A Great Food Pairing for a Flight of Beer

Beer Flight at Pelican Brewing Company in Oregon

Ever been to a brew pub with just too many great beers to choose from?  Places like that can be a little overwhelming, but it really is a great way to get a little variety and try something new.  In many of these types of places you can usually order a flight, which are about 4 ounces each and can be 4 to 8 different samples.  It’s great because you can sample everything you want and still be able to comfortably walk out of the place when you are done.

The only downside to ordering a flight is how they can sometimes be poured.  Many places don’t pour each glass with enough head on it to truly appreciate how the beer smells and tastes.  But thankfully some places really understand the importance of head on a beer and they should be thanked when they pour it properly.

Flight at the Rogue Brew Pub in Oregon – They know how to pour a great flight! 

The other very cool thing you can do with a flight of beer is order food and experiment with the different flavours and see how it complements or contrasts with the beer.  There are several great menu choices that will give you a number of interesting experiences, but the best one for me has been the Cobb Salad.

A Traditional Cobb Salad

A traditional Cobb Salad consists of iceberg lettuce, blue cheese, bacon, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, avocado and chicken.  There are variations on this that can include other things such as seafood, but this is the usual combination.  It is also generally served with each of the component ingredients placed on the salad in separated sections, which makes it ideal for a taste experimentation.  Beer and salad pairings are very underrated and an interesting way to enjoy both.

With your flight you can experiment with different combinations and really understand how a great beer and food pairing works.  I still remember the first time I had an imperial stout with blue cheese, it was heavenly!

Be sure that when ordering your flight to pair with food you choose several different styles and try beers you wouldn’t normally order.  It’s only 4 ounces and if you really don’t like it, it’s only 4 ounces!  By doing this you may discover a style of beer you wouldn’t normally order and find a new favourite, especially if it works well with the food.  These sorts of beer and food pairings are a great exploration for your tastebuds and an excellent way to go outside of your comfort zone to discover new combinations.

The Ontario Brewers League is a Great Idea!

The Ontario Brewers League

A new organization, called The Ontario Brewers League has been created by Sebastian Lesch, John and Jimmy Peat, who are also the intrepid founders of the Longslice Brewery.  TOBL is exactly what the craft beer industry in this province needs.  It’s a cooperative organization that works to the benefit of it’s members.  Membership isn’t just restricted to “bricks and mortar” brewing operations; it’s open to contract brewers, sales and promotions companies, licensees and anyone who generates income from the commercial production of beer in Ontario.

It’s greatest strength is the potential it has to bring the entire craft industry together.  Starting up a brewery is an expensive and resource intensive undertaking.  Bringing both new and established breweries together isn’t just wide-eyed idealism, it’s actually pretty smart and something that can benefit the industry as a whole.

Working together helps the industry grow and that is beneficial in so many ways.  It promotes job growth and adds more money to the provincial economy.  It achieves this by sharing knowledge and expertise as well as resources.  When you combine all of these things, not only does it benefit the craft brewing industry but all the individuals involved prosper as well.  It has worked very well for the Ontario Wine industry and it worked for Craft Brewers in Oregon.  The Craft industry in Oregon accounts for nearly half of all beer sales in that state, compared to around 6% here in Ontario.  Competition shouldn’t be with other breweries, it should be other alcoholic beverages like wine and spirits.  The way TOBL is organized it’s in a position to do this because it’s all about inclusiveness and collaboration.

TOBL is starting off with pooled deliveries and plan to expand the resource sharing to other areas.  The recent changes to beer distribution legislation have made it possible for breweries to share delivery trucks and services.  This is huge considering many new start up breweries are contracting at other facilities and many of them happen to be brewing in the same places.  Having shared delivery makes sense economically and environmentally.

They also plan to share legal services, so that together, they can navigate the new regulations and make the most of the legislation.  Looking for loopholes can be tricky and once discovered will be shared with everyone.  Again this benefits the entire industry.  They are leaving the lobbying and promotional efforts to the OCB (Ontario Craft Brewers), but hopefully one day they can form some kind of strategic partnership and really make a huge difference.

Another very interesting thing they plan to offer is group health benefits to it’s members, which also makes sense.  Small businesses can’t really afford to do that and having a larger group ensures that rates are lower and much more affordable.  It also allows all of these small breweries to attract talented people and give them rewards they wouldn’t normally be able to offer.

