This year, the Queen Victoria’s Secret will feature four breweries who will all be revealing their offerings at the start of the event: Great Lakes, Granite, Oast House and Left Field.  Last night, Great Lakes won the Brewery of the Year at the Canadian Brewing Awards in Victoria, B.C., so the event promised to have some pretty tasty brews this time around.  The event will also have food from FeasTO.

Queen Victoria’s Secret runs from 12-4pm at the Koerner Gardens and Holcim Gallery areas of the Evergreen Brick Works.  Admission is free, and tickets for food and beer can be purchased at the event.

MEDIA RELEASE

Amsterdam Brewery and Great Lakes Brewery Collaboration a First in The LCBO

(Toronto, ON, April 24, 2013) – The Amsterdam Brewery and Great Lakes Brewery, two of Toronto’s oldest independently owned and operated craft breweries, are set to release their award winning collaboration beer – “Maverick & Gose” in the LCBO later this month.

Maverick & Gose is a Leipziger Gose Beer that has been aged in Ontario Chardonnay barrels for 4 months prior to packaging. A rare German brew of medieval origin, this 2012 Canadian Brewing Awards Silver Medalist beer is brewed with a mostly malted wheat base, pink Himalayan salt, and spices. Notes of lemon, herbs and a slight saltiness make this collaboration truly unique to Ontario.

What is even more unique about this beer is that it is the first all-Ontario collaboration to be released in the LCBO. Brewers Iain Mcoustra of Amsterdam and Mike Lackey of Great Lakes first developed the recipe for Maverick & Gose in early 2012.

“We came up with the idea whilst playing shirtless, greased up beach volleyball, you know, like in the movie Top Gun, and we thought it would be fitting to collab on this one of a kind beer,” says Lackey. “I’m super pumped to be part of the first Canadian craft beer collaboration that will grace the shelves at the LCBO. It was a pleasure creating this beer with Iain and the Amsterdam crew.”

“We wanted to take an old world style and put our own twist on it by using local Chardonnay barrels” says Mcoustra. “We didn’t want to go over the top with any of the flavours and it’s easy for a spiced beer to get away from you. The barrel brought everything together in the end, balancing out the spices with the salt giving a nice roundness to the finish.”

“It’s always a blast brewing with Lackey and Great Lakes” says Mcoustra of the collaboration. “They’re a big reason why there has been so much collaboration and innovation in Ontario recently and it’s an honour to brew and release this beer with them.”

Maverick & Gose is available for sale in 500mL bottles from select LCBOs starting April 29, 2013 ($6.95) and the Amsterdam Brewery Retail Store (45 Esandar Dr., 416-504-6882).

About The Amsterdam Brewery
The Amsterdam Brewery is an independently owned and operated craft brewery that is deeply rooted in the city of Toronto. A pioneer of the craft beer revolution in 1986 and initially called the Amsterdam Brasserie and Brew Pub, The Amsterdam was the first of its kind in Toronto to offer patrons hand crafted lagers and ales that were brewed ‘in-house’. Today they brew over ten different beers including their flagship lager – Amsterdam Natural Blonde, the award winning Big Wheel Deluxe Amber, Boneshaker IPA and multiple year-round and seasonal brews. The Amsterdam Brewing Company uses only traditional brewing methods and their beers are made with four all natural ingredients – malt, hops, yeast, and water. All beers are GMO-free, without preservatives, and never heat pasteurized.

To learn more about the Amsterdam Brewery visit www.amsterdambeer.com
Or
Become a Fan on Facebook www.facebook.com/amsterdambeer
And Follow them on Twitter www.twitter.com/amsterdambeer

About The Great Lakes Brewery
A fiercely independent owned and operated brewery, Great Lakes recently celebrated 25 years in the craft beer business, making them one of the oldest craft breweries in Ontario. Great Lakes specializes in producing flavourful beers that will be sure to tickle your taste buds with each sip. From unique seasonal ales and premium lagers to our Project X and Tank Ten Series beers, we produce a variety of products to be enjoyed by everyone!
Based in Etobicoke, we invite you to visit our brewery for a taste of our award winning beers, including the Canadian Brewing Awards double Gold Medal Winner Crazy Canuck Pale Ale!

