Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Tuesday night at the Wooly - Karma Citra

Yesterday, as I was sitting with our baby daughter sleeping in my arms, I was keeping an eye on Twitter when I saw a tweet from the Woolwich Arms saying they had Great Lakes Karma Citra on their feature tap. It was also wing night.
Karma Citra

They didn't have to say anything more.

When Jeff called on his way home, I suggested we put the boring old pot roast I had in the slow cooker on hold and go our for wings and beer. Since Monday night's dinner was a disaster, he was only too happy to avoid yet another one of my meals.

Jeff got the Karma Citra and watching him take that first sip was a bit like watching him get punched in the face. But in a good way (if you can get punched in the face in a good way).

He immediately said there was a pop to the beer. He knew it used citra hops, but there was also a grapefruit flavour he was thrilled about.

He kept going back for more from his glass, loving the flavours. He offered it to me, but all I had to do was take a sniff to know that beer was most certainly not for me.

Oatmeal Coffee Stout
Instead, I had F&M's Oatmeal Coffee Stout as a real ale. That beer is incredible and one of my all-time favourite stouts. It did not disappoint last night, either. It's so smooth, but so flavourful.

But I couldn't drink the whole thing (the whole not drinking for a whole year means I get drunk on about half a pint) so Jeff decided to try mixing the two beers. He said it was good, but maybe next time instead of a 50/50 split, he'd do a 70/30, using more of the Karma Citra than the stout.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Battleaxe Brewery

Jeff stumbled across the Battleaxe Brewery's website recently and saw that it is open to the public.

Jeff has had the MacLean's Pale Ale before, when it was brewed through F&M in Guelph, and quite enjoyed it. Looking at the website, we were excited to see the different kinds of beers available.

This past Saturday, heading up that way anyway, we decided to drive to Battleaxe Brewery to maybe pick up some of the offerings. I was pretty stoked about the oatmeal stout, while Jeff wanted everything else.

The website gives hours of operation, but be warned: Call or email these guys before you go! Even if you're going when the website says they'll be open.

Jeff and I drove up Highway 6 and turned down a dirt road to get to the brewery, which is on a rural property. We went quiet as we drove up to the blue house and what looked like a shed (we could see some beer when we peeked through the window of the shed) because the place looked deserted.

Unfortunately for us, at 3:30 p.m. on a Saturday in November with the snow flying, there was no one else around. The beers we could see through the window were so close, yet so far away.

Maybe their hours of operation are for the summer months. Next time we head up that way we'll try again - contacting them ahead of time, of course.

I won't lie - we were very disappointed not to be able to get some beers, but at least Jeff had a MacLean's Pale Ale at the Queen's Bush pub in Hanover when we went out for dinner.