category leader, and the only decision I was waffling over was regular or Plum?

And on Mother's Day I was grass-covered and thirsty from cutting my extremely awesome parents' grass when I walked into the Blood Brothers tap room in west Toronto and asked for a half-pint of Paradise Lost (Mango).

The game just changed.

This beer was magnificent. So good, in fact, that I ignored the voice in my head that said "you're going to be late for work" and "don't you have a driving job?" and ordered another one. A half-pint, of course. And a bottle to take home.

I should have bought six.

An amazing aroma of mango, pineapple and lemon hooked me in and that tartness, with all those tropical fruit flavours, squeezed the last ounce of resistance out of me.

I tried to slow-sip this but couldn’t. Fantastic beer.

I will even go so far as to predict that this brew would meet the approval of Neil Miller, a one-time New Zealand Beer Writer of the Year who is best known for his skill in nick-naming beers and beer personalities, his collection of Star Wars 'action figures' (not toys) and his passionate dislike for Sour beers.


Maybe Blood Brothers is planning a trip Down Under soon and we can find out. Or not.

The beer was welcome after a busy morning, but I was under the gun time-wise with work back in Oshawa pending.

This is Neil Miller of New Zealand. There are five beers in front of
him and not one is sour. But that could change

I had only planned to hit up two breweries: Burdock (on my chef pal Luis' recommendation), and Blood Brothers, which had been on my to-do list for months.

But after visiting the bottle shop at Burdock and grabbing five bottles (Te, a Sour dry-hopped with Vic Secret and Simcoe; West Coast Pilsner; American Session Ale; Vermont Blonde Ale; and their American Pale Ale, which was hopped with Simcoe and Idaho 7), my route took me up to Wallace Avenue, home of Halo Brewing.

It's not like I could just drive on by.

So I stopped in and picked up three bottles: Test Pattern, a single-hopped American Pale Ale (Rakau); Zero Hour, a New England-style American Pale Ale; and New Wave IPA.

And then it was on to Blood Brothers.

I had four in my carrying case (The Inner Eye English Pale Ale; Grannie Vine and Shoemie IPAs; and Love Trip IIPA) when Paradise Lost turned everything I knew about beer on its head.

But while that beer was the highlight of the mini-tour through West Toronto, it wasn't the only winner. In fact, all 13 beers were excellent and even  better, all 13 were brand new experiences.

You don't get that on every beer adventure.

The West Coast Pilsner was the can't miss beer from Burdock (according to Luis) and it delivered on its promise, but their American Pale Ale was outstanding and a creamy pineapple love-in. Te (another dry-hopped Sour: go figure) was pretty good too. 

The winner from Halo was their New Wave IPA (citrusy-sweet with pineapple and dankness), with Zero Hour close behind.

Blood Brothers - a hipster hangout with fantastic beer

Both Grannie Vine and Shoemie IPAs from Blood Brothers ticked off all the boxes to be officially classified as 'yummy,' but it was that Paradise Lost that took top prize.

I managed to wait four days to enjoy the last bottle of this because I wanted to share it with Jessica, my boss at the bar and a hardcore lover of Sour beers.

It took a lot of will power to wait that long, but I did it.

I ended up sharing it with Jess and Shannon, whose tastes run to Wheat beers when she's not drinking wine.

They are also two of my most favourite people.

I don't know if they shared my 'Best Sour Beer Ever' vision, but the looks of pleasure in their eyes when they tried this was good enough for me.

Priceless, in fact.

Older is (sometimes) better, more #Beersaint love and the Stubby makes a triumphant return

When Darryl, the genteel, garrulous and generous proprietor of Buster Rhino's, offered me a couple of bottles from the back of the walk-in fridge that had outlived their expiry dates, I couldn't in good conscience say anything but yes please.

In the interest of science (and not wasting good beer) of course.

The first beer was Le Payson Saison Farmhouse Ale from Nickel Brook and the most remarkable thing about it was that it tasted much like a good Saison should taste. Banana, spices and lemon were prominent, and it was bubbly and hoppy and my new favourite Saison. The aging (and I wasn't able to determine how old it actually was) didn't seem to adversely affect the flavour.

The second bottle was a different story. Silversmith Dam Buster came advertised as a five per cent English Pale Ale (though the brewery bills it as a true Bitter) but tasted like no Bitter I've ever had.It had a slightly sweet aroma of aged fruit and tasted of toffee, raisins and licorice, and clearly the 19 months it spent aging had something to do with that. There were some fruity hops that were undoubtedly more prominent when it was bottled, but this beer tasted like it had spent that time in Sherry barrels and not in the back of a fridge. Quite complex (and even a little boozy) for a five per cent English Bitter.

Thanks to Radical Road's 8-Track IPA,
the stubby is back in a big way

And absolutely delicious. Thanks Darryl!

Another gift from the beer gods (or #Beersaint, in this case) was Double Clutch from Redline Brewhouse in Barrie. My only previous experience with Redline was a can of Clutch - the brewery's American Pale Ale -  and I was not overwhelmed, though I did enjoy it. But #Beersaint Brett, a Barrie boy, insisted Double Clutch was far superior, much like Twice as Mad Tom from Muskoka was so much better than Mad Tom.

And he just happened to have a can in his trunk for me to sample that night. #Beersaints are the best, aren't they?

Juicy mango and pineapple aroma. Pine stepped up next, with more tropical fruit and a bit of dankness. Nicely balanced and really good. Thanks man!

