In their pure and unadulterated form, Belgian lambics are not beers to be trifled with. Brewed in open air vats where they are inoculated with wild yeasts and other wee beasties, and aged for years in wooden casks, these mutant brews develop flavours that are aggressively sour and funky, making them an acquired taste amongst even the geekiest of beer geeks.

Perhaps in attempt to temper this sourness, someone or other at some point in the past thought it might be a good idea to add some fruit to the mix. This addition can be handled a number of ways, from adding fresh fruit during fermentation, to cutting the pure lambic with fruit juice before packaging, to adding a flavoured syrup at the time of serving. Whichever method is chosen, there is an obvious effect on the flavour and sweetness of the brew, and those who find unflavoured lambics to be too sour and acidic will generally find the fruit versions more palatable.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Mort Subite Kriek »

As with wine, its sibling in fermentation, there was a time when beer was commonly made, transported, stored and served in wooden casks and barrels. These containers were generally sealed with pitch or resin, making them impervious to leakage, and also preventing the beer from picking up any flavours from the wood.

Or that was the intention, at least. Well-sealed or not, it’s quite likely that beers stored for longer periods of time and/or in volatile conditions, such as the India Pale Ales that spent months travelling the rough seas from Britain to India, probably obtained flavours and other characteristics from the wooden container, even if the brewer didn’t intend it.

In more modern times, these wooden containers have been replaced with metal, making it easier for beer to be produced in large batches that are consistent, with no chance of the wood (or the bacteria that can live in it) imparting any flavours - good, bad, or otherwise - into the beer. This is great for mass producers like Molson and Labatt, and any other brewer big or small that wants consistency in their beer, which is generally most of them.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Trafalgar Oak-Aged Rye »

Volo
587 Yonge Street
416-928-0008

The restaurant business, as we all know, isn’t easy. Statistics tell us that a large percentage of new restaurants fail within the first year (the exact percentage depending on which stats you choose to believe. Making it to five years is impressive. Ten years, really impressive. Twenty years? To many, that’s a minor miracle.

If so, then some higher power or other must be smiling onto the corner of Yonge and Dundonald, where Ralph Morana has just passed his twentieth anniversary as owner of Volo, an unexpected success story if ever there was one. And to be clear: The “unexpected” descriptor is not meant as a criticism of Morana or his restaurant, but rather commentary on how someone with absolutely no restaurant experience can take a struggling Italian restaurant, keep it going through times thick and thin, and eventually turn it into an indispensable destination for lovers of local beer, wine and cheese.

Continue reading Viva Volo! »

Over the past couple years, there has been a sort of culinary renaissance taking place that is reaching it’s prime in today’s food scene. Beer is now being seen as equally complex and diverse as wine and is now standing in the spotlight with one Toronto restaurant leading the way. My embarrassment for being a non-drinker sitting inside a restaurant designed to share the joys of beer quickly diminished as Chef Brian Morin, owner and executive chef of beerbistro was graciously candid with me about his career, his experiences, his opinions and his passion for food.

The 67 seat restaurant in the heart of Toronto’s business district is a veritable shrine to beer. The wood accents and tables are reminiscent of a traditional pub, yet a modern feel is brought in with the floor to (very high) ceiling windows, still in place from the building’s old days as a Bank of Montreal. The bar is nothing less than a beer-lover’s heaven with taps lined-up, leading down to the kegs kept in a custom-built underground storage cooler which is kept at an ideal temperature for serving a wide variety of beers from around the world. There are even gorgeous murals of beer glasses over the windows painted by a local distillery district artist, and I’m sitting and talking with one of North America’s top leaders in beer cuisine… drinking a Coke.

Currently viewed by many as a pioneer in the modern culinary scene in Toronto for setting a trend with his unique approach to using beer as the vehicle for an entire menu, Morin conveys to me that this is, without a doubt, what he was always meant to do. As other kids were playing hockey in the streets, 10-year-old Morin was wondering what he could cook next. Cooking was a calling for him at an early age, and he worked his way through the ranks of the culinary world to get to finally become owner and executive chef of his own restaurant.

Continue reading A Tradesman Who Enjoys a Beer »

When discussing my beer obsession with less beer savvy folks, one thing that always seems to confuse them (assuming I don’t bore them to death first) is my disappointment over the lack of American microbrews at the LCBO. Years of urban myths about Canadian beer being stronger than the stuff available south of the border and jokes about American suds being like making love in a canoe have brainwashed most people into believing that the USA is a complete wasteland when it comes to decent beer.

