Go To: Beer Tastings on Sundays!

Hello blog-reader friends. What are you all up to on this beautiful Sunday afternoon?

If you’re in the city and stumped for ideas on how to get outside and enjoy this bout of sunshine (before it storms this evening, of course), we’ve got some great suggestions for you:

1) Wychwood Barns

The Wychwood Barns has been on our list of things to do for awhile now. They’ve got all kinds of things to do there, from farmer’s markets to country art, to beer tastings. Wait – beer tastings? What up! I forget how we first heard about this, but you can go to the Brewery Market‘s home page and check out what’s going on today.

This event is actually going on for the next 11 Sunday’s over at the Barns. The site says it best:

“Each Brewery Market event will feature a single brewery.  At the event you will be able to try out some of their beers and meet the brewers in a casual and conversational setting.  There will be no admission fee – just stop by from 1pm – 5pm and grab a beer (buy drink tickets for what you’d like).  And while you’re here you can also purchase a fresh slice of wood-baked pizza made onsite by The Stop Community Food Centre.  Partial proceeds from the events will go towards The Stop’s innovative, hunger-fighting programs.”

Today they’re previewing Flying Monkeys beer – not my favorite, not by far, but I think it will be fun. It’s brewed in Barrie, and I like the local beer attitude, so we’ll check it out. You can check out the schedule of breweries here, so don’t miss your favorite brewery! This is a great initiative and way to get people down to the bars – props to whoever thought of it.

2) Free Whiskey @ Steam Whistle Brewery

You’d think we do the PR for Steam Whistle, the way we talk about it. But it’s not our fault they’re very involved in their community and often doing cool stuff. They just do.

Our friends and amazing bluegrass band Free Whiskey will be playing down at the brewery today at 3:00 p.m. Don’t believe their site – it says 11 p.m., but trust us, it’s 3, and you don’t want to show up late and miss them. We’ve raved about these guys before, and we’re likely to rave again.  They are honestly one of my favorite bands to listen to – they have such a fantastic, fun sound, and they’re super cute to watch. Listen to their music on their website for free, and trust me, you’ll be ordering a CD before long. They’re just starting their summer tour I think, and playing lots of shows out East too – so if you’ve got friends out there (I’m looking at alllll of His friends), go check them out. You won’t be sorry.

Alcoholic Air Miles – Great Lakes Devil’s Pale Ale

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

Now this is what a craft beer should be.  Super unique taste and some branding that really sets it apart from its competitors.  Devil’s Pale ale has a big 666 on the can, is 6% alcohol by volume and plays on the 666 Devil’s number theme a number of times around the can.  It’s a pretty fun can to have around.  It definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Having said that, I don’t really like the beer.  Sure, it has a unique taste, but it’s just far too bitter in the wrong places for me.  I don’t know.  It wasn’t refreshing like a good lager is and it wasn’t full with flavour like a British ale.  And like too many things that try to be a stay neutral between two competing sides, it just doesn’t cut it.  I dunno, maybe Satan likes his brew tasting like puke.  My advice: Don’t bother with it.

Anyways, if you buy two cans of this stuff, you get 1 bonus air mile.  Not a great deal, but enough to make me give it a shot.  But word to the wise, the two need to be purchased together.  I was actually at the shop and brought two up to the cashier and paid when I noticed that he only charged me for 1 can.  I, being the good Samaritan, informed the employee of his mistake and ended up paying for the second can in a separate purchase.  So, I had to pay for the second can when I could have walked out with it for free and I didn’t even get the bonus air mile.  Sucks.

Oh, and I will send a yet-to-be-determined prize to the first person who can tell me what book the can is standing on in the picture at the top of this post.

Cost	$2.60
Bonus Air miles	0.5
ML	473
Alcohol %	6%
Airmiles/$	0.19
ML/$	181.92

Contest! Steamy Steam Whistle Free Tour Passes!

Oh HI friends! Today we have something super sweet and spicy for you – a giveaway!

Now, when we say “win this shiz,” we mean win some of this shiz. He kept the shirt – suckas! BUT, here is what you could win:

• Two free passes for a tour of Steam Whistle Brewery, where there is FREE BEER!
• A Steam Whistle bottle opener
• An iPod Steam Whistle cover
• Maybe some chocolate, if we have some left over from Easter

Here’s what you have to do:

1) Write us a haiku about beer, lovely beer, on Twitter*, to either @shann_mitchell or @mulliganl or both

2) Make it a good haiku now, don’t be shabby

3) Link to this page – bit.ly can make it shorter for you (but if you haven’t figured out shortened links by now, what are you still doing on the internet?)

That’s it! Extra entries if you also comment on this post, for a limit of one extra entry each. We also might accept bribes.

 

*If you don’t have Twitter, get one, then enter this contest. Or, you know, just enter your haiku in the comments below.

