Month: February 2005

Ontario: Church-Key Brewing, Campbellford, Northumberland Co.

I got off the 401 at the Brighton exit and headed away from that town, going north. I will write more about this brewery tomorrow when I am not so tired but for now here are some pictures and the assurance that some of the best beer in Ontario is being made in a small Victorian church in the rolling hills of Northumberland county. Just one point before tomorrow, however: there were renovations going on and that is why a good swiffering looks due.

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The Next Day: You have to spend an hour getting to and from Church-Key Brewing from the 401. Do it. It sits between Campbellford and Springbrook on route #38 on a high point among small century farms. If it is not on the road, you will notice the yellow draft dispensing van out front. The brewery is housed in the former Zion United Church which was likely the former Zion Methodist Church. The main body of the building is from the 1860s or ’70s with an addition from the 1920s that the brewery is expanding into at the moment. Its 3000 litre conical fermenters stand floor to rafters like the dullest organ pipes in the what was the sanctuary.

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I got to spend an hour with Church-Key Owner John Graham and Marketing Director Cary Tucker. We got so quickly into talking that I didn’t even sample any samples. They only sell six-packs at the brewery, moving kegs to bars and restaurants from Ottawa to Toronto, Kingston to Peterborough. Cary and I got into beer travelling, the joys of the Galeville Grocery and his website. These guys like to know what is going on in the industry and, after five years or operation, are still self-described beer nerds.

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They brew a lager, a pale ale, a smoked ale and a chocolate porter and, going by the two sixes I picked up, the beer is some of the best made in the province. I’ll review the smoked ale and chocolate porter later but suffice it to say that I can easily see making the two and half hour round trip some Saturday just to get another fix. Recently, they have won some important awards:

Church-Key Brewing picked up three Gold Medals at the second annual Canadian Brewing Awards held at the Duke of Westminster Pub in Toronto. Church-Key’s first gold medal came in the Scotch Ale competition as Holy Smoke was chosen Best of Category. In the Cream Ale Category, Church-Key’s Northumberland Ale tied for the Gold Medal with Gulf Islands Salt Spring Golden Ale from British Columbia and Quebec’s Microbrasserie du Lievre La Montoise. Church-Key’s Decadent Chocolate Porter, flavored with cocoa from World’s Finest Chocolate in Campbellford, tied for Gold in the Stout or Porter category with Black Oak Nutcracker from Oakville, Ontario and Boreale Noire from Quebec.

Impressive competition which makes me think we have a couple of candidates for the National Six-Pack.

Directions to Church-Key Brewing.

The Road

A morning meeting in Newmarket, three hours west. You learn as you wrinkle there are morning people and there are middle-of-the-night-get-in-the-car-drive-to-Florida people. I like dawn being part of my morning person lifestyle. Dawn is an hour and a half away.

While I am enjoying the delights of the rental car – ooooh, a grey Taurus – why not perhaps comparable partake of the delights of the archives? The link usually sits down to the lower right. Today, you can enjoy the past, my past, right here ordered by date and topic for your perusing pleasure. 1616 posts of pure time waste. 22 months of my life – gone. Find the dullest or the wrongest post.

Our Man In A Coup

One sometimes correspondent here has found himself in Nepal during the Royalist coup and has sent some dispatches which I have been permitted this afternoon to release to you all which I do anonymously though you may figure it out as I am not much of a secret secret spy. Here is most of his first dispatch:

Am alive and well. No fear. Sitting in the Kathmandu Valley for now…If things get worse, of course, then I’ll start looking for the helicopter out, but all well at present.

Rest assured, I am well. Please don’t spread this e-mail around to anyone of an official or media nature, as I’m using a connection that HM the King has not found out about and therefore not cut off. And I
should hate to get the good people allowing me to send this short missive into trouble.

You will all have heard of the palace coup that took place on Feb. 1st – the King has declared a state of emergency, locked up the politicians, and suspended all constitutional rights which were not already suspended except for habeas corpus, in declaring a national
state of emergency. He has promised to restore multiparty democracy within three years, after having dealt with the Maoist insurgency and restored order in the kingdom. Here is my take on it – I’ve quizzed various people about what they think about it all, and distilled their opinions into a coherent narrative. There are two questions for consideration:

1. Is King Gyanendra sincere?

I wonder – he has always been hostile to liberal democracy – he did not favour his late brother’s decision to grant a constitution. Though he pledged to respect the constitution when he ascended to the throne, he dismissed Parliament in 2002 and has been unable (or unwilling — not sure, given that there is no effective government control of the country outside the KTM Valley) to hold elections for a new one since then. Given the state of the politicians – they are corrupt, and have been unable to form a stable national government or war cabinet in the two and a half years they’ve had since Parliament was dismissed – I tend
to sympathize with the King. He has locked down all the bank accounts, too, in order to take back the money that various ministers have embezzled from the treasury.

