Month: January 2006

Am I A Beer Geek?

Even though I prefer “beer nerd” I guess this description fits me:

…it was Sean Ziegler, pouring beers for Dogfish Head brewery at at the Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines Festival Saturday, who told it. “Wine is like an art. Your always subject to nature,” Ziegler said. “Beer is more like a science. Hence, the name beer geek. You can measure the color, the hops, the sweetness – and theoretically – if you can measure it, you can reproduce it over and over again.” The predominately male crowd at Saturday’s festival is part of a larger beer culture much different than the quantity guzzling, can crushing frat boys often associated with beer. These beer lovers crave knowledge about their favorite carbonated beverage. They seek out brews that are complex in color and flavor and do it through tasting, smelling, attending festivals, visiting breweries and cooking up their own concoctions. “There’s not a beer I don’t like, there’s not a beer I won’t taste, there’s not a place with a brewery that I won’t visit,” said Chris Katechis of Oskar Blues Brewery, who was serving up Old Chub Scottish style ale among others. “Everything there is to know about beer, we want to know. What time the brewer wakes up and starts brewing – we want to know.”

Is that you, too?

Five Weird Things

I have been tagged by the weirdos: people want to know five things about me that are weird. This is not so easy as it sounds as I am inordinately not weird:

  • One. I wear shorts all year round. I drove yesterday down the 401 in MEC walking shorts. No one else at the truck stops was wearing shorts. I think this makes me weird in their eyes. I think of it as merely wearing a bifurcated kilt.
  • Two. I am inordinately lucky. I was abducted in a foreign country at three and mysteriously returned later by a ten year old boy who ran away before anyone thought to ask him who he was. I was deep in the Kings Cross tube station when it was just starting to burn. I missed being blown up in Paris by an early phase of islamo-fascist terrorists by the fortunate stroke of a friend needing to stop for smokes. A husky bit my face and missed taking one of either my nose or an eye by millimetres but left subtle but very cool scars.
  • Three. I often think most disagreements could be settled by an hour of adult unorganized play and am certain that most workplaces need to introduce morning and afternoon recess.
  • Four. I do not bleed like others. I was cut to the bone near my wrist and had to show the nurse the bone to convince her I needed stitches. When I was stitched my skin bent all the needles except the heaviest gauge.
  • Five. I used to wear a particular tartan tie to court when attending before a particular Chief Justice of a particular province just to see if he got the message.

There. Now, who needs tagging? Well, all of you can post your here and for those bloggers who have yet to be tagged I pick Blork, Knut, NYCO and the Arthur/Alfons consortium.

PS: the Flea is right – “meme” is a bad word for these things. But if you spell and pronounce it a “me-me” it works.

Ontario: Stratford Brewing Company, Stratford, Perth County

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This weekend I made a discovery while looking for things to do while visiting family…OK, my in-laws. Right there in little Stratford Ontario was the Stratford Brewing Company. At the south end of town in a small industrial park area at the back of a building there it was…a van, a man and a set of second-hand brewing equipment making one of the best pilsners I have ever had.

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After I got past what looked like an attack beagle, I met Joe Tuer who ended up taking over two hours of his day to tell me about his beer and his business.

I actually came back with the camera and a note pad. I was going to do this interviewing thing right. Looking at my notes now you would think I was sitting in a chilly lagering room in the middle of a Canadian winter fixated on the beer in front of me and chatting with a new found beer nerd fellow traveller. Oh…I was. I did get a good quote after I asked what his challange as a brewer was, which he replied:

I don’t want to be someone’s favorite beer. I don’t want someone to buy our beer religiously. If we’re in your top six – perfect.

This is a two beer operation. The flagship is a 4.9% Czech pilsner – by name of Stratford Pilsner – which has a nice breadcrustiness from the pale malt as well as a easy drinkability from Stratford’s soft artesian well water. Joe also poured me a new 4% porter he decided to add for winter. Chocolate with a nice snap of twiggy hops, this beer relies on a light fruity English ale yeast as well as that soft water. Again, quaffable at the lighter end of porter. The malt Stratford Brewering uses is from Gilbertson & Page of nearby Fergus, the hops from Hop Union and the yeast are from Wyeast.

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Brewing lager takes a bit of an investment and a bit of a chance. Lager has to be “lagered” or stored in cold temperatures for a significantly longer period of time than ales. This means you need more storage capacity to produce the same amount of beer as an ale brewer. It also means you have to pay higher cooling costs. But what is smart about it is that you are aiming at a niche that the average southern Ontarian is already used to supping. You have market. Stratford Brewing services a keg market of about two dozen accounts right now which is largely based on local loyalty in town as well as beer lovers in downtown Toronto, about two hours drive east. The town of Stratford has a world famous Shakespeare festival which attracts folk from around the world including many who expect a town to have a local town brewer and who ask for his beer before they even know the name.

After some rejection from banks as a new grad with a business degree, Joe reinvented his business interest in beer while working in Singapore enjoying the ex-pat life. Diligent readers of the archives will be familiar with Brewerkz, a brew pub there visited by Newfoundlander and Asiapundit, Chris Myrick before he moved to Shanghai, land of pineapple beer. Joe got a short course of over the shoulder training from Scott Robertson at Brewerkz which carried him back to Canada a year and a half ago and started him on his search for equipment. What he found was in Cincinnati – a 14 barrel Specific Mechanical system originally from BC shown here.

I will revisit Stratford Brewing (and not only because I visit my in-laws there) from time to time. This is a lager I would return to – and this is from someone who is not a lager fan. I hope to find Joe on a hot August Saturday with a lawn chair each and time to contemplate his work.

Day Thirty-Eight: YIKES! I’m a-Scared

It has happened. The Liberal Party of Canada’s plan to roll out Ray Steven’s hit “Everything is Beautiful in its Own Way” is now officially on hold because the headline in the Toronto Star this morning reads “Tories Jump Into Clear Lead”:

The survey, conducted by EKOS Research Associates for the Star and La Presse, found that 36.2 per cent of decided voters say they will support the Conservatives, while 30.4 per cent favoured the Liberals. The NDP is supported by 17.9 per cent of voters, while the Bloc is at 10.4 per cent nationally and the Green party is at 4.7 per cent.

The SES poll dated 3 January shows a three point lead for the Tories, too. Expect it to bump again as everyone who votes for a winner now mooes over to the other side and practices their “I saw it all along” talking points.

You know…isn’t it sort of time? Even if it were the Visagoths, which it almost isn’t, don’t even the mad marauding hordes get a chance at governing once in a while? A Tory minority would accomplish a few things. They would finally have to put up or shut up, something we have all sort of wanted since we first heard Preston Manning speak. And also they would have to face a leftist majority in the house. Would the other four parties (if the Greens win one) have the guts to create a grand coalition?

Best of all it would be a call for the creation of the Party of the Flea whose storehouse of slogans such as Fleatastic and Now is the time at the Flea when we dance would go so well with anime characters and car show lassies on election posters. Nation-wide Flea power. Fabulous thought.

US College Football

There are moments in life when you hit a wall, when you realize in all honesty “hey, I can’t do this.” It must be odd, however, to be a good kid, a great athlete and on TV before a massive continental audience and then get hammered. [Ed.: I think “continental” will be the word of Genx X at 40 for 2006.]

I stopped watching the Ohio State victory over Notre Dame when I started feeling uncomfortable for the kids in the gold helmets. I am assured I will not feel so itchy shirted in relation to tonight’s Penn State v. Florida State game. I will try to love again.