TOBL is also interested in beer education, for both employees of the breweries and the licensees they sell to.  Having bars and restaurants who know how to properly pour and serve a beer, not to mention learning the importance of cleaning draft lines, can only improve the overall experience for consumers and their enjoyment of beer.  All of these things contribute  to selling more craft beer.

There really is an amazing number of things that can be achieved with this organization.  Kudos to the guys for starting it up and taking on this task.  Overall if they can keep it a transparent and collaborative organization, it can only mean great things for craft beer in Ontario.

Brasseurs Artisianal: The Craft Beer Scene in Montreal

The Montreal Craft Beer Scene

In my early twenties, I had the good fortune to live in Montreal for a few years.  Back then it didn’t have much of a craft beer scene, aside from McAuslan and Unibroue, both providing staples like Griffon Pale Ale, Blanche de Chambly and Maudite.  In fact my first craft beer experience in Montreal was a bottle of Maudite, or “Damned”.  I’ve always loved the label with the canoe of the damned flying over the Notre Dame church in Montreal.   It’s an Abbey style dubbel and at that point in my life I’d never tasted anything quite like it.  In fact I still regularly enjoy Maudite; I keep a case or two in my cellar because it ages so incredibly well.

Mondial de la Bière

Fast forward almost twenty years and the craft beer scene has a completely different landscape from what it had back then.  This past weekend while at the Mondial du la Bière, Montreal’s largest annual beer festival, I was extremely impressed to find out just how many small artisanal brewers were making excellent brews in La Belle Province.  It ranged from the familiar like Dieu de Ciel!, Trou de Diable and Cheval Blanc, to many others that I’d never heard of before like Jukebox, Brouhaha and Noire et Blanche.

What really struck me though was the variety of styles that were brought to the festival.  There were a fair number of excellent pale ales and IPAs, but there were also quite a few examples of not so common styles like Berlinerweisse, Gose, Gueuze and more Brett beers than I’d ever seen in one place.  The entire list of what was on offer was truly awe-inspiring and was thoroughly enjoyable to sample.

Outside of the festival, Montreal has a number of exceptional brewpubs making really interesting beers.  We were able to visit three of the literally dozens of them during our brief weekend stay; Benelux, Le Saint Bock & Dieu du Ciel!

Benelux – 245 Rue Sherbrooke West

Benelux Brewpub on Sherbrooke

This brewpub has a very laid back atmosphere and a pretty diverse crowd of patrons.  We were able to try seven of the twelve offerings available and were completely blown away by their Berlinerweise.  They call it “Berlinoise” and it was seriously the best example of the style we’ve tried outside of Berlin.  The beers are served in style-specific glasses and were very reasonably priced.  We accompanied our beer with a sampling tray of dry roasted almonds, olives and artisanal Quebec cheese.

Le Saint Bock – 1749 Rue Saint-Denis

The Randalls at Le Saint Bock

Not only was the tap list impressive in it’s size and diversity, they also had a ten tap “Randalizer” or Hop Rocket.  If you’ve never experienced beer on a Randall, it’s a cylinder filled with flavoured additives that the beer runs through before exiting into the glass.  We tried several of these including an APA that was infused with whole leaf Citra hops, apricots and orange zest.  Another one we tried was a black IPA infused with coffee and garam masala.

Dieu du Ciel – 29 Laurier West

Brett beer on the terrace

The Dieu du Ciel brewpub on Laurier has great little terrace out front and the Disco Soliel, their IPA brewed with Kumquats, seemed to be the perfect accompaniment to the sun filled afternoon.  They have an impressive line up of beers including a nitrogenated “India Cream Ale”, which was like drinking a grapefruit flavoured cream-sicle. Along with the beers on tap they also had a few really nice bottled beers including their Denière Volonté (Last Will), which was refermented using Brettanomyces yeast.

Paradis de la Bière

Lastly, no visit to Quebec would be complete without a visit to a Depanneur (Convenience Store) to buy beer.  However not all Depanneurs are created equally.  If you find yourself at the Dieu de Ciel brewpub, you’ll be very happy to know there is a fantastic Depanneur that has dubbed itself “Paradis de la Bière”, just down the street.  Super Marché Rahman (151 Avenue Laurier West) comes pretty close to beer paradise in it’s selection of hard to find local brews.  While there I managed to pick up some rare releases from Jukebox, Castor and case of the Disco Soliel from Dieu du Ciel.

Montreal is a great beer city and one that I look forward to returning to again!