Welcome to the #2-4 Beers of Christmas 2019 Edition!
Well, we made it through another year together. I can't believe this blog is 9 years old, and this is the 5th year for the #2-4BeersofChristmas. I have enjoyed this part of the job the most because I get to explore some of the darker more interesting beers. Stuff that is barrel-aged, high alcohol, high gravity, rich and toasty. Great beers that you want to sip slowly in front of a roaring fire... or at least the fireplace channel on YouTube.
The big news I was going to share was that we were travelling to Peru over the Christmas Holidays. Sadly due to unforeseen circumstances, that had to be pushed back until next year. While we are sad about waiting the extra time we know we will get a chance to go. And I will take the blog along with me! Stay tuned for more details in the coming year.
Speaking of the coming year. This year makes the 10th anniversary of the blog and I am planning special posts and going further afield to find more interesting and unusual beers. I am also trying to make this year my most post heavy of all time... I'm shooting for around 120 just as a personal goal. That means about 2 to 3 posts a week, and hopefully, about 200 new beers to talk about.
So thanks for hanging out with me and I hope you enjoy this year's #2-4BeersofChristmas. Happy Holidays and to all a new beer!
The second brewery stop on our whirlwind visit to Stratford was the Herald Haus Brewing Company. It opened in 2018 on the Market Square in what was once the Stratford Herald Newspaper Building. The Herald Building as it was called was renovated and reopened as a brewery by Daniel J Graver. Their selection of beers are named to evoke the history of Stratford and area. We had a light meal before the show as you can see to the right, and below, charcuterie and some vegetable samosas. The cheese and meat were all produced locally as were the pickles. The charcuterie went well with the beer and the samosas were quite good. The dipping sauce for the samosas was terrible and did not compliment them at all. Sadly I noticed a theme for the evening: lack of attention to detail. From confusion with their beers, to mismatched flavour in their food, to an unbalanced charcuterie board (pickle heavy, cheeses too similar in flavour profile and only one sauce, mustard, no chutney). Beer lines tasted like they needed cleaning (beers seemed flat with little to no head). Herald Haus was one of the breweries I was looking forward to trying and sadly they did not live up to my expectation. Let's move on to my notes for the evening.
Onto our beer:
Beer # 492: SMS (Summer Music Saison)Saison 19 Style: Saison ABV: 5.5% IBU: 35
Pours light gold with a short white head. Spicy on the nose with hints of wheat and citrus.slightly tart with hints of bitter green medicinal hops Final Thoughts: Slightly confused here. At the brewery this was listed as SSM Saison 19 as you can see on the board, left, but on their website, it is The Summer Music Saison 19. Untappd just calls it the Saison 19. Whatever it is an underwhelming wheat-based saison with muted flavours.
Beer # 493: 21 Haze East Coast IPA
Style: NEIPA ABV: 6.8% IBU: ?
Not very hazy clear gold short head. Aroma is tart fruit and pine. Very hoppy. With spice and bitterness. Sweet almost syrupy.
Final Thoughts: Ok this beer made me grumpy. Billed as an "East Coast IPA" which is just another term for NEIPA or New England IPA This beer is crystal clear despite the requirement of a NEIPA being "Hazy" it is an indication of the biotransformation that happens when the hops meet the various NEIPA strains of yeast. This is also responsible for the "juicy, "peachy," and "tropical" flavours of a true NEIPA. I first thought they had given me the wrong beer, but the flavour profile was close-ish so I just assume its a bad form of this beer. Pro-tip, if you are going to include "Haze" in the name of your beer... make sure it is hazy in the glass. Avoid.
Beer # 494: Perth County Conspiracy Style: American IPA ABV: 5.0% IBU: 60
Amber gold in colour with a thin head. Malt forward with spicy hops.some caramel and biscuit. Final Thoughts: This beer is named after a local Stratford area acid-folk band by the same name ( I've linked some music of theirs below). Seemingly based off of a West Coast IPA with spicy malt-forward notes. Really unimpressive.
Beer # 495: G.T.R. Rusty Rail Red Style: American Red Ale ABV: 4.3% IBU: 26
Warm and malty with sweet hints of caramel and toast. Like a muscular Kilkenny. Nice Irish red style. Final Thoughts: This beer was named after the Grand Trunk Railway which ran through Stratford. This is significant because Thomas Edison worked for the GTR as a telegraph operator as a teen. He ran away back to the States after he got called to the Head Office in Toronto to be fired for nearly causing a train wreck. This was hands down the best beer of the night but even here, confusion reigns. Listed as a 5.5% American Amber Ale on Untappd, The website lists it at a 4.3% English Style red. It drinks like a Kilkenny so I would call it an Irish Red and the alcohol feels closer to the 5.5% mark. Worth the visit at least.
