2020 - A Year of Beer in Review (Part 1)

If there was ever a year when beer blogs would be considered irrelevant, it would be this year.

2020 was a shit-show the likes of which have not been seen before, at least not in my lifetime. Well over 200,000 cases of the Covid-19 virus in Ontario and more than 5,000 dead for starters and everyone has been affected in some way. Lives have been disrupted, jobs have been lost and millions of people have been struggling to stay afloat amid restrictions put in place to stem the tide of infection.

Along the way we have seen a social revolution spring up - particularly south of the border but also here and around the world - in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. It was an awakening not seen since the 60s and, thanks to inflammatory policies and rhetoric from Donald Trump, it divided a nation. The awakening for me, a 61 year-old white guy who was a child in the 60s but came of age in the years that followed, was that the protests of 2020 were for the same reasons as they were in 1968: equality, justice and the freedom to walk the streets without being shot by police for the crime of being Black.

A traumatic and sometimes tragic year it was, and it would be understandable if beer and other leisure pursuits were deferred for another, brighter time. But it became clear as the year dragged on that we needed beer, and macrame, and learning to cook and any other diversion to help us get through this.

And now that the orange monster is gone, we can dream about a better future for all of us. As the wonderful Amanda Gorman said in her inauguration Day poem today, "even as we hurt, we hope."

Amen to that.

Time to talk about beer.

Lagahhhs

I never thought I would be leading off a Year-End Review blog talking about my favourite Lagers, but then I never had brews from Matron Brewery in Prince Edward County either. Thanks to Matron and the skills of brewer/co-owner Justin da Silva, I now have a favourite Helles Lager and I have now heard of a Zoiglbier.

Helles Lager - Matron Yeasayer

Kellerbier - Matron Leisure

Zoiglbier - Matron Handsome

India Pale Lager - Town Open Invite

Blonde Lager - Brock St. Strawberry Blonde

Pale Lager - Spearhead Decoy

(German) Pilsner - Dominion City Civic

(Czech) Pilsner - Stonehooker Chill Pils

(Italian) Pilsner - Indie Ale House Birroteca Bionda

That was also my first Italian-style Pilsner and it was a revelation. I need to seek out this style more often. Probably my favourite Lager, though that Helles Lager from Matron was hella good too.

Best Social Justice Statement on a Can

Nothing Civil IPA from Wellington Brewery

In the wake of George Floyd's murder and the protests against police brutality that followed, brewers stepped up to do their part to bring social justice issues into the light. Enter the Lacuna Collective - Beer Diversity's Ren Navarro, Beer Sommelier Lexi Pham and poet Truth Is ... - and Nothing Civil IPA from Wellington Brewery. The poem - displayed on every can - is a stark reminder of the challenges faced by BIPOC every day and contains these two lines, which rattle around in my head each time I read it:

Our skin is Loraine's Raisin in the Sun just as much as it is Rodney's spilled blood in the moonlight ... 

Our skin is not resisting. Our skin is not resisting. OUR SKIN. Is Resistance

The art is also beautiful, as is the beer, one of my favourites from 2021.

Speaking of Ren, that brings me to a new category for this year: Best Beer Personality and the easy first winner: Ren Navarro.

To say she's a gem would be to give diamonds and sapphires too much credit. Ren is a tireless champion of diversity in the beer industry through her consulting firm Beer Diversity and has been quite busy over the past year calling out breweries to be more vocal in making their spaces more inclusive.

She's also been called upon to consult with breweries where mistakes had been made (hello Cowbell) and to help them get back on track to be a welcoming environment for all.

Best Beer Executive - This is an award I bestow only occasionally, which is a shame because there are plenty of brewing bosses out there doing fantastic work keeping their breweries front and centre in the public consciousness. Matt Allot of Manantler (a former winner) is always up for this prize, as is Darren Smith of Lake of Bays and Jeff Talmey at Town Brewery, who brews AND spreads the good word about one of Ontario's most consistently excellent breweries.

But the winner here has to be the man behind Kingston's exploding beer scene: Spearhead Brewing's Josh Hayter has been busy spreading the good word about Spearhead, about craft beer and about doing the right thing in the face of all this craziness we face each and every day.

He might also have the sexiest beard in brewing, and that's saying a lot.

