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Beeraucrats
Following beer and beer culture in Ottawa.

Ottawa is quickly becoming a hub for the Craft Beer explosion that is taking place all across North America. Home to Beau's All Natural Brewery, the Kichesippi Beer company, Hogs Back Brewing Company - and host to the Clock Tower Brewpub chain, the legendary Pub Italia, and the future home of the second Mill Street Brew Pub - Ottawa may soon be not only Canada's Political Capital, but Canada's Beer Capital as well.

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BDT - Brasseurs du Temps - Gatineau Well, I think last night we went to the best BrewPub in the National Capital Region. BDT, just over the bridge in Gatineau (MAP), is a beautiful converted church that houses some of the best hand-made beer in the region. If you haven’t been their yet, you are missing an essential part of the National Capital Region’s beer culture. We arrived in the evening, on a Monday - expecting it to be more or less dead - but the place was packed! Even given the fact that the entire street that BDT is on is missing (big construction project). The atmosphere and beer sell themselves it seems.  The 12 hand brewed beer list was impressive, if not daunting. We each had the Extra Special Bitter - as it came highly recommended by Ben. The beer was cloudier, as all their beers are unfiltered, and hoppier in smell than any ESB I have ever tried. The taste was impressive, and left a subtle malty-sweetness around as a oddly refreshing after-taste.  Halfway through our pints, we were lucky enough to strike up a conversation with Scott, one of BDT’s brewers. He gave us info on the beer, some tips on our own brewing, and even gave us a personal tour of the brewery! We were blown away at how much Scott knew, how passionate he was about Beer, and how willing he was to field our question and show us some of the lesser know challenges of brewing two production batches PER DAY! After our tour, Scott introduced us to some of the more challenging beers on the menu: (the above picture is the fallen soldiers - I gotta take picture BEFORE drinking….another note to self)                                  AU PIED DU COURANT  IPA (6.5%): Wonderful Hop smell, the first time I’ve really understood what people mean when they describe hop aroma as ‘floral’. It ‘twas a bitter beer, but not an overpowering bitterness.                                   DIABLE AU CORPS Double IPA (9.5%): This is a monster of an IPA, bitter from start to finish, but complexly so. It has some grassy notes hidden in the taste that were fun to tease out - be warned, this does not feel like a 9.5% beer - drink with caution. Favorite part of this beer was the wave of oaky-ness that the aftertaste brings, almost as if it was aged on Oak.                                    TROIS PORTAGES Belgian Triple (9%): This was honestly, my first Triple - Scott laughed at me for that - After drinking this, I now know why it is one of the most respected styles in Beer. Its complex, challenging, and delicious. It had a subtle fruity flavor and a great hop profile - all the notes you can possibly get. It finishes smooth and leaves an orange, and what I can only describe as ‘rose’, flavor. Another sneaky beer, especially on a warm day.                                   I cannot recommend heading to BDT as soon as you can enough, the beer is great! (the food smelt good too!). If you are there, go ahead and order yourself L’horloge (the clock) - a 4oz sample of everything they have on tap!                                                                                                                                                    See all the Pictures!      

BDT - Brasseurs du Temps - Gatineau


Well, I think last night we went to the best BrewPub in the National Capital Region. BDT, just over the bridge in Gatineau (MAP), is a beautiful converted church that houses some of the best hand-made beer in the region. If you haven’t been their yet, you are missing an essential part of the National Capital Region’s beer culture.

We arrived in the evening, on a Monday - expecting it to be more or less dead - but the place was packed! Even given the fact that the entire street that BDT is on is missing (big construction project). The atmosphere and beer sell themselves it seems. 

The 12 hand brewed beer list was impressive, if not daunting. We each had the Extra Special Bitter - as it came highly recommended by Ben. The beer was cloudier, as all their beers are unfiltered, and hoppier in smell than any ESB I have ever tried. The taste was impressive, and left a subtle malty-sweetness around as a oddly refreshing after-taste. 

Halfway through our pints, we were lucky enough to strike up a conversation with Scott, one of BDT’s brewers. He gave us info on the beer, some tips on our own brewing, and even gave us a personal tour of the brewery! We were blown away at how much Scott knew, how passionate he was about Beer, and how willing he was to field our question and show us some of the lesser know challenges of brewing two production batches PER DAY!