To learn more about Great Lakes, visit www.greatlakesbeer.com.
We love social media, so join in on the conversation!
www.twitter.com/greatlakesbeer
www.facebook.com/greatlakesbeer

Join us for a four course, four beer wonderfully paired meal that will be a night to remember! We’ll be turning down the lights and bringing out the candles for the event. Brewery representatives will be available to answer any questions about GLB that you may have and each pairing will be discussed between each course.

Tickets can be purchased by calling Morgans at 416.461.3020. $50+ tax and tip. 6:30pm

GLB Beers:
Pompous Ass EPA
Orange Peel Ale
My Bitter Wife IPA
Harry Porter & the Fair Grounds Coffee Bean

He must be thinking about the beer issues of the day.

The Bar Towel is proud to present our annual preview of the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC), taking place from March 26th to 29th in Washington, DC. Part One of our preview covered our picks for some of the beer bars and cultural highlights to see in the city, and Part Two covers our picks for the conference seminars.

The Craft Brewers Conference seminar lineup, along with the industry trade show, forms the heart of the conference. The seminars cover a diverse array of lectures, presentations, pitches, panels and discussions covering a huge range of topics. Depending on what you do in the industry there will be something for you – topics include Brewery Operations, Brewpubs, Export Development, Government Affairs, Packaging Breweries, Quality, Selling, Start-ups, Sustainability and Technical Brewing.

It’s impossible not to come away from the conference seminars with something new, something inspiring or something to get you thinking about the beer industry. But with so much information over just three days, there’s a lot of overlap and you need to pick and choose accordingly to get the most out of the seminar schedule. So without further adieu, we present our picks for the seminars at the CBC that we feel can’t miss.

WEDNESDAY

9:15
Keynote Address and General Session

You’ll never want to miss the keynote, as it officially kicks off the conference and has all kinds of great information, including a recap of the last year and a look ahead. This year the keynote is being delivered by Kim Jordan, CEO of New Belgium in Colorado, making this her second keynote (she also did it 10 years ago).

1:40
Dry Hopping Techniques

Russian River has been a best-in-class brewery for many years now, so whenever you can hear from Vinnie Cilurzo you should. Both he and Tom Nielsen of Sierra Nevada will be giving this talk about dry hopping.

3:00
Canada Market – British Columbia

B.C. gets a spot to highlight themselves as an export market (as they did a couple of years ago), with a talk from Kim Giesbrecht of the BCLDB. Will be interesting to see how U.S. brewers react, considering B.C. seems to be an easier market for them to enter into (versus Ontario), and there’s a lot more now than a couple of years ago.

3:00
Relax and Start a Brewery: Solving the Mystery of Brewery Startup

This panel discusses Mystery Brewing, an operating brewery started through Kickstarter funding. In light of KBC’s “community investment” model, will be interesting to see how Mystery used a new way of getting financing for themselves.

THURSDAY

2:30
Why You Should NOT Start A Brewery

Often there’s scuttle about the U.S. craft beer scene being a bit overcrowded – and that theme is coming to life at this talk, presumably to help budding entrepreneurs really think about joining the brewing scene.

3:50
Designing for Visitor Experience

A landscape architect is giving this seminar about making a brewery visit compelling for tourists. Many US breweries have become legitimate destinations, and this is only starting to happen in Canada. Will be interesting to get some best practices to help our brewers do unique things at their locations.

FRIDAY

10:20
Allies or Competitors

This panel promises to discuss if and how breweries should work together to promote craft beer when they compete in close geographic proximity. With more and more breweries in Ontario this would be quite relevant for our brewers. One of the panelists is the ever-entertaining Greg Koch of Stone.

10:20
Brewing Historical and Modern IPA

Mitch Steele of Stone, a definite authority on the subject of IPA, discusses IPAs over the past 250 years.  A style that’s not going away and perhaps Mitch will be able to provide some interesting new (old) ways of looking at it.

2:50
Craft Beer Smaller Than Ever – and Growing: From Contract to Nano to Micro

We’ve got a lot of contract and nano breweries starting up in Ontario, and this panel discusses this issue with representatives from 21st Amendment, Schmaltz and Terrapin as they have evolved into larger brewers themselves.

There’s so many more seminars to attend – it’s really up to you to decide what you most want to get out of it.  But the key is to learn, take it in, meet some new people and share about your experiences as a brewer to those from around the world.

