Conference kaosws::canada

    have you been swindled.  moosehead really "alpine" is amoungst the
    least popular beers in canada.  the "canadian book of lists" rates
    alexander keith's india pale ale as the best in canada.  and certainly
    from my personal experience it out sells the rest by a large margin.
    for example in the bar at nstc (now tuns) we would sell as much
    keith's as all others combined.  in fact we seldom stocked alpine
    because nobody drank it.  next most popular was schnoor followed
    by oland's red(oland's export ale).  now that james ready is available
    that order would might be changed.  that how it was in
    halifax/dartmouth area (home of moosehead brewry).  moosehead did
    brew a good fighting beer (strongest beer in canada 5.5%/vol) called
    ten penny that was not bad.  why isn't keith's sold in the states
    because oland's brewery is owned by labbats and they spend too much
    money pushing 'blue' and '50' in the states.  although they have
    started selling schnoor in the new england area.  in general i try
    to drink local beer.  i once had a chance to talk to the asst. brew
    master for molson in TO.  he told me that in canada molson controls
    the self life of its beer once in the states its out of their control
    that why you get a LOT of skunky canadian beers down here.  the
    owner of samual adams brewery once said beer is like orange juice
    the fresher the better.  who wants to drink orange juice from germany
    (dartmouth).  mind you when visitors come down the standard room
    and board charge is a couple of cases of keith's or molson export(pq).
    
    regards and stop drinking the crap moosehead.....john
    

    Well at least your basic point didn't get an argument.  Used to be
that Canada was the home of hewers of wood and drawers of water.  Now we
make hockey sticks from the wood, and beer from the water, that's
hi-tech ;-). 

   John (30.1) is correct about that panther urine called 'Mousehead'.
But, in general, there is very little difference amongst Canadian ales
and lagers.  However, there are regional differences that are not
apparent to the average hoser unless one travels and imbibes a lot
across this expanse of ice and brown snow.
   But to provide some input of dubious value, I'll attempt (between swigs)
to give you a short list of my personal favourites.  Bear in mind that a
great proportion of these brews are only available in certain provinces
or even in certain localities!

	Nova Scotia:
	    Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale
	    Ten Penny Ale

	Quebec:
	    Brador  (watch it, this is 6.2% alcohol)

	Ontario:
	    Labatt's Extra Stock (the strongest in Canada - 6.5%)
	    Molson's Classic


	  Ottawa Valley:
	         Upper Canada Brewing Company Lager
		  (this is unpasteurised, with no additives)

   Brador, Ten Penny and Labatt's Extra Stock are actually Malt Liquors.
If you're looking for more 'buzz for the buck', the choice has to be
Labatt's Extra Stock - everything else comes with it's own dead mouse
inside the bottle.  They used to include old cigarette butts in the 
bottle, but the demand has dropped off in recent years - probably
due to Wealth and Helfare Canada's edict that cigarette eating is bad
for your health.

   If you're ever up this way (the Ottawa Valley), you must pick-up
a two-four of any of the aforementioned, consume it immediately,
and then you will be sufficiently topped-up with anti-freeze to better
survive our interminable winter (and summer, for that matter).

Gidday, eh

Pat

    pat
    your and my mistake, ten penny is an ale.  does labatt still brew
    SUPER BOCK beer in the spring.  now there is a nasty beer.  it 
    looks like mud, tastes like stout, and kicks brador.  i've only
    had it once its and it was good.  i think  it was 6.6%/vol.
    
    pat are you any relation to a "rushton" who hung out at dalhousie
    in the late '70.  i think he's name was peter and was taking 
    engineering.
    
    regards...john
      

    John, 
    	I haven't seen Bock beer for about 2 years - pity.  Also, I
    am probably related to the Rushton's from Down East but from away
    back - my grandfather came to Canada from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs
    after the Boer War and I believe the Down East Rushton's came over
    during the early 1800's.
    
    	By the way, judging by the initiater of this note, I gather
    that Americans still think that Canada is a strip of wasteland north
    of the US of A and Canadians are curious frozen bumpkins who wear
    tuques, bob for french fries (CHIPS), and say 'eh' even while they
    sleep with their hockey sticks... and why do they sleep with their
    hockey sticks (he asked licentiously)?
    

    re:.5
    
    It was, I say it was a joke, son. Humor, that is.
    
    re: general
    
    These suggestions are just what I was looking for. I'm always
    dubious of imports because they are *never* as good as the
    original (if you're ever in Munich, try *real* L�wenbr�u, which
    is to the old import stuff as an H-bomb is to a match, and even
    that import stuff had the same ratio to the stuff of the same
    name brewed here in the US). I wanted to know what Canadians
    really drink, as opposed to what Americans *think* Canadians
    drink.
    