Beer # 496: H2 Golden Ale Style: Golden ale ABV: 4.7 % IBU: 15
Gold in colour with very little head. Gateway beer... commercial golden style. Wet dog and mild hops, some malt, light rainwater.
Final Thoughts: Very commercial. Tastes like Labatt 50 or Molson Golden. Worst beer of the evening.
Overall Thoughts: Wow, I think this brewery needs time to grow up a bit. There is a lot of confusion with their styles and flavour profiles. A lot of the beer is just meh, or average at best. I would like to see them do better I will have to revisit them sometime in the future.
Music of The Perth County Conspiracy
First Album: The Perth County Conspiracy, Does Not Exist (1970)
It's been quite a while. There are excuses, there are reasons. Mostly I've been busy. This summer I ran a food truck which consumed ALL of the time I had... and I mean all. Like 6 days a week 12 to 14 hours a day. The only time I had left was dedicated to sleeping, and mugging down a beer or two without much thought. Things still happened. I got out to Funk Fest at Sawdust City again this year. 4th year running. I got to see Stephen Stanley's solo performance at the brewery as well. Also managed to hit a couple of trivia nights. Other than that it was Fish and Chips, Burgers, Tacos and a metric tonne of french fries. I've only recently been able to get all of the grease out of my pores. After the truck finished for the year I embarked on the renovation our kitchen here at Pint Jockey Headquarters. What was supposed to take 1 week has now taken over 2 weeks and I still have a number of small jobs to finish. It was one of those things where everything you touched took twice or three times longer than expected. Plus it came with several surprises like having to replace the toilet and the bathroom floor before I could finish fixing the plumbing in the kitchen. It is pretty much done now and completely usable so I figure I can afford some time to myself to pick up the blog again.
Halloween is fast approaching and we are knee-deep in pumpkin beer season. Fortunately, I haven't seen many around. I think we tried 2? when we went down to Stratford for our annual Festival trip (I'm spotlighting two new breweries in two new posts stay tuned!). One was by Big Rig out of Ottawa and tasted like Dr. Pepper. I really hate pumpkin beers... please breweries, stop making them or at least make them taste good.
Big news is coming! There is a major trip coming up for the Pint Jockey Household. I'm holding back details until all the tickets are bought and passports acquired but we are going somewhere cool in December(?) and I'm taking the blog along. That does throw a wrench into my 2-4 Beers of Christmas Blog Series which is my most popular set of posts each year, however, I have it covered! I am working hard behind the scenes right now to fill up all of those posts and set up a publishing schedule so they go out daily while I am away. I still hope to add posts from our trip but the Internet will be (very) spotty and I'm not taking the chance. If I can't get anything published on the trip, it will all post in January when we return, but The 2-4 Beers of Christmas will run on schedule. Plus I will keep daily posts going through Instagram so make sure to follow me and keep up with my adventures in December.
That about updates you sports fans... Sorry for the long blank stare from the Pint Jockey Pages but work, sadly, always comes before play. Hopefully, we can all settle into a nice groove here and taste some beers.
Our last day in Stratford started at my favourite coffee spot in the town Balzac's. Great coffee in a rickety old building. I had the "Las Rosas" a coffee produced by a Collection of 400 Female coffee growers dedicated to supporting women in the coffee industry. It was a perfect post-theatre buzz pick me up (seriously my body was still vibrating with excitement! it was such a good show!). The long trip home was supposed to include a couple of stops but The beer gods were not on my side. First I tried to get to Shakespeare Brewing Company which is in the nearby town of Shakespeare, just outside of Stratford. Sadly... they were closed. So I took a picture of their hops. Next year when we go to see "Little Shop of Horrors" we will stop in... and maybe make an appointment. So after some careful GPS reconsideration, we pointed the Beermobile North- East to Kitchener-Waterloo and headed to Innocente Brewing... which was open. Later we tried to have lunch at Elora Brewing Company, however, the Town of Elora must have been having the busiest day of the year and we could not find a table... In the WHOLE TOWN! the streets were super crowded with tourists, we just wanted a beer and a burger... but no dice. We ate pate and cheese with grapes in the Beermobile and bought some beer to take home (No drinking and driving kids!).
