Today is International IPA Day, so it’s time to crank up the IBUs and celebrate with a pint of this hop-laden world-beater of a beer. India Pale Ale is easily the most popular craft beer style in North America today, […]
Saisons come full circle
When the British beer writer Michael Jackson first began writing about Belgian beer culture in the 1970s, he found very few examples of saisons in existence. By the early 1990s he even described the style as “endangered.” But he loved […]
Elemental Series: Yeast
Part 4 in The Growler’s four-part series exploring the basic building blocks of beer. Make sure to check out Part 1: Water, Part 2: Grain and Part 3: Hops. So, after water, grains and hops, we come to the final […]
Beer and food pairing 101
Company’s coming, dinner’s almost ready, but you forgot to pop out to the liquor store to grab a bottle of wine. Obviously, you have a fridge stocked full of delicious, local craft beer, so screw it! Who needs wine with […]
Beers (and beer-like bevvies) around the world
If there is one thing universal amongst all human kind, it is our proclivity for drinking fermented grains. Around the world, in every culture, people love to get plastered. Despite what religious fanatics and mother-in-laws might have you believe, it’s […]
Cheers to King Gambrinus, the real King of Beers
Move over Budweiser, the original King of Beers is back to reclaim his throne. His name is King Gambrinus and he learned how to brew from the Egyptian gods Isis and Osiris. He sold his soul to the devil to […]
Elemental Series: Hops
When it comes to beer ingredients, hops are the revolutionary rock stars. These flowers of the humulus lupulus plant are arguably the driving force behind beer’s resurrection in the 1980s and 1990s, bringing eye-opening and mind-expanding new flavours to what […]
Craft brewery tasting room dos and don’ts
All over this fine province, the craft brewery tasting room has quickly become a community hub. It’s a place where people of all ages can come together over a common love for the finer things in life. The vast majority […]
Everything you always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask, about Sour Beers
Lambic, gueuze, kriek, oud bruin, Flanders red, kettle sours, spontaneous fermentation, coolship, brett, lacto, pedio, foeder, or is it foudre? In the realm of sour beers a lot of names and terms get flung around. If you’re someone […]
Elemental Series: Grain
Part 2 in a four-part series exploring the basic building blocks of beer… Beer starts with grain in just about every way. Even historically. There’s no canonical origin story for beer, but the myth goes that one of our […]