The Mill Street Beer Hall Opens in the Distillery District

Restaurant critics generally tend to let newly opened establishments have a one or two month grace period to sort out the kinks of servers, dishes and generally getting settled. Luckily beer reviewers aren’t beholden to the same set of unwritten rules! My trip to the new Mill Street Beer Hall this past weekend, three weeks into their soft open but one week before their official grand opening (happening May 30th), was more for the beer and to check out the space than to critique the service and food (though both got passing grades, for the record).

Located just around the corner from the Mill Street Brewpub, it is best not to expect the Beer Hall to reflect its name. While the term beer hall may evoke long picnic tables with communal seating, a meat heavy menu and bar maids holding eight steins in one hand (with the closest example in Toronto being Wvrst), the Mill Street Beer Hall is more like the younger, trendier sibling of the Brewpub. There is some communal seating, but they are high bar tables that have become common in many restaurants in Toronto and remind me most of ramen places like the Momofuku Noodle Bar or Kinton Ramen. There is an actual bar, though it is quite small, and lots of table seating as the restaurant stretches far back. The patio is still under construction, so maybe that will be more reminiscent of a German beer garden.

There is a German connection to the new beers on offer -  the Ampel Weiss, a Berliner Weisse that can be served au natural or with a raspberry or green woodruff syrup added. The plain version is slightly tart and very refreshing. It is not especially complex, but will be a great patio beer in the summer months. The woodruff syrup lended a nice green apple flavour while not being overly sweet. The Distillery Ale is a 5.8% Old Ale that left me a little stymied. The caramel and bready malts just didn’t seem to quite fit the earthy, spicy hops. It was more strange than unpleasant, but not something I’ll be rushing to try again. It was one of those beers where you just couldn’t see what the brewer was trying to achieve.

The final new beer at the Beer Hall was the real winner for me – the Minimus Dubbel. I’m always a little concerned when breweries start playing around with Belgian ales because they can often end up being cloyingly sweet from the candi sugar (the Betelgeuse from Mill Street being a previous example of a sickly sweet Belgian-style Golden Ale). The Minimus was definitely not sweet as the sugars are offset by oak aging that helps give a woody and slightly tannic quality. (My assumption is that fresh oak is used, likely chips or staves). Filled with notes of cocoa and toasted grains, slightly fruity and bready, the beer has a nice balance of flavours. It is served too cold, so let it warm up to really let the beer shine. Unfortunately the bierschnaps are not yet available, but I’ll be planning another trip as soon as they are.

The Beer Hall is definitely a step up from the neighbouring brewpub, but the name really isn’t fitting. To me it is a proper restaurant and the name doesn’t match the final product. The menu is designing for sharing (once again, not very common in a beer hall), which is fine but not all the tables have the appropriate space by the time you add in beer flights. The flatbread we ordered came out on a giant wooden board that was unnecessarily large, another sign that the Beer Hall was going for modern dining in everything but name. For the record, I have no problem with that – I’d much rather spend more for dinner at the Beer Hall than have an inferior meal at the brewpub. While the name is unfortunately here to stay, I’m sure the kinks will be worked out in the coming months and that Mill Street will have another successful establishment to add to their growing collection.

LCBO 2013 Summer Beer Release and Renaissance Brewing Feature

The LCBO has released the list of the 2013 Summer Beer Release, scheduled to start appearing on shelves the week of May 27th.

• Abbaye Des Rocs Blanche Des Honnelles / 330mL / 6.0% / $2.80 (RB)
• Achouffe Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen IPA Tripel / 330mL / 9.0% / $3.75 (RB)
• Duboisson Scaldis Blonde Triple / 750mL / 10.5% / $8.10 (RB)
• Bockor Cuvee des Jacobins  / 330mL / 5.5% / $3.30 (RB)
• Howe Sound King Heffy Imperial Hefeweizen / 1000mL / 7.7% / $11.20 (RB)
• Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Saison / 750mL / 6.0% / $9.90 (RB)
• Le Trou du Diable Shawinigan Handshake/ 500mL / 6.5% / $4.95 (RB)
• Les Trois Mousquetaires Hopfenweisse / 750mL / 6.0% / $6.75 (RB)
• Mikkeller Canadian Dream / 330mL / 4.6% / $3.45 (aka The American Dream? – RB)
• Thornbridge Kipling South Pacific Ale / 500mL / 5.2% / $5.00 (RB)
• Hofbrau Munchen Hefe Weizen / 500mL / 5.1% / $2.95 (RB)
• Nogne O Saison / 500mL / 6.5% / $6.00 (RB)
• Ommegang Hennepin / 6x355mL / 7.7% / $12.95 (RB)
• Brooklyn Sorachi Ace / 750mL / 7.6% / $4.85 (RB)

