A quick note on this day of the Session recommending highly Andy Crouch’s post about price gouging that is taking place at one establishment in response to the wholesale increase in certain cost inputs for beer. A fine piece of that rarest of birds, real beer journalism.
Session 13: Organic And/Or Natural From Beau’s
I am not sure what I think about all things organic. On one hand, I kept an acre vegetable garden from 1999 to 2002 that was an all organic effort and about 40% of our food came from it. On the other, organic / green / sustainable to a significant degree has about as much relevance as “new and improved”. It’s branding and, if you are honest, you know there is nothing as sad as branding. I recommend the Beer Nut’s take on this point in his post Eco-illogical.
Look, I am as left as they come (within reason¹) but when I heard about the plan for this month’s theme, I yawned. Why not “social responsibility and beer”? Why not “photos of tumbling puppies and beer”? Yet, when I met with Steve from Beau’s All Natural Brewing this week, I faced a guy half a generation younger than me whose family had dedicated itself to making great beer with top quality organic malts, local spring water and a dedication in two languages to the community in which they lived. Surely,² there must be some meaning in all this.
I imagine I am one of the few yet to have both style Beau’s makes due to the beer mule work Steve press ganged me into the other night. The bottle is a ceramic flip top and holds 750 ml yet sells for a reasonable $7.45 at the LCBO – and one with a logo that is totally Lik My Traktor circa 1992 yet also something like 1932, too. Heck, with taxes and tip I can share a growler of this stuff down at the newly refurbished Iron Horse on Wellington for under twenty.
But what about the beer? Their work horse Lug Tread ale is a kölsche, a radical idea for a traditional and largely rural market that, when you think of it, makes perfect sense for the eastern Ontario version of the Canadian palate. Using authentic ingredients the beer is somewhat perfumed on the snoot but also malt grainy with a nod to steely German hops macro-pilsner drinkers are so familiar with. It’s like the perfect Canuck combo of classic ale maltiness with lager zip. To my mind, the malt has a bit of stockiness (never a bad move in the land of the loon) with plenty of round rich biscuit and also bread crust. Very little by way of fruit notes. This beer is made of grain – just like the Canadian economy.
Their Bog Water is another beer entirely. Dark mahogany with a fine mocha head, it gives off the reek of the Canadian Shield via that little bit of bog myrtle in the mix. We canoed a bit on the Rideau last summer through lily pad patches and the scent of this beer is very evocative of that damn twiggy loamy experience – sort of parsley stem and rooty. In the malt there is demerara sugar and date as well as cola and a lighter grainy touch than with the Lug Tread. Like it plenty but this one is not going to be any kind of smooth transition for the Molson Canadian crowd. A thinking person’s brown ale that begs to be stored on bug laced rum cask for a while.
Does the organics of all this help? I have no idea. Do I like this beer? Sure do.
¹By which I mean I love the taste of a good rib eye steak, salivate at the idea of slaughtering a lamb and love the crack, crash and smash of the tree I just chain sawed falling to the forest floor.
²Yes, I will stop calling you that.
My Night As A Guest Roadie For Beau’s All Natural Beer
The call came at 7:45 pm. For weeks I had been exchanging emails with Steve about Beau’s All Natural Brewing’s move into the Kingston market and the prospect of another great Ontario made craft beer showing up in my favorite pubs as well as the LCBO. Being the man of mortgage as well as offspring, I have certain restrictions around my beer blogging so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to get to say hello and maybe get a short story. Well, that isn’t how it turned out.
I arranged to meet Steve at the nearest LCBO to get some pictures of the delivery process. 8:00 comes and goes. 8:10. 8:20. Nuttin’. I’d seen this white van go by a few times until it roared into he parking lot at 8:25 pm. After a quick how do you do, I asked whether he was delivering to all the LCBOs and realized he had three stops in 35 minutes and a couple of miles of traveling to do. As a good beer fan, I had a job to do and that was guiding Steve though my city. We jip here and there, zigged and zagged in traffic and before you know it 18 cases of their new swing top bottles of kolsche were delivered just as the last shop was locking its doors. I got to watch Steve hunched over paperwork quite a bit. And chatting up those who were going to sell his brew.
