Taps Magazine

[mr x]

Anybody subscribe? I let mine lapse a couple years ago as the content was kinda 'not that great'. But I see they may be improving in certain areas. Here's the latest contents:

p.10 Bar Snacks Coast To Coast Industry News

p.15 Truly All Canadian
With ingredients such as birch syrup from the Yukon, partridge berries from Newfoundland and teas and berries from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, this ale was designed to exhibit all of Canada.

p.16 Down The Hatch featuring Garrison's Daniel Girard by Troy Burtch
Girard lived and worked overseas for many years, including Japan, and after graduating from the prestigious VLB Berlin, Girard made his way back to Canada.

p.18 The Business Of Beer by Rob Symes
The first article in a series looking at the business of brewing. We kick off with beer’s journey from simple ingredients to something we know and love

p.21 French Connection by Mirella Amato
With the recent expansion, Grisé is very much looking forward to creating a few new brands and is also thinking of reviving a few classic Le Bilboquet recipes that haven’t been brewed in at least eight years. “One has to have some fun. I hate falling into a routine and producing beer just because it needs to be made.” he explains “It helps keep my creative juices flowing.”

p.23 Brewing A Brewery by Matt J. Simmons
Chapter Four in the ongoing series about starting a microbrewery... Lately, the brewery has become the one juggling ball to hit the floor and roll under the fridge. Will we fish it out? Sure, we’ll move the fridge eventually, and we may even do some cleaning while we’re under there. But for now...

p.24 Brew School
Year one is in the books. The inaugural group of students with Niagara College's Brewmaster and Brewery Operation Management program made it through their first year of studies. All 24 of them. We thought we'd ask a number of those first year students some questions to see how year one went and what they're looking forward to in year two.

p.28 Ode To The Great Pumpkin by Mike Tessier
As All Hallows Eve approaches, and the nights get colder, a spell is seemingly cast on brewers all over the world. Like zombies they start sacrificing small pumpkins in their brewing cauldrons...

p.30 Quaffs, Questions & Answers featuring Terry Lock by Mirella Amato
Terry Lock is the chairman for the European Beer Consumers Union. The EBCU was founded in 1990 by three beer consumer organizations, representing Belgium, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, in order to allow these organizations to lobby effectively at EU levels. The ECBU has become the recognized voice of beer consumers across Europe.

p.32 Hell Bay by Craig Pinhey
The south shore of Nova Scotia, particularly the area near Liverpool, is famous for the privateer vessels that travelled the coastline in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the war-torn years of this seafaring town. Privateers raided Liverpool on several occasions; targeting French vessels but also doing battle with the British militia. They were not quite pirates, and perhaps didn’t say ‘arrgh, ye mateys’ all the time, but privateers were surely ruthless, and might have proclaimed, “I’d kill for a beer,” and meant it.

p.34 Adventures Of A Craft Beer Foodie... by Tracy Phillippi
The year is 1860, and you and your immigrant family are travelling to the St.Lawrence Market in Toronto. You arrive at the ‘Half Way House’ on Kingston Road in Scarborough. You saunter in, but rather than a taproom, yet your surroundings resemble a modern-day community centre. For this is a time when small-scale, craft beer was the centre of community socializing and an integral part of a healthy human diet.

p.36 Overnight Success by Greg Clow
Muskoka Brewery in Bracebridge, Ontario is a brewery that has overcome 15 years of obstacles and rolled with the punches thrown at them by a constantly evolving craft beer marketplace...

p.39 In Depth by Troy Burtch
Internationally renowned, Brooklyn Brewery's Garrett Oliver.

p.45 Judgement Days
As the Canadian Brewing Awards continue to grow with the participation of more and more breweries each year, the number of beers submitted also rises. Thiwas apparent with almost 500 beers entered for consideration in 2011. With 84 Canadian breweries vying for gold, silver, and bronze medal tap handle trophies in 39 different style categories, we needed to increase the number of judging days and sessions while attracting more judges than ever before.

p.46 All The Winners!
The 2011 Canadian Brewing Awards complete list of winners.

p.49 The Perfect Pair
Premier chefs Mark McEwan and Michael Smith create delicious dishes for beer pairing, exclusively for TAPS.

