Beer of the Week - Nørrebro Bryghus Bombay Pale Ale

There was quite a buzz in the Beer Geek community about Norrebro bringing some of their beers to the LCBO. The Bar Towel has quite an extensive discussion of the different beers in one of their string.

Sadly when I hit the liquor store to get some, only the Bombay Pale Ale was left. I wanted to try a few for this post.

The brewery was opened in 2003 in Copenhagen as a brewery and restaurant. It was the vision of ex-Carlsberg brewmaster Anders Kissmeyer (pictured right). In 2000, he was working with Carlsberg and then came with the idea that he wanted/needed to open his own operation and quit the company in march of 2001 to work full time on bringing the plan together.

He decided that "the optimal way of launching the product would be to combine the brewery with a restaurant. Not only would this give a direct exposure and direct contact with the customers, but it gave me the opportunity to realise another of my ambitions: to bring forward the combination of good crafted beer and a more modern kitchen than the traditional Danish beer kitchen."

In September 2003, the doors of the brewery restaurant opened.

The beer philosophy of the company is explained on the website by Anders Kissmeyer as "First and foremost we seek variousness, that we at any given time can offer a varied selection of beer types and taste to our guests. We therefore cover sweet, sour, bitter, strong, mild and dry beer, so as to offer a beer for every taste and mood, and a beer that can accompany all of our dishes served in the restaurant".

I love his line, “Taste is at any time more important than following the rules of old beer culture.”

He has stuck to that ideal. In In May 2005, the 29th beer type brewed at Nørrebro Bryghus, was made. They do not say how many they have made to date.

In 2010, they won 2 Gold medals at the world beer cup for their Little Korkny Ale Niepoort Barrel(Barley Wine-Style Ale) and Seven Imperial Stout Niepoort Barrel (American-Style Imperial Stout) and a Silver for Viking Oud Bruin, (American-Style Sour Ale). Not too shabby! The Korkny was one of the ones which came to Ontario which I could not get my hands on.

Time to give it a try.

It pours amber in colour with a decent head. It has a nice aroma with a hint of floral hops. It is not an overly hoppy beer to drink. The malt really comes to the front of the taste and in the finish. It is more malty than hoppy. Obviously it is a well-brewed beer but for my taste it really it is just an OK beer but not one I would go out and have again. To me, a pale ale should have a hop presence, which this one does not.

It would not stop me from trying many of their other brews if I had a chance. The brewery seems to have too good of a reputation not to.

Randy, Mr Lahey and Ashley MacIsaac at East Coast Night Music

Teena managed to get some free tickets for East Coast Night Music at the Sound Academy, which overlooks the city from the east side of Toronto harbour.

We are fans of the Trailer Park Boys and Randy and Trailer Park Supervisor, Jim Lahey, hosted with Ashley MacIsaac being the musical guest.

I went for Ashley and figured Randy and Mr Lahey, although they toured with their own show, would share equal time with the great fiddle player from Cape Breton. I was wrong.

What I was right about, however, was Mr Lahey and Randy had about 5 minutes of great material and then it went downhill fast. I could think of many ways to make the show more clever but basically it was cheap, easy "butt" jokes. The crowd did seem to enjoy it for the most part, though. The liquor may have helped.

After a 15 minute break ,Ashley MacIsaac came on. Today is his 36th birthday. For his first song, the background music of the DJ drowned his fiddle playing out. They then got that in order and he was great. He brought out an old friend of his with an acoustic guitar and they played some great tunes together.

Then Mr Lahey came out with a birthday cake, everyone sang Happy Birthday and Ashley's set was over. He was on for about 20 minutes. What the hell was up with that?

Ashley and his friend left the stage and we left the building.

In many ways, a disappointing evening. The company was good, as always, and tall cans of Amsterdam Big Wheel were $6.25 and we got in for free. You also know we did not have a really good time as we did not take any pictures of each other and together, enjoying ourselves at the event.

Tonight did gave me a chance to go outside to pick my spot on the deck to spend a hot afternoon with Teena, having some beers while over looking the city. I am so looking forward to that!

Toronto at night from the huge outdoor patio

Beer of the Week - Yanjing Beer

The other night I was in the beer store at Dufferin Mall. I like that beer store as they have a very good selection of craft beers and international beers. On one shelf was a beer from China, Yanjing Beer.