    --- jerry

    
    The most popular beer here is Labatt Blue, but a lot of us also
    drink:
        - Carlsberg
        - Miller 
        - Budweiser
        - Foster's
        - Michalobe
        - Coors
        
    
    But they all taste the same to me, 'cause i'm a wine drinker. 

    Kingston Ont. has a small restaurent where they brew their own beer.
    Its called the Kingston Brewing Company. You can actually see the
    beer making process in action just behinh the bar. A freshly brewed
    dark ale and a plate of curried chicken make a great meal. It takes
    a bit of time to aquire a taste for their ale but once you do, regular
    beer tastes bland.
    
    I also vote for Keiths India Pale Ale
    
    Labatts also sells IPA but its not the same.
    However Labatts Classic comes close, but since Nova Scotia and Ontario
    haven't signed a free-trade agreement I'm stuck with Labatts Classic
                                            
    PS
    Brew you own! make lots of friends!

Ah, for the green, green grass of home. The best lager in the world is brewed 
at the Golden Lion Pub in Lennoxville Quebec, and is called Lion's Pride.  

The best Pilsner in the world is brewed by the Massawippi Brewing Company, 
North Hatley, Quebec.  

If I can't make it to the Eastern Townships by the end of happy hour 
(some things are still sacred, Massachusetts), I usually settle for a 
Molson Export Ale.  If the F.E. Evrett highway is grid-locked by a poor 
excuse for a snow fall that we get around here (Nashua NH), I'll settle for 
a Samual Adams.  I don't drink anything from Anheuser-Busch around here, 
they take their water from the Merrimack river, and I KNOW what's in there. 

Bribing my step sister (native of Vermont) is easy with a case of Brador.  

But I fondly recall, after a long day hewing pines, and a brisk game of hockey,
settling down to a brew and some back bacon, and howling back at the wolves...

Marc

    re .9
    
    	Sounds like you went to Bishop's University, did you??
    
    Glenn ( who used to live in the Eastern Townships )

You bet!

Born and "bred" in Sherbrooke.  Did time at Alexander Galt HS (69-74)
Paid my way through Champlain College (74-77) as a waiter at the Golden Lion.
Got my papers at Bishops (77-80), then was banished from the "Garden"
and had to earn a living.   If DEC opened a facility in the Townships I'd
be back in a flash.  Sherbrooke only had a Field Service post last time
I looked, but if it ever grows and opens a SWS department, look out.

    
    I rather like Dominion Ale, but I haven't seen it outside of Nfld.
    
    

    
    Have to admit that Brador has been my downfall on several occasions
    during my trips to York Street in Ottawa.  Gotta love that stuff.
    

    It's been a while, but some of the brews that emerge from my foggy
    memory as i remember vast stretches of the TCH are:
    
    Old Scotia Ale (brewed by Labatt's or Molson?) - the auld kilted
    Scotsman we kept rescuing from the icewater in the cooler.  Never
    did let it get warm enough to find out what it was *really* like.
    
    Blue Star "The Beer of Newfoundland" - emminently drinkable, maybe
    my favorite from the Maritimes.
    
    Alta (3.9%?) - The Coors of Canada, only better.
    
    Ten Penny Ale (Moosehead?) - Strong enough to put in your gas tank.
    
    Molson Brador - I'd go a long way for this stuff, and have, too.
    
    Labatt's Blue - Perfect for stringing together in Yellowknife bars.
    
    And somebody (Labatt's?) used to make a good stout... we drank it
    in provincial parks after dark (daylight was for the above brews).
    
    More when/if i can think of 'em...
    
    									Tom
    				who_lost_his_"Beer_Drinkers_of_Canada"_button

    Of late, there have been small, independent breweries springing
    up all over the place. I must say, this is the only stuff I find
    bearable. 
    
    At first, it was Upper Canada Brewing, now I've tried such treats
    as Wellington County (Kitchener, I think), Conner's (Mississauga,
    my personal favourite), Ottawa Valley (Nepean). There are doubtless
    others which I will delight in sampling whenever & wherever I find
    them.
    
    The one thing in common is that all of these brews are REAL ALE.
    I can't stand the watered-down p*** that large brewing corporations
    pass off as "beer". They should be sued for misleading labelling,
    or whatever the legal term might be. All I get from them is bad
    gas.
    
    Desmond.
    
    ps. home brew is usually ok too.

