Brilliant. I was back at the Kingston Brew Pub for lunch today after yesterday's get together with Ian Coutts. Chicken Vindaloo special today. And with it I had a half of Beau's special one day offering of Festivale Plus Sticke Alt:
Brewers of Alt Beer in Düsseldorf will occasionally, and secretly, brew a special, extra malty, extra hoppy version of their beer and only announce it the day before its release. It’s known as ‘sticke’ – German slang for ‘secret’. Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. is happy to attempt an Ontario recreation of this happy event, by brewing an amped up version of FestivAle – our summer seasonal beer which recently won a GOLD medal at Mondial de la Biere in Strasbourg, France. Festivale Plus will be available TOMORROW (Thursday September 9th) in a limited amount at the brewery and select restaurants and bars, which hopefully will sell out in one day in keeping with the ‘sticke’ tradition. Check below for a complete list.
While I really liked the beer - nutty sweet malt with a the wall to wall shag carpet of hopping all over softish water - I really really liked the logistics. Twenty six 30 litre casks of the stuff quickly made there way all from the neighbourhood of Montreal to London Ontario and were sucked back with glee... or in my case vindaloo.
Too often good beer in Ontario fails to make it to, well, Ontario. Craft beers from west of Toronto stay there and brews here never get beyond Mississauga. And most of the special brews and even the entire output of County Durham only get to those who live in Capital City aka the Big Smoke aka the place where the souls of Maritimers go to die. This was a good move to play Bob Marley in terms of one beer, one heart and making sure much of the south of the province at least had a chance at this small batch of tasty brew.