And speaking of Josh, he and his team at Spearhead also take the prize for Best Party of 2020. KingstonBeerFam2020 took place on the last day of February, three weeks before the Pandemic was declared and the same night Zamboni Driver David Ayres came out of the stands as an emergency back-up to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a shocking victory over his employer, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It was a memorable night as my friends and I toured six breweries and generally had a spectacular time, as one generally does during these types of events. If you asked me six months ago I'd have said we'd be doing this again in 2021. Oops. Maybe 2022.

Anyway, thanks again for a great time Josh.

Best of the Dark Arts (Stouts, Porters and Belgian sorcery)

Not a lot of choices on the list because I drank very few Stouts and their friends and not a single Porter graced my glass in 2020. Dark times; bright beers I guess. But I was still able to enjoy some fine dark beers.

Imperial Stout - Last year's winner, Peanut Butter Godiva from 5 Paddles, had some stiff competition this time from Dominion City Small and Third Moon Each Beast a God Cinamon Latte. Godiva is still the champ.

Stout - Three contenders here as well. 5 Paddles Badge Collector (Smores!) and Little Beasts Television Shepherd were both tasty, but the winner here was the beer that tasted exactly like a Viva Puff cookie: Sawdust City Viva La Stout- Chocolate Raspberry Cookie Stout.

Tripel - Stonehooker Tripel was super delicious and much smoother than any Tripel I've had before.

Quadrupel - One Quebec beer (courtesy of my pals Jeff & Murielle) and one classic Belgian quad tie in this category. Two world-class beers, in my mind. Frampton Brasse Nuit d'Automme and Rochefort Trappiste 10 for the win.

Merry Old England (Bitters, Brown Ales & English Milds)

ESBs - Fullers, Manantler Fugg Life and Gillingham's Dave are up in this category and I gave the nod to my peeps at Manantler.

Best Bitters - Wellington Arkell Best Bitter for the win here over an excellent offering from Kingston, Skeleton Park Best Bitter.

Brown Ales - Manantler is here again with their Barley Brown, as is Wellington with their County Brown Ale. I'll need a couple more of each to decide so I'll call this a draw.

English Mild - People's Pint Diamond Park was delicious.

Saisons (and their salty and wheaty cousins)

Erin Broadfoot & John Henley. (Now former)
partners at Little Beasts Brewery

Another category that doesn't get near enough attention. But my relationship with Erin Broadfoot at Little Beasts - the Queen of Saisons in this province - means that I am spoiled for choice in this classic European Farmhouse style.

All but a couple of the contenders are from this little Whitby brewery, in fact.

Imperial Saison - the All-Father, Odin, is up against the Goddess of Love (among other duties), Frejya, in this contest between barrel-aged Norse mythology-inspired brews from Little Beasts. I'm going to go with Odin (Little Beasts), which was aged in cabernet sauvignon barrels.

Bottle Conditioned - Brassiere Dupont's Saison Dupont. The Belgian legend lives up to the hype.

Saison for a Cause - Little Beasts Really Good Friends. Proceeds to PFLAG Durham.

Seasonal Saisons (say that five times fast) - Little Beasts Saison d'ete over its brewery mate, Saison d'automne

Gose - Little Beasts Little Wizards

Wheat Ale - Indie Ale House Up and At Them 

The IPAs and all their Friends

IPAs - So many fantastic IPAs in 2020. I didn't actually drink a lot of beer last year - the four I had New Year's Eve was the most I'd drank the whole pandemic - but I drank at least 29 different IPAs that made me smile and feel real loose like a long-necked goose (I know what I like). There were a few breweries with multiple brews on the list, like Great Lakes, Bellwoods and Badlands. You should take it under advisement that those breweries are probably really, really good. Anyway, I knew I had to winnow down the numbers and I got it down to four, each of which also made my Top 10 beers of the year list.

Wellington Nothing Civil, Matron Janky, Stonehooker Tantrum and Sawdust City Everyday Magic.

Spearhead's Josh Hayter (right) with my pal
Jeff at Stone City Brewery in February

Imperial IPAs - I drank far fewer double strength beers in 2020 than many of my friends of Beer Twitter but I still got my hands on a few beauties.

Faces with Cascade & Chinook (Wellington), No Sign of Land (Dominion City), IPA #13 and Surround Sound: Enigma, Moutere, Simcoe & Centennial (Collective Arts);  Absolute Unit (Town), and Thrust! An Imperial NEIPA (Great Lakes) were my top six.

Town Absolute Unit.