Yanjing Beer is brewed in Beijing China by the Beijing Yanjing Beer Group Corporation. Yanjing Brewery was opened in 1980 and in 1997 did a corporate restructuring to form the current corporation. I am not sure how big the Chinese beer industry is but it must be huge as this company alone has approximately 20,000 employees and is the largest brewery in Asia. It currently ranks first for total output and profit.

The company's main product is Yanjing Beer. The company also produces a range of soft drinks such as ice tea, jasmine tea, and Jiulongzhai syrup of plum which is a sour plum drink. I can't imagine what that might taste like. Thankfully this is a beer blog and not a soft drink blog.

Yanjing Beer uses natural mineral water that comes from the Beijing YanShan Mountain, along with hops, rice and barley malt. It is popular in Beijing as 85% of all beer sold in Beijing is Yanjing Beer. In the rest of the country, it has a 11% market share.

And how does it taste?

The beer pours very clear. In fact, on my colour chart which ranks beer colour from 1 to 40 shades, this is about a 2 perhaps a 3. Nothing wrong with that, just want to give an accurate description on how light a yellow this beer is. It does have an aroma to it, and some lacings along the side of the glass, which do not remain long. This is not surprising as lacings are derived for the malt in the beer, and I would think this beer would have more rice than malt.

It is not a hoppy beer by any means. It's not a bad beer but I really did not find much to it. It is a dry, light tasting beer with a bit of a different taste, which again might come from the rice.

To me, it's like someone coming to Canada from Germany or Belgium and judging our beer by tasting our big brewery beer.

If you are a person that enjoys a light tasting beer, this might be for you. All in all, not a beer I would run out to have again.

Book: Dexter by Design

I have read the first three books of the series. Although the same main characters are found on the TV show, which I absolutely love, the books go down a different path. I really enjoyed the first two of the series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter but I really hated the third, Dexter In The Dark. 

The third portrays his "dark passenger' as a living entity inside him, which I hated and a plot I couldn't buy. When I had a chance to read the fourth, Dexter by Design, I did so ready to bail the book quickly if it didn't catch on with me quickly. 

"After his surprisingly glorious honeymoon in Paris, life is almost normal for Dexter Morgan. Married life seems to agree with him: he’s devoted to his bride, his stomach is full, and his homicidal hobbies are nicely under control. But old habits die hard—and Dexter’s work as a blood spatter analyst never fails to offer new temptations that appeal to his offbeat sense of justice…and his Dark Passenger still waits to hunt with him in the moonlight. The discovery of a corpse (artfully displayed as a sunbather relaxing on a Miami beach chair) naturally piques Dexter’s curiosity and Miami’s finest realize they’ve got a terrifying new serial killer on the loose. And Dexter, of course, is back in business." 

The book had a pretty good plot which kept me interested, although I though the end was dumb. If you have read the first two and enjoyed them, you may enjoy this one too. Warning though, stay away from the third, Dexter in the Dark.

Snowshoeing The Toronto Islands

Since we got our snowshoes, Teena and I have been out almost every weekend exploring places we never thought of visiting in the winter.

This week we thought it would be fun to take the ferry over to Wards Island and explore the Toronto Islands.

It was only $6.50 return trip on the ferry and a ferry ride across the harbour, smashing and crunching its way through the ice is worth the price of admission in itself. Teena and I had a ball being outside as the ferry jostled its way through the ice packs.

The island is quite interesting in the winter. Most everything is closed, of course, but the island takes on a whole different perspective than what we remembered from the summer. As Wards Island has residents living year round, there is also a restaurant called The Rectory which is opened year round. It is called the Rectory as the building used to be the home of the priest for the island church, The Church of St. Andrew-by-the-Lake.

The islands are quite large and after walking out of the Wards Island neighborhood, we strapped on the shoes and hiked over to the pier which is about half way around the island. The weather was great and it was a fun time.

We ended our trek back at the Rectory where we split a fabulous Chicken Club sandwich with greens and each had a welcome glass of Riesling.

The road through the island is clear and there are many good places to walk. Even though it is winter, I would definitely recommend a winter trip over to the Toronto Islands.

Teena's blog of our day is here.

Here come the ferry, busting its way through the ice. It was a fun trip over and back.

Someone having fun sailing the ice

Arriving at Wards Island

Teena on the frozen boardwalk

Toronto, looking across the frozen harbour from Wards Island

The beach is not so inviting this time of year.

