Visit to Herald Haus Brewing Company Stratford, Ontario October 15th 2019

 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)

Rare Self Pressed Album: Rumour (1973)

Cheers
CJT

 Let's Stay "Social" Follow my adventures here

   @pintjockey


The Pintjockey Online


pintjockey

And don't forget to "Friend" me on Untappd.

Visit to Jobsite Brewery Stratford, Ontario October 15th 2019

For the second year in a row, we have had the good fortune to get down and see a show at the Stratford Festival. This year was a fantastic performance of Little Shop of Horrors. It was directed by the stellar Donna Feore, whose rendition of "Rocky Horror Show" at last year's festival will go down as the greatest live theatre performance I have ever seen. Some of last year's cast returned. Steve Ross who hilariously portrayed The Criminologist in Rocky last year took up the mantle of Mr. Mushnik the stereotypical Jewish flowershop owner. And last year's star Dan Chameroy who earned his fishnets bringing Dr. Frank N. Furter to life last year played the execrable Dr. Orin Scrivello DDS.

I have had a tough time thinking about this play though. All good theatre should make us think and this musical sure has made me wonder about the message of the play and it's role in modern theatre aside from being a vehicle of nostalgia. Originally based off of 1960's Roger Corman B-movie flick, Little Shop grew into a tragic love story between, hapless Seymour and his unfortunate co-worker Audrey. Audrey is a downtrodden woman. She is in an abusive relationship with a sadist. She claims to have a checkered past where she worked in shady nightclubs wearing revealing clothing. The dialogue stops just short of her professing to take money for sexual favours. Seymour is an orphan who was taken in by Mushnik for a source of cheap labour. Seymour finds an unusual plant which brings success to the Skid Row Flowershop. However, the plant turns out to be a carnivorous alien bent on taking over the world to eat all humans. The only common thread is Exploitation... which granted, was Corman's bread and butter. Mushnik exploits Seymour, and later his customers, Seymour Exploits Audrey II (the plant) who in turn is exploiting him. Orin the Sadistic Dentist exploits Audrey in stomach-churning ways. I want to say there is a cautionary tale in here but there is no real lesson, There is no redemption. Everyone dies. Be greedy, or don't be greedy the plant will get you in the end. Even at the end, when Audrey sacrifices herself so the plant can live and Seymour can continue to be successful just feels wrong; re-inforcing that outdated notion that a woman has to give up everything for her man. Audrey dies feeling "purpose" because she believes Seymour deserves better.


The only thing I can think of here is we need this play, to see how far we have come... or maybe how far we still have to go. And perhaps to bawl your eyes out when the heart-wrenching song "Suddenly Seymour" comes on.

Now don't get me wrong I was riveted while I watched this play. The production, singing and choreography were all on point and the casting was perfect. Gabi Epstein who plays Audrey (the human) is making the most of her first season at the Festival by drawing out, plainly, every single emotion, and regret, and fear, and hope on Audrey's face. She blows away the audience with her emotional version of "Somewhere That's Green." 

Anyway, I'm getting away from myself. I'm not here to review Stratford (as much as I enjoyed it) I'm here to drink beer.



So before the show, the Queen of Pint Jockey Headquarters and I voyaged over to a brewery we heard about last year but ran out of time to visit. Jobsite Brewing Company has been open for just over a year and occupies an old lumberyard on the edge of downtown Stratford. They share their repurposed building with a great little distillery called Junction 56.   Their unassuming entrance advertises two things: Pizza and Craft Beer. Enough said. Started in 2017 by Dave Oldenburger and Phil Buhler who were working together in the construction business and decided to combine their love of creating buildings and beer. Jobsite was their result and the brewery has been chugging along since August 2018. When we were in Stratford last they had only been open for 2 weeks!

So the Queen and I picked up a couple of sample boards and tried them out. Here are the notes.




Beer # 484: 2x4 Cream Ale
Style: Cream Ale ABV: 4.8%  IBU: ?

Lightly cloudy straw colour with a thin white head clean nose with notes of citrus and grain.Smooth and light with notes of malt and a slight creaminess. Slight chemical finish.

Final Thoughts: Average cream ale, a little watery. 

Beer # 485: Handyman Harvest Wet Hop Pale Ale
Style: Wet Hop Pale Ale ABV: 4.5% IBU:  30

Amber gold in colour with a light, off-white head. Aromas of pine and citrus and tropical fruit. First sip is bright green hops moving into a spicy west coast pale ale. Good malt representation a little ashy on the finish.

