Ontario Brewmaster's Cup

Four Toronto beer writers have decided to host the Ontario Brewmaster's Cup - pitting 16 Ontario beers against each other.

Check out their website

The idea, the website says, came from the LCBO Brewmaster's Cup, which only included one Canadian beer (Moosehead - of all beers ... those doing the Ontario cup say there's nothing "inherently wrong" with Moosehead, but I don't think it should have been the beer to represent all of Canada).

So now, Greg Clow, Ben Johnson, Crystal Luxmore and Jordan St. John have launched this new cup.

There have been two rounds of the draft - so you're not too far behind if you haven't heard of this yet (I just heard about it today). Sounds like a fun way to learn about different beers!

Hops and Robbers

At the LCBO the other day, we saw cans of Hops and Robbers. Jeff hasn't had it in a while, so he picked up a can to enjoy.

Previously, Jeff has had this on tap and really quite liked it.

From the can, however, he's not a fan.

"I don't know if it's just old, and it deteriorated in the can, but I don't get the hops freshness," he said. "Maybe it needs to warm up."

But even after it warmed up, Jeff said while it improved a little, it wasn't by much and he said it was bitter and there wasn't the hop flavour.

Hops and Robbers is from Double Trouble Brewing, which (I believe) contract brews out of Wellington Brewery here in Guelph.

He says he'll try it again, but with this can, "I was just a little disappointed."

Beers from Denmark

I've already posted one beer Jeff enjoyed in Denmark, but here are a few more.

He was disappointed not to find Mikkeller initally when we went to the nearby grocery store, but he certainly found some other beers to try.

(He did end up finding Mikkeller beer later and brought some home).

Hefe-weizen Svane Hvede

Brewery: Indslev Bryggeri

He enjoyed this beer with rye bread and sausages. He didn't realize the beer wasn't filtered, so that last bit was a bit yeasty. 

The brewery's website says Indslev Bryggeri is the only brewery in Denmark that specialies exclusively in brewing wheat beer.

"We do not use as much hops as many other breweries, but focus more on the malt." 

Jeff said he was a fan of the beer and knew it wasn't a hoppy one going in.

Willemoes Porter

Brewery: Vestfyen

"I seem to remember it being really sweet," Jeff said of this beer. "A lot of molasses or something."

But still, he said he liked it.

This brewery, Vestfyen, has a number of different beers. Willemoes Porter has an alcohol content of 9.8% vol. 

The beer is described on the website as, "Munich malt, caramel malt, chocolate malt, colour malt, slightly smoked malt. Warrior hops, surgar and mised with liqourice."

Sounds tasty!

Kalapojser 

Brewery: Pladderballa Bryghus

His last beer, but because it wasn't his favourite, I'm posting it in the middle of this post. 

"It tastes almost gritty," he wrote on Facebook after drinking this beer.

This one is a traditional brown ale, the website says, which is unfiltered and unpasteurized and fermented in the bottle.

Jackie Brown

Brewery: Mikkeller

"Good, not great," Jeff wrote. "They can't all be Draft Beer."

(We'll get to Draft Beer in a moment).

The Jackie Brown is, no surprise, a brown ale and has hints of chocolate, coffee and licorice. RateBeer.com gives it a score of 97 overall.

Draft Beer

Brewery: Mikkeller

"They had to give it such a boring name because they used up all the awesome on the flavour," Jeff wrote, before adding the hashtag, "#ZOMG."

I guess he liked it.

BeerAdvocate.com says this is an American double imperial pilsner. It had a good score from BA reviewers with 89, but The Bros gave it 100 (aka World Class). In fact, the BeerAdvocate review says this beer is "giving the bird to the ho-hum lagers."

Toronto Festival of Beer - preview

Some of our samples from the TFOB 2011.

Jeff and two friends are off to the Toronto Festival of Beer on Friday night.

While I am jealous of all the great beer they'll have, I'm also sad I'll be missing out on the entertainment: Salt-N-Pepa.

(Did anyone else see this and think, "Really? Salt-N-Pepa are headlining the Friday night at a beer festival?" Because I did.)

New this year at the beer festival, there's a Brewmaster's Series in co-operation with Niagara College, and there will be a World of Beer Pavilion, featuring a host town, region or country. This year, it will feature Quebec beers - which should be awesome. Some insiders have said you can expect to see Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel!, MicroBrasserie Charlevoix, Hopfenstark, Le Trou Du Diable, Brasserie Dunham and Les Trois Mousquetaires.

Also - a huge bonus in my opinion - the plastic cups are gone and they're going with glass for samples.

Aero beer - Denmark

Jeff was also recently in Denmark, and this was one of the beers he had.

"Nougatty," he wrote on Facebook as he posted the photo. Later he told me it was sweet and had the flavour of hazelnuts. He certainly enjoyed it.

I believe it's brewed by Rise Brewery (Rise Bryggerri). The brewery says this bock has a walnut flavour (or so Google translate would have me believe) and I think they use local malt and hops in the brewing process.

Russian beers

Jeff was recently in Moscow for work. He had a few beers, but one thing he spoke of that he enjoyed was a drink called kvass.

According to Wikipedia:

Kvass is a fermented beverage made from black or regular rye bread. The colour of the bread used contributes to the colour of the resulting drink. It is classified as a non-alcoholic drink by Russian standards, as the alcohol content from fermentation is typically less than 1.2%. Overall, the alcohol content is low (0.05% - 1.0%).  It is often flavoured with fruits or herbs such as strawberries, raisins or mint.

Jeff said he liked the kvass - something he had with lunches. Certainly something to try if you go to Russia.

He also had these beers:

"I knew I'd find you again, Franziskaner!" he wrote on Facebook when he enjoyed this German beer.

For this one he said, "Not your stinky old NA Budweiser."

And then there was this. He wasn't even sure it was beer. (If anyone has any idea about what it is, let us know!)

(512) Pecan Porter

Jeff didn't take a photo - but the brewery
had a fun graphic. Even as a graphic
this beer looks amazing.

Jeff was in Texas recently for work and he went to a pub called The Ginger Man (because his favourite bar in Fort Worth, The Flying Saucer, was closed).

At The Ginger Man, he had a few beers, but the one he spoke about the most and that stood out in his mind was the (512) Pecan Porter.

"You could taste the pecan. I was surprised by how much you could taste the pecan," Jeff said.

Mmmm, a pecan porter. I don't even like pecans, and yet this sounds wonderful. And Jeff says it was (so does Beer Advocate).

The beer uses locally grown pecans (the brewery is based in Austin).

He also had an IPA by (512) and enjoyed that beer.

So for those ever in Texas, this is a brewery to try.