Following The Hieronymi Around The World

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I have to admit that beer blogging has given me far more than I have ever given it. Through beer blogging I have electronically met a particularly rich seam of the most gracious and generous folk in the English-speaking world. One of the finest is, of course, our pal Stan Hieronymus, author of Brew Like A Monk as well as a bazillion articles on brew – not to mention the blogger-in-chief at Appellation Beer.

Stan and the family are on a round-the-world tour trying all the local beer they can meet and next week I have the honour of hosting them for supper (and maybe more if the RV fits) as the south-easter Ontario representative of all things beery. I have put away a few fine local beers – including that growler or two I plan to snab at Sackets Harbor NY, my actual most local brewer as the crow flies. We’ll be over there next Sunday for the return of the annual 1870s vintage base ball game. I have invited a couple of interesting brewers to join in a small backyard symposium but am still a little at loose ends, trying to figure out how to make the moment worthy and fun.

Well, lo and behold, I just found an extra way to do the right thing by Stan – they’re keeping a blog of the trip called The Slow Travelers. More about big roadside attractions and less about about beer but that is good. It will help us get a sense of Stan, the family and my pleasant duties of their host. As far as I can tell, I need to make a giant paper mache dinosaur and place it by the curb to truly make the date a hit! We may have to see about that one.

Out! Out! Damn Tiny Substances!!!

We live in a time of great fear. Terrorism. Financial instability. Food security…or is that now “nutrisekur”? Well, here’s one more – tiny substances:

A blue-ribbon scientific panel has waved a yellow flag in front of a rapidly expanding number of products containing nanomaterials, cautioning that the tiny substances might be able to penetrate cells and interfere with biological processes…Their small size, the report says, may allow them “to usurp traditional biological protective mechanisms” and, as a result, possibly have “enhanced toxicological effects.”

Yeeouch! Bad enough that they may have toxicological effects but these ones are enhanced! I really hope this is not all about the industrial dusty cheesy coating on snack foods. That stuff is really tiny but tangy and tasty, too. Note that one conclusion of the study is that “there are inadequate data to inform quantitative risk assessments on current and emerging nanomaterials.” Hmm. So they may not really know. Note, too, that there is no apparent reference to that Wired magazine article from before a few bubble economies ago called “Why the future doesn’t need us” in which Bill Joy argued that 21st-century technologies like genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (GNR) would be so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses. It’s always a good bit of reading for those wanting to get scared out of their skins what with sentences like: “if our own extinction is a likely, or even possible, outcome of our technological development, shouldn’t we proceed with great caution?”

Yowza! But what about my cheese dust? If we are witnessing the end of life on earth through our own incompetent worship of the blind progress of science, I want cheese dusty snacks on the way out.

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The Government Said The Public Wasn’t Ready

I didn’t realize I wasn’t ready. Do you have to be a libertarian wing nut to pause and shake your head?

The system would be more open, flexible and convenient for consumers, the panel concluded. The government could restrict the number of stores and their hours, and also retain the current $24-a-case minimum price, to discourage excessive drinking. And it could focus on enforcing existing laws preventing the sale of booze to minors. The government said the public wasn’t ready.

I can drive 45 minutes to New York state and be ready. I can drive two hours to Quebec and be ready, too. Heck, I can go to a small town 30 minutes outside of the city and be ready at an agency store, too. Can anyone explain how I was assessed as not being ready?

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Ontario: Stuart’s Natural, Scotch Irish Brewing, Lanark

snsa1Out and about on Friday I was quite happy to see this stubby at the LCBO, a cousin to the porter, imperial stout and IPA made by the Scotch Irish branch of Heritage Brewing. I was even more happy to see that it was a 3.7% ordinary bitter for $2.20 a bottle.

