Good breweries, good beer with good friends is the super tonic we all need

Confidence is a fragile thing for most of us, I think. Easily shattered and often not so easy to put back together. But confidence, or lack of same, is not why I only wrote three original beer blogs last year.

In some fashion I felt a bit like a phony as a beer writer; a charlatan, if you will. I rarely wrote about it and I didn't have a whole lot to say about the subject on social media either. The kicker for me, though, was the fact I hardly drank at all. I might have a beer a night for a couple of days and then not drink at all for three. Meanwhile I still made the occasional brewery run or had it delivered and my full beer fridge would stare at me, taunting me to ease its load.

David, Don and Robert at Clifford Brewing

It's not that I have lost interest in drinking good beer. More like I realized the attraction to me about craft beer - as I'm sure it is for most of us - was always about the people I was drinking it with. I miss those brewery tours with friends, or just popping down to the local for a pint with a pal.

The latter is possible again and has been a thing for brief perids throughout the pandemic, but it hasn't been the same, especially with me still living in Downsview and my family and most of my people back in Oshawa and other parts of Durham Region.

That's why the first-Saturday-in-February excursion to Hamilton and Clifford Brewing to meet up with friends over a couple of pints was such a beautiful thing. My pal Don (also my work colleague) was there, as were Rob & Kat (Polk and Lady Polk), Greg and artist extraordinaire David. 

It was just like the old days - we hung out, had a few beers and a few laughs and even had time for some serious chats about the state of the industry. Whether it inspires me to write on the regular is doubtful, but it was partly responsible for this blog, so there's that.

The other spark lately was a feature I wrote for InSauga, the online newspaper Don and I work for, on the subject of abuse, descrimination and sexual assault in the beer industry. To be more specific, the story was about my friend Erin, who owns Little Beasts Brewing in Whitby, and her Instagram campaign that invited people to share stories about abuse in the industry.

Erin did the heavy lifting and those who shared their tales were the courageous ones. I just re-arranged their words. But I am proud of the story I wrote (and of the follow-ups - Threats made against Whitby Whistleblower and Safety Network) and I sincerely hope it helps spread the word on how toxic working in craft beer can be.

The stories Erin shared was also the subject of the "serious chats" we had at Clifford. We all know some of the breweries named in Erin's stories and we know some of the people called out for their behaviour in those stories.

Some of those people are our friends. Not easy conversations.

The lovely Candice at Second Wedge

The next weekend the conversations on the subject continued as I took my friend Candice out for a mini-tour of north Durham breweries. She had been having a bit of a tough go lately and had been looking forward to joining us in Hamilton but her truck decided - at the last minute, of course, leaving no time for other arrangements - that it wasn't going to start.

So I promised her I would pick her up on Saturday and we would visit Second Wedge in Uxbridge and Old Flame in Port Perry, two breweries in my home turf  I have never visited. And drop in on an under-construction brewery in Brooklin, Banter & Co., just to have a look and maybe say hi if anyone was around. (They weren't. Next time.)

Another pal, Adam, was supposed to come along as well but he begged off with a sore throat so we met him outside his swanky downtown Oshawa condo to present him with a couple of cans from @spearhead beer and then headed north to Old Flame.

(After a brief stop at White Feather Country Store in Raglan where I bought a giant strawberry rhubarb pie, a loaf of cheese bread and the heaviest apple fritter I have ever seen; but only because Candice promised it was all calorie-free.)

I always found Old Flame beers a bit pedestrian, but my flight - two pale ales and a couple of flavoured stouts -  were quite intriguing. The stouts didn't really pack the advertrtised orange and peppermint flavours but the two ales - one dry-hopped, the other wet-hopped - lived up to their billings.

The ambience was amazing. Huge crowd for a Saturday afternoon. And the place was filled with dogs, especially in our little corner.

We headed west after that to Second Wedge (who championed the call to allow dogs in brewery taprooms) and enjoyed a few more flights. Nothing fancy for me with two pales ales and a couple of solid IPAs, but I made sure to go home with a few Fat Bikes, an Imperial IPA made with locally grown hops.

Flight at Midtown Brewery

Like Old Flame, Second Wedge was very pup friendly, which is super conducive to melting away anxiety and putting oneself at ease.

And that's the beauty of breweries for me. Good friends, good beer and a welcoming vibe.

I made a couple of trips to Little Beasts and one to Town Brewery - by myself and with pals - over the next couple of months, along with several trips to Bellwoods' Hafis location, which is the closest brewery to my Downsview digs. Each time the pressures of the day or even any general depression I had been feeling would slowly disipate into the ether.

I even made the long drive into Prince Edward County this weekend just to visit a couple of breweries that had long been on my must-see lists: Midtown and Matron.

Midtown was right in the heart of Wellington, a beach community on the county's west side, and offered a super cool tap room, delicious fish and chips (the fries were smothered in garlic aoli and covered in parmesan cheese - so good) and some unique brews, including a UK-style IPA that may be the best I've had in years and a delicious Apricot Sour.

The wild Lake Ontario surf at Wellington Beach

Matron was in the next village over - Bloomfield - and was a little harder to get to as it was at the end of a muddy, pothole-filled wagon road. No flights, unfortunately, but I had a tried-and-true Janky IPA and filled my to-go bag with familiar favourites - Janky, Bobo - and some new beers in Link Up IIPA, Candor (Belgian IPA) and Flightless, a Cold IPA (?) collaboration with Willibald.

Very hipster-friendly, this place, with more Blundstone boots (and a couple of old school Doc Martens to boot) per square ... foot ... than perhaps anywhere else in the world.

I'm tempted to buy a pair.

I was back east the next day seeing the J Man in Bowmanville and on the way home I rang up Candice and we met for a beer or two at 5 Paddles in Whitby and I was reminded again about the magic of breweries, especially when you're with good friends.

Breweries: Good for what ales ya. (I'll show myself out.)

Cheers!