National Six-Pack XI: 10W30 Dark Ale, Neustadt, Ontario

10w30

The trouble with Ontario is really expressed in its beer distribution system: it is too big. Half the nation lives here, half the office space and half the bears as well. It goes from the arctic to the Carolinian forest, from the western prairie to a few miles from Montreal. The effect on beer distribution is a focus on localization so that if you want to find one of the beer from the handful of brewers in the province you have to drive. Driving on the weekend for other reasons, I took the opportunity to test the LCBO stocks in Guelph, north on highway 6 just past the Sleemans Brewery, four hours drive to my west.

This beer was worth the drive. A dark ale that actually tries to be something other than a darkened lager like the quite foul Waterloo Dark. Dark ale is not really a style so much as a place there by brown on the lighter side and porter on the richer. It is a small place and this beer settles there well. The body is heavier than the average Canadian ale – as the automotive oil name would imply. It is however fairly fresh with bright, if twiggy, hops cutting quite a sweet rich malt profile. Within the malts there are grainy pale malt flavours as well as some chocolate. Amongst those there is also a treacle note and perhaps a little hint of licorice. A brighter and lighter Theaksons’s Old Peculier? Here is what the advocates say.

Perhaps not the most amazing ale but – for those named dark – the best I have had from Canada.

2005 Hockey Sports Pool

OK – I couldn’t get up any interest for an all-hockey pool either. So we are going to go with a mixed sports pool this year. Have your picks in by Friday 18 March 2005 at 5 pm EST – that is this week.

The Rules

A. US College BasketballCBS Sports should provide all you need.

1. Name the final four teams in the mens NCAA championship. 5 points for each correct pick.
2. Ten points for the NCAA mens basketball champion.

B. Hockey – check TSN.ca for helpful household hints.

3. Name the winner of the Memorial Cup, Canada’s Jr A Men’s hockey championship. 10 points.
4. Pick four scorers in the Memorial Cup. One point for each goal or assist.
5. Pick the winner of the AHL’s Calder Cup. Ten points.

C. Fitba – try BBC Sports for information.

6. Pick the two teams in the English FA Cup Final. Five points each.
7. Pick the winner of the FA Cup. 10 points.
8. Pick the winner of the Scottish Premier League – not a Cup, #1 in the league table. [Ed.: Hint – it will likely rhyme with “Brangers” or “Beltic”.] Ten points.

D. Baseball
Try the home web sites for Boston and the Yankees.

9. Who wins when the Red Sox and Yankees play on 11 April 2005? Ten points.
10. Who wins when the Red Sox and Yankees play on 13 April 2005? Ten points.
11. Who starts as pitcher for each team when the Red Sox and Yankees play on 14 April 2005? Ten points for each correct pick.

Comments? Other questions – other than my weight – you are interested in?

Beer is Bigger Than…

In Canada at least, with sales of $7,864,437,000.00 in 2003 is bigger than:

– Total attendance at movie theatres and drive-ins with sales of $1.2 billion in 2002/03: 15.3% of beer.
– All wheat at $2.47 billion: 31.5% of beer.
– The estimated budget of the Government of Nova Scotia for 2003 of $5.327 billion: 68% of beer.
– All charitable giving of $6,500,000,000: 71% of beer.
– Beer is smaller than the military, however, which has a $13.5 billion budget for 2006: 171% of beer in 2003.

The beer sales figures do not even include retail bar and restaurant costs, just the wholesale. They also do not include the cost of that bag of chips you had to go with the bee

Years

Two since we packed all the stuff and the kids and the cats and hit the road to come here. Didn’t get far as the transmission died in Moncton and I stayed in the Harry Potter room at Magnetic Hill. Eleven I got the gown and didn’t quite give the Queen an oath. Fourteen since a good pal died in a nasty car crash on his way home to the Prairies. Twenty soon since undergrad grad skipping the practice to have eggs on toast at the Ardmore Tea Room on Quinpool. I can still trace the arc of each of these days in my mind.