And please tell us about your CBC experience! Follow us @bartowel and let us know if you’re doing at the CBC this year. It would be great to meet up with some Canadians for a few great beers down in DC.  Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

Yep, the White House.

The Bar Towel is proud to present our annual preview of the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC), taking place from March 26^th to 29^th in Washington, DC. Part One of our preview covers our picks for some of the beer bars and cultural highlights to see in the city, and Part Two will cover our picks for the conference seminars. 

For those going to the Craft Brewers Conference this week, Washington, DC will be a city that you are very familiar with.  You’ve seen the buildings, the monuments and the landmarks through numerous movies, TV shows and the news.  It’s a bit of a strange sensation when, after being so familiar with a place, you finally see it with your own eyes.

Washington, DC is the capital of the United States, a top-notch tourist destination and an emerging and evolving beer city.  It’s not quite at the level of heavyweights such as San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago, Denver, New York or Philadelphia, but DC has a lot going on for it.  And this week is our chance to discover and drink.

The CBC returns to the east coast for the first time since Boston in 2009, having been in California for the past two years and Chicago in 2010. Perhaps Washington is a non-obvious choice from a beer perspective, but as the CBC is heavily into governmental affairs, it makes sense to bring the conference to the home of Congress. But even though the Congress issues may not be terribly relevant for Canadian brewers, this doesn’t mean it won’t make for a great beer and education filled conference.

Still friends to this day.

2013 represents the first year of a new format, whereby the conference is held in a traditional convention centre (the Walter E. Washington Convention Center), rather than a hotel. This should give the conference a bit more breathing room, but might take away a bit of the intimacy and convenience of having the conference and accommodation in one place. But on the plus side it looks like capacity was increased – the conference registration closed only last week, when usually sells out quite some time in advance.

The CBC follows a fairly regular format, with professional seminars and panels throughout the day, hospitality events in the early evening and many official and unofficial events throughout the night. With past CBCs, the host city tends to get in on the action with many local bars participating and hosting their own satellite events, capitalizing on the craft beer interest and industry folks in town for the week.  This won’t be any different in DC this year.

Date wise, the CBC has shifted the entire schedule up a day, so the core event runs from Wednesday to Friday rather than Thursday to Saturday. Likely this is to allow attendees to not have the CBC interfere with the weekends, which is a good thing for those with other commitments. But it does eliminate the weekend blowout to end the conference, but the local bars definitely will pick up the slack.

Now, onto the local beer scene.  With recent past CBCs, the event acts as much of a showcase for the local beer culture as it does a host for the conference. As there are craft breweries popping up all over the US, the CBC host cities are an opportunity to see what the local breweries, brewpubs and beer bars have to offer. And with Washington, the local brewing scene might not be on the level of the past few years’ host cities, but there’s a great deal of good beer in the area worth seeking out.  Some of the beer bar highlights in DC include:

ChurchKey, a don’t-miss spot.

ChurchKey / Birch & Barley.  This is a truly world class beer bar. Birch & Barley is a restaurant on the main level, and ChurchKey is a casual bar upstairs. They’ve got an incredible beer selection with diverse and interesting selections from all over. ChurchKey seems to be perpetually packed and rightly so, and this will be a hot spot during the CBC.  You can expect to find 50+ beers on tap, including a selection of casks.  Everything on the menu can be ordered as a 4 ounce sample or a full glass, which size varies for the style.   The beer menu is incredibly diverse, from local breweries (Flying Dog, Stillwater, Dogfish Head) to American craft, both common and rare (Founders, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Allagash, Uplands), and international.  It’s one of the best beer selections on draught I’ve seen, period.  And if you’re peckish, try the Disco Fries which seems to be their take on our beloved poutine!

Pizzeria Paradiso.  A bright, airy space that is jammed upon open, with a three locations in DC (visited Dupont Circle location). A rock star beer lineup and fantastic pies – definitely eat along with having some of their delicious beer. They have a small but well-chosen draught beer lineup with beers from the U.S., Belgium and elsewhere (has included Bear Republic, Allagash, Loverbeer, Heavy Seas, Elysian, Porterhouse, Pratt St.) along with a dynamite bottled beer list.

The Bier Baron.  A well-know spot (formerly the legendary Brickskellar), the renamed Bier Baron retains its beery roots.  A dark, underground bar, the Bier Baron has a wide U.S. craft draught list that’s featured Stone, Dominion, Dogfish Head, Oskar Blues, Founders, New Belgium and more.  It’s located down the street from the Dupont Circle Pizzeria Paradiso so the pair can act as a little pub crawl.