Innocente Brewing Company
Another non-descript brewery stuck in a suburban commercial development that totally belies the hidden beauty of this little spot. Such a warm and cosy space despite the noise and traffic and construction outside. The leather couches are comfy and inviting and the brewery gleams. The panoramic shot above does not even properly convey how nice this place is. You may have to click the picture and blow it up... better yet head out on a road trip and check this place out.
Beer # 452: Tafelbeir Belgian Table Beer
Tafelbeir
ABV: 3.1% IBU: ? Cloudy blonde with a grain-forward nose. Clove and banana with a wheaty, green, herbal and citrus body. Beer # 453: Inn O'Slante Irish Red
Inn O'Slante Irish Red (almost forgot picture)
ABV: 5.0% IBU: 18 Very dark crimson with a lacy head. Nose is sweet smoky malt. the first sip is all smoke and deeply roasted malt spice, wood, and caramel round out the body. The finish is a nice clean bitter green hops. Beer # 454: Charcoal Porter (Forgot Picture) ABV: 5.1% IBU: 25 Very dark chestnut with a thin lacing of head. Smoky malt nose with an underlying sweetness. The initial attack is smoked meat a big round umami flavour. Smoke, malt, and caramel fill ou the middle. Very well balanced with a light mouthfeel. Finish is quite fruity. Beer # 455: Two Night Stand Double IPA
Two Night Stand Double IPA
ABV: 8.5% IBU: 100 Brassy gold in colour with a light lacy head. Intense pine and citrus nose. Very warming, well-balanced pine and malt. Lips are left sticky with a pineapple and guava finish spiked with hints of bitter hops.
Final Thoughts
Such a neat place, and wonderfully crafted beers. Just go there... you will enjoy it. Cheers CJT Let's Stay "Social" Follow my adventures here @pintjockey The Pintjockey Online
The second day of our South-western Ontario road trip was our main reason for going. I bought tickets in January to go see The Rocky Horror Show at the Stratford Festival. And honestly, it could not arrive soon enough. I'm an old theatre kid at heart. I've done my tour on the stage back in high school. Wrote some plays, trod the boards. And honestly, I don't know a theatre kid that does not love this play and can recite lines and sing the songs by heart. First written in 1972-3 By Richard O'Brien as almost a joke, it opened in London on 19th of June 1973 and ran for 7 years. In 1974 It opened on Broadway, and a year later the now cult classic film Rocky Horror Picture Show was filmed and released. Written as a homage to the cheesy B-movie sci-fi flicks of the 1940-1970's, the play is chock full of catchy tunes and innuendo. I'm not going to go too much into it, because if you haven't seen it (we call you people Virgins...) weeeeelll, it's really too hard to explain. Go find yourself a Rocky expert and have them take you to a showing, preferably at midnight, in a run-down old theatre, after a few drinks. And let there be lips...
What was doubly exciting about this play is that it was being put on at the Stratford Festival. For those of you who do not know what the Stratford Festival is, it is our annual celebration of Shakesperean plays. Formed in 1953 and first performed in a tent, The festival put on their rendition of "Richard III" with none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi in the lead role (That's the original, Sir Alec Guinness, I don't think Ewan McGregor is that old...) They celebrate their 50th season in 2003 with a return of one of their most popular actors Christopher Plummer in the lead role of "King Lear" ( I managed to see that one it was excellent). Then the artistic directors started to think about the future. While the festival started out just showcasing Shakespeare, over the years they began to work in other relevant productions. They expanded from one theatre (the main Festival Stage, a unique purpose-built thrust stage). To 4 theatres as of 2002. With the extra performance space, they began to grow their idea of the festival To include more modern and popular shows. This year was the first that they tried anything like Rocky Horror. I'm not sure if they even suspected how amazingly popular it would be. The play opened on June 2 We went to see it on September 2, It is still playing as of now, and will not close until December 2, if they do not extend it again. That is a huge difference to other plays that show at the Festival that only run 4 weeks or so. The play was directed by Donna Feore she is a renowned Canadian choreographer and director who is married to longtime Stratford Festival actor Colm Feore who I have had the pleasure of seeing in "Romeo and Juliett" (Mercutio) "Hamlet" (Hamlet) and "Love's Labour's Lost" (Berowne). He also starred in one of my all-time favourite Canadian Movies "Bon Cop Bad Cop" (watch it!!! it's on Netflix I believe...).
Obi Wan Kenobi Was here
I won't talk more about it, but the play was stellar. It was the best theatre experience of my life. What's even more exciting is that Donna Feore is returning next year to take a shot at another Theatre Kid's longtime favourite "Little Shop of Horrors." I'm counting down the days to buy my tickets.