We enjoyed The Rectory and will go back.

Teena enjoying her wine at The Rectory afterward.

I enjoyed my wine too.

The trip back was colder and bumpier as we had more ice to bust through. Fun trip! It was hard to believe the ferry had just broke through this path minutes before.

The Centennial Beer of the Week- Samuel Adams Utpoias

A few years ago, I went to bed and when I woke up I found that Teena had a surprise for me. She had stayed up and set up this blog for me. It took a little while for me to find my direction on what I really wanted to write about, One of my very early ideas was to try a beer each week, that I had never had before.

Thus, the Beer of the Week was born!

As I tried more and more excellent brews, I found myself getting further and further away from the cheap "buck a beer" and more and more into quality craft brews. Now I border on being beer geek but still have a ways to go before I get there.

Over the past 100 weeks, I have tried 100 different beers from 89 different breweries and 21 different countries. It has been a world tour experienced mostly from the safety and comfort of my own living room.

For number 100, I wanted to try something special ... something very special. Then I heard that Samuel Adams Utopias was coming to Ontario. That would be perfect for my 100th BOTW!

Why is it so special?

At $115 per bottle it is a 27% APV barley wine made from a blend of several different strong beers that have been aged in various barrels that once held cognac, bourbon and port. Brewery founder and chairman Jim Koch says, "It’s really made by a completely different process than your typical beer. It’s not just ‘brew the beer, bottle the beer'. Really, it’s a lot like the blending they use to make a fine cognac, where they combine things from different barrels".

It comes out in very limited quantity. I heard that only 3,000 bottles were produced this year.

So 70 bottles ... that's right, just 70 bottles were coming to Ontario and the LCBO would use the lottery system to see who would win the right to purchase a bottle. 1675 people put their name in for auction. If it was found you entered twice, you were excluded. To make the odds better for me, Teena put her name in as did a friend of mine, Sara. In the end, sadly we all received emails to say we didn't win.

Damn it! This was becoming a quest for the Holy Grail of beer and it looked like I was not going to find it.

Then I heard that the beerbistro was getting an order! The beerbistro was one of my favorite beer places in the city and is now my very favorite! I called them Thursday and yes, the order had arrived! A one and a half ounce serving would be sold for $20.

So I sit here Saturday morning writing about the end of this quest, hoping that when Teena and I head over there this afternoon, that I actually really love this beer. Love it, like it or hate it, the anticipation of sampling this for my 100th Beer of the Week has been exciting.

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So we walked in and found ourselves a place at the end of the bar. When just having a couple of drinks, I prefer sitting at a bar instead of a table, especially at a place like this where the staff really knows beer. When asked if we knew what we wanted, we told them we sure did and ordered 2 Utopias. A place like this has a glass for every type of beer so I was not surprised when the special engrave Utopias glass.

This beer, or properly called a barley wine, is served at room temperature. It is deep brown in colour and full in aroma. I thought I could smell multiple things but for some reason, butterscotch came to mind. Although 27% APV, it did not have any alcohol in the nose.

Now time for the moment I had been waiting for ... the first sip.

Wow! It was very sweet, something I did not expect. There were so many layers of flavour in this. I could sense cognac, sometimes butterscotch and caramel. It had a very syrupy texture, which clung to the sides of the glass when sipped. The finish lasted on the tongue and sides of the mouth for a very long time.

Yes, this was worth the hunt!

Although made with all the ingredients that beer is made from, I would describe this as a liqueur more than a beer. As sweet as it is, it does contain a variety of hops. I cannot believe how much more sweeter this might be with with out them.

Teena loved it too. She also found it very sweet. She found it very flavourful and said it reminded her of cognac without the harshness. She said that if she had not been told beforehand, she would not have guessed this was a beer.

This is a very tasty beautiful sipping drink.

The bottle is beautiful too. Shaped like a brew kettle, the kettles doors slide open to reveal a portrait of Samuel Adams hoisting a beer. Very cool.

In the end, 3 things upset me. The first was when my glass finally emptied. I knew Teena was enjoying hers too much to share. The second thing was now I was very truly disappointed that I did not have a bottle of my own. The third was now the event and the anticipation preceding it was gone. I think I enjoyed the anticipation as much as I did the beer.

Teena and I plan to return in March for another sample. Next year again I will be putting my name in the LCBO hat for another chance at a bottle of my own. Even at $115 a bottle, it is very worth it!