On the contrary, our American friends are on the forefront of the craft beer revolution, with over 1000 breweries making every beer style under the sun, and even creating new ones on a regular basis. No less than world renowned beer and whisky expert Michael Jackson declared on numerous occasions before his death last year that the American craft brewing scene is second to none, and microbrewers around the world - including here in Canada - are constantly looking to them for inspiration. Yet here in Ontario, we have access to a larger selection of mediocre lagers from Eastern Europe than to the innumerable fantastic beers that are being created just over the border.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Southern Tier IPA »

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m often pretty critical of the LCBO in this column, on my blog, and pretty much anywhere else that beer is discussed. It’s certainly not without good reason, as the beer selection on their general stock list is still lacking, especially in the area of craft brews from other provinces and the US (although things are slowly improving on that front).

Still, I’m also forthcoming with praise for the ol’ Board when they do things right. Despite its faults, the general list does feature a number of truly world class beers, some of them being the benchmarks of their style, and a few more appear on a limited basis as part of promotions that run at select outlets every few months. (It’s still not enough to keep a lot of local beer drinkers from making runs across the border every couple of months to stock up on American craft brews and imports that aren’t available up here, but hey, at least it’s a start.)

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Weltenburger Kloster Asam-Bock »

What does local food look like in April? When the larders are getting bare and the first bright shoots of asparagus and lettuce are still just a twinkle in the farmer’s eye? Would it even be possible to put on an event and feed 300+ people on local food at this time of the year?

Turns out it’s not just possible, but really quite fabulous. The result was a delicious evening of not just local food but local beer, as the first annual Brewer’s Plate event paired some of Toronto’s top chefs with local craft breweries to come up with a dish that paired with and incorporated the selected beers.

Continue reading The Brewer’s Plate - Delicious Local Food - Plus Beer! »

While the phrase “beer dinner” still makes many people think of pizza and a pitcher at the local sports bar, there is a healthy and growing trend in Toronto for beer and food events of a more refined variety, with multi-course beer pairing dinners happening at restaurants like beerbistro and Esplanade Bier Markt every couple of months.

For the next few weeks, though, Toronto seems to be Beer Dinner Central, with beer and food events popping up all over the damn place. So in lieu of my usual beer review this week, here’s a round-up of the various dinners that’ll be keeping the beer geeks happy and well-fed between now and the end of May.

Continue reading Beer: It’s What’s For Dinner »

Taste T.O. is pleased to announce that we’re teaming up with fine food & drink import agency, Roland + Russell, and Ontario’s premier craft beer website, The Bar Towel, to co-present a pair of tasting events on Friday, April 25th and Saturday, April 26th marking the arrival of Southern Tier IPA at the LCBO.

Southern Tier is a relatively new brewery from Lakewood in western New York State, but in the four short years they’ve been in business, they’ve attracted a ton of acclaim from beer geeks on both sides of the border, so the addition of their IPA to the LCBO general list is quite a coup for Ontario’s craft beer lovers. To help celebrate the occasion, Southern Tier co-founder Phin DeMink as well as his brewmaster will be coming to Toronto for special events at two of the city’s best beer destinations: The Academy of Spherical Arts and Volo.

Full details on both events can be found behind the cut.

Continue reading Southern Tier IPA - A Double Celebration for a Singularly Great Beer »

While they’ve never had a beer available here on a year-round basis, Oregon’s Rogue Ales have become of the most popular American craft breweries in Ontario thanks to the frequent appearances of their beers as part of the LCBO’s seasonal beer promotions.

Brews like their decadent Chocolate Stout, spicy Half-E-Weizen, and rich & roasty Wild Irish Rogue Stout have all been well-received during their short stays on the shelves, and if the rumours are true, we’ll soon be seeing their best selling Dead Guy Ale on the LCBO general list.

In the meantime, though, the Spring seasonal beer release currently available in select LCBO outlets includes the first retail appearance in Ontario of Rogue Brutal Bitter (LCBO 909770 - $5.95/650 ml).

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Rogue Brutal Bitter »

“Contract Brewing.” It’s a short phrase, but one that carries a lot of baggage in the beer-making world. In simple terms, it refers to situations where a person or company with no brewing facilities of their own pays an existing brewery to make beer for them, which they in turn sell under their own brand name.

Often, it’s a route used by marketing companies that have more interest in “building a brand” or making a buck than in selling decent beer. One particularly obvious (and obnoxious) example of this approach was Bootie Beer, a low-rent lager with the slogan “America’s Entertainment Beer” that claimed to be made in Florida, while it was actually brewed at City Brewery, a large plant in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. (I refer to Bootie in the past tense, by the way, because the brand was a colossal failure that went bust earlier this year.)