Triple IPAs - Ontario brewers were cranking out a lot of high octane beers in 2020 and though I didn't anticipate these beers as fervently as in years past, I still managed to get my hands of a few. Six in fact, and I debated the merits of Spearhead's Big Kahuna before choosing Block Three's M for the win.

Milkshake IPAs

A trio of good ones visited my home last year, including Collective Art Fest Pineapple Vanilla IPA, Stonehooker's Mae West Mango IPA and Bellwoods Milkshark - Concord Grape. The best of this delicious bunch was Stonehooker Mae West Mango. An easy choice actually.

Not to be confused with ... Breakfast Beers

The Collective Arts Smoothie Sour - a Christmas morning treat - was Strawberry-banana meet bumbleberry-banana with a hint of tartness at the finish. But just a hint. This is definitely more Milkshake IPA than Sour. The texture is rich and comes as advertised, with a granola-like creaminess. A really, really good breakfast beer. But not really a Sour.

Rye IPA - Stonehooker - Jack the RIPA

White IPA - Indie Ale House - Rabbit of Caerbannog. (A perennial winner)

Best Beer Writer

The number of beer blogs, stories and podcasts was down dramatically (maybe not podcasts - some streaks never die) in 2020 but that doesn't mean beer writers weren't talking. It means they weren't always talking about beer. Social issues were at the forefront last year and the best beer writers had plenty to say about that AND beer. I had Robin LeBlanc as my number one last year and she was a front-runner again. Her book-writing partner, Jordan St. John, was another contender and I thank him especially for gathering data on Ontario breweries and online sales and making it available to everyone.

But my winner is the man who never stopped talking about Ontario beer and never stopped telling us to be kind and to do the right thing and to WEAR A FUCKING MASK. His passion was addictive and I am honoured to call him my friend.

Robert Arsenault (Drunk Polkeroo)

The Pale Ales and Session Ales

Also known as the beer style I would choose first these days as my tastes seem to be leaning towards lighter fare. But all of them were full of flavour - I wouldn't honour them if they weren't.

Deece (Matron), Gollywobbler (Stonehooker), Electric Circus, Canuck and Burst (Great Lakes), Hazy State (Collective Arts), Outside Jokes and Scorpion Hill (Town), and Valkyrie and Pinion (Little Beasts).

This was a tough one, as the GLB trio (especially Burst - sooo good) gave it the ol' brewery try to try and dethrone the champ. But in the end I couldn't say no to Valkyrie (Little Beasts).

Sours

I started this blog by talking about Lagers, which are not usually my beer of choice. I'm going to finish by talking about Sours, a style which has been winning me over for a few years and in 2020 damn near stole my heart.

So many beautiful beers, and when I tried to narrow down the list I was still at 18, but from just seven breweries. Bellwoods' Jelly King series - the real OG Dry-Hopped Sour family - had seven on the ticket: Cranberry Tangerine, Raspberry Blackberry, Peach, Pineapple Tangerine Grapefruit, Apricot, Mango Passionfruit and Kiwi Passionfruit.

And that's not counting Bellwood's Barn Owl #22, which was sublime (it's on my Top 10 list) as I classed that in a separate Funky Sour category. Who knew funky & tart would work so well together?

Collective Arts had three on my catalogue of great Sour beers: Blood Orange & Hibiscus, Mango Tangerine and Blueberry Sour with Cacao Nibs. Blood Brothers and their Paradise Lost series - as consistently excellent as the Jelly Kings - also had three: Guava Coconut, Pear with Chai and Blueberry with Vanilla Spice.

Town had a pair - Greatest Riches and Fruit Dart - Blackberry, Lemon & Vanilla - and Little Beasts (The Changeling - Mango & Guava), Third Moon (Epoch with Guava, Mango & Apricot) and Stonehooker (Lemondrop) also produced lovely brews.

Three of these beers made my top 10, so a three-way tie it is:

Collective Arts Blueberry Sour with Cacao Nibs, Blood Brothers Paradise Lost Pear with Chai and Third Moon Epoch with Guava, Mango & Apricot.

Best Donuts - What, this isn't beer related? I don't care. Crave Doughnuts in Whitby is the best. And if you're scoring at home, French Toast is superior, followed by Lemon Meringue and Cranberry White Chocolate Cruller. You can thank me later.

Part 2 - the wrap-up - is tomorrow.

Cheers!