It was a great way to celebrate my 100th Beer of the Week!

Fullers Vintage Ale 2010, 2009, 2008 Superbowl Tasting

Two years ago I did my first tasting of a Fullers Vintage Ale, their 2008 edition.

Fullers Vintage Ale is bottle conditioned and will get better and better the longer it sits. The idea is to sample a bottle each year to see how it has matured. According to their website, and on the box "Bottle conditioning means that a little yeast is left in the bottle after bottling, which will mature slowly over time like a fine wine or whisky - well beyond the best before date that we are obliged to state. Here at Fuller's, we recently opened (in the interests of research, of course) a few bottles of old Vintages: they tasted better than ever."

I bought three with the idea that I would have one each year and have other years to compare it to. In 2008, when I started, I only had the one which I described as ...

"It was full and complex and wonderful. When people used to explain that this wine or this beer was "complex", I really didn't fully appreciate what they meant until I had this.

It seemed like different flavours were constantly coming, through, as I let it settle in my mouth before swallowing. Without trying to sound like I'm going completely overboard, each sip was an experience, a very enjoyable experience."

To my horror, I found that last January when I did the 2009 to 2008 comparison, I did not post about it. My God! How the heck did that happen? To quote the original Chairman of the Iron Chef, "If memory serves me correctly" I enjoyed the 2009 more than the one year aged 2008, although memory may not have served me correctly..

Fullers started brewing their Vintage Ale in 1997. Their idea was to use basically the same recipe, slightly tweaked from year to year, the same yeast, but use the only the very best malt and hops of that year and only brew as much beer as their ingredients allowed for. For the Vintage Ale Fullers measures production in bottles produced not cases. In beer terms, the amount is very limited.

To ensure the 3 years are properly judged, my friends agreed to come over to watch the Superbowl and assist with the tasting. From left to right is Judge Alfred, Presiding Official Craig, Judge Kevin, myself, of course, a Judge and, in front, my son, Ken, also a Presiding Official.

First tasted was the 2010 Vintage Ale - bottle #32,643 of 125,000 bottles produced
"Crafted with the highest quality Tipple malted barley, this ale's main hop character is derived from traditional Golding and Fuggle hops and further enhanced with dry hopping, using a blend of the choicest Golding and Target hops." Seems this is the first year that dry hopping is used.

We all felt that this was an unfinished beer. Alfred commented on how yeasty it was. It had not yet mellowed and I could taste the bite of the alcohol in this. Definitely one to leave sitting for another year or two.

Next up was the 2009 Vintage Ale- Bottle #50,121 of 160,000 bottles produced.
"The 2009 vintage features Kent grown Goldings hops and East Anglian Tipple malted barley".

All three of us enjoyed this. Kevin found it a mellow enjoyable ale. Myself, I enjoyed the hops in the finish.

Finally was the one aged the most the 2008 Vintage Ale - bottle #82,129 of 145,000 bottles produced. "Our 12th Vintage features two of our favourite English hop varieties, Northdown and Challenger, combined with floor malted Maris Otter malt."

None of us liked this one. Kevin found it way too sweet and I had to agree with him. Alfred found there was a tang in it which he did not appreciate and did not finish his. Myself, I really found it wanting. Of what I do not know but it definitely was missing something.

And the final conclusion?

We all loved the 2009, head's up winner, and did not enjoy the 2008. We decided that we would withhold official judgment on 2010 as we felt it needed another year to age and work. Interesting thought ... I hope next year we all find this one to be a superb beer.

It was a fun night. My Packers won a very tense game, we had great pizza and I believe everyone had a great time.

Best part is that they are on the road on the way home and I am already there. Tonight we awarded next year's Superbowl festivities to Alfred in Markham. He has a year to plan.

Being a presiding official can be exhausting!

Beer of the Week - Boris Beer by Brasserie de Saverne S.A.

When I think of France and of Alsace, I think of wine not beer.

Two summers ago I was fencing in the Commonwealth Veteran Fencing Championships in the Channel Islands. I took a trip over to St Malo, France, to look around the famed walled city.

When thirsty I would stop for a glass of French wine then continue on my way. Finally I decided to try a French beer and inquired at three different places only to be told they did not have any. So I settled on an overpriced bottle of Stella, far from a French beer experience. After I wondered if there were any distinct French breweries.

This past week Teena came home from the LCBO with 2 cans of Boris Beer by Brasserie de Saverne S.A or Saverne Brewery. So there is French beer!

