Crafting Christmas Cheers
Great beers to keep you holidays HOP-ping
Eager to get into the festive spirit early, this year I put together the most delicious Advent Calendar I could humanly imagine… 24 ice cold craft beers. The rules were simple. Pick out 24 craft beers brewed in Ontario. Wrap them up. Mix them up. Chill them to perfection. Then enjoy one a day until Christmas. Check out my super awesome doggy paper wrap job:
As far as picking out the beers went there was no real rhyme or reason. Basically, I picked out packaging that seemed interesting. Which worked, because I ended up with a pretty good variety of Ales, lagers, pilsners, and IPA’s. As my wife and I sampled them night after night, we created a 1 to 10 rating system based solely on the first sip. Armed with our completely subjective rating system we ranked each beer from most liked to never going to drink again.
While I’m not saying that drinking 24 beers magically made me an expert on Ontario craft beers… I’m pretty much an expert now. So I’ve complied a list of some of my favorites that I think you might enjoy this winter. Here they are in no particular order:
- Muskoka Brewery – Winterweiss
- Side Launch Brewing Company – Mountain Lager
- Redline Brewhouse – Clutch
- Collective Arts Brewing – Saint of Circumstance Citrus Blonde Ale
- Nickelbrook Brewing – Green Apple Beer
- Kilannan Brewing – Kolsch
- Barnstormer Brewing – Flight Delay IPA
- Manitoulin Brewing – Swing Bridge Blonde
- Double Trouble Brewing – Fire in the Rye
- Flying Monkeys – Hoptical Illusion Almost Pale Ale
Everyone one of these tasty Canadian gems are available at the LCBO. So during this hectic time between Christmas and New Year’s go ahead and try some of them out. I for one intend on making this annual tradition because I discovered some pretty amazing beers! And remember, if you can’t be good be safe; always drink responsibly.