But April's best beer may have been 8-Track IPA from Toronto's Radical Road Brewery, and not only for the deliciousness of the beer.

The stubby is back!

The (awesome!) stubby bottle is out of fashion and the music format may be long gone but this ale proves that old school IPAs like this one - big piney hops and sweet caramel malts - are still very much in vogue. Especially when done right, and Radical Road gets this right on.

Cheers!

Brew Day with Manantler and the #Beersaints

I'd like to add "Brewer' to my resume; I really would. But that would be a big, fat lie.

But it was a whole lotta fun pretending to be one.

The last Saturday in April was spent in the company of Durham Region's legendary #Beersaints, as we invaded Manantler Brewery in Bowmanville to help Chris (the real Brewmaster) brew a beer.

A 4.5 per cent Coffee Oatmeal Ale (working title: Buzz Light Beer), to be precise.

The #Beersaints in beautiful black and white. That's our host Chris
(Manantler's Brewmaster) at the back. He's the guy with the antlers
sticking out of his head.

It was actually supposed to be a cream ale but Chris couldn't source the flaked corn, so after getting some feedback from the group the decision was made to brew the Coffee-infused Ale.

And I am confident Chris could not have brewed this beer without our help.

Who else could have mixed in 15 kilos of oatmeal to the malt AND tasted the malt to ensure it was a quality product?

(For the record, it tasted just like the Ovaltine my Mom used to make me as a kid.)

Who else could have given the hops the smell test and pronounced it hoptacular?

(Especially the Simcoe hops. Epically hoptacular.)

Who else would have kept a steady supply of black coffee between the tanks and the back room and never once complained?

Well, that was Dave, but he was a champion. And I think it was dry-hopped coffee.

That's Alex (nominated as Ontario's Sexiest
Cellarman) stirring the mash because we
shouldn't have to do all the work.

And who else could have sampled about a thousand beers from around this great province (they don't call them the #Beersaints for nothing) while all this brewing was going on?

I suppose Chris could have tried, but the beer might have been a 19 per cent Coffee Oatmeal Barley Wine when the day was done, and relative sobriety is an underrated skill set in the beer-making process.

Or so I've heard.

So our contributions were extremely valuable and I know Chris was thrilled to have us around that day. "Couldn't have done it without you," he said, and "If you're really a #Beersaint, why didn't you bring any beer?"

Because I'm only a part-time #Beersaint, I guess.

I'd been out just once with the group, and that was just one stop (5 Paddles) on a whirlwind tour of Durham Region's many breweries a few months ago, so I was honoured when Paul Thebeerguy, the unofficial leader of this rag-tag band of beer lovers, asked me to join them for the Manantler brewing day.

A small selection of the beer brought
by the #Beersaints for 'sampling'

The group included Paul, Jen, Robin, Joan, Toni, Dave, Rob, Brett and myself and we had a blast brewing this beer.

I've been to Manantler many, many times, but other than the time I shared a rare bottle of Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA with James and Trevor (both since departed), I had never been inside the brewery before.

It's a small space, but very cool.

"Our system is based on a big homebrew system," Chris explained. "We built it based on plans we found online. It's all stainless steel; just no bells and whistles."

The beer-making process was long, but there was always something to do (mostly by Chris or Alex, Manantler's Cellarman) or something to learn.

For example: Magnum hops smell like spaghetti and meatballs. At least they do to Chris.

"It's always something different with the Magnum hops, but it's definitely a Chef Boyardee thing with me."

All I could smell was the malts and that delicious Ovaltine aroma.

Chris on the hot seat with Rob for the
Durham Craft Beer Talk podcast

Sampling the beer brought to the party by these legendary #Beersaints was fun too, but I had to cut off the tasting after a while, what with work scheduled after the event.

(Which is where the gang all went after the event. So while they were all sitting down to delicious barbecue and craft beer goodness at Buster Rhino's, I was working during one of our busiest nights in weeks. I would drop by the table briefly and chat a few times but work kept pulling me back. Jealous much? Not me.)

 But I was able to whet my whistle a few times in the afternoon because brewing is thirsty work. There was Latent Content, a five per cent Coffee Oatmeal Stout from Rorschach (watch for these guys - great new brewery); and Double Jutsu, Roman Candle and Ghost Orchid (drool) from the famed Bellwoods Brewery.

Local brews included Mango Hopshake from 5 Paddles (a 7.3 per cent Milkshake IPA); a Blackberry Kettle Sour from Brock Street called Don't Know Don't Care and Peachy Princess from the same brewery; Ginger Haze from Falcon; and Falconer's Flight, a New England IPA from Manantler.

There was even some international representation, with a bottle of Orval, a genuine Abbey ale from Belgiun, on the table as well.

And that's just to name a few. It was difficult (but necessary) to resist drinking ALL THE BEERS.

The gang, once more. minus Paul, who snapped the pic

Besides the brewing and the drinking and the general #Beersaints camaraderie, there was also a live broadcast of some of the festivities, courtesy of Rob and his Durham Craft Beer Talk podcast. Rob interviewed most of us (I keep telling you, Jen: you're a star!) and other than sounding like my younger brother, I didn't sound lame.

Which is really my goal every day. You can hear it here: Durham Craft Beer Talk (Episode 4). I'm on from 25:54 to 30:42 but you're welcome to listen to the whole podcast. Minimal lameness. Lotsa fun.

Did I say the day was a lot of fun? I did. And it was.

Now all we have to do is wait for the beer to be ready.