Just one of the interesting visuals you’ll see at The Big Hunt.

The Big Hunt.  A crazy, multi-level hunting themed bar with a raucous and lively atmosphere.  Great U.S. focused craft beer lineup, which has included DC Brau, DuClaw, Green Flash, Oskar Blues, Evolution and more.  Definitely worth a visit for an untraditional and memorable beer bar experience.

Kramerbooks & Afterwords.  If you like books and beer (who doesn’t?), Kramerbooks is a unique spot as it is a bookstore, and a café and beer bar as well.  Located on Dupont Circle, their café and bar has a solid draught list including DC Brau, Old Dominion, Allagash, Great Lakes and more.

Downtown and close to the convention centre, if you’re in the mood for some house-brewed beers, the District ChopHouse and an outpost of the Gordon Biersch chain are nearby.

As with every CBC, there are tons of events happening around town, from special tappings and tastings to bigger gatherings.  Other beer bars in DC that are hosting events during the week include The Black Squirrel, Boundary Road, Jack Rose Dining Saloon, Meridian Pint, Scion, Smith Commons, Smoke and Barrel and even more – there’s tons of stuff going on during the week.  Check out DCbeer.com to stay on top of the latest events and be sure to bookmark them – it’s a comprehensive online resource about the DC beer scene, with more than we could cover in this preview.  Check them out.

The CBC itself has a number of hospitality events throughout the week, always a good way to wrap up the seminars with a bite and some samples.  You might also want to take check out Amber Waves, a unique-looking art exhibition co-hosted by Victory and Dogfish Head.  If you’re in the mood for a film, Beer Hunter, about famous beer writer Michael Jackson, is getting a debut during the CBC.  And if you’re into tunes, the 9:30 club has some special music nights with Dogfish Head, Flying Dog and Devil’s Backbone.

Now, Washington does have a lot of great bars, and you’ll have no difficulty staying all beered up for the week. However, we would be totally remiss if we didn’t encourage some culture on top of all that beer. Washington is an A+ destination for American history and cultural landmarks, so we highly recommend seeing some of what Washington has to offer outside of the convention center (and bars).

So, you’ll want to go for a wander around the city and see the things that you’ll recognize, including the White House, National Mall, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, just to name a few.  As you walk around you’ll notice all kinds of landmarks with incredible historical significance, all worth seeing with your own eyes.  Don’t miss them while you’re in town.

Edward Hopper on display at the American Art Gallery.

Then there’s the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian actually refers to a collection of 19 museums and galleries, a zoo and more. Many of them are spread around the National Mall and throughout downtown, and you should definitely check some out. And the best of all, most of them are FREE.

Some of our favourites include:

• American Art Museum.  A great collection of American artwork including a couple of pieces by one of my personal favourite artists, Edward Hopper.
• National Portrait Gallery. Amongst other famous faces, the NPG has official portraits of every American president.  It’s fascinating to see the artistic styles over the generations of U.S. history reflected in the portraits.
• National Air and Space Museum.  See what it was like to fly, from its origins, to outer space, to the stylish 70s and the present day.  The Air and Space Museum is also the location of the CBC’s opening night party on Tuesday, but worth checking out if everything isn’t accessible at that time.
• National Museum of American History.  See, amongst other jaw-dropping artifacts, the original flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner, and Kermit the Frog.

There will be no shortage of things to keep you busy at the CBC this year.  Washington has a burgeoning craft beer scene, with some excellent beer bars and a great selection of beers from across the U.S. available.  Culture and history abound, with noble and classic architecture and a staggering amount of sights to take in.  So make sure when you get to Washington you find some time to explore beyond the convention centre, you won’t regret it.  But you’re going for the conference, aren’t you? Stay tuned for our picks on which seminars during the actual conference you shouldn’t miss!

Reviving a tradition that we started a couple of years ago, we’re going to host a pub crawl on Wednesday, March 13th to some of our Toronto Beer Week venues to mark the 6-month countdown to the main event.

Everyone is invited, there’s no tickets nor admission fee.  All you need to do is show up and join us for the fun!  The pub crawl is being hosted by Toronto Beer Week executives Troy Burtch, Chris Goddard and myself (Cass Enright), along with a number of other TBW folks. We’ll have prize giveaways along the crawl, including TBW t-shirts, gift certificates, pint glasses and other brewery swag!