p.53 Weekend Blunch by Chef Michael Olson
I like the idea of brunch, I do, really. But I don’t want coffee with food, and yogurt is not as appealing as it should be, sorry. Stay with me on this one though, I really like the idea of having friends over for a relaxed weekend lunch where we can enjoy some delicious food and look for some new beers. BEER + LUNCH = BLUNCH.

p.58 Savor by Chuck Cook
The intent of SAVOR is to be the premier beer and food pairing event in the USA. From June 3rd-4th, in Washington, DC, 72 independent American breweries were represented, pouring 144 different beers over the two sessions, on a Friday and Saturday night. Two expert chefs paired each craft beer with various delectable dishes..

p.63 Confessions Of A Brewer by Sam Corbeil
Left and Leaving: Leaving is a selfish time, a time to focus on yourself and that’s okay, because it’s once you’ve left that you start to really think about other people and what you’ve left behind. When you’ve left a job, you’re gone; it’s over, it’s final...

p.64 The New Scotland by Matt J. Simmons
...a few days earlier, I stood at the bar in a country pub with a pint of English bitter, picking the locals’ brains for what to expect from their northern neighbours’ brewing styles. “There aren’t any good beers up there,” one local said. He raised his glass to his lips and grinned. “You’ll want to stick to sampling whisky, mate.”...

p.67 Chile's David & Goliath by John Holl
What I came to realize is that Chile, a country known and celebrated for its wine, is experiencing the first real growth spurt following its craft beer birth. There are estimates of as many as one hundred breweries spread throughout the South American country and more being planned with each growing month. If you haven’t heard much from Chile or tasted their beers yet, I’m sure that will change in the coming years.

p.71 High On Gravity by Craig Pinhey
As a homebrewer, I wanted to make two kegs of 3.5-4% bitter, one for me and one for my friend, so I made a strong ale of around 7-8%, hopped the bejeesus out of it, and then split the batch, adding sterile water and dry hops as I kegged it. And it turned out fine. I did not feel guilty.

p.73 Flying The Flag For Proper Beer by Martin Sayers
This year CAMRA – The Campaign for Real Ale – celebrates its fortieth birthday and anybody with a love of British beer will be familiar with the huge success that the group has had in championing traditional styles of beer, ale and cider and the pubs that serve them. What began life as a small gathering of beer drinking enthusiasts has become one of the biggest pressure groups in Britain, with over 120,000 members and a reputation as the most successful consumer group in Europe.

p.75 Cervezas In The Sun by Connie Proteau
Baja Brewing Co., or the BBC as the locals like to call it, is the first and so far, only craft brewery that makes its home on the over 1200 kilometre stretch of land on the west coast of Mexico known as the Baja California peninsula. The brewery is the brainchild of a young man from Colorado. As a college student, Jordan Gardenhire had a penchant for dabbling in homebrewing coupled with a desire to live the surfer lifestyle.

p.77 Keeping It Local by James Burla
A visit to beautiful Vancouver Island is a trip every Canadian should take, but a secondary trip into the Gulf Islands is the really hidden gem. Many brewmasters start their career as homebrewers and after sharing their creations with others often become an integral part of a new craft brewery. This is how it happened for Murray Hunter and Gulf Islands Brewing.

p.79 Tuff Enough For Tofino by Matt J. Simmons
Tempestuous waves crash violently onto the sand as surfers, clad in the ubiquitous neoprene uniform of the Pacific coast, struggle to stay upright in the churning water... and BC’s newest brewery surfs on early success...Tofino Brewery

p.81 True Taste Of Flavours by Luke McKinney
Every field develops its own language, and beer reviewers have a more specialized dialect than a Navajo R2-D2. They discuss fruity tastes more often than Adam and Eve, with better results, and are the only people in the world to regularly use the word ‘ecru’ (because ‘greyishyellowish- brown’ doesn't sound very tasty). Which begs the question: how do notes of pineapple and banana get into a beer?

p.83 Carboys In The Laundry Room by Christine Beevis
What's your homebrew setup? Unlike craft or commercial brewing, with their systems costing tens of thousands of dollars, home brewers seem to be able to cobble together a brewing system from just about anything lying around at home, or available for purchase at Home Depot. Here’s a sampling of a few Halifax-based homebrewers’ setups and their thoughts on the pros and cons.

