It's been mad. Mad as in nutty crazy, not angry. Well, a bit of anger. And saucy retorts. How did it come to be that mild mannered beer fans had all this pent up emotion. I had no idea. Me, I'm not so much like that. Evan has it right. I'm just all about the whimsy. But its been busy and, you know, idle hands are the Devil's playground. The statement from Garrett Oliver received 4,348 page views on this blog and another 1270 views over at the wiki. Posted it 48 hours ago. Nut. Tay.
But other things have happened. I've been diving into the brand new book The Breweries of Kingston and The St. Lawrence Valley by Steve Gates and also got a copy of The Art and Mystery of Brewing In Ontario by Ian Bowering from 1988. That image up there is an 1865 map I used for something or other at work a while back and indicates the location of the Grand Trunk Brewery on King Street here in Kingston at the foot of what is now called Lower University Ave. Steve indicated in the book that he had had some difficulty in identifying the exact site of this brewery that operated from 1857 to 1908. I am now interested in finding out more about another brewer they mention, Job Rogers who brewed right in the downtown in the 1830s and 1840s, keeping pigs in and around the brewery and stinking out the town. And what Barnabas Bidwell drank and where he drank it.
Plus, there have been things in the mail or otherwise delivered. Beau's of the beer fest earlier this month sent out a special Halloween release, a double bottle set called "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde". I am sure the beer is swell but I am most interested in the inclusion of a 7 inch vinyl EP with four songs. Did I say vinyl. I meant bubblegum pink vinyl. As someone who once owned Devo's first LP on marbled vinyl, these things mean something. Beer have also arrived from Nickle Brook (try the imperial stout), Innis and Gunn - and word is that Narragansett porter is in the mail. Point: send beer... why wouldn't you?
What else? Oh, I finally caught up with an LCBO sold bottle of Les Trois Mousquetaires Porter Baltique and see, like the bottle I bought in Quebec, it says it is 10% - unlike the LCBO's website which still inexplicably lists it at 8.3%.
So, all in all, a busy time in the land of the beer nerd. A busy time.