Alcoholic Air Miles – Grolsch Premium Lager

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

So Grolsch tallboys come with one bonus air mile until the end of the month.  That’s pretty cool.  Grolsch is basically a more mainstream version of Bavaria.  They’re both not great beers, but their imports so you can look sophisticated while drinking them at not a huge cost.

They also come in these amazing resealable bottles. Those are great.

I haven’t seen them sold at the LCBO, but some bars around have them.  You must be able to get them from the LCBO, because I can remember someone blogging about getting one of the big bottles so that he could take it to a party, drink some, then take it home without feeling bad.  I mean, the “leave what you didn’t drink” rule can’t apply if you’ve put your lips on the source of the stuff, right?  I guess that’s logical.

Anyways.  Grolsch.  1 air mile.  Not bad.

Cost	$2.25
Bonus Air miles	1
ML	500
Alcohol %	5%
Airmiles/$	0.44
ML/$	222.22

A Steamy Steam Whistle Adventure

Congratulations to me! Yesterday I found out that I won a contest on The Indie Machine and totally won a Steam Whistle prize pack. It was awesome. I signed up for the contest in early April, so I had totally forgotten about it when they emailed me.

That’s how He and I found ourselves heading down to the brewery last night for our special tour. I also won this sweet prize pack below:

The tour itself was great. Both He and I had already had the tour twice, but it’s still interesting because the different tour guides tell you different facts about the beer, the brewery, and the owners. If you haven’t been on the tour and are in the Toronto area, it’s definitely worth checking out. Plus, you get a beer – oh yeahhhhh. Spoiler Alert – keep your eyes peeeeeeled, ‘cus this week we’re having a contest where you can win your very own Steam Whistle tour prize pack! Whoop whoop! 

One of my favorite parts of Steam Whistle that I haven’t experienced on the other tours I’ve been on, is their photobooth. You take a beer in, the camera snaps, and you chug like an animal. However, cans don’t work too well:

As part of the prize pack, we also got to hang around for the Unsigned Series show. On Friday night’s, they will sometimes have bands down to the brewery to play. You pay $5 and get to see three (usually) awesome bands, and drink some beer – it’s not a bad deal. Two of our friends who work at the brewery were also around that night, so it was nice to see them as well.

The bands playing tonight were Freedom or Death, The Darcy’s, and Wildlife. Having not really heard of any of these bands before (at least me), I was excited to check them out. I spent the afternoon at work listening to Wildlife on headphones, and I was really into their sound. I listened to The Darcys while getting ready, and they were… okay.

Freedom or Death opened the show, and He was into them. I was not. Nothing against the band, just not my preference of music. The crowd seemed to really be digging them though – I was surprised at how many people came out, it was a really decent sized crowd. The Darcys were next, and they were pretty good. We didn’t end up staying for Wildlife, but they were the band we were both most eager to see. Oh well, we’ll always have their Myspace.

If we hadn’t won the prize pack though, we would have been at the Free Whiskey show at the Silver Dollar, which is hopefully where you were if you weren’t at Steamy Steamwhistle. I cannot stress how awesome this band is, and not just because they’re friends of ours. Keep an eye on their tour page and go see them when they come to Toronto again – in fact, we’ll go with you and make a date out of it. They’re playing TO May 28th and June 5th – so go! go! go!

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Alcoholic Air Miles – Long Neck Shiraz

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

The Long Neck Shiraz bottle doesn’t actually have a long neck.  The bottle is of a standard size.  Too bad.  It’s a tasty shiraz if drinking alcoholic grape juice is your thing.  Don’t mind it.  The air miles deal could have been better.  4 for $9 is a bit weak, but oh well. I still bought it.

Give it a shot for the 4 bonus air miles. You’ve only got a bit of time before that offer is gone.

Cost	$8.95
Bonus Air miles	4
ML	750
Alcohol %	14%
Airmiles/$	0.45
ML/$	83.8

Alcoholic Air Miles – McClelland’s Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

“Islay, ‘the Island of dreams’ is a place of pilgrimage for hundreds of malt whisky lovers.  The quality of the air, deep peaty ground and cold salt winds combine to create the strongest flavour of all malt whisky.” -the case

Not quite as cool as the little 20cl bottle with the ancient lore story printed on it that my buddy brought back from Scotland, but its still poignant enough to get me really in the mood to enjoy some scotch.

I first started drinking scotch a few years ago.  After a brief foray into whiskey* and water (usually drunk out of a jar while listening to Thin Lizzy), I grew up and bought some of the good stuff.  Well, I guess it’s mostly been the mediocre stuff.  Teacher’s blended scotch just doesn’t hold a candle to some of the single malts.  Knowing this, I have been waiting for a good time to invest in a bottle for my cabinet.  This is that time.

*whisky is the Scottish spelling, whiskey is the non-scotch spelling.

