Well, the numbers are finally in. We’ve had 45 breweries submit this year and 212 total submissions. In 2012, we had 34 breweries and 165 entries so the brewing world in Ontario is alive, well and growing.
Here’s a list of participating brewers -
Amsterdam Brewing Co.
Bar Volo
…
Hey everyone! I have some exciting news-
Up the street from my house in Hamilton there is a bar called The Ship, owned and operated by a buddy of mine. The Ship is one of the premiere craft beer bars in Hamilton -and it has had her license to brew for over a year now! All that has been missing is some equipment and know-how. All that has been missing is me! :)
I was invited to brew, and that isn’t an invitation I often turn down! I developed a beer, did a pilot batch at home, and began volunteering my time for a couple of Sunday mornings now, before the kitchen opens. I have been brewing 30 litre batches ontop of the grill at The Ship, supplementing the heat from the grill with an electric heat stick. I’m proud to say that the beer is now ready for your consideration!
The Ship will host a launch party this coming Thursday- March 7th- and we will be kicking things off around 8!
We will have two versions of the beer on tap simultaneously- one more mellowed and boozy- with less hops, allowing more of the special ingredients to shine. The other is less boozy, but much more aggressively hopped.
ABOUT THE BEER:
The Ships Rations
The Ships Rations began with The Ship itself as inspiration. While considering the bar and thinking about what beer would be appropriate to serve as the inaugural brew for The Ship, no style of beer came to mind as quickly, nor seemed quite so appropriate, as the IPA. IPA or ‘India Pale Ale’ was first developed in England for shipment to India in the 1700’s. Today the style is enjoying a huge revival and is arguably the most popular type of beer amongst craft beer fans. Many modern versions of the style tend to veer towards the American reinterpretation of IPA- These wonderful brews are very bitter, fairly high in alcohol, and aggressively hop forward; favoring modern American high alpha acid varieties. As phenomenal as a modern IPA can be, The Ships Rations needed to be something a little different. Returning to the English origins of the beer, we find a brew that evolved to be extremely dry, very pale, and awfully bitter, so much so that it was described as undrinkable before aging had mellowed it. It had a very long aging time, at least a year before shipping was common, which also helped to make it a very clear and sparkling beverage, sometimes described as having a “champagne-like” appearance -indeed- it was occasionally known as “Bengal Wine”. The Ships Rations is a hybrid of old and new- with a twist. It shares some traits with old English IPAs, specifically the sparkling carbonation and the dry crisp finish. It is like modern IPAs in that it makes exclusive use of recently developed strains of high-alpha acid hops, specifically Citra & Simcoe. But it takes a lighter hand on hop character than most modern IPAs, which allows some interesting special ingredients to be incorporated. These exotic ingredients are Ginger, Molasses and Chinese Sugar Crystals. These ingredients are reminiscent of the Far East and the English colonial period- when spices, sugar, and molasses were loaded onto English ships- ships that returned loaded with Ale. The ginger helps to create a powerful aroma of cardamom on the nose (putting the “I” in IPA) and is perhaps more felt than tasted -as it creates a synergistic effect with the hops- increasing the perception of bitterness and leaving a pleasant, almost hot, bitter burn on the palette. The molasses add color and complexity, and the Chinese sugar crystals help to lighten the body and create a rather dry beer. The Ships Rations is approx. 6.5 percent alcohol by volume and approx. 70 IBUs. It is unfiltered, unpasteurized and unavailable anywhere else! The Ships Rations is a rather unique IPA that is probably not quite like any other beer you have tried! We are proud of it, and we will work to perfect it until it is refined into precisely the sort of beer that we have envisioned, and that Hamilton deserves.
ABOUT THE PAINTING:
Painting By Victor North
The Ships Rations painting draws upon the look and feel of vintage Canadian beer labels crossed with classic comic book covers! The image of The Ship is inspired by old-school tattoo culture, as well as the nautical imagery so common in beer labels and around The Ship herself. The colors Blue and Gold are the colors of the City of Hamilton, found on her flag, which is why this ship has golden sails on a blue sky. The inverted blue triangle upon which the ship sails represents Hamilton Harbour. The motto: “Together Aspire Together Drink” is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek play on the Hamilton motto “Together Aspire Together Achieve”. It nicely captures both the aspirational mood of modern Hamilton as well as the important (and often-overlooked in the craft beer world) social aspect of beer. Of course, it also reflects our own aspirations and hopes that we harbour, together, for The Ships Rations, The Ship, and the City of Hamilton! Here’s to all of your aspirations! Cheers!