The Renaissance brewery feature was also announced:

• Renaissance Perfection Pale Ale / 500mL / 5.0% / $5.65 (RB)
• Renaissance Marlborough Pale Ale / 500mL / 8.8% / $6.45 (RB)
• Renaissance Discovery American Pale Ale / 500mL / 4.5% / $5.65 (RB)
• Renaissance Voyager India Pale Ale / 500mL / 6.0% / $5.65 (RB)

Once again, two interesting releases and ones that are best talked about together. Some will likely complain about the summer release being heavy on beers that emphasis the yeast character (weisse beers, saisons and other Belgian style beers), but the Renaissance feature adds a nice hop compliment. Also keep in mind that Ontario breweries are meeting the hop fix right now, so it makes even more sense for the LCBO to bring in beers that cover styles not made in Ontario right now (or I should say styles that Ontario breweries maybe haven’t submitted to the LCBO). This is also the most expensive summer release that I’ve seen (for comparison, see last year). Not counting the Hennepin six pack, there are some pricier beers and it will be interesting to see how quickly these sell. A lot of the beers are also not made for mass consumption – five come in at higher than 7% (six if you include the Renaissance Marlborough).

The real test with the seasonal releases is how many of the beers are tempting to buy and once again this release fairs very well. There are a couple I will likely pass on because they just don’t thrill me, but there are no obvious duds. Add in the beers to come from Ontario breweries and it should be a good summer for beer!

Beer Pornography: Long Weekend Inspiration

My apologies to those reading this at work, but my long weekend has officially started. The fridge is full of beer, the beer closet is stacked with backups and I’m ready to enjoy four sunny days away from work. If you’re looking for some inspiration for what to drink over the weekend, look no further than these beers. The time has finally arrived for saisons, IPAs, pilsners and bieres de garde (or is it biere de gardes?). That being said, now is also a good time to clean out (ie. drink) those few remaining strong beers that might be lurking in the back of your fridge.

2013 Predictions: Update #3

Two more updates to the list of 2013 Predictions:

• A big congratulations to Great Lakes for being named Brewery of the Year at the Canadian Brewing Awards! Great Lakes would have been on top if I had done the tiers for 2013, so this win was not a surprise but Great Lakes definitely earned the award. Congrats to all the other breweries that took home hardware. (Photo of Troy Burtch with the award from the Great Lakes Twitter feed.)
• The barrel aging trend continues to grow as Cameron’s released the Obsidian, an Imperial Porter aged in rum barrels, into LCBOs across the province. Distribution is quite large (as it was with the Flying Monkeys Matador) so it will be interesting to see how quickly these premium products sell out.
• While my prediction of the Jays making the playoffs seems likely to be a dud, hopefully the Leafs can pull out one more game tonight against the Bruins. Win or lose, it has been a good season/series and the youngest team in the NHL should be fun to watch for years to come. GO LEAFS GO!

Cask Days IPA Challenge 2013

Helping out with the first round judging for the Cask Days IPA Challenge means trying a minimum of sixteen beers (plus whatever beers you drink after judging), which was half of the competition this year. That gives a pretty good base for the overall quality of the event, because odds are that the great and terrible beers are equally spread out between the two judging groups. Like the rest of the event, our judging was done blind with no indication of the beers we were trying. For those that haven’t judged beer before, it’s quite a challenge – the first three or four beers can be hard to rate until you can establish a general standard for comparison. Sometimes you come across a perfectly fine beer that goes against the style, either in a small way or rather glaringly (this happened on more than one occasion).

Judging the IPA Challenge is also difficult because the beers are being rated against the set style criterion for English and American IPAs. That is not to say that breweries didn’t try to break the mold – a couple of casks seemed to have some White IPA characteristics and one strange beer contained smoked malts. The group I was judging with felt it was hard to give these beers a higher score because they went against the set style. I can understand why breweries would try to make their beer stand out – it was hard to remember all the beers in detail after you’ve had sixteen of them. (And no, not because of the alcohol, but just the sheer number of beers.)

On the whole, the overall quality of the casks was lower than my expectations. There were three beers from my group that stood out (scores of 40+ out of 50 on my sheet), but too many that seemed to have glaring errors in them. Some of the beers were clearly aided by added carbonation. Of the beers that did stand out, many seemed to be created in the same mold, which was very light in the malt profile to allow for the hops to fully stand out. Obviously the hops that are used create differences between the beers, but it was a little disappointing that the path to success has become fairly predictable.