Here’s our schedule for the pub crawl:

Beer Academy, 75 Victoria Street – 5:15pm
C’est What, 67 Front Street East – 6:15pm
beerbistro, 18 King Street East – 7:15pm
Bar Hop, 391 King Street West – 8:15pm
Wvrst, 609 King Street West – 9:15pm

We hope to see you on the pub crawl – feel free to join us at any of the stops!  Follow us on Twitter @torontobeerweek and @bartowel to find out our real-time location.

View from the top of the Stowe ski area.

It was quite amazing that through all my travels I had not yet made it to Vermont.  It’s only a state and a province away, shares a border with Canada yet it seems far away.  But luckily, at the end of December 2012 and early January 2013 I was finally able to make my first trip to the Green Mountain State.  And I am sure happy I did.

Vermont is truly is a unique place, a state that feels unlike anywhere else in the U.S.  It’s as if the wide-spread commercialism that has permeated our culture hasn’t arrived there yet.  It’s friendly, quaint, pretty, honest, and remarkable in how much good beer is there considering the state’s small population size (ranked 49th out of 50).

The trip began in Burlington, the largest city and a direct flight from Toronto thanks to a seasonal service from Porter Airlines (the only international flight to the city!).  It is a very pretty small city, with the University of Vermont close to downtown and a nice pedestrian-only commercial street right in the heart of town. There are three well-known beer spots here: American Flatbread, Farmhouse Tap & Grill and the Vermont Pub & Brewery.

The Vermont Pub & Brewery (144 College Street) is the oldest in the state, founded by Greg Noonan and there is a lot of history of the place and the man (who sadly passed away a couple of years ago) still evident in the pub. It’s a mix of sports bar, pub and restaurant all rolled into one, with visible beer tanks in the restaurant. They have about 10 house beers on tap plus a couple of casks, with a wide range of popular styles including Helles, Bitter, IPA and Stout, plus a couple of unique ones including a Brett sour and raspberry.

Zero Gravity’s beer quilt at American Flatbread.

Another brewpub in town is American Flatbread (sub-name Burlington Hearth, 115 Saint Paul Street) and the Zero Gravity brewery which is at the back of the restaurant. It’s a very cozy place, with two sides – one a fireplace bar with tables, and a classic pizza restaurant with checkered red tablecloths and a large pizza oven. They’ve got a very diverse range of interesting beers, including a gruit, black IPA, schwarzbier, tripel, Belgian wheat and others. The pizzas out of the wood-fired oven are fantastic and a great complement to the beer.

The third in the Burlington ‘beer trinity’ is Farmhouse Tap & Grill (160 Bank Street), a super popular restaurant and beer bar. The upstairs is a sit down restaurant with a small bar and the downstairs is a dark, intimate and cozy bar room with a warm fireplace. They have many interesting craft beers on offer, including locals Hill Farmstead & Lawson’s Finest Liquids, but also beers from across the U.S and the world, including Brooklyn, Dogfish, Lagunitas, Ballast Point, Sixpoint and Baird. The bar manager of the Farmhouse (Jeff Baker) also writes a beer column for the local daily paper and they frequently have beer events. The Farmhouse has excellent food but you could be waiting a while for a table on a popular night.

Some other spots I was able to hit were Farmhouse’s sister restaurant El Cortijo (189 Bank Street), a Mexican restaurant uniquely set within a diner. It’s a cool, popular spot and a few locals on tap including Hill Farmstead, Trapp and Smuttynose. Another place we dropped in on was called Ken’s Pizza/The Pub (71 Church Street) which is a good holding pen as you wait for a table at the Farmhouse (reminiscent of Rhino’s relationship to Grand Electric). There’s a number of  other popular bars along the pedestrian strip if you’re there and need some more options.  There are lots in Burlington.

Everything is compact in downtown Burlington and there are a number of hotels within walking distance of the ‘beer trinity’ of bars. There’s also a number of hotels around the interstate, but less accessible from there to the downtown zone and I didn’t notice a lot of cabs, but it might have been due to it being New Year’s.