It pours a bright caramel-amber with a rich off-white head that resolves to a thick rim. In the mouth, there is a bit more of a carbonation zip than I would have thought an ordinary bitter might provide but it is relatively still compared to most ales you run into. The real pleasure in the beer is the amount of raisin-nutty grainy body that is packed into such a light brew. 95% of 5% beers in Canada would be thinner than this. The bitterness is in the English rather than American style with no room for citrus or pine or any other room freshener scent. Just a sweat (and cloy) cutting black tea jag.

Entirely delightful take on a too rare style usually reserved for thoughtful home brewers these days. If this is the same beer reviewed by three beer advocates, they have missed the point.

Friday Bullets For The Greatest Weekend Of Your Life

Happy Fourth of July to our American Readers! I am doing a bit of research that points to our fair town being something of the refuge of the first terrorists of your fair land. Bands of Tory and Mohawk Loyalists in the 1780s left here, for example, to destroy all before them led by John Johnson, step-son of Molly Brant. Somewhere I read that of the 100 flour mills between Albany and Syracuse NY only one was left in operation that fall. These efforts kept the US army out of northern NY through lack of supplies and, hence, made a buffer that kept our small Loyalist fringe alive. In many ways, Kingston is Ontario’s Plymouth Rock but also factually related to New York. We should celebrate our own Ontarian (and therefore western Canadian) survival on this day as much as our southern pals do.

  • Speaking of our near neighbours, I came across this website of abandoned buildings of northern New York. Note LaFarge mansion to the lower left.
  • Two archeology blogs.
  • I have negotiated a 8000 character limit for blog comments. Please use these wisely as there us a character limit globally being studied by the UN.
  • I think it is time to agree with Harper’s point made yesterday – the founding of Quebec is a founding moment in Canadian history. We suffer from divisions that really are only in the mind. The idea now that there are two solitudes should be strange to us all – we have that egality now that was missing. Canada needs to understand itself to be French and English as well as First Nation, Scot and those who came after as well – not as 1970s multiculturalism but just as neighbours together. We need to find our own haka, remember and play baseball, cricket and rugby as well as lacrosse and snowshowing. And be thankful for Halifax, Quebec and Kingston, the three citadels that protected one young nation.
  • Darcey notes the passing of Bozo.
  • Wine is being grown by Lake Huron. What’s so wrong with global warming?
  • Gee, I sure hope the rude stuff I looked at on YouTube when it started up doesn’t come out in court documents.

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I Think This May Encapsulate The Whole Question Nicely

We are a people in need. It is sad but this always comes up – why aren’t Canadians as outwardly loyal as others allegedly are to their nations. The Globe and Mail thinks we need a little re-education on this point. A little time out from the family for a nature lesson:

On this Canada Day, I wonder: How do you instill a love of country in your children that isn’t hand-over-heart rote patriotism? How do you help them understand they are living in a paradise of benefits and beauty? Or make them want to, as grown-ups, become good citizens and give back to their country? You start by stepping outside. American psychologist and author Mary Pipher (The Shelter of Each Other) says that as grown-ups we tend to remember three things about our childhood: special meals, vacations and time spent outdoors…

It just sad. Can’t find a Canadian authority on point to make your argument about Canadian-ness. Then use that non-national authority to make a point that applies everywhere. Having only lived in areas Canuckian settled before, say, 1830 and for the most part before 1785, I can only say that anyone who hasn’t got special local food, interesting trips to local areas of importance or trips into the bush to to the beach must be bubble babies. Isn’t that what everyone does in Canada? Go to the cottage, the camp or the cottage or camp of the neighbour or relative?

No, I think they are making that point to miss the point. The real point is that we want to be jingoistic about something but don’t have it in us, literally. We have not been educated about the important stuff that is laying around us – unless you are lucky enough to be Newf, Bluenose or Quebecois. In his speech yesterday, Harper resorted to a call to “greatness” – which is like a call to tallness. A call to nothing. Greatness is a result not a goal. Patriotism is something that arises from pride, not from rote. So while you are at the beach or the camp, how about telling the kids why they are at that beach or camp and how folks got there Everyone’s pines are tall and lands are vast. But everyone’s history lessons and lessons from history are different. Start with who lived where you were first and go from there.