Saverne Brewery was founded in 1845 in the Town of Saverne in Alsace France. It ran as an independent brewery up until 1989 when it was sold to Karlsbräu, a German Brewery company. "The Saverne brewery of Karlsbräu France is a unique production facility, nestling among vineyards and woodland in a small fortified town in Northern Alsace. This bridgehead plant upholds the great brewing tradition of Alsace, which finds a natural expression in the beer brewed in the Saverne brewery."

And the beer?

It pours a light straw colour which is quite easily to see through. It had a white head which disappeared quickly. There are lacings left along the side of the glass but very thin. There is very little aroma.

As for the taste, there is very little. It starts slightly spur and finishes with a stronger sourness. Not much to this beer. I imagine there are some better French beers out there.

I sure would hope so.

Snowshowing at Bronte Creek Provincial Park

Since buying snowshoes, Teena and I have discovered so many excellent places to go to snowshoeing and places to go back to and hike in the summer.

Today we headed out to Bronte Creek Provincial Park in Oakville, about a 30 minute drive from home.

This morning was bright but I had a physio appointment for my arm so we didn't head out 'til the afternoon and, judging by the way the sky looked, snow was coming.

Bronte Creek has lots of trails for cross country skiing and snowshoeing. Today we choose the Lookout Ravine Trail that took us along the edge of the valley which Bronte Creek runs. It was not a well-marked trail and we ended up at one point hiking across a huge cornfield and having to clamber, snowshoes and all, through a hole in the fence. It was good we did, though, as it meant in the end we did a circular route.

We were out for two hours and figure, according to the map, trekked over 5km. It was a scenic trail which we enjoyed hiking. We also met quite a few very nice people along the way. We do plan to go back one weekend and hike the Trillium Trail and the Half Moon Valley Trail which takes you down around the floor of the valley and Bronte Creek.

Teena and I are both enjoying snowshoeing. It gets us out into the fresh air instead of hibernating all winter and it is great exercise. Another benefit for today was that Bronte Creek is only 5km away from the Judge and Jury, our favorite pub in Burlington. We both finished the day with huge chicken wings, great macaroni and cheese, which we washed down with a Moosehead.

All and all a great day out! View Teena's blog post here.

We saw a few Cardinals along the wayThis picture does not show how steep the valley wall is

Teena in action along the trail

There was a peacock enclosure and hut at the end of our trek. We bought some seeds from the dispenser to entice them out of the hut.

Tennis Elbow Update - Contemporary Acupuncture Time

During Christmas I somehow came down with tennis elbow and went to my first physio appointment for it on January 11th.

The next day my elbow hurt like hell but luckily I already had an appointment set up with here. It turns out I basically ruined a week and a half of her work.

Lauren, my physiotherapist, has help me in the past half year with my feet falling asleep when I walked and a knee issue. I have a lot of faith in her so am faithfully doing what she tells me to do ... well, except the night she had told me not to do lunges at fencing practice and I thought she meant not to do full complete lunges.

So now I do exactly what she says.

I have two sessions a week, in which she uses Active Release Technique therapy (A.R.T.), ultrasound and a tens (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) machine on me.

It has been helping and the pain is decreasing. This past Saturday she thought it was a good idea to start back with yoga but not to push it. I have gone twice this week and, yes, feel an improvement.

Tonight she started our first session using Contemporary Acupuncture, along with the
A.R.T. "Contemporary Acupuncture is a precise technique in which fine solid needles are inserted into areas of the body that neurologically relevant to the condition. The needles are either stimulated manually or with electricity for the therapeutic purpose of modulating abnormal activity of the nervous, endocrine, immune systems and their effects on the body."

It was weird as she placed pins in my hand, arm, elbow, shoulder and even a single one in my head. Then she turned on the power. Nothing ever hurt but my fingers and hand were twitching pretty good. It was very much a weird sensation. Not alarming or uncomfortable but different. In fact, I got very sleepy at the end.

After she did a very deep active release into the tendons and muscles of my arm. It sure woke me up.

It is coming along. I need to continue twice a week with her, keep my arm stretched, use it as little as possible, especially with mousing, and, of course, ice it every night. I am told to continue yoga but no lunging yet for fencing for at least another week.

I have learned to take her advice and again her advice and treatment is helping. Tonight my arm is feeling much better than before I went in.