We are 369 weeks into #beersaturday and I am buying the next round!

As we all know, being The Blockchain Beerologist definitely has its perks, including but not limited to getting paid to tour breweries and sample new beers! When I am not globetrotting or brewing my own beer, my fridge looks like a colorful mosaic of regional craft beer I enjoy sharing with the #beersaturday alliance of #beer bloggers on #hive.

This week, our liquor stores are mercifully back open and I have scouted but not yet shopped for new beers. Here are a couple I snagged from the grocery store and enjoyed over a couple nights of music and gaming.

The PotW is a popular jam because it is usually a beer enjoyed on the town or otherwise in a social or business setting that we don't get to visit all the time. This week, I am out on the town again, this time at a back yard patio of a local restaurant that has a band playing!



The pint is a Flying Monkey Juicy Ass IPA classic IPA draft at The Common and the band is The Thundering Velvet Band.

Cheers to Live music on the town!

The Strike is Over

Source
If you are here strictly for the beer, you are free to skip this section on Canadian current beer events. Short story as short as I can make it, the LCBO is a provincial crown corporation that operates liquor retail stores and distribution. The cool thing is they are the largest global purchaser of liquor so they make good money supplying and taxing this controlled substance to pay for roads and a huge layer of bloated management. The bad news is they are government run, and have a union involved which meant for a strike at my favourite place to purchase neat new brands of beer for the blog.

The strike is now over so you can rest assured that visits to this weekly blog will be back to featuring some of the incredible craft beer from this region and beyond.

Hazy Drift

I must admit that I didn't even buy these at the liquor store to celebrate the reopening of my beer playground. The grocery stores have a slightly inferior selection of my preferred craft beer style like this one from Sons of Kent Brewing Company out of another small town Chatham not that far from here. There were only maybe a half dozen IPAs on the shelf so I took the opportunity to revisit this hazy tins



I knew I had tasted this one before but couldn't recall what I was in for diving back into a Drift Hazy IPA Though I do love my hazy and unfiltered IPAs, I have come to wonder why unfiltered often becomes sludgy looking now that we have been brewing IPA with oats in it like this one. Hazy is one thing but floaties and lazy racking to peel some of the thicker particulate and yeast seems like a hipster shortcut.

Once I got beyond that, the beer was nice and sweet with a beautiful combination of Mosaic, Citra, Cashmere and Strata hops. Perhaps a little unrefined but delicious and sweet nonetheless and a moderate ABV at 6%. Good beer SoK! When I am in the mood for a 2-hour drive to the middle of nowhere, I should book myself a tour of this brewery!

Portage!

Upper Thames Brewing Company is another of the breweries just a quick trip down the road from #beerologist HQ. I have been to the brewery/taproom maybe 40 minutes away but it has been a while since visiting or even picking one of these off the shelf. It is great to se them settling into a core offering that makes it to the shelves here regularly and know they have a host of seasonals and one-offs only available on draft when you make it there in person.



I have always liked the branding of Portage IPA because of the contrast, and the simple 2-colour design (if you don't count the white it is printed on) and refreshing out-door theme. It immediately brings me back to being on an interior lake, walking with a canoe up on my shoulders through a path between 2 small, clean, secluded lakes. Well, actually to getting to the end of that path and enjoying a cold beer with others on the camping trip.

Enjoying this one right after the sweet Drift Hazy IPA seemed like a mistake because it was so dry on the palate. It took a couple swigs to sash away the Drift and return this to an enjoyable and comparably much more bitter IPA. While I am a fan of local businesses, especially beer ones, I appreciate the locally grown centennial and cascade hops in this beer. That being said, comparing our hops to those grown in other regions like Yakima and New Zealand, they just cannot compare. I may visit the local hops farm at Tavistock Hops and purchase some for one of our next IPAs but will definitely balance it out with some foreign ones.

Back on target! It was great to visit Woodstock in this glass of solid, bitter and satisfyingly crisp local IPA. Well done Upper Thames!

#BEERSaturday!

Glasses and Beer Goggles are not the same!

Join me, @detlev , and the other beerologists because there is always room for more beer bloggers at this week's Beer Saturday gathering... https://hive.blog/hive-187719/@detlev/beersaturday-369

Cheers to our global family of beer drinkers!!

Would you go sweet or bitter for your next IPA?