2. Assuming that he is sincere in his statements, can he get the job done?

Of this, I’m also not sure. The Royal Nepalese Army, invaluable as they’ve been in keeping civil order in Kathmandu, is armed with WWII-era weaponry. HM will have to re-train his whole army, possibly with American assistance, in order to re-take his country. I fear
that he may be going the way of Tsar Nicholas II, after he took personal command of the army in 1915, in that he will be held personally responsible for any failures in future. Essentially, the King is gambling his throne on his ability to restore order and to restore the state. Whether he can get the job done is unknown.

The mood among the largely well-educated crowd I know is surprisingly upbeat. They value law and order, and think that the present situation could not go on. One effect: the Maoists called for a three-day bandh (gen’l strike) from 2-4 Feb, and nothing happened – people went about their business as usual, instead of being cowed by threats from Maoist goons. So, this is a good thing in their minds. BBC World and CNN International were restored by the evening of the 1st and so I got to watch some of the international coverage (and to see Pres. Bush’s State of the Union address – v. exciting stuff).

Went to a wedding on the 1st and 2nd – and the reception is this evening – for a childhood family friend of mine. (You know me from my year in Halifax – “state of emergency” = “time to go out and party”. Martial law a bit more serious than hurricane or big
snowstorm, but the principle’s the same.) Was very interesting — the royal wedding was a Chetri (sp?) wedding, whereas this one was a Brahmin one. More or less similar, except that the Army “brass” band this time included two drummers, two saxophonists, two clarinet players, a guy with a tuba, and two bagpipers. (The pipes are quite popular in S. Asia — I think there are more here than in the UK, actually. Saw some pipe band stuff on TV for celebrations of Republic Day in India, which I found rather humourous.) Indian news stations are censored here right now, as are the Nepalese ones – there apparently is an army major at every channel monitoring what can go out – for six months, they say. As much as I value order, though, I think that the extraordinary measures the King has taken will backfire on him. One simply cannot
arrest all the politicians, no matter how corrupt they are, and the Constitution, though it should not be a suicide pact, should not simply be suspended at will. I mean, what’s the point of having one, then? (But he didn’t want it, of course.)

…I’ve had the opportunity to see a coup up close and live through it – I’ve always wondered what it would have been like
to be living in a St. Petersburg suburb in October 1917…

National Six-Pack VIII: Raftman, Unibroue, Quebec

You think it is February. Nothing will surprise you in February when you are as many weeks from Yule as you are to spring. Month o’ the rut. Then, you try a brew that you have never gotten around to trying and the world is all sunshine and love…or at least has one more good brew to tell folks about.

I really like this ale. Likes it, I do. 5.5% at a pretty basic price at the Beer Store. It is like a cross between a great Belgian witte and a great Canadian pale ale. A bit spicy, gingery orangey/lemony but also a big husky grainy profile as well. There is a yeast deposit that tastes decidedly spice-a-lee Belgian but a careful pour leaves the ale bright in the glass. The colour is more deep dark straw than amber – no red to my eye. The head stays around in a nice lively fine foam. It is the kind of beer you could smell for an hour, sticking half your face in the glass – you could if your wife or pals or children would not laugh at you for being a dork.

The brewery, Unibroue says of one of its lighter offering Raftman:

Launched in March 1995, Raftman is a beer with a coral sheen that is slightly robust. It contains 5.5 percent alcohol and combines the character of whisky malt with the smooth flavours of choice yeast. It has a subtle and exceptional bouquet that creates a persistent smooth feel. Raftman complements fish, smoked meat and spicy dishes. It is brewed to commemorate the legendary courage of the forest workers. These hard working men knew when to settle their differences and share their joie de vivre with a beer and a whisky.

The brewer twice notes “smoked whisky malt” as a part of the mash but it is a pretty subtle smoke if it is there at all. Still, it is Big Joe Mufferaw ale. Ale for men in plaid. Beer for lumber bars like Fred’s in Chapeau or the Silver Maple back of Shawville. Click on the photo for a plaidly scale version. The beer advocates do not go all rang-dang-do ever it but lots like it.So far, tied best of the National Six-Packs along with St-Ambrose Pale. Two Quebecers leading the pack. Who knew?