Copper distillery that can be broken down into common kitchen tools.
AND LOOKS DAMN GOOD
(Source: cargocollective.com, via beachjustice)
This is a film I know well, we used to play it at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, where I worked.
Around Cape Horn doesn’t look like much at first, no flash, but it’s all substance I guarantee you. Listen as Captain Irving Johnson takes you by the hand and shows you everything you’re seeing the way he remembers it, when he took this footage in 1929. Beyond the age of sail, but thankfully for us, into the moving picture age.
You can purchase the video, of course. It was made by the capable people at Mystic Seaport, this is their store. Mystic Seaport is the largest maritime museum in North America, and I got to visit it last year. Delightful!
around Cape Horn is a stone cold maritime museum classic!
The net cooling effect of single, young healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room-sized air conditioners, running for 20 hours a day. 10 air conditioners, a single tree!! A tree planted today on the west side of your house will result in a 3% energy savings in the five years time, 12% savings in fifteen years. A single stand of trees reduces particulate pollution 9-13%, with the amount of dust reaching the ground beneath those trees 27-42%, versus in an open area. If you have trees on your property near your home it accounts for 10-23% of your home value. In urban areas, assuming the cost of planting and maintaining a tree for three years at $250-600, it will return $90,000 in direct benefits over its lifetime (apart from beautification, etc.). (via Beat the Heat: 5 Amazing Benefits of Urban Trees : TreeHugger)
Time to plant a tree or two in the back yard…
(via beachjustice)
How to Cut a Pizza
I was thrilled to see this review of my beer, The 240 Sparks Wheat, today! I’m very glad he liked it, and thought that it was rather like a hopfen weisse, since I am on record as being IN LOVE with that nascent style.
Here is the text:
”I was particularly intrigued by the beer of the month offering, which is part of The 3 Brewers’ Canadian master brewers challenge. Each of the Quebec and Ontario brew pubs created a special new signature brew, inviting guests to vote on their favorites in a friendly competition. Ottawa’s entry, The 240 Sparks Wheat, is a neat take on a relatively new style -hopfenweisse- that showed promising and interesting results.
The 240 Sparks Wheat (4.5 per cent ABV) pours a cloudly, “yellowy” orange, almost like a pulpy orange juice with a billowy, white foam cap. The nose surprises with a massive spicy citrus Amarillo hop bouquet that overshadows the typical wheat beer aromas you may originally be expecting.
Rich flavours of orange, mango, lemon, bubblegum and pineapple playfully dance with a pronounced tangy, hop bitterness and bite that balances very well and suits the thick, rich, smooth wheat body of the beer. It is full bodied and well carbonated with a welcome subdued lingering finish.
This beer is definitely worth a try …and a vote.”
You can check out the review here!
It feels crazy that I have to say this, but I would pay good money for a version of Red Letter Media’s reviews that didn’t feature all those added scenes where, you know women get kidnapped and murdered.
It’s like you sit down in front of these feature-length reviews of Star Wars and Star Trek films and you think, hey, wow! Here is some really well-thought-out commentary on the structure and content of narratives that’s incredibly entertaining, insightful AND funny, I’m gonna share this with my mothe— oh wait, no, here’s a scene where we watch the reviewer gas a kidnapped woman to death and here’s one where a prostitute tied up in the basement begs for her life and here’s one where he shows us how he murdered his wife.
There’s some great filmic insights here, all baked together with scenes of women (it’s always women) about to be murdered that do absolutely nothing except to maybe make you laugh? Because look that one woman is begging that her life be spared and saying she’ll do anything! Hah hah hah that IS a good one!!
It’s so frustrating because the actual review parts verge on brilliant, and I keep thinking “oh, they’ll definitely cut out the violence towards women played for laughs in the next video” but noooooooooooope.
tl;dr: internet, what is wrong with you
Yes, indeedy
Not too long ago, I traveled to Ottawa, my Hometown, to brew a beer of my own design!
Above is the description I put together for it. There are several photos from the brewday if you are curious! There is also a video of the Ottawa Brewers (Fine Gents!) giving a description of the beer here, and you can vote for the beer here!