Comparing the bracket to the scores is also an interesting exercise to see what beers deserved better fates and which ones were aided by their bracket. The Great Lakes Karma Citra was the second ranked beer from Round Three, but was eliminated because it faced the top ranked beer (Hopfenstark’s Post Colonial). The beer ranked 29th in Round One made it to Round Two thanks to their match-up, which came in 31st. Such is the nature of a competition that involves brackets – it’s not only about the quality of the beer, but also who that beer is paired up against. Some of my favourites didn’t make it past the second round, which is just the way things go sometimes.

The next Cask Days IPA Challenge will take place in a new venue, moving to the Brickworks Farmers Market on April 26 and 27, 2014. The Challenge is going up to 64 casks next year, so it will be interesting to see how that jump in numbers affects the quality of the casks. The dates for Cask Days were also announced, so mark your calendars for October 19th and 20th. It will once again be at the Brickworks and tickets will be available starting August 1st.

The List – May 2013

Back in February or March there were some teaser tweets that I had started work on the 2013 edition of the Ontario brewery tiers. It was rather preliminary work, but I found myself running into problems. Ontario now has a massive amount of craft breweries, which make the tiers even more onerous for a man with a day job. I found myself with little to no knowledge about a lot of the breweries (especially those in the Ottawa region) and felt the process would be undone by a significant number of exclusions. Keeping up with seasonal and one-off beers has become increasingly harder, so fairly rating each brewery was also proving to be challenging. I could keep going on, but the point is that the brewery tiers are now dead. (If someone wants to buy the concept for their blog or website, I’d be happy to trade you the rights in exchange for beer.)

Not wanting to completely trash the concept, I’d like to introduce you to a new monthly feature tentatively called “The List.” At the beginning of every month, I’ll rank the hottest ten breweries in Ontario. What’s “hot” is going to be rather subjective – a non-scientific survey of what beers are tasting fine and what the beer community is talking about. This will allow me to be timely than the tiers and give more kudos to the smaller breweries that had a harder time moving up tiers for various reasons.

1. Bellwoods. Hitting a nice stride, culminating in Bring Out Your Dead (a cognac barrel aged imperial stout for their one year anniversary). Start lining up now for spots on the patio this spring and summer. Hopefully they will avoid the sophomore slump.

2. Great Lakes. Got LCBO listings for My Bitter Wife and the Amsterdam collab Maverick & Gose. Love their Johnny Simcoe. The only question is where to erect the Mike Lackey statue.

3. Amsterdam. See above re: Maverick & Gose. Brewpub patio should provide healthy competition to Bellwoods and can’t open soon enough.

4. Mill Street. The new Beer Hall has gotten lots of publicity for the bierschnaps, but I’m more interested in the Ampel Weiss, a 3.8% Berliner Weisse. Mill Street has lost its lustre in recent years and the Beer Hall might be the last chance to get it back.

5. Nickel Brook. Quietly producing a number of fine beers. My dark horse pick to go far at the Cask Days IPA Challenge.

6. Muskoka. Corked bottles of the Legendary Muskoka Oddity are impressive for Ontario. Having the Summer Weiss in six-packs is a smarter choice than the large format bottles, though I still miss the Hefe in cans.

7. Left Field. Their launch party was cut short because they ran out of beer. Yeah, I think people are interested.

8. Bush Pilot. Hard not to talk about an 11% barley wine aged in Calvados barrels, even if people are divided over the final product.

9. Cameron’s. The RPA is now in LCBOs and they’ve released the Obsidian, an imperial porter aged in rum barrels.

10. Sawdust City. The Red Rocket Stout is pretty darn delicious and the Lone Pine IPA is coming to the LCBO. May not sound sexy, but my taste buds approve.

Honourable mentions:

• The possible LCBO strike has people talking about how alcohol is sold in Ontario, which is always a good thing. Though I’d say the odds of a strike actually happening are about 1%.
• Liberty Village, a new Toronto brewery that released their 504 Pale Ale.

Finally, I hate coming up with names for new features, so if anyone wants to put on their pun hats and think of something to describe this I would be very appreciative. (And no, I’m not going to call them “power rankings” or similar terms used for ranking sports teams.) Put your suggestions in the comments or on Twitter.

Which Came First: the Chicken or the IPA?