Moving on from Burlington after New Year’s, the remainder of the week was spent in Waterbury – and this town is quite something. For a population of about 5,000, the good beer options are staggering.  At the central intersection of Stowe & Main, you can find three top-notch beer bars all across from one another and multiple nights can be spent pinball-ing from one to another, downing great beers at every stop.

A simple menu at ProPig.

The Prohibition Pig (23 South Main Street) is in the space that was formerly the Alchemist (which was destroyed by a flood a couple of years ago), opening in March of 2012.  Affectionately nicknamed the ProPig, it’s a hell of a place. Their food focus is East Carolina BBQ, but it’s much more than that. Chopped hog, beef brisket, smoked chicken abound along with lots of small places and delicious vegetarian options as well. It’s a really nice and welcoming room, with a long bar and tall tables on one side, and a sit-down restaurant area on the other (same menu everywhere). It can get busy in the evenings, but you have the option of putting your name down on the dinner list, or camp out at the bar in search of a high-top.  Beer-wise it’s awesome. Due to its legacy, the ProPig is one of only two places (the other being renowned restaurant Hen of the Wood) that gets Heady Topper on tap. And it’s great as everyone says, now ranked #1 on BeerAdvocate’s list.  About 24 beers on tap, the ProPig also had offerings from locals Hill Farmstead, Lawson’s, Bobcat Cafe, and other Americans such as Jolly Pumpkin, Upright, Laurelwood and Hopworks.

Across the street is the Blackback Pub & Flyshop (1 Stowe Street), a unique spot comprised of three sides of a square that forms their bar, and that’s it. There’s only about 15 seats in total, which makes for a really intimate and fun place.  They have a killer beer list, having nine (!) Hill Farmstead on tap one night I was there, along with a couple of Lawson’s, Evil Twin, Amager and Jolly Pumpkin. They also have an outpost of the Mad Taco, a local taco chain, within the bar. From what I understand the bar used to be even smaller, having in the recent past added more seats and the kitchen. It still retains a very cozy feel and it’s easy to get into conversations with the other patrons at the bar, usually on the topic of fine ales.

Back across the street again is the Reservoir (1 South Main Street), a pub-front and pool table-back style bar, with 38 beers on tap, the most in town. Again, a very friendly place – we learned a lot about the local area from a bartender named Slim – with a great beer selection, including local favourites along with Anchor, Founders, North Coast, Mikkeller, Petrus, Victory and others.

If you plan on staying in Waterbury, the quaint, historic Old Stagecoach Inn is located right on Main Street, a 30 second walk to the pubs.  It’s a multi-room B&B, with a custom-cooked breakfast every morning.  The Old Stagecoach is nice spot, and the location cannot be beat for a comfortable bed after many delicious Vermont brews.

Canning away at the Alchemist.

Waterbury is still home to The Alchemist (35 Crossroad), but it’s only a brewery and cannery now. It’s open every day and you can stop in for a taste or a self-guided tour (which is really just a viewing area). Mondays and Thursdays are canning days, and you’d be best to stop in on those days if you hope to get some. As it’s such a renowned beer people come from far and wide to pick some up, and the cans usually don’t last longer than a day. We went at open on Thursday morning and easily picked up cans.

About 10 miles north of Waterbury is the town of Stowe, and the ski area is another 7 miles from there. Stowe’s got a couple of nice places, notably the Crop Bistro (1859 Mountain Road), which was formerly the Shed Brewpub. The Shed brands were purchased by Otter Creek and are still available in the area. Also in Stowe is a large, family-friendly pizza restaurant called Piecasso (1899 Mountain Road), with good food and a nice lineup of beers which included North Coast, Goose Island, Dogfish Head, Sixpoint, Ballast Point and others.

A challenge to sip Lawson’s Paradise.

Personally I’m a big skier, and Vermont is a wonderful place on to find some nice slopes to tide one over until apres-ski.  There are plenty of ski areas around, including Stowe, one of the largest in Vermont with a number of craft beer options available on-mountain. About 18 miles south of Waterbury are two other areas: Sugarbush and the uber-cool Mad River Glen. Mad River is co-operatively owned so retains a unique, old-school vibe and is one of the last ski areas with a single chairlift, which is very awesome. Their base pub is a cool spot, cozy and with a number of local beers including Lawson’s, in a custom-branded ‘Sip it if you can’ glass, playing off Mad River’s slogan.