Her had given me an LCBO gift card for Christmas with a purpose.  She wanted me to buy myself some scotch that I wanted and she was afraid that she’d buy a bad one and the gift would be ruined.  Very thoughtful of her.  So I took said gift card and went to the Mecca of all LCBO’s (summerhill) and picked up a bottle of the McClelland’s Islay.

The scotch is one of the cheaper ones as far as single malts go and that’s one of the reasons it was chosen.  I try to live by the philosophy that you start of with the least expensive of a given item and stick with it as long as it means your needs.  If it doesn’t then you move onto the next least expensive item.  This way you’re not spending more than you need to be.

Anyways, the scotch is okay.  Nothing special, but certainly enjoyable.  I might have to go up in price the next time I but a bottle, but that’s okay. I’m still going to enjoy the heck out of this one for the foreseeable future!

Cost	$31.75
Bonus Air miles	10
ML	750
Alcohol %	40%
Airmiles/$	0.31
ML/$	23.62

Alcoholic Air Miles – Citra Sangiovese Terre Di Chieti

Well well well.  Wine and a blog post.  Good night.

Here I am enoying this Citra Sangiovese on a comfortable April evening.  Music in the background, dinner digesting in my tumtum and Her using a semi dangerous looking head massager.  This is the life.

The sangiovese is a nicely priced red wine at $7.45 that comes with 3 bonus air miles.  It’s not anything super special.  Just a mild taste, but that’s probably a good thing for the price.  Usually the result isn’t a good one when someone who is underqualified tries getting too fancy.  So let’s just keep it simple, idiot.

I recommend having this wine with roasted whole chicken and then another glass with a foot massage.

Cost	$7.45
Bonus Air miles	3
ML	750
Alcohol %	13%
Airmiles/$	0.403
ML/$	100.7

Before The Job Becomes A Job

Sometimes at work you feel like… you know, it’s work. You want to go home, you’re tired of clocking hours, and all you want to think about is maybe a delicious dinner, a cold beer, and tv downloads waiting for you at home.

However, if you’re like me, you actually love your job. But I mean, everyone gets those days, am I right? So I’ve decided to create a list of the top 10 things I love about my job to look at anytime I feel like 5 o’clock (or 8′clock) can’t come soon enough:

1) Beer Cart (and gummy bear, chip, chocolate, wine cart) every Friday afternoon

2) My co-worker, Michelle, and all her great ideas that make my time between 8:45 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. so special

3) Heck, scratch that, all my co-workers are pretty awesome

4) Hot chocolate in the morning that is always super good

5) Our production department: it has a machine that will stamp letters for you!

6) Our Marcomms room that Alice stocks with cashews, chocolate-covered digestive cookies and Nature Valley Crunch bars

7) Working with a bunch of girls (and Miguel) where your afternoon discussions can range from clothes, shoes, and birth control pills to stalking, hairdressers, and flooded basements

8 ) Working for clients I like and projects that are really, really cool

9) Going to concerts, discussing male celebrities and going grocery shopping – and getting paid for it

10) Having one

I really do love my job. There are days, and moments, sure, when I feel burnt out, but every morning without fail, I’m still excited to come into work. I think that’s the true sign of a job you love. It might not be amazing all the time, but really, the only job that’s like that is pizza tester, and I don’t think that would pay very well. But if the morning after a day when a client isn’t pleased, you made a huge mistake, or you don’t feel up to snuff, you still want to go into the office? You’re alright.

Alcoholic Air Miles – Labatt Blue

Alcoholic Air Miles is a recurring segment on His, Hers and Theirs. It delves into the secret world of picking up bonus Air Miles from regular, everyday purchases from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (“LCBO”) stores. Every month, the LCBO changes which items receive bonus Air Miles and He tries to keep you on top of those changes. These are His stories…

Alright. Time to kick it into ludicrous speed…

So one of the beers that I picked up, along with the bonus air mile that came with it, a couple of weekends ago was one that I’m sure many in this country are familiar with.  Labatt Blue.  This is the quinetessential Canadian lager.  Not bad, not great. Just good. It’ll do.

I remember back at some point when blue really went down in price.  No longer was it priced the same as Sleeman or Alexander Keith’s, the price dropped.  First for 18 packs (down to about $23) then all sizes of cases fell too.  I thought this was great. cheaper decent beer was good for me.  I could get cheap beer without the risk of getting a splitting headache the next morning from one of the poorly brewed buck-a-beers.

I’ve already mentioned the time that a friend of mine switched from tallboys of Blue to an import that cost the same, so maybe it’s just the prices of bBlue that seem a little outrageous.

Anyways, I guess the moral of the story is that $2 for a tallboy of Blue is a bit steep.  But top it off with a bonus air mile and we’ll call it even.

Cost	$2.00
Bonus Air miles	1
ML	473
Alcohol %	5%
Airmiles/$	0.5
ML/$	236.5