Hey everybody! Black Oak is throwing a holiday party next week and there will be lots of great beer to try- including a little beer made by me! I recently taught a session of Black Oaks popular how-to-homebrew class, which is cleverly entitled “Rubber Boot Camp”. The result was three beers:
Bitter Bohemian ~ a pretty simple brew that has nothing at all to do with the Holiday season. It was made ahead of time primarily for the purpose of demonstrating how to bottle and keg homebrew. You know, pulling the old cooking show trick of skipping ahead in a long process; “Now here is some souffléd croissants I prepared earlier” or whateves. Bitter Bohemian is a beer made with 100% Weyermann Floor-Malted Bohemian Dark Malt and entirely with Noble-type hops. Mmmm. It’s a lager, of moderate alcoholic strength, (about 5%) and the other purpose of it was to act like and starter and build up the expired yeasts that I used to ferment it! (All that I had was expired yeast!) The three vials pitched were a Kolsch strain, A Pacific Ale strain, and a Munich Helles Lager strain. All three were fermented together at 13°C, but because of the tight timeline, they weren’t able the finish the job before the beer had to be rushed into a kegs and bottles -still actively fermenting- where the fermentation finished. So this beer may be over-carbed, under-attenuated, and perhaps diacetyly? Or delicious? We’ll see! Anyway, once Bitter Bohemian had moved on out, pitched right ontop of the yeast cakes was….
Carobou 2012 ~ This was a continuation of a Christmas brew I made last year to give away to friends and family, include in the 2011 SOB Advent Calender, and enter into a homebrew competition! I’m glad to say it was well received by all, and managed a gold in S/H/V! It is a winter warmer- brewed with Carob Molasses. I think that many brewers instincts would be to pair the Carob with Chocolate malts, but I think that would be a disservice to the Carob. It would cover the Carob up, dominate it, and place it in a flavour competition it simply cannot win. Carob, if you are not aware, is a lovely but much maligned spice. I think because it is often presented as a Chocolate Substitute. Carob may have a character that is somewhat reminiscent of chocolate, but it is no substitute. Nothing is! Carob has it’s own thing going on anyway, it’s different. It’s interesting! It’s good. Don’t ruin it by forcing me to think of it as a cruel and crude approximation of Chocolate. ANYWAY, this big beer is made with 100% Canadian 2-Row barley- which allows the subtle Carob character and colour to come through. I thought It would be a perfect beer to make during Rubber Boot Camp and serve during the Holiday Party. This year I doubled the amount of Carob I used and transformed it from an ale into a lager. If it has actually managed to attenuate down, (in addition to the yeast cake, I also pitched 3 sachets of Saflager, and yes, all three were expired.) it should be about 10% alcohol and damned delicious. A little of the wort was left over, and that was combined with a side-boil to create…
Fuggy Puddin’! ~ This holiday ale is something else. It will likely either be an awesome and nigh-unrepeatable experiment; or a terrible warning against ever allowing me to brew again. I don’t think ‘average’ or ‘unremarkable’ will be an option for this beer. It’s crazy. Embarrassingly-drunk-at-an-embarrassingly-early-hour-at-a-family-party-type-crazy. Dancing-way-too-sexually-with-yourself-at-an-office-party-type-crazy. It was a side-brew, and the primary intent was to demonstrate how to “Brew In A Bag”. All 2-Row, the side boil had a generous and unmeasured amount of dark chocolate & orange peel added to it, as well as an unreasonable amount of Fuggles! Frig. Then it was combined with the remaining Carabou wort, (about 75/25) and fermented with a mix of Trappist ale yeast AND German WHEAT YEAST. Yes. Both very expired.
Should be something like figgy puddin’ Maybe? It might have figgy notes from the Trappist, anyway. FUGGY PUDDIN’! Can’t wait to taste this one….
AND there will be a Fourth Rubber Boot Camp beer there! This was the result of the second session, Taught by excellent brewer and all-around great guy, Jeremy Coghill! His brew will be on Cask, and it will be a Gruit! Get on this!! Here are some notes from Jeremy:
“Van Gogh’s Ear Gruit-
Depending on how it attenuates it should be between 5.5 and 6%.
This unfiltered ale, named after the myth that the wormwood found in absinthe caused Van Gogh to chop off his ear, is inspired by the un-hopped beverages that were dominant in Europe prior to the widespread use of hops. Wild herbs in various quantities were used to add flavour, help preserve the ale during storage, and to provide various rumoured healthful tonic properties.
The grain bill for rye beer is used as the base for this ale and is flavoured with Mugwort, Wormwood and White Yarrow grown in my garden along with Sweet Gale (aka: Bog Myrtle) from cottage country and diced fresh ginger from the local grocery store. The beer will be served on cask in a manner that I imagine traditional gruits would have been served during the middle ages.”
So- if there ever was a Black Oak party to come out to- this is it! So many experimental beers to try! And that’s ONTOP of all the great beer Black Oak is putting out. Damn! Happy Holidays indeed!
