As the local economy rolls with the punches of a global economic and health upheaval, can you think of a better way to #shoplocal?! I certainly can't.
Source: https://www.pinterest.pt/goldensaintbeer/ with a little Zeke design on top.
With travel being restricted for health reasons and all or my professional efforts being directed behind bolstering local businesses, it is no wonder I have had a local tendency with my beer purchases as well. As I have mentioned in countless posts, we are gifted for a small town with an unusually favorable ratio of great restaurants and breweries.
I had a chance to visit me 3 favourite ones this week to stock up for the weekend. This is what I found!
Before we get started...
This is the party going on in my fridge right now. You can see the sky is blue but I have all kinds of silver, green and Halloween orange hoppy good ness going on in there right now. Everything from current top 5 to limited run and it looks to be a great weekend!
Number 5 -21 Haze
Readers last week would have noticed this brand new beer cracking my coveted Top 5 https://hive.blog/beersaturday/@zekepickleman/zeke-s-sweet-hops-the-illustrious-top-5 As a review, Heritage Hops Brew Company https://heritagehopsbrew.com/ has recently reopened and I was very pleased to discover that the former Vermont Style IPA has become the year round brew 21 Haze East Coast IPA. It has made my top 5 because of the strength of taste, sweetness, availability, pint can vessel and overall taste I look forward to cracking with each trip to the fridge.
While I only have a couple of these fantastic IPAs left, I may just save one for each night of movie watching and online D&D playing. The great news is that a new 6-pack is only a 3-minute drive away and I know I will get a friendly greeting when I go to replenish.
New and Limited from Jobsite!
I headed to Jobsite Brewing Company https://www.jobsitebrewing.ca/ in preparation for the weekend intending to pick up a few more All Together New England IPA https://www.jobsitebrewing.ca/buybeer/all-together-neipa The description on this collaborative brew says most of what you would want to hear, "This is our version of the “All Together” NEIPA from Other Half Brewing in New York. A portion of the sales from this beer will be added to a fund to support our local hospitality professionals here in Stratford. We’re very excited to be a part of this, it’s so fun to see breweries connecting around the world.
This beer is packed full of aromas due to the heavy dry hop addition. We have never added this many hops before! Very soft and juicy!" It is soft and juicy indeed. It is also for a good local cause and is a limited run so I will pick this up every time I visit til it is gone for good.
I was taking back a couple of my covid hoard of growlers for refund so I figured I would see what else was available. I was jazzed to discover that there were 2 brand new beers not even available on the online store but in the fridge in those short cans I love so much. Handyman Harvest is generally a seasonal beer with Ontario hops which makes for a nice brew but not bold like the NEIPA or the standard Impact IPA https://www.jobsitebrewing.ca/buybeer/impact-ipa Should be a nice change and good beer.
The second one is a bit of a mystery to me because I have never tasted it, and the classification of Alt Beer is a little non-specific in my opinion. I am expecting another nice departure from my IPA addiction, less hops, more malt, and something completely different.
For these 2 new ones, I will revisit this blog during the week with a mini review in comments.
A Surprise from Black Swan!
Black Swan Brewing https://blackswanbrewing.ca/ figures regularly in my local spotlights as it is the longest running Craft Brewery in town, is run by excellent people, and produces great beer. I received a text last night from the local beer enthusiast with a picture of this beer and the message, "Boys go get some of this! Fucking amazing." From this crew, you can get no higher praise so I had to oblige.
While they already had me at Black Swan, I am VERY fond or 1-off experimental runs, especially when they are Hazy IPAs! Way Down Yonder has a small town ring to it, and though I don't know what paw paw fruit is, I am prepared to forgive them for putting the subjective "delicious" in the title.
I will talk to Phil about his thoughts behind this brew and review it in comments when I have had a chance to sample a couple of this tempting 6-pack
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Support your local farms!!!
You bet man.
A neat fact is this county produces more food than any other in Canada. Sure it puts a big red nuclear missile X on us but is pretty sweet while we are around!
I like to do a little farming too if you catch my drift. ;)
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BEER.I'm all about supporting local. I have a little beer social media marketing business that I have run for years. I give free marketing and advice to local breweries. !BEER
Haha we run a digital marketing company @town-crier and have been known to work for beer....as you may have guessed.
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BEER.It's great to have local breweries near. Here, I don't have any local brewery around the circle of 40 kilometers, however, the shops are well stocked with beer ... my area is mostly known for plum brandy so I have near some distilleries ... 🍻🍺😎
The pawpaw IPA sound interesting - we get a fair amount of pawpaw in Australia and it has a sweet guava type taste and it's a taste I get in a lot of the hops used in NEIPAs so it should certainly work.
I think it's good to support the locals in order to sustain the domestic economy - what're when importing good from other countries is hard now.
I do the same too myself especially when I'm living/working in a foreign land now.
Just have to read the labels more clearly and of course Google Translate is my best friend
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