The Bar Towel

That's the thing. It's not a sports bar as such. It's a Habs bar and a Canadian national hockey bar, so it's allowed to have decent beer. It's a very subtle distinction, but one worth making. Glad you enjoyed it. (It's also a Spam bar, but that's another story.)

I haven't been there since last night, but it was pretty good then. There's Black Oak Pale Ale on tap, and it's mighty busy when the Habs are playing. It's a friendly spot.

I thought I'd better post before that Beaumont guy comes on and says he's been to all of them twice. Mostly because I'm very old, I've been to 37 of these places. The Library Ale House in Santa Monica looks familiar, but I can't be sure so I left it out. I went to the Guinness brewery so long ago th...

I didn't get an e-mail. Does that mean I've vanished from the project altogether? Have my dreams of Garrison died?

As I recall, the Black Dog is close to the Albion Hotel but not in it. A couple of doors away.

I know this is unlikely, but I wondered if anyone knew of anywhere to drink in Sarnia. I'm going there on Tuesday to talk about beer, and I'd sure like to drink some as well. For research purposes only, you understand.

Thanks, book lovers. My goal, with both books, was to write something entertaining that would appeal to ordinary beer drinkers while also putting in enough content that beer geeks would say 'right on', or whatever the hell people say these days. It's a bit of a balancing act, but I generally tried t...

Belated thanks to everyone who turned up at either of these events, and thanks too to Ron Keefe at Granite and Ralph and Tomas at Volo for all their labours. I had a very good time at both and drank probably more very good beer than I should have. I'm just counting the days until Wrath of Ken turns ...

Actually, I don't recall saying anything about our beer being better than theirs in the modern era, because I would obviously have been talking through my hat. Not to say that that's never happened, you understand, but I don't think it happened this time.

The original concept was that the 24th would be more or less a traditional book trade launch -- friends, media etc. -- and the 29th would be rather like the event last December at Volo, for the beer folk, though perhaps without the shakes from the previous day's exertions in Buffalo. Still, if my pu...

The words 'yum' and 'yum' spring to mind, not necessarily in that order. Picked some up today at Summerhill -- my crap LCBO wouldn't have anything that tasty -- and am enjoying it immensely. Having had some on tap an hour or two ago at the Victory Cafe, I can say with some confidence that it's the r...

It's been a sensational week. I'm happy to report that I've done six days straight, through the English-style ales, the IPA challengers, and two sessions of full-blown Cask Days. The liver is whimpering a bit, but I keep telling it to man up and do its job. Have a funeral today, but hope to be on ha...

This report from George Milbrandt about Saturday's CASK! Social at C'est What:
I am pleased to report that we will be tapping a cask of Mike Duggan¹s
Porter especially for this event.

Thanks, one and all. I have a bit of time tomorrow afternoon, so will seek out recommendations. I'm accustomed to places with not much beer, even though I've just walked in from the Victory -- it's easy to forget how spoiled we've become in Toronto. I was talking with Ralph last night about his fort...

Michael suggested recently that he was particularly pleased with the batch for canning, which is good news for his many fans.