The Bar Towel

Interesting article with suggestions for beer and food.
As usual, good writing by Stephen.

http://www.torontolife.com/features/hip ... arch-2009/

I'll be sampling two Brew Dog beers courtesy of Stonch ... Rip Tide, 8%, a "twisted merciless stout", and The Physics, 5%, a "laid back amber ale". These came highly recommended, and I've been saving them for Superbowl. After they're gone, it'll be Well's IPA. Food still to be de...

I just came back from London through Heathrow Terminal 5. There's a Wetherspoon's pub there. Enjoyed a couple of pints of cask Deuchars IPA ... at £2.59 a pint! At $1.95 Canadian for a pound, that's just pennies over $5.00 a pint. They also had Marston's Pedigree and a house cask for the same price....

Timothy Taylor Landlord is probably the best cask you can get in London. Also, go to the Jerusalem Tavern in Clerkenwell (just a couple of blocks from the Farringdon underground stop). It's the only pub that has St. Peter's on cask ... the Organic Best Bitter is awesome. Note ... they're closed on S...

I had some Durham Hop Head cask at C’est What? last week. Great beer. What wasn’t so lovely was the price -- $7.40 for a pint that had more than an inch-and-a-half of foam. This type of "pint" would have been thrown back at the bartender in any pub in England, where they expect a pint to b...

It looks good, but it's just a Member's Statement. Nobody really pays any attention to these. It's a start ... maybe some action will happen, but I doubt it. Too many entrenched interests (corporations $$$, unions, etc.). However, Steve Peters, the Speaker, has indicated an interest in promoting the...

New bar on Queen West (right across the street from me) in the old Gypsy Co-op space. Big room, some promise. Same owners as Toby's on College and Bathurst. Great name ... makes me pine for the Wychwood Dog's Bollocks that I enjoyed in Oxford not that long ago. The draft line up is sort of OK ... so...

I hope this move doesn't affect deliveries of MacLean's Pale Ale ... it's on tap at my local, the Done Right Inn, and I would be mighty disappointed should it become scarce ....

More in today's Star ... this time, an MPP plans to present a petition aganist the BS in the legislature. MPP plans to bring beer petition to Legislature Halton's Ted Chudleigh pushes for sale of suds in grocery, corner stores August 15, 2008 DANA FLAVELLE BUSINESS REPORTER A senior Tory politician ...

Unfortunately, I missed the cask festival last Sunday. Damn. Dropped in to the Victory today (Monday evening), and the bartender mentioned that, given the success of the first one, they are "80% sure" that there will be another cask fest on the next Markham St. pedestrian Sunday, August 10...

Did you notice that they want a "donation" anywhere from $2 - $100 to sign the petition ... nice try, but forget it.

One thing hasn't come out in these stories ... the Beer Store is unionized, and the union will fight tooth and nail against any changes to their comfortable situation. Look at the comments in the on-line version of the Star's article today. Beer Store workers commenting, using the old canards of &qu...

Seeing that The Toronto Star is the "official" newspaper of the Liberal government, there might be something afoot ... Also, the Speaker recently had a tasting and introduced official beers of the Legislature. There wasn't even one Molbatts piddle on the list, just OCB beers. I'm crossing ...

The National Post on-line has an item on Coors turning it's unwanted beer into ethanol. It also has suggestions for other beers ... some very good suggestions.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blog ... -pump.aspx

TorontoBlue ... When I first started going to London some years ago, I kind of liked Greene King IPA. That's because I hadn't tried many other cask beers. Just the few that were available in Toronto at the time. Since then, I've tried literally hundreds of cask beers in England (gotta love those bee...