Back again to mail in a #beersaturday post while our fearless leader @detlev is jet setting and getting loaded abroad. Beer blogging came naturally to me due to years spent brewing for myself and restaurants, working with breweries on their technology & marketing, and the decades spent imbibing. Hence, the self-decreed title of the #Blockchain #Beerologist doing my best to consume, report and even brew to do that title justice.

This week, I visit the theatre, and discover some new beers from breweries I haven't sampled in a while.

Pints of the Week

The Pint 'o the Week is usually a nice beer on the town, whether at a lunch, event or quick one at the pub. This week, they are some high class pints as we are catching a play at the new theatre https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/landingpages/TPT. My better half bought the tickets and figured I would be better enticed if she added a couple beers to be picked up at intermission. She is not wrong as I would have gone anyway but how nice was it to just find them there ready to drink?! One is a Black Swan EPA https://blackswanbrewing.ca/show/our-beer.php and a Mill St. Organic Lager https://millstreetdelivery.com/products/original-organic-lager



Grand Magic https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/PlaysAndEvents/Production/Grand-Magic was pretty neat too!

Barnstormer Mirror Pass

It has been quite a while since I have sampled a Barnstormer Brewing https://barnstormerbrewing.com/pages/about-us beer. How happy was I to find a new one and see it was actually a Rye IPA which I am generally quite fond of!? I was curious at the namesake of this because they don't really get into the plane theme and I was thinking miror pass might be some cool top gun fighter plane shit!



When I spun the can around and found meaningful descriptors on the side label, it only got better when I read Mosaic and Citra hops, 2 of my favourites! I wouldn't say they mirror as much as complement each other but loose ideas are about all that are put into naming other regional IPAs. This one went down nicely and I enjoyed the almost sweet malt body of the rye and the wonderful hops combination. I need to have a few more of these to see it stacks up to my current favourites!

Tarana-saurus

Here is another brewery I have firmly on my radar but haven't sampled in a while. I visited and featured Indie Alehouse Brewing Company https://indiealehouse.com/a couple years ago when I visited my old hood in Toronto. We do tend to pronounce it Tarana, Terrana or Tronno so the name of this one is pretty good. With the words juicy, hazy and IPA, it could have been from Shitty Smitty's brewery and I would have grabbed one.



A nice yellow haze on this Tarana-saurus Toronto IPA https://indiealehouse.com/blogs/rants/tarana-saurus-ipa-now-available-in-select-lcbo-stores?_pos=3&_sid=5ec7797a5&_ss=r and I love the shadow of the CN tower in the mouth of the 'saurus. For hops, it boasts the ever-popular Citra for the citrussy character and a rather unconventional Centennial which I find to be a more old-school ale hop generally used for some piney dry, crispness. Interesting twist!



It was apparently difficult to contain the ilustration on this label and I was forced to take a third picture to do it justice. This one didn't taste like over 6% ABV for the smooth texture but the centennial was liberally applied for that bitter, almost piney character you would expect from a west coast IPA. So great to have these gems show up at our stores 90 minutes down the highway. I would buy this and any other Indie Alehouse IPA I see on the shelves out here. Just delicious!

#BEERSaturday!

Thomas Jefferson is a wise man and perhaps he should join us on Hive. This week, you can join @detlev, myself and all the other beer bloggers at https://hive.blog/hive-187719/@detlev/beersaturday-316 for this week's edition.

This week for #BeerSaturday, I would like to invite new friend @bemier who is from Turkey and is powering up in solidarity with his countrymen and women including @incublus! Take a few pictures, tag #beersaturday and raise a glass with us on Hive!

Cheers to our global family of beer-drinkers!!

I am honoured to curate for:

Any good new beers from familiar breweries there?