Beer Buzz: The Beer Community and a True Canadian Brew

Hello beloved readers. We hope your midterms are well behind you and you’re ready to learn about the world of beer (from us) for the second last time.  A reminder to you beer lovers out there, we will not be continuing this column into the summer term (we’re graduating!) so there is a vacancy for new beer columnists. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about beer since you get to do research and learn new things as you go. Also, it’s a great excuse to drink on a weeknight! If interested please send an email to theironwarrior@gmail.com.

This article, we’ll take less of a technical/historical approach and talk about the world community of beer lovers and the ways one can get involved and learn about what’s out there. There are several good beer forums on the internet with large communities and tons of contributors. BeerAdvocate.com and RateBeer.com are both websites where any beer lover can publish a review and rating of a beer. The average rating is calculated and can be used to judge the overall quality/popularity of a beer. These sites also have general information articles.

There are also a few good subreddits (on reddit.com) that focus on sharing information about beer. Our two favourites are r/beer where people engage in discussions about beer and breweries and r/beerporn where people post drool worthy photos of beers. We’ve discovered a ton of beer we would like to one day try through these subreddits, it’s a great resource for those looking to discover new beers in their area (though still mostly American beers).

There are beer festivals hosted everywhere (usually in the summer) where new beers can be discovered, the most notable to us is the Toronto Beer Festival which will be running July 27^th to 29^th. There is also the Kitchener Beer and Rib Festival which has a smaller subset of the brewers present at the Toronto Beer Festival. If you haven’t been to a beer festival before, you’re missing out!

For the truly adventurous and creative there is an entire world of beer called homebrewing. In this world anything is possible and you can make any beer you can imagine (after a bit of practice). It’s not as complicated or expensive as one might think since there is a very supportive community accessible online. This is something that we will be starting in the near future.

If you are interested in some formal training and certification there are two main paths you can take. The first is the Cicerone Certification Program (cicerone.org) which is the equivalent to the wine sommelier program. It mainly serves to certify people to help guide customers in selecting beer and food pairing, to create beer lists for restaurants, and to generally become more knowledgeable in beer style and tastes. There is also the Beer Judge Certification Program (bjcp.org) which focuses more on tasting and judging beer at competitions. These judges deal more with brewers (and homebrewers) than with customers in a bar.

Today we are reviewing Maple Bock by Trafalgar Ales & Meads (alesandmeads.com) in Oakville. Trafalgar is one of those Ontario Craft Brewers you rarely hear about, and this is probably one of the first beers we’ve had from them. Our research shows that this beer has been around for a few years now, but it seems to us that the beer was recently revamped with a new label and possibly an improved recipe. We got it in a 650 mL bottle at 6.5% ABV. The bottle says it is brewed with pure maple syrup and label depicts a beer tap attached to a maple tree. The beer pours a dark brown with hints of red, and a vigorous pour yielded a generous amount of head. The aroma of the beer is dominated by maple and some sweet malts. The tasting begins with toasted malts and quickly gives way to an intense maple flavour which Eric found to be quite enjoyable and unique. This maple flavour makes the beer very savoury since the flavour lingers a long time in the mouth. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with a good amount of carbonation. Overall this beer has a rather intense maple flavour, which may not appreciated by everyone. However those that enjoy maple flavoured products (like Eric) will find the beer to be enjoyable.

Thanks for reading, we hope you’ve learned something about the active and vibrant beer communities out there. If you have any questions or comments don’t be afraid to stop us in the halls (or computer labs) and let us know. As always, fear no beer!