Final Thoughts: Average wet hop pale ale. Good hop choices and character but falls down on the Pale Ale aspect there is a disconnect in the flavour profile as it moves from the bright hops to the malt flavours.

Beer # 486: Impact IPA

Style: India Pale Ale ABV: 6.9% IBU:  ?

Golden orange in colour with a creamy off white head. Pine and citrus on the nose and mildly grain forward. First sip is balanced and sweet with pine and juicy fruit. One of the more mellow and smooth IPAS I've had. Not spectacular, but very enjoyable.

Final Thoughts: This is a different flavour profile for an IPA that I have tried. It's a little more muted and balanced. The hops don't try to rip your face off. I wouldn't class it as a favourite, but it is very interesting and worthy of more study.

Beer # 487: Wrong Nail Amber Ale
Style: American Amber Ale ABV: 5.4% IBU:  ?

Medium-dark amber colour with an off white head. Aroma is sweet and malty. Warming notes of toasted sugars and molasses smooth creamy finish. Aeration gives us toasty bread and brown sugar.

Final Thoughts: Sweet, malty, and balanced. One of the best ambers I've had in a while. The flavour profiled is "nailed" just like the eponymous "wrong nail," building a smooth sippable amber.

Beer # 488: Honey I'm home Hazlenut Hop Honey Brown
Style: Flavoured Honey Brown Ale ABV: 5.2% IBU: 20

Dark chestnut in colour with an off white head. Aroma is Frangelico maple and hazelnut. First sip doubles down on the Frangelico and adds a mild coffee and chocolate.Finish is sweet with a hint of chemical... possibly it is the hazelnut extract.

Final Thoughts: I hate extracts in beer. They are really chemical and off-putting. The last thing I want in a beer taste is the memory of the time I snuck into my Mom's baking cupboard and tasted the artificial hazelnut extract. Blech.

Beer # 489: Big pour stout.
Style: American Stout ABV: 5.8% IBU: ?

Dark chocolate brown with an off tan head dark roast coffee on the first sip with TONS of smoke. Bacon and wood smoke finish is campfire and cocoa powder.

Final Thoughts:  Excellent stout. Dry, light-bodied, smokey, and chocolately. One of the highlights of this visit.




Cider # 11: Hammer Bent Red Cider (Guest Tap)
Cidery: Twin Pines Cider House Location: Thedford, Ontario, Canada
Style: Traditional Cider ABV: 6.8% IBU: 0

Clear gold in colour with little head Aroma is freshly crushed apples fruity tart and dry.clean and crisp with a natural malic acid finish. Great dry cider.

Final Thoughts:  Fantastic dry cider. It reminds me of old Magner's Aged Cider before they messed around with it for mass commercial distribution.

Beer # 490: Weisse Ankle Wheat Ale
Style: Wheat Beer ABV: 5.0% IBU: ?

Light gold in colour with a skiff of white head. Deep cuts of banana and clove. Standard wheat beer.

Final Thoughts: Very average. Needs more character.

Beer # 491: Confection Connection Raspberry Lime Milkshake IPA

Collab: TWB Cooperative Brewing Location: Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Style: Flavoured Milkshake IPA ABV: 7.8% IBU: ?

Orangey red with a light white head. The aroma is cream cheese/cheesecake. Raspberry dominates the middle with a light citrus hum. The effect with the lactose is pure cheesecake creaminess and sweetness. The finish is lime zest.

Final Thoughts: Now this was interesting! It tasted like you blended up a raspberry lime cheesecake with a nice IPA and served it like a milkshake. I really haven't found many Milkshake IPAs I have liked but I did like this one we ended up trying this one twice because the Queen and I both enjoyed it.

Jobsite Social                                      TWB Co-op Social
 jobsitebrewing                              twbcoop

    N/A                                              @twbcoop

Cheers
CJT

 Let's Stay "Social" Follow my adventures here

   @pintjockey


The Pintjockey Online


pintjockey

And don't forget to "Friend" me on Untappd.

Southern Ontario Road Trip Day 2: What ever Happened to Saturday Night?

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.

Beer # 447: Cowbell Renegade Series # 008, Paradise Lime Wit

ABV: 4.0%    IBU: 12

2

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


pintjockey

And don't forget to "Friend" me on Untappd.