Craft Beer Market

[Scott]

Ian's boast about British Beer being the best reminded me of a bar I went to while in Calgary, called the Craft Beer Market.

http://calgary.craftbeermarket.ca

You can see some of the pictures on this page - http://calgary.craftbeermarket.ca/beer

Missing is a picture of the glassed in keg fridge at the back where all the hoses end up. 

This place had over 100 beer on tap.  I was at a bar in Toronto in November that had 40 on tap, but gawd, 100?  Insane.  But we were there on a Wednesday afternoon and by 5pm the place was packed.
 
Really...heaven on earth. 

[John S]

  Chilled beer, chilled beer!   

We prefer cask beer at cellar temperature, about 54°F here in England, eh Ian.

Keg beer is for adolescents, continentals and the colonies. 

Impressive as that place is Scott with that many keg beers sounds like never mind the quality feel the width. 

[Scott]

I guess it's what you grew up with.  Just because England has historically had brown-outs and generally poor quality refrigerators, only means you are used to p*ss warm beer that most evolved beer lovers would spit out.  The fact that you store it in casks as opposed to kegs means it is not only p*ss warm, but flat as well.  Poor you...

The word Craft means hand crafted with love.  The beer this place serves is fantastic.  They even have a few British beers on offer, but of course it has been cooled to the correct temperature.

[Ian]

Scott, how can you call freezing cold yellow lemonade beer ? Bang to rights there John, pukka ales at the proper temperature with real taste. 

[lkjohnson1950]

Don't you lads know why the Brits learned to drink warm beer? Refrigerators by Lucas Electric!

Joseph Lucas, Prince of Darkness.   

[Andy B]

You have got into the right subject for me!
The temperature of beer is a personal choice but science also plays a part.
Beer should be stored at 3 degrees Celsius at this temperature it will maintain its quality and when drunk, at the right temperature, will be as good as the day it was brewed.
Beer should be drunk at 13 to 15 degrees Celsius at this temperature it will give the full benefit of the brew and you will get the full flavour of the beer.
Drinking ice cold beer chills out the flavour, do the test, buy two of the same bottles of beer stick one in the fridge and keep the other at ambient temperature or if its warm stand it on a tiled or concrete floor. When the refrigerated one has chilled open them both at the same time and drink some from each and the warmer beer will have more flavour. Red wine is drunk at room temperature to get the full benefit of flavour.
So many times when Kiwi friends come to visit me and they get the offer of a cold Kiwi beer or an ambient UK beer after trying the UK beer they always come back for more.
After brewing ales for hundreds of years we do have some idea on how it should be drunk but if your preference is for a frozen glass of flavourless liquid then go for your life. 

[Andy B]

Oh! I should add that when visiting Belgium which I used to do annually for many years we used to use a bar in Brugge which stocked 300 different ales and in Brussels a bar that stocked 600 different ales. Trappist Ales vary in strength and flavour and each brewer has their own shape of glass thats also logo'ed so large numbers of brewers also means large numbers of glasses.
If you like a beer then Belgium is the beer mecca of the world.

[Dare]

Beer....the colder the better


years ago the bowling alley I used to hang out at
had their beer cooler not working properly and one
customer p*ssed off over hot beer cracked the bartender
over the noggin with a beer bottle......good reason for
ice cold beer here in the states.

[Jericoke]

Oh! I should add that when visiting Belgium which I used to do annually for many years we used to use a bar in Brugge which stocked 300 different ales and in Brussels a bar that stocked 600 different ales. Trappist Ales vary in strength and flavour and each brewer has their own shape of glass thats also logo'ed so large numbers of brewers also means large numbers of glasses.
If you like a beer then Belgium is the beer mecca of the world.

In Ontario (the province of Canada where I live), all beer sales is controled by a company called The Beer Store (very clever).

The Beer Store stocks hundreds of different beers, from big companies, small companies, local, national and international.  They used to have a giant wall that featured one bottle (or can) of every possible selection.  Now they just have iPads you scroll through.  In the past you would order at a register and your cases would come from the storeroom in back (which is kept cold) sliding out on a wheeled shelf thing.  Now it's self serve (still kept cold).

The Beer Store is a partnership between the three largest breweries in Ontario:  Labatt's, Molson and Sleeman's.  This has become a source of friction, because Labbatt's is owned by Inbev (Belgian), Molson is owned by Coors (American) and Sleeman's is owned by Sapporo (Japanese).  People don't appreciate The Beer Store monopoly being owned by 'foreign interests'.

Anyway, circling back to my original point:  because all the big beer companies own The Beer Store, they require that everyone use the same long neck brown glass bottles.  Every once in a while a craft brewery will try to sell fancy bottles, and The Beer Store forbids it (which doesn't explain why they sell Corona, Heinnekken, or even Sleeman's)

[Scott]

I've heard there is talk of payola being required to get any shelf space at the Beer Store for small craft beers, even if they agree to the stupid bottle.  About time the craft and micro brewers got together and start opening their own stores and selling beer in whatever bottles the brewer wants.  The Beer Store will then be half empty...or half full, depending on your point of view.

I know the argument, it's all about the bottle returns.  Simple, adopt the Swiss model.  No deposit and no returns to the beer store.  Bottles thrown in the recycle bins, or maybe even have a separate one for beer bottles in Canada. 

In Switzerland there is no curbside recycling, we have to bring it all to depots ourselves (there is generally one per town and more in large cities) and sort it in bins, from clothing, coloured glass, cans, lightbulbs - three different kinds, coffee capsules, cooking oil, motor oil, plastic bottles (we have to sort out the different types as well), paper and cardboard.  Oh, the other part...if you are found throwing away any of the above recycle-able items, even in the garbage bags we pay to have taken away (not taxes, but actually $1.50/bag), you are fined hundreds of francs. 

It works, and it only takes a few minutes each week (at my hotel it takes me maybe 30min per week to do it all).

[Dare]

It's easier getting rid of beer cans here Scotty,you just roll down the
window and toss it out.

[F1fanaticBD]

It's easier getting rid of beer cans here Scotty,you just roll down the
window and toss it out.

    

Forgive me Dare, but isn't that illegal. All my friends living in US wouldn't dare to do such thing.

[Jericoke]

It's easier getting rid of beer cans here Scotty,you just roll down the
window and toss it out.

    

Forgive me Dare, but isn't that illegal. All my friends living in US wouldn't dare to do such thing.

Nonsense.  Cans are made of aluminum.  Aluminum comes from the ground.  Throwing your cans back into nature is just part of the circle of life.

[Andy B]

Beer....the colder the better

Do the flavour test as we get older it becomes more about quality than quantity!
This evening its the prize giving meal for my own F1 game there will be ten of us there including spouses and partners and the beer will be below the 13 to 15 degree celsius  requirement but I'll work my way through a few. Its at a Speight's Ale House, Google it if you will as they have a fair selection of brews. 

[Scott]

I'll have a Drunken Steak and a couple Porter