After delivering to the new Iron Duke on Wellington – which carries growlers – humping them down some very challenging stairs followed another chat about beer with the manager, we retired to the Kingston Brew Pub where their beer is on tap for a pint and a good old chin wag. 
I asked a lot of questions about how they started up, their plans and how they deal with materials. Steve described some of the fluctuations which they have to deal with – I had no idea that spring water is richer in minerals in winter – but mainly we talked about liking beer. One thing I always wonder about is how folks who are expert and committed to brewing put up with the cranks. “Cranks” is a good word for beer nerds as its one of the words that was used in the 1800s for baseball fans before “fanatics” got shortened. Steve was far kinder than me – as all brewers are when the question is asked – pointing out that their job as craft brewers in eastern Ontario was best described by John Graham as missionary work. Interestingly, we moved from a discussion on the pleasures of beer in which I wondered how it is that some could voice so much unhappiness with a chosen hobby when the subject matter itself is a pleasure and on into other things: the provincial trade association, thoughts about Beau’s philosophy of being a great regional brewer in touch with its customers, future plans.
Anyway, my night as a roadie was over before I knew it and Steve and the van were off into the night headed for his next destination. Energy and sleep deprivation and the zest that success brings seemed to be in the tank. I loaded up my growler of Beau’s new seasonal, Bog Water, that I’ll try for tomorrows next episode of The Session hosted over at Beer Activistwhere the theme is organic beer.
A Question About Canadian Federal Polling History
Has there ever been a time when both the Tories and Grits polled below 30%?
Are we almost at that point now?
Shot Put 2008: Day one, May 11. Much sadness as a bunch of 22s and a 23 was all there was. Kids did better with a 18 and a 10 on the 2 kg respectively.
Death On Yonge Street
A sad view out of the front window driving up Yonge Street Toronto this noon hour. Is there anything sadder than a big outdoor video screen that has been turned off? That wasn’t in Blade Runner. Maybe the spinning LP neon signs that are either gone or busted. Oh for a barn that had the interior room for a more dignified retirement for one of those flashing 33 rpm beauties.
Mucho Big Doings At Ontario’s Church-Key Brewing
I was going to call this post “John Graham – He Cleans Up Pretty” but that might have been the right one had I not been the last to know just about everything going on at Church-Key Brewing in the rolling Northumberland Hills about an hour and a half to my west. See…he cleaned up that pretty ten months ago – though to be fair, I can’t be certain there’s a tie under all that beard.
I dropped in today on my way back from Toronto where I gave a speech this morning. I have been popping in when coming heading home when traveling. Things look good, I think as I turn into the repurposed rural church parking lot. I walk towards the front door of the church when I realize there is a door at the other end of the building with a sign that says “Beer Store”. [This being eastern Ontario, I really think he should put up “In And Out Store” so people would really understand.] I said to the clerk “new store, eh?” to which I received a “yes, sort of…I guess.” I popped back into the brewery to see John and have a chat as he cleaned out a filter and when I mentioned the new shop he just “how long since you were in?” as he handed me a taste of the IPA he was making.
Too long as it turns out. Too long to know that they sell growlers of their excellent beer. [May I have a woot?] Too long to know he is bottling his special Heavy Weight Series in bombers – I picked up three including his Flemish sour. I had though they were all getting casked for the bar trade. Heck, you can buy some swag for yourself at the brewery’s on-line retail shop. And when I got home to look up something I wasn’t paying attention long enough to realize that last April John was nominated to run as a Federal Green Party candidate in the next election:
John provides a working example of how to maintain a healthy balance between environmentalism and entrepreneurship. As founder and President of Church-Key Brewing Company, John walks the talk in both his business and personal life. At Northumberland County’s only craft brewery, John puts his philosophies into action. Technologies such as solar hot water, bio-diesel, radiant floor heating, Bullfrog Power, and heat recovery units not only lower the carbon output of the award-winning brewery, they also improve the bottom line.
Hmmm – a small brewer controlling cost inputs though taking on responsibility for more aspects of their own operation. Who would have thought it was possible? I have got to stop by more often.