Beers like Bootie have given contract brews a bad name, but being brewed under contract isn’t necessarily an indicator of poor quality. South of the border, the popular and well-respected Boston Brewing Company (known for their Samuel Adams brands) and Brooklyn Brewery both started out with beers brewed on contract. And closer to home, the outstanding Denison’s Weissbier and Dunkel are both brewed at Black Oak.

All of which is a roundabout way of introducing my picks for this week’s column, a pair of contract brewed beers called Headstrong Pale Ale and Headstrong Munich Lager.

Continue reading Beers of the Week - Headstrong Pale Ale & Headstrong Munich Lager »

While the weather may not be co-operating, spring is just a few days away, and as noted here last week, the LCBO recently unveiled their latest batch of limited-availability beers to mark the occasion. Unlike the winter, there aren’t a lot of beers that are specifically brewed or branded for the spring season, so the release is a mixed bag ranging from bocks to Belgian ales to fruit beers.

There is, however, one beer in the bunch that is brewed in honour of the season: Jenlain Bière de Printemps (LCBO 65771, $2.45/330 mL), which those who haven’t forgotten their high school French will recognize as translating to “Jenlain Spring Beer”.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Jenlain Bière de Printemps »

I’m on the tail-end of a flu that’s had me out of commission for over a week, so needless to say, my beer consumption has been pretty much nil for the last while, and it’ll probably be another day or two until I’m well enough to crack a bottle of anything stronger than ginger ale.

So in lieu of a Beer of the Week column for this week, here’s an overview of the brews included in the Spring Beers release just hitting the shelves at selected LCBO outlets. Watch for full profiles of a few of these to appear here in coming weeks.

Orval (LCBO 439992) - $3.45/330 mL bottle
The most unique of the Belgian Trappist ales, a single sentence summary won’t do this beer justice, so watch for the upcoming full profile.

Continue reading Spring Beer Preview »

To most of us, the pleasant buzz that comes with the consumption of a couple of pints is just as important to the beer drinking experience as the appearance, aroma, mouthfeel and flavour of what’s in the glass in front of us. But there are times when someone, for either personal or practical reasons, wants a beer without the booze. And in those situations, the only option is a non-alcoholic beer.

The problem is that for anyone who has a taste for anything outside of the beer mainstream, their near-beer options are pretty limited. There are plenty of different non-alcoholic beers out there, from domestic products like Molson Exel and Labatt Nordic, to a multitude of imported versions that are often available at ethnic groceries and restaurants. But with very few exceptions, they all tend to be based on the pale lager style - which makes sense, given that pale lagers account for something like 90% of the real beer market.

Continue reading Beers of the Week - O’Doul’s Amber & Labatt Blue De-Alcoholized Pilsener »

As any brewmaster or beer drinker can tell you, “sour” and “beer” are two words that generally don’t go together. Whether it’s a nasty funk caused by an infected yeast strain, or off-flavours in a cask ale that’s been tapped for too long, sourness is not a welcome characteristic in the flavour profile of most beers.

But that’s not to say that all sour beers are bad. There are some beer styles, in fact, where sourness isn’t just allowed, but actually expected. The most well known of these are the lambics of Belgium, beers that are brewed in a centuries-old traditional fashion where the wort (essentially a barley soup that is made at the beginning of the brewing process) is left in open fermentation tanks and exposed to wild yeasts rather that using the stable cultivated cultures used in most beer. The inoculated liquid is then transferred to oak barrels where it ferments and ages for 2 years or more, with the end result being a bracingly sour and acidic beer which is usually mixed with a younger partially fermented lambic to produce a blend called gueuze, or with various fruit flavours (cherry and raspberry being the most common) to create a tart but slightly more palatable refresher.

Further north in the Flemish region of the country, the sibling ale styles Oud Bruin (”Old Brown”) and Flanders Red also wave the sour beer flag, although the sourness is developed using controlled yeast strains and ageing techniques, making the tartness more balanced and not quite as funky or “barnyardy” as that found in lambics. Of the two, Flanders Red tends to be the more sour, with notes of dark fruits and sour berries in both the aroma and flavour, and some vinegar-like notes that can range from mild to strong. Both styles are undoubtedly an acquired taste, but once you get that taste, the Reds in particular can become quite addictive.

Continue reading Beer of the Week - Grand River Ploegers Vlaams Rood »