After our tour, Scott introduced us to some of the more challenging beers on the menu:

(the above picture is the fallen soldiers - I gotta take picture BEFORE drinking….another note to self)

                                

AU PIED DU COURANT  IPA (6.5%): Wonderful Hop smell, the first time I’ve really understood what people mean when they describe hop aroma as ‘floral’. It ‘twas a bitter beer, but not an overpowering bitterness. 

                                

DIABLE AU CORPS Double IPA (9.5%): This is a monster of an IPA, bitter from start to finish, but complexly so. It has some grassy notes hidden in the taste that were fun to tease out - be warned, this does not feel like a 9.5% beer - drink with caution. Favorite part of this beer was the wave of oaky-ness that the aftertaste brings, almost as if it was aged on Oak.  

                                

TROIS PORTAGES Belgian Triple (9%): This was honestly, my first Triple - Scott laughed at me for that - After drinking this, I now know why it is one of the most respected styles in Beer. Its complex, challenging, and delicious. It had a subtle fruity flavor and a great hop profile - all the notes you can possibly get. It finishes smooth and leaves an orange, and what I can only describe as ‘rose’, flavor. Another sneaky beer, especially on a warm day. 

                                

I cannot recommend heading to BDT as soon as you can enough, the beer is great! (the food smelt good too!). If you are there, go ahead and order yourself L’horloge (the clock) - a 4oz sample of everything they have on tap!  

                                                        

                                                                                        See all the Pictures!

     

BrewEquiptmentESB

Ontario Craft Brewers Cask Festival 2011 - Arrow and Loon Ottawa, Ontario. This afternoon we headed to the Arrow and Loon, a great pub just inside the Glebe, for the close of OCB week in Ottawa, the 2011 Ottawa Cask Festival. 5 breweries cask conditioned some beers, giving them very unique flavours, and offered them up to the attendants, all to expose Ottawans to some great beer and raise funds for the Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group.  The attending Breweries cask conditioned: Mill Street Brewery - Weedeater and Tankenstien Nickel Brook  - Headstock IPA, Gluten Free Ale, and a Vanilla Bean Porter Beau’s All Natural Brewery - a Bitter, Festiveale, Pan Ontario Ale, and the Lugtread  Muskoka Cottage Brewery - Mad Tom IPA and their Cream Ale Kichesippi Brewery - 1855 Dark Ale and OCB 613 IPA Unfortunately we did not get to try every beer, despite our finest efforts, but we got a good sampling. The predominance of hoppy, high BTU IPA’s meant that we had to drink strategically.  Among all the beer I was lucky enough to get one last taste of the Pan Ontario Ale, thanks to Jamie from Beau’s who was generous enough to provide us with a sample. I’ll say, it’s a crying shame that that beer will never, can never, be tasted again after this batch.                                  For me, the winner of this event was the Nickel Brook Vanilla Bean Maple Porter. It had a nice light maltiness and ended with a heavy, bold maple flavour with a hint of vanilla. In conversations with the gent who brewed it, I learned that this was achieved by putting vanilla beans and pure maple syrup right into the cask while it conditioned.  So unfortunately OCB week has ended, if I am not happy - at least my liver is.                                  Cheers,                               - Click the top image for more Hi-quality photo’s! - 

Ontario Craft Brewers Cask Festival 2011 - Arrow and Loon Ottawa, Ontario.

This afternoon we headed to the Arrow and Loon, a great pub just inside the Glebe, for the close of OCB week in Ottawa, the 2011 Ottawa Cask Festival. 5 breweries cask conditioned some beers, giving them very unique flavours, and offered them up to the attendants, all to expose Ottawans to some great beer and raise funds for the Glebe Neighbourhood Activities Group. 

The attending Breweries cask conditioned:

  • Mill Street Brewery - Weedeater and Tankenstien
  • Nickel Brook  - Headstock IPA, Gluten Free Ale, and a Vanilla Bean Porter
  • Beau’s All Natural Brewery - a Bitter, Festiveale, Pan Ontario Ale, and the Lugtread 
  • Muskoka Cottage Brewery - Mad Tom IPA and their Cream Ale
  • Kichesippi Brewery - 1855 Dark Ale and OCB 613 IPA

Unfortunately we did not get to try every beer, despite our finest efforts, but we got a good sampling. The predominance of hoppy, high BTU IPA’s meant that we had to drink strategically. 