	When I left Canada a year and a half ago to come to Colorado,
	I thought that I would be leaving _all_ the good Canadian beer
	behind.  But much to my surprise, the neighborhood liquor store
	carries Molson Export in bottles.  Wonderful!  And when I go
	to Boston, I can easily find Black Label (a throw-back to my
	Winnipeg days).

	Drinking at high altitudes is certainly different than at sea
	level (well almost sea level...Lake Ontario).  I get a massive
	headache after having 2 beers here at 6200'.

	Glynn

     Whats wrong with all you "CANADIANS" . Why is it that no one has
    mentioned that Molson Canadian is the BEST beer going . The rest
    of the dishwater is a mere second place to this. Maybe wine
    connoisseurs should stick with judging vino and leave beer to the
    real drinking men of Canada . 
     Come on you real Canadian beer drinkers , lets hear from y'all
    in defence of our namesake........
    
    
    
    
    
                          THE KINGSTON CANADIANA DRINKING CLUB    

    I'll go for any Molson beer brewed in Montreal (it's all in the
    water).  I tend to lean towards a full body beer like Brador.
    
    Some imports that are worth a mention are:
    
    	o Tuborg (especially their Xmas beer)
    	o Carlsberg Elephant Beer (only in Denmark you say, pity)
    	o John Courage
    	o Tsin Tao
    
    Eric (Dr. Molson) Frere

    My own personnal favorite have to be from Labatt's
    Nothing beats a Labatt's 50, although I do like a Labatt's Classic.
     And, if sometimes the hurge of american beer takes me, I like a
    Bud, brued here in Montreal by Labatt's...
    Guess I'm a fan!...
    
    Andre "Preppy"
    
    P.S.: To CRAZY8::SLATER,
    
    Hey! Marc, glad to see that you are still
    with us, I signed "PREPPY" so you would recognise me.  Still here
    in Montreal, working in pre-sales for Alain Dubuc, after working
    for Christian Bruneau, Michel Chevrier, Alain (agian), and dating
    back, Jean-Pierre, when I meet you that morning of January, very
    early in the morning.  The first face I saw at DEC was yours.  
    
    Top of the day to you old chap...
    Andre_who_doesn't_sign_preppy_anymore! 

    re: .19
    
    You said it, nothing beats a 50! Hard to find 50 in T.O bars...
    I've gotta get out of this place.

    "...Give me a Molson, a Fifty, a Blue, - a double Black Rum and
    an India too,
        Those bloody darts goin ta drive me insane, half the nights
    over and I ain't got a game"!
              
    

    I find it unlikely that anyone will respond to this after so long
    without any new notes, but here goes nothing...
    
    Firstly, allow me to express my disappointment in all you
    west-coasters ( westerners?). Have you forgotten all about your beloved
    Kokane beer?? Possibly my favourite Canadian beer aside from John
    Labatt Classic.
    
    Speaking of Labatt's; any comments on the recent sale of Labatt
    Breweries to European investors for 1.8 billion? Are you in favor of
    it; opposed? Couldn't care less?
    
    Come on people! Let's get this conference going again!
    
    
    Dave S.
    

	Most possibly opposed to the opposition of not liking Kokane.

	....I think...

	

    
    >Speaking of Labatt's; any comments on the recent sale of Labatt
    >Breweries to European investors for 1.8 billion? Are you in favor of
    >it; opposed? Couldn't care less?
    
    Since I view Labatt's and Molson's products as being roughly 100
    different packages of the same bland brew, this strikes me as being
    non-news for the Canadian Beer Drinker.
    
    Choice - Use it or lose it.
    

    the only real interesting thing in the Labatts buy out is what will
    happen to the Jays.
    
    Word here in London is nothing is going to change at Labatts.
    
    
    Brian V
     

    I drink Sleeman products. Yummy. 8^q

    Of course, that's only when I run out of my pseudo home brew which is
    most delicious. Yes indeedy do da day.

	Hmmm, good point Glen(n), I usually stick with the Upper Canada
	and Hart products myself....when my home brew is not available.

	Charlie

  The `Stubby' Beer Bottle
  ========================

  The compact beer bottle or `stubby' as it was knicknamed shortly after its
  appearance in 1961, was a superior container from an industrial point of
  view but not from a 1980's marketing perspective.  The `stubby' was intro-
  duced by the Dominion Brewers Association (now the Brewers Association of
  Canada) to cut the high costs of shipping and storage and to standardize the
  size as a result of automation in the manufacturing industry.