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Happy Canada Day!

What joy! A stranded Tuesday off – even though I took Monday off, too, to smoke a chunk of pork for five hours. This morning I was asked what smells like bacon. Me, I replied. More great Canada Day photos here from three years ago when I was a much more clever blogger. We are off to be in a canoe at someone else’s cottage, there being no truer Canadian activity.

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Following My Bliss In Oswego, New York

Have I mentioned I really dislike the idea of following your passion? It’s so much based on the immediate and the result. “Follow your passion” is what people are told to entice them into entry position IT jobs that never pan out or pull out the credit card to act on the next spontaneous urge. And it smacks of no respect for idleness. No, bliss is the thing. That cooler draw on the heart. The stuff of naps and toes playing in the tidal zone. The part of you that puts mild ahead of extreme double imperial IPA every time. It was a big day. Out the door at eight with one kid to collect another after their first stay-over. The promise of treats for all was a key leverage tactic. I felt like Ron dragging the kids around – but instead of Brussels, I got to go to Oswego, NY, home of C’s Farm Market and King Arthur’s brewpub.

When we got to C’s a little past eleven, I finally got to meet the blissed out (and maybe, OK, even passionate about beer) Dave and Maria who I have been emailing but missing the face to face on for a few years now. A while ago, they have taken the family fruit market and added a beer selection – then they discovered craft and have kept discovering. What I saw yesterday was easily a doubling of shelf space to fine beer with more focus compared to 2006 on US craft than imports. Peaches were placed in the hands of kids as we talked about the trade and their market. They were happy to report that they have seen a matching increase in sales and even mentioned that there was a happy gang from the Ottawa area that seemed to make the trip two or three times a year to full up the trunk. I left with 54 bottles of various sizes and strengths to replenish the stash including the new-to-me brews like Collaboration not Litigation as well as Old Ploughshare Stout and Red Sky At Night saison from Baltimore’s Clipper City. Future plans include tasting sessions starting in the fall. Sadly, under NY state law you need a special license for growler pours and they don’t issue them any more so that dream may have to wait for a while.

Also maybe a little sadly, things looked like they were not as busy over at King Arthur’s, one of my favorite brewpubs in terms of comfortable design, river mouth location and in-house micro-brew selection. Their dream location near the banks of the river in this historic downtown seem to have been undermined lately by a complete rebuild of the Bridge Street bridge. They are now disconnected from the hotel guests a few hundred feet away on the other bank. This may be compounding the pressures on all small brewers as there were only five beers on offer, three of which were flavoured wheats and none of which offered any level of hoppy bite. With my BBQ burger, I tried their 5% Summer Brown which promised a touch of coriander. I thought this was a great twist on a malty mahogany ale with a bit of licorice and treacle coming through the rich nutty graininess. If I say this had shades of HP sauce you need to understand that in the most positive of terms. Very nice beer.

More Vital Information On Third-Category Beer

I suppose that if I ever tried it or if it had a name that did not sound like something out of Blade Runner I would have less of a fascination with that fluid in Japan that is called “third category beer.” This article in the The The Daily Yomiuri, however, is full of tidbits that make me wonder what this stuff is really like:

“Faced with gasoline and food price hikes, consumers are looking for better deals on some products. Third-category beer, which is often made from soybeans, corn and peas, is priced cheaper than regular beer and happoshu low-malt beer. Beverage makers are fiercely competing to keep prices low, while trying to produce tastes close to that of regular beer. The key to third-category beer’s success is the low price, and shipments surpassed those of happoshu beer in May. A 350-milliliter can of third-category beer sells for about 140 yen at convenience stores, about 20 yen less than happoshu and 75 yen less than regular beer.”

How excellent: “…close to that of regular beer.” Yum. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had similar clarity in our macro-brewing? How many beers would have to call themselves happoshu that now hold themselves out to be beer from barley?