Among all the beer I was lucky enough to get one last taste of the Pan Ontario Ale, thanks to Jamie from Beau’s who was generous enough to provide us with a sample. I’ll say, it’s a crying shame that that beer will never, can never, be tasted again after this batch.

                                

For me, the winner of this event was the Nickel Brook Vanilla Bean Maple Porter. It had a nice light maltiness and ended with a heavy, bold maple flavour with a hint of vanilla. In conversations with the gent who brewed it, I learned that this was achieved by putting vanilla beans and pure maple syrup right into the cask while it conditioned. 

So unfortunately OCB week has ended, if I am not happy - at least my liver is.

                                

Cheers,                               - Click the top image for more Hi-quality photo’s! - 

Nickel Brook CasksVanilla Bean Maple PorterBeau's CasksKichesippi Samples

Beer, Cheese, and Bacon! Last night we had the great fortune of sitting down with a pack of Ottawa Beerites, Jamie Kaufman from Beau’s, and Matt from Clocktower BrewPub to taste some Ontario beers, paired with cheeses and God’s other gift to humanity….Bacon.  The event was part of the Ontario Craft Brewers Week, and located in the basement bar of the 575 Bank Street Clocktower, we grabbed some pints of Kichesippi, and chatted for a bit with the boys. Soon the room smelt like bacon, and all was good in the world. They Paired:                  Beau’s Lugtread Ale - Soft Brie - Italian Prosciutto Clocktower ESB - 9 Year Old Chedder - Smoked Maple Bacon Clocktower Brown Ale - Ripen Orange Chedder - Smoked Maple Bacon Pan-Ontario Ale - Aged Blue Goat’s Cheese - Double Smoked Local Bacon                  By and far the hero of the night was the Pan Ontario Ale. This is a beer that was created by combining 5 Beers from across Ontario: - Grand River’s Curmudgeon IPA- Wellington’s Russian Imperial Stout- Flying Monkey’s Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale- Beau’s Screamin’ Beaver Double IPA- Great Lakes’ 666 Devil’s Pale Ale The whole thing was then Aged in Bourbon barrels….. BOURBON BARRELS!!! Needless to say, it was amazing and I wish I had more, but they apparently only mixed up about 4,000 liters of it, and that really isn’t a lot.        Good night overall, excited to see what #OCBweek has in store for this weekend. Also, sorry about the lack of pictures of the food, I was too busy eating it…..note for next time.                                 

Beer, Cheese, and Bacon!

Last night we had the great fortune of sitting down with a pack of Ottawa Beerites, Jamie Kaufman from Beau’s, and Matt from Clocktower BrewPub to taste some Ontario beers, paired with cheeses and God’s other gift to humanity….Bacon. 

The event was part of the Ontario Craft Brewers Week, and located in the basement bar of the 575 Bank Street Clocktower, we grabbed some pints of Kichesippi, and chatted for a bit with the boys. Soon the room smelt like bacon, and all was good in the world.

They Paired:

                

Beau’s Lugtread Ale - Soft Brie - Italian Prosciutto

Clocktower ESB - 9 Year Old Chedder - Smoked Maple Bacon

Clocktower Brown Ale - Ripen Orange Chedder - Smoked Maple Bacon

Pan-Ontario Ale - Aged Blue Goat’s Cheese - Double Smoked Local Bacon

                

By and far the hero of the night was the Pan Ontario Ale. This is a beer that was created by combining 5 Beers from across Ontario:

- Grand River’s Curmudgeon IPA
- Wellington’s Russian Imperial Stout
- Flying Monkey’s Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale
- Beau’s Screamin’ Beaver Double IPA
- Great Lakes’ 666 Devil’s Pale Ale

The whole thing was then Aged in Bourbon barrels….. BOURBON BARRELS!!!

Needless to say, it was amazing and I wish I had more, but they apparently only mixed up about 4,000 liters of it, and that really isn’t a lot.

      

Good night overall, excited to see what #OCBweek has in store for this weekend. Also, sorry about the lack of pictures of the food, I was too busy eating it…..note for next time.