  In 1957 the Dominion Brewers Association launched a search for a standard
  beer bottle and, with the help of the Canadian glass industry, a lighter
  bottle.  After a few years of feasibility studies a cone-shaped neck proto-
  type was produced by the DBA's team of engineers and designers.  Market
  research in 1961 revealed that the test bottle was difficult to open due to
  the cone-shaped neck.  The design was duly revised.  The resulting bottle
  was promoted as "the compact" and knicknamed "the stubby".  The bottle was
  not an instant and overwhelming success; in fact, it had a cool reception.
  Some called it a "medicine" bottle; waiters complained that they could not
  carry as many as the old style and that the bottle was hard to open.  In time
  this changed.  As one brewery official said, some people even began to call
  it a "cute" bottle.

  Besides lowering costs of storage and shipping, the design had 3 important
  advantages: the new amber glass protected the beer from harmful ultraviolet
  rays, the shorter neck meant that the bottle broke less frequently allowing
  for longer re-use, and its squat shape also made it tip easily.  Ironically
  it was also these very advantages as well as the influence of foreign markets
  that portended the demise of the stubby.  Between 1982 and 1984, the Canadian
  brewing industry decided to reject the stubbies in favour of the tall bottles
  used by American and European brewers.  The packaging switch was an attempt
  to set one brand of beer against another by bottling in a distinct package 
  with new labelling and promotional support.  The new bottles could effect-
  ively compete with American and European beers and shed the connotations of
  a dark, high calorie ale and lager that had come to be associated with the
  stubby bottle.

  Aesthetics were also being more heavily considered.  The breweries decided
  that a scuffed bottle sitting on a restaurant table was not a good ambass-
  ador for their product, no matter how impressive the contents.  The stubbies
  were used up to 25 times before being discarded, while the new bottles, which
  break more frequently, are only used up to 10 times.  The stubby, finally
  phased out in 1987, is gone*, a victim of the beer packaging wars.  For, as
  Molson vice-president Alex Jupp stated, "The stubby was never designed for
  aesthetic reasons."

    Information taken from Pat Hunter's "The Compact Bottle in Canada", in
    `The Brewer's Newsletter', Vol. 8, No. 6, Summer 1987

    *Footnote:  The stubby is still used to bottle Jamaica's `Red Stripe',
                brewed by Desnoes and Geddes Ltd.

    In a box in my basement I still have a few stubby bottles including one
    for the short-lived "Hamilton Mountian Ale" which was Amstel's
    pre-microbrewry attempt at creating a small market local interest
    product, way ahead of it's time. The was one notable and also short
    lived variation from the ubiqitous stubby, Henninger made a beer called
    Oktoberfest that came in a bottle shaped like a barrel with a cone
    shaped neck in the early seventies. 
    
    Here's a little trivia test, aside from Henninger what was the first beer 
    to be granted an exemption from the stubby bottle? What was the first
    beer to appear in a non-stubby bottle? (Hint, they are not the same).

    RE: Stubbys
    
     While in Nfld. we discovered that our brand (Canadian of course) came
    in short fat bottles that were strongly reminiscent of the beloved
    "stubby".
    
    							Derek.

    
    There were two types of stubbies, the design changed.  The Henniger
    brand I don't think was Octoberfest, that was a Molson brand and
    trademark, but it had a similar German-style name.  I'll check.
    Strange little bottle.
    
    I can't remember the first "new" long neck, Labbatt's Classic rings a
    bell, as does Brick.  Molson's was the fastest to drop them.  The last
    were from Carling's, called "The Last Stubby" beer in a special run.
    
    Anybody remember the micro that tried to save money by resurrecting the
    stubby?  Or which foreign brand tried them just for Canada?
    
    Marshall
    
    

    Amstel got the first exemption from the stubby policy for their long
    neck green bottle. However once they succeeded the big three were hot
    on their heels, Carling beat them to market with Miller, in the now
    unavailable US shape but brown glass bottle. Brick was the first
    microbrewery in Ontario and may have had a long necked bottle first but at 
    the time you could only buy it at the brewery as they hadn't broken
    into the Brewers Retail yet. 
    
    Miller was so popular that Carling choose to stop production of four other
    brands to give the capacity to Miller. They were Red Cap, Black Label,
    Black Horse and something else (Bradings Ale?). I know people who wept
    openly when Red Cap disappeared. Black Label was the only one that came
    back (OK, Brick is now marketing Red Cap but it lacks the cachet of
    being the beer you grandfather drinks). 

    Marshall....
    
    >>it had a similar German-style name
    
    The one I remember was Heidleburg (sp?).  The beer was Ok. The bottle
    was a pain in the ass.  It was about 2 inches shorter than the stubby. 
    Habit brought the bottle to your mouth 2 inches shy of your lips.
    
    

    Neil,
    
    You're not supposed to put the bottles up your....
    
    Bernie.