There must be some mathematical formula for figuring out the demand for craft beer in any given province or state. The variables would be dependent on the province/state but would include any laws and regulations (for Ontario, that also means the whims and desires of the LCBO and what it chooses to put on shelves), local breweries (factoring in their size, how long they’ve been in operation, the beers being made), foreign breweries (desire/willingness to get into said market) and local demographics (urban vs rural, disposable income, maybe even age and education). It would largely be a theoretical exercise as trying to actual plug in the appropriate numbers for all the variables would be near impossible, but it would at least help to figure out how demand for craft beer changes over time.

This may sound weird, but it has been fascinating to watch the craft beer market in Ontario change so rapidly over the period of a year or two. Lately I’ve been trying to piece together all the little changes that brought craft beer to the forefront. It used to be that Ontario was kind of a waste land. Few breweries outside of Ontario wanted to deal with the LCBO because it just took too long to get your beers here. (Usually you brought in a beer or two through the seasonal releases, then might get a larger listing.) Though our population was large, the market was relatively unproven. Ontario breweries weren’t making anything too interesting or exciting because, once again, there wasn’t a proven market for IPAs or Imperial Stouts. What has changed in the past two years? How have we ascended to hop heaven so quickly? (There was no surer sign that the enlightenment had come than when the LCBO was advertising IPAs at TTC bus stops and on subway platforms.)

The claim that Ontario was ready for a big, hoppy beer permeated for years even though the release of Southern Tier IPA and Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA in 2008 led to people obsessively tracking the beers down. (Dogfish Head later pulled out of Ontario because demand was too high for their beers in the US.) Neither beer was cheap – in fact, I can remember the Southern Tier IPA approaching $15 at one point. The beers got publicity and hype, leading very often to empty shelves. Yet still Ontario breweries refused to acknowledge that the market was evolving.

Here is my theory for why the whole “The Market Isn’t Ready Yet” theory persisted for so many years – because consumers are generally lazy. It takes a special kind of beer geek to go on regular beer runs to Buffalo or other cities with close proximity to the border. The time, money and energy just isn’t worth it for most people when compared to going to their local LCBO and picking up a six pack or two. People were ready for bigger beers packed with flavour, but had limited means of showing it (outside from the hardcore beer lovers making pilgrimages to the States). It had to be the Ontario craft breweries to change this idea by releasing hoppy beers and seeing how the market reacted. The people of Ontario spoke with their wallets, quickly establishing Smashbomb, Mad Tom and Crazy Canuck as regular brands in Ontario. Once these beers were available on a consistent basis through the LCBO, it was possible to prove that Ontario was now a very viable market for a wider range of craft beers. Black Oak could have run away with the market two or three years ago with 10 Bitter Years. By the time that beer finally gets released into the LCBO (latest reports say May), the competition will be much stiffer and the beer will have a harder time finding its place in the market. I find that rapid change in the market to be astonishing.

Another way of thinking about the Ontario beer market is to ask this question: has there ever been a case in the past three years where a beer made in Ontario was released that was ahead of the market? I can’t think of any instance where there was a really good beer (or even a really terrible beer) that no one was buying. Some of the foreign beers in the LCBO seasonal releases have not gone over so well, but the Ontario craft beer section is thriving. Even better, it is not one or two breweries leading the pack, but a solid effort from dozens of breweries to bring interesting products to the people of Ontario.

The LCBO gets shit on almost daily by craft beer lovers, but it has done a very fine job of recognizing the growing craft beer market and providing people with a greater selection. Yes, the system is still onerous to deal with and is not perfect, but it is not the hindrance that it once was. (I think it could be argued that the breweries had as big of a role in stalling the craft beer movement as the LCBO did.) The LCBO is probably the greatest influencer on what happens to craft beer and is doing better job at getting more seasonal products out to the province, while still finding room for new general list items. Not recognizing their role in the growth of craft beer would be shortsighted.

My theory is that the recent success by Ontario craft breweries in releasing more eclectic offerings has made the market more tempting for breweries outside of Ontario. Recent arrivals to the LCBO have included beers from Founder’s, Goose Island (being owned by AB-Inbev probably helps), Elysian, Green Flash and Phillips. Rogue started shipping kegs to go along with their bottles that appear in the LCBO. The gains that the Ontario breweries made is now making the market more attractive to outsiders, which in turn should cause the Ontario breweries to be more creative and experimental in their products.

In a year or two all the recent gains will seem trivial, just as all the hype over Smashbomb and Mad Tom seems funny now, but for now the golden age of beer is getting brighter by the month. The market shows no signs of slowing down – rather, increased competition seems to only drive craft beer to greater gains.