About 12 miles east of Waterbury is Montpelier, the capital city of Vermont. Montpelier is unique as it bills itself as the nation’s smallest capital city, and I believe it. But as with other Vermont towns it’s very pretty with a few state buildings adding some more interestingness to the streetscape.

Three Penny’s mantra.

Montpelier is also home to another famous Vermont beer pub, the Three Penny Taproom (108 Main Street). The Three Penny, located right in the heart of downtown, is fantastic. The pub consists of a dining side on the left and a bar side on the right, well separated from each other. The dining area even had sound-absorption panels, presumably to retain a peacefulness regardless of what’s happening in the bar side (during the day it was very quiet). The Three Penny has a smallish but delicious menu of food, complemented with a robust 24-tap beer lineup including Hill Farmstead, Rodenbach, Ninkasi, Lawson’s, North Coast, Dupont, Ballast Point, Allagash and others.

Vermont proved to be a great destination to visit with a wonderful combination of skiing, beer, idillyic town scenes and a cozy and friendly atmosphere. It is such a unique place – very un-corporate, most certainly “authentic”, extremely friendly and relaxed, and with a true “farm-to-table” culture permeating its bars and restaurants. It’s a great place for beer but also for a real getaway from the general madness of Toronto’s metropolis. With Porter’s flights it is a snap to get there from the Island airport, or it’s about a 7.5 hour drive from Toronto. Highly recommended!

The Canadian Brewing Awards were held earlier this year, and the BC craft brewers took home an astounding 40% of the awards. Their proportion has gradually increased every year that I’ve been here. Moreover, as Joe Wiebe reports in Urban Diner, the number of craft brewers has steadily increased as well. There were about 40 craft breweries when I moved here, and by the end of 2013 we’ll have close to 60. That’s about a 50% increase!

One the new breweries to watch is Parallel 49. Their head brewer, Graham With, has been experimenting with homebrews for years. Now he’s churning out some interesting stuff. Their regular lineup includes the excellent Hopparazzi India Pale Lager, while recent seasonals have included the sessionable Ugly Sweater Milk Stout and a divine Salted Caramel Scotch Ale.

In addition to all of the new breweries popping up, others continue to expand. The most notable is probably the Central City Brewing Company. They’re finally moving equipment into their new brewery, which will provide much more volume, and hopefully some more diversity as well.

Happy New Year!

• Amsterdam Brewery Full City Tempest Imperial Stout
• Cheshire Valley Brewing Oak Aged Scottish Pale Ale
• Grand River Brewing Russian Gun Imperial Stout
• Great Lakes Brewery  Apocalypse Later Double Black IPA and Witch King Baltic Porter (collaboration with Biergotter)
• Indie Alehouse Christmas Spiced Porter and Jump the Shark American Strong Ale
• Nickel Brook Brewery Old Kentucky Bastard Imperial Stout

Big E’s Grinds will be providing Hawaiian style street food to complement the selection of beer, including grilled shrimp, pineapple and pulled pork.

Brew Year’s Day is an all-ages event and will take place on January 6th in the Young Welcome Centre of Evergreen Brick Works from 12-4pm.  Admission is free, and tickets for food and beer can be purchased at the event.  More details about the event can be found at the Brewer’s Backyard website.

The news that Westvleteren 12, or “Westy”, first hit the beer community in June with a lengthy thread in Bar Towel’s discussion forum.  More recently another thread started up in late November with the discussion about Westy hitting the shelves mid-December.  The discussion in the recent thread has been tracking the stores where Westy will be available, plus accounts of what LCBO stores have been telling customers, some of which is contradictory.  Many stores that are receiving stock are anticipating morning lineups of eager consumers.

The enthusiasm for this beer release is arguably the most anticipated ever in Ontario, so much that yesterday (December 10th) the Bar Towel web site experienced its highest level of single-day traffic for all of 2012.  Other high-profile beer releases through the LCBO in the past include Ola Dubh 40 in 2009, Sam Adams Utopias in 2010 and 2011, and probably the first Ontario beer frenzy, Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA in 2008.

This isn’t the first appearance of Westy in Ontario, however, as a couple of years ago a limited amount was distributed to selected bars in the province.  This time, however, is the first time it’s been available for home purchase.

You can stay up-to-date on what’s happening with Westy, and pretty much everything else in the Ontario beer scene, in our discussion forum.  Please join in on the fun, and good luck to everyone hunting Westy this week!