The Bar Towel

Is Junction's retail store officially open? Yup, it's open! You can keep an eye on what's up @JUNCTIONCRAFT on Twitter. From the web site, "Initial operating hours are 5 to 9 pm Thursdays and Fridays and 1 to 9 pm on Saturdays, or by chance." Disclaimer -- I'll be brewing there starting i...

Toronto's water is fine for most Belgians, just make sure it's carbon-filtered. Also, since your malt bill is pale, I'd acidulate your mash. But with something other than Five Star 5.2 (it keeps a pale mash using Toronto water at 5.8). Westie is comparatively dry for such a big beer, and you want go...

As grub said, fill it as fast possible. Also ... fill it all in one shot. The more head space you have, the greater the chance of acetobacter taking holding (it's an aerobic bug). You don't want 200+ litres of malt vinegar. If you don't think you can sit there and let it rest for months without samp...

Peter Collins wrote:

JasonTremblay wrote: I'd also like to point out that meat eaters are rarely required to deliver well-reasoned theses defending their food choices.

Jason

Try hanging out with more veggies/vegans. (Or not)

*looks up*

I am one :p

Hey folks, There are also concerns over whether or not gelatin and isinglass are kosher (or halal, for that matter, but the idea of "halal beer" is, I believe, a non-starter). And, odd as it may seem, there are people with gelatin allergies (a quick googling shows that some people have gon...

Hey folks, A couple things about isinglass and gelatin from a vegetarian (yeah, I know, there are 3 vegetarian beer nerds in Tronna, me, my brother, and one of my brother's buddies) ... First, all finings (whirlfloc / Irish moss, Polyclar, gelatin, DE, etc.) either drop out of suspension or filtered...

Ontario needs a wholesale overhaul of its regs and laws. Some portions of the regs are nonsensical (no free beer, including samples), others don't get enforced (corporate bribes, free samples :) ), some hurt small brewers (no combining delivery trucks) and on and on. And, once and for all, we have t...

My requirement for a Christmas beer?

That it's strong to make the holidays with my extended family seem like a good idea

Jason

But was "Cascadian" an actual beer style at the time the mark was granted, or has that evolved only recently? The original trademark application dates from 1999 -- it was approved a few years ago. "Cascadian dark ale", as a style name, was largely introduced to the world via thi...

I'm pretty sure neither you nor Jason really read the post that jcc posted. It was a reasoned explanation about the intent and history of trademark law and where this case fits within that context. Perhaps Barley Mowat is a bit of a hot-head and his writing certainly amps up the outrage and enterta...

Regardless of whether Steamworks is in the right here, this has already turned into a badly handled PR nightmare for them. I don't really know what BC's beer culture is like ... but, if it's anything like Ontario's, beer nerds, the folks who REALLY care about authenticity and 1 week old IPAs, accou...

Hi Derek, Thanks for the links! Mostly what I was getting at was BarleyMowat's assertions that several BC brewers were, off the record, calling the trademark BS, a relatively loaded expression. So to speak. Instead, what we have is SteamWorks placing a couple polite phone calls and a cease and desis...

I genuinely like the fact that the bloggers haven't yet talked to a lawyer to get a legal opinion on the matter and instead are relying on brewers and other bloggers to offer up validity opinions. And most of those opinions tend to be summed up by, "Big meanie!" It also makes me slap my he...

Dear lord ... If the angry intertubes mob were so certain that the trademark is bunk, why don't they crowdsource some $$$ and hire a trademark lawyer to get the name expunged? Oh yeah, they aren't so POed that they'd put up their own money. And, FWIW, Lagunitas has a trademark for Lagunitas and Russ...

Some more thoughts on this issue from a friend of mine (note it is a long post) http://hoplogblog.blogspot.ca/2012/11/trade-marks-cascadia-and-beer.html Still not sure why some bloggers, apparently trying to act in The Best Interests of the Craft Beer Movement, are stirring the pot with the express...