                                

Beau's LugtreadClocktower ESBClocktower Brown AlePan-Ontario AleBrie! and that meat I can't pronounce


Beau’s All Natural Screamin’ Beaver Oak Aged Double IPA - 9.9% Part of Beau’s ‘Wild Oat’s’ Series, Screamin’ Beaver is an overload of hoppy Oak-hinted beer. They only bottled 1000 of these bad boys (I grabbed 2… Ben grabbed 8!), and they were only available for sale at the Brewery. The Beer is a dark-amber color, and has a faint, but noticeable, oak taste - which obviously comes from the Oak staves that it’s aged on - but the beer is dominated by hops, grassy, grassy hops. Top notch beer though, if your lucky enough to get your hands on one.

Beau’s All Natural Screamin’ Beaver Oak Aged Double IPA - 9.9%

Part of Beau’s ‘Wild Oat’s’ Series, Screamin’ Beaver is an overload of hoppy Oak-hinted beer. They only bottled 1000 of these bad boys (I grabbed 2… Ben grabbed 8!), and they were only available for sale at the Brewery.

The Beer is a dark-amber color, and has a faint, but noticeable, oak taste - which obviously comes from the Oak staves that it’s aged on - but the beer is dominated by hops, grassy, grassy hops. Top notch beer though, if your lucky enough to get your hands on one.

Beau’s Brewery Tour I finally got around to taking the Beau’s Brewery tour out in Vankleek Hill. We were treated to a top-notch tour given by a man passionate about beer and ready to field all questions. We were lucky enough to be there when there was no active brewing going on, so we got the unrestricted tour and even got to see the fridge that  contained the top secret recipe for their money-maker Lugtread - NOTE: it’s bottom was not so secret. The tour was free for starters, and it was prefaced with a tasting of the flagship Lugtread Ale, followed by the Seasonal Beaver River IPA, and topped of with a tasting of the limited release Screamin’ Beaver Oak Aged Double IPA which comes in at a heavy 9.9%! Our guide gave us the in’s and out’s of the operation, and was nice enough to show us a back corner where the guys and gal’s working at the brewery keep their homebrewing equipment - which they are encouraged to use!….lucky bastards. He concluded the tour by politely thanking everyone for coming, then gave me and Ben a ‘Psst….come over here’, and filled our sample glasses with some new beer’s the team at Beau’s is fermenting - right out of the vat! Good times. If you’re ever bored on a nice day, take the nice country drive out to Beau’s and take the tour, its informative and gives you a good appreciation for the uniqueness of what they are doing with beer - also, everyone there was amazingly friendly and inviting, I wish we could have stayed longer and hung out on the adjoining Patio and killed some pints in the sun.                                                                                                                                                             - Click on the Top Picture for the pictures from the tour! -            

Beau’s Brewery Tour

I finally got around to taking the Beau’s Brewery tour out in Vankleek Hill. We were treated to a top-notch tour given by a man passionate about beer and ready to field all questions. We were lucky enough to be there when there was no active brewing going on, so we got the unrestricted tour and even got to see the fridge that  contained the top secret recipe for their money-maker Lugtread - NOTE: it’s bottom was not so secret.

The tour was free for starters, and it was prefaced with a tasting of the flagship Lugtread Ale, followed by the Seasonal Beaver River IPA, and topped of with a tasting of the limited release Screamin’ Beaver Oak Aged Double IPA which comes in at a heavy 9.9%!

Our guide gave us the in’s and out’s of the operation, and was nice enough to show us a back corner where the guys and gal’s working at the brewery keep their homebrewing equipment - which they are encouraged to use!….lucky bastards.

He concluded the tour by politely thanking everyone for coming, then gave me and Ben a ‘Psst….come over here’, and filled our sample glasses with some new beer’s the team at Beau’s is fermenting - right out of the vat! Good times.

If you’re ever bored on a nice day, take the nice country drive out to Beau’s and take the tour, its informative and gives you a good appreciation for the uniqueness of what they are doing with beer - also, everyone there was amazingly friendly and inviting, I wish we could have stayed longer and hung out on the adjoining Patio and killed some pints in the sun.


                                                                                                                                                            - Click on the Top Picture for the pictures from the tour! -            

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