Well, we had time to kill so we decided to look around Stratford. We drank our morning coffee in a shop that used to be the home of a 16-year-old Thomas Edison. He apparently was a signalman on the railroad. He fled to the US after he nearly caused a train accident when the device he invented to alert him when there was a train approaching failed, and he was too busy tinkering with experiments. He also spilled acid that seeped through the floorboards onto his boss's desk in the office below. He got called to Toronto to be reprimanded but ran out of the office and hopped a train and never came back. We did the touristy, window shop thing and then settle down for some cheese and beer at one of Stratford's best breweries.
Black Swan Brewing Company
Nestled in a storefront on one of the main side streets of the historic downtown. Black Swan is unassuming and quaint. 5 or 6 tables await for you inside with an open concept swag-room tasting bar and brewery, you can see clear to the back and watch everyone working. I tried the main four beers on tap and we had a very nice cheese platter from a local cheese shop that complemented the beers quite well. Believe it or not... one of the cheeses was Limburger! and it works very well with beer.
Beer # 453: Road Trip Golden Ale ABV: 4.3 % IBU: 15
light gold beige with a thin skiff of a head light barley aroma hints of citrus.. first sip is grassy wet dog...molson golden entry level not exciting Beer # 454: English Pale Ale ABV: 5.0% IBU: 29
copper colour with a thin head tradition spicy malty nose... standard pale ale lines malt forward fruit and spice very close to Bass Pale ale Beer # 455: Porter ABV: 5.3% IBU: 45
dark brown thin head nutty malty aromas . very malty smooth and light kind finish with a hint of pepper at the end excellent Beer # 456: Milk's Doubt Milk Stout ABV: 5.0% IBU: 15
warm nutty coffee and malty aroma hints of liquorice and molasses creamy milky huge amounts of rich creamy chocolate fantastic!
Final Thoughts
The two lighter beers were not terribly exciting; where Black Swan shines is their darker beers. The Milk stout and the porter were true stars of the day deep, rounded, and very flavourful.
The Mercer Kitchen and Beer Hall
Later, and prior to the show, we met up with the Queen's sister and her husband for dinner and drinks. after careful consideration, we picked the Mercer Hall. The food was quite good, and the beer selection was not bad at all.
Ginger lime on the nose translucent light gold... skiff of a head.. sweet lime and ginger warming wheat and biscuit. Beer # 448: Burdock Brewery Té Sour Berliner Wiesse ABV: 4.3% IBU: ?
4
Cloudy opaque light beige in colour. pine and cat pee on the nose light sour.. grapefruit grassy citrus and bitter greens. Beer # 449: Forked River Brewing Hansel and Brett'el Saison ABV: 4.9% IBU: 22
8.
Clear gold light white head. clean malt and Brett nose tart apple citrus... fresh and alive
Beer # 450: Indie Alehouse Breakfast Porter
ABV: 7.2% IBU: 60 6. Very dark chestnut no head. nose is coffee. creamy malty coffee and chocolate. woody bourbon smooth and light mouthfeel. Beer # 451: Collective Arts Liquid Art Fest IPA ABV: 5.9% IBU: ?
12
Unfiltered cloudy opaque almost chunky light beige. fruity nose with hints of pine thick and creamy mouthfeel.
Final Thoughts
Everything seemed to be a prelude to our amazing evening. The beer was great we had good food and amazing company. Can't wait for next year. Going to bring more battery power as you can tell I didn't have any pics of the beers at the Mercer. Cheers CJT Let's Stay "Social" Follow my adventures here @pintjockey The Pintjockey Online
@CowbellBrewing One of the bottles I brought back from my trip. Almanac was the Beer brewed on opening day, August 5 2017. A good standard barleywine.
Pours a cloudy dark maple syrup colour with a short off-tan head with tiny bubbles. Aroma is a demerara sugar nose with liquorice and molasses and spices. First sip is rich and smooth, quite sweet. Hints of maple syrup wood and dark caramel. Mouthfeel is light but with a good amount of stickiness. Good heat from the alcohol. Aeration brings out deeply toasted bread and dark caramels.
Cost: 5/6 PASS Colour: 5/6 PASS Beer Style: 5/6 PASS Re-Order: 5/6 PASS Experience: 5/6 PASS Final Thoughts: Of all the Cowbell beers I have tried this is the best. A tasty beer and one that should be aged for a few years. Cowbell suggests that it can be aged as long as 10 years. CJT Let's Stay "Social" Follow my adventures here @pintjockey The Pintjockey Online
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