Leslieville sits along along a long strip of Queen Street East that is ripe with restaurants, bakeries and shops but devoid of a local brewery, or even an LCBO for that matter. No it doesn’t have the density of the west end but its a well established community unto its own and the 2km walk […]

This weekend I managed to not so accidentally stumble upon Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa for Winterbrewed, the winter weekend beer festival put on by the folks at National Capital Craft Beer Week. Of course, downing ice cold beer for a couple of hours in the great white (urban) outdoors proved somewhat challenging as the fingers stopped […]

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. If you are still reading this, you’ve probably guessed that I didn’t get my hands on any Westvleteren 12…you know, that ultra rare Belgian trappist beer that you can normally only buy direct from the monks that brew it in Belgium (or something like that)? That beer that is rated 100 on BeerAdvocate? That […]

In anticipation of tonight’s U.S. Presidential election, I thought I’d profile two political themed U.S. Craft Breweries that are doing a really good job of making beer, if not political puns. The first brewery is DC Brau of Washington DC, with their signature Capitol building graphic and political themed THE ___ naming. In a city overshadowed in […]

Ever hear that Springsteen song “57 channels and nothin’ on”. Well that’s kind of my feeling towards Real Sport Bar & Grill’s beer selection. They’ve got over 40 beers on tap, but have made very limited room for any Ontario Craft Beers – Beyond the Mill Street Organic and Steamwhistle, its the usual suspects, and then a […]

Yes, I’ve decided to a make a meaningless list with little thought – The most appropriate beers to drink on Halloween. Feel free to add to it if you read this. 5. Wychwood Brewery HobGoblin 4. Unibrou Trois Pistols Well, actually their Fin du Monde or Maudite are probably more appropriatley named, but the Trois Pistols label scares the […]

If you’ve been to an LCBO this Fall, you might have noticed the exactly 8000 different pumpkin spice ales available. Pumpkin is pretty good, so why not I guess. Well, honestly, I’m not a huge fan of pumpkin spice beer. Not so much because it overpowers the beer (which it often does), but mainly I just find that without […]

…and something Toronto can learn from. I recently visited Washington D.C. and got to experience what many authorities, such as GQ and Draft Magazine, have already recognized as one of America’s top beer destinations: Churchkey/ Birch & Barley. These two beer oriented venues co-exist in the same two-story property and fall under the same ownership. Churchkey is an […]

Obama and beer are big news lately. First, it was reported that he has the White House staff brewing two varieties of homebrew; one of which is the White  House Honey Ale, brewed using honey from Michelle Obama’s bee hive, also onsite. Apparently Obama is traveling with the stuff too. Then a beer tent operator at an Iowa […]

Yeah, these probably deserve individual attention but my observations of brief to be generous, so I thought I’d mix it up. The fact that both Creemore Springs and Great Lakes are celebrating 25 years is pretty great for Ontario Craft Beer (insert mandatory reference to Creemore being owned by MolsonCoors – its still legit man), and proving great for […]