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.

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.

New Ontario craft brewer?

A story in the Collingwood Enterprise Bulletin recently mentioned there is a group of people that is in the process of starting a new brewery in the Ontario tourist town.

It's called Side Launch Brewing Company and the ambitious group says it would be nice to open by 2014.

They said they were inspired to do more craft beer after seeing the industry grow by leaps and bounds, and also because the now Molson-owned Creemore Springs does so well.

"We basically started out as a group talking about this four or five years ago, after Creemore Springs was purchased by Molson's," company president Garnet Pratt Siddall told the newspaper.

"Creemore was the pioneer of craft brewers, and under Molson's they have been able to retain a degree of autonomy," he said. "The area could easily support (another) craft beer."

Agreed.

There is also a microbrewery opening in Delhi, Ont. Ramblin' Road Brewery is owned by the same family that runs Picard's Peanuts (those blue "barns" filled with peanutty goodness and special treats). The website calls it Ontario's first brewery farm (not 100% sure what that means) and says they should be serving soon (they will be launching around the time of the Norfolk County Fair - which runs over the Thanksgiving weekend).

Liqourice Stout

Brewed by Svaneke for the licorice company Lakrids, Jeff picked up this "liqourice stout" on another recent trip to Denmark.

"It's interesting," he wrote in an email. "It's almost at room temperature since I have no fridge or ice. It has a pretty rounded taste. The licorice flavour is pretty subdued with roasted malt and coffee being the major flavours."

White House releases beer recipes

The White House has released two recipes for beers produced on site: the honey brown ale and the honey porter.

"Inspired by home brewers from across the country, last year President (Barack) Obama bought a home brewing kit for the kitchen. After the few first drafts we landed on some great recipes that came from a local brew shop. We received some tips from a couple of home brewers who work in the White House who helped us amend it and make it our own. To be honest, we were surprised that the beer turned out so well since none of us had brewed beer before," chef Sam Kass wrote on the White House blog Saturday.

The beers use honey collected from a beehive on the south lawn of the White House.

The recipe for this summer's honey blonde was not released.

Watch the video about how the beer is made:

Lindemans Gueuze Cuvée René

One night after work recently, Jeff decided to give Lindemans Gueuze Cuvee Renee a try. It is a beer that has a lot to live up to - the Bros on Beer Advocate gave it a score of 100. The general Beer Advocate score is 91.

Here's what Jeff had to say about this beer:

"One of the few sour beers I've had. For the uninitiatied, be ready for something very different. It's champagne-like with a great red wine vinegar sourness. It's hard to believe this is a beer. It's proof positive that if you haven't found a beer you like, you just haven't tried enough beers because there are just so many different styles out there."

According to the brewery's wesbite, Gueuze is often served during happy hour in Brussels and goes well with seafood, salty meals and cream sauces. Gueuze Cuvee Rene should be served at 5 degrees Celsius.

Widmer Brothers - Brothers' Best Variety Pack

Still in North Carolina - Jeff also picked up this variety pack from Widmer Brothers brewery.

Four different beers were inside the pack - the Hefeweizen, Citra Blonde Summer Brew, Drifter Pale Ale and Shaddock IPA.

Without a glass in his hotel room, Jeff had to resort to drinking these beers out of the bottle (not at all the prefered way to try new beers - but a beer drinker has gotta do what a beer drinker has gotta do).

He called the Hefewizen "pretty pedestrian" because while yeasty and wheaty, there wasn't much in the way of spice or citrus.

The Citra Blonde Summer brew had a nice smell and taste.

"Citrusy, but there's pineapple and mango as well. Really refreshing," he said. "The tagline, 'Satisfyingly Sessionable' definitely applies."

When it came to the Drifter Pale Ale, he admitted he wasn't expected much, but said it was "very surprising."

"I was expecting a pretty boring beer. But this beer actually has a decent amount of flavour - there's nice caramel from the malts and citrus and tropical fruit from the hops," he said. "It's pretty low on bitterness for those afraid/looking for bitter."

Then came his favourite of the pack, the Shaddock IPA. The hop-head in him just couldn't help but love it.

"This one is brewed with grapefruit peels so there's obviously a lot of grapefruit flavour. I'd say this is my overall favourite - which is likely no surprise."