p.86 Tasting Notes
Fat Tug IPA - Driftwood, Hopyard Pale Ale - Garrison, Blanche - Brasseurs du Monde, Discovery Low Gravity Ale - Spinnakers, Mill Race Mild - Grand River, Vienna Lager - King Brewery

Tasting notes provided by Stephen Beaumont, Roger Mittag, Chester Carey, Greg Clow, Craig Pinhey and Troy Burtch

p.88 Homebrewing Recipe - by Eric Ecclestone
This issue: Belgian Dubbel.

p.89 Brewers, Barkeeps, Redcoats & Rebels by Matthew Bellamy
Few heard the heavy oak door slam shut behind him as the barkeeper John Montgomery entered the tavern that bore his name. The colonial drinkinghole was in a state of frenzy. This fact alone, however, did not distinguish the night of December 4th, 1837. Colonial taverns were often ruckus places, serving as civic centres for elections and meetings, as entrepots for commerce and trade; as sites for social events, from horse races to auctions, boxing matches to craft workshops, balls to religious gatherings and sometimes, as on this night, they acted as hothouses for rebellion.

p.92 My Shout by Stephen Beaumont
My most recent trip, at time of writing, was to London for the biggie of the European beer festival circuit, the Great British Beer Festival. It was not my first such voyage, as I have travelled to the GBBF numerous times in the past, even arriving early enough to judge one year, but as with all such prior trips, it was uniquely illuminating. Here are a handful of the lessons I learned.

[PEIBeerGuy]

Are making a specific reference to page 83?
'Cause I was going to mention that article the other day when my issue arrived - saw chalmers' piece on his home brew set up. He's famous!
What other Brewnosers are in that piece?

[mr x]

I was actually referring to the improvement in the food section, which was my gripe with my last sub. with TAPS. But it's good to see local content too.

[chalmers]

I think they've got some at Garrison, anywhere else in town one can pick them up? Chapters, would they have it?

[mr x]

H&T now sells them. I wish the section featuring our stuff had more pics and less text....

[LiverDance]

chapters has it as well

[chalmers]

Thanks, ended up grabbing it at Sobey's, happily surprised to see it there. BTW, the Chris McDonald in the Homebrewer section is not I. From the electronics lean, I'm 99% sure it's Garak.

[brufrog]

Hey gang, It's Craig here. I am TAPS mag's Atlantic correspondent or whatever.

I guess it is time for me to switch from the email list to the forum. Although I am on so many forums, another one is tough. But local beer is important.

If any of you have suggestions for future columns, I'm always open to ideas. How it works is I pitch them a bunch of stories, and they pick the ones they want. Of course I always try to profile new breweries, and any big happenings, but I also get to do an editorial that looks at a topic that some might call controversial. This issue it was high gravity brewing. My next one is on spontaneous or wild fermentation.

I like writing about stuff that gets people talking, and that some people might vehemently disagree with me about. That's fine. Opinions are like assholes - everybody has one, as an old co-worker used to tell me.

PS I usually give one of the bottles sent to me for review to Jeff so he can share at the Brewnoser's meetings. I rarely can attend but do when I can. I have some good stuff for you right now!!!

Cheers!

[mr x]

I've got a story for you to chase down. Find out what the hell is happening at Darkside Brewing (over by Princess Auto)...

[brufrog]

You are going to have to help me there! Or maybe Greg can... Is there some construction and/or brewing equipment delivery action?

[mr x]

It was originally going to be Greg and Mark. Greg has moved on obviously, but I haven't heard if Mark is planning to brew over there. A lot of equipment was installed/delivered many many months ago...

[brufrog]

Hmmm. I think I alluded to it in TAPS back when Greg was still involved in the venture, but I thought it was dead now. Gee, if they are actually going to brew some beer there, then there must be a story. I'll be down in December at least once before Xmas, and I shall check it out! THX!

[mr x]

It may very well be dead...

[brufrog]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid= ... 8039857183" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You guys should nominate a beer geek that you know. I think some of you MIGHT know some beer enthusiasts?

[grassy]

No shipping to Canada...