The Honest Review - Advocating for better beer.

 

   I think we have all been there. You grab a couple new beers at the Liquor store and rush home with your treasures, eagerly anticipating a night of exciting things. Chilled and waiting after dinner, you open the first one and watch the cascade of liquid fill your glass, hoping for the aromas and flavours to match what the brewer has promised. Watching the final drops flick into the foamy head, you sniff and feel like something's off. A little deeper perhaps and still, it comes up short. No worries though, clearly the first sip will reveal the true depth of character this beer has been presented to us with, flavours will surely come forth to justify you spending your beer budget on this exciting looking new beer.
  Except it doesn't and now you aren't sure what to do. Do you keep drinking it, clearly it isn't hitting the style marks or descriptions given to you. The early excitement fades and the promise of a fun night has morphed into a disappointing evening of self doubt and recriminations. You could have stayed with your tried and true craft beer favourites, but you want try new things because that is what this whole thing is really all about. While every beer certainly can't be the very best ever, they should at least hit the level of competent and close to style.

Who wants to go back to the old generic beer days?

 The rush to market feel I have seen recently looks like the tip of the iceberg and this Titanic voyage is just getting started. I can understand people who have been home brewing for years banding together with like minded friends or family and making a go of commercial brewing. Be it as a contract brewer or an actual brick and mortar shop, those dreams are worthy and I support anyone willing to undertake it with an honest and open plan. But we all know the ones that just don't feel right. Slick marketing, glossy photo spreads, product placement for money and a general sense of a disingenuous approach to a community that still feels very grassroots at its base. The heart we so often speak of cannot be found in such places or brands and the slimy feeling you get is because deep down you know what you're drinking.
 There can be some difficulty in trying to separate the real from the fake because it can subjective but the people who make up the strength of the craft beer movement, the drinkers and lovers of well made, independent beer can sense when someone is feeding them bullshit. Poorly made beer that is sent out because they have deadlines or investors isn't just the calling card of a contract brewer, some long term brewers have reputations for sub par releases that make you wonder how gullible we appear. Getting a listing at the LCBO means you've passed some kind of quality control but it doesn't ensure that quality translates into something resembling good, on point beer.  Malty IPAs when they're supposed to be balanced, watery lagers to try and capture that borderline segment who want to experience craft and labels meant to catch the eye but with little in the way of substance inside. I have only found a few of these kinds of pseudo craft beers but I fear the time is upon us when the market fragmentation and the pursuit of a share of a still pretty tiny pie is deluged with witty slogans, artwork and not much substance. My experience buying wine (a story for another day entirely) gave me an inkling what it is like to be new to the scene, relying on labels and descriptions, guided by names that sound like I should know them or perhaps something someone has told me to help influence my purchase.

I'm always learning

  How do we combat this invasion of the flavour snatchers? It starts and ends with us, to be very simplistic. We who have come before must be the voices that sustain the revolution. The advocacy for better beer and more honesty in that must be paramount. The toehold craft has in the overall beer marketplace is solid but not huge and the potential is there for exponential growth in the coming years, but a flood of poorly made or executed beers will turn people off and send them back to the bland, yet always consistent macro brands. Helping your friends who are new to craft beer find good transitional beers that are to style and full of flavour will help stem the tide of gimmicky bullshit that is starting to pop up and can ensure we don't let this cold turn into pneumonia.
  I say we try to keep our social media filled with honest and straightforward discussions about what we are drinking. You will know I am not a person who ever trashes a brewer or even a beer as being intentionally bad. Rather I let the world know that it's not for me, missing some key mark or flavour along the way to explaining why it wasn't a beer I'd buy again. You don't have to be an asshole about it but your friends deserve and will appreciate your opinion when they seek it out. Advocate the best in beer and try to help them when it comes to steering them into beers that match what they like about flavours and textures. Ease them into it, a triple IPA for a dedicated Bud Light drinker isn't doing them or the beer any favours.

It's always been true for me,

 If you're an explorer of craft beer like me, you're going to try every beer you can get your hands on and as long as you try to see them for what they are stylistically rather than trying to attack them, you will help the cause go further with those who are asking your counsel. Let's make the conversation about what is the best side of our beer but not without acknowledging the weak spots and poor decisions we see on the shelves. Call them out, be truthful and always use your words wisely as those who seek your council will be grateful for your candor. Let the light of truth shine on your pursuit and always keep a sense of wonder about just how amazing this time is for people who love great beer.


Cheers!


Polk

Get in the Cellar

 

A present to myself from my beer cellar

  Ever look on in amazement when someone posts a series of beers from 5 years worth of releases or more that they've held onto for a special occasion? A vertical for the ages takes a huge amount of patience, a little luck and the ability to delay gratification that most of us do not possess. I look on in wonder as a friend takes a snap of a decades worth of beer, carefully stored and lovingly shared amongst their nearest and dearest. How do they do it and should you join in the fun that is cellaring your beer? I should think so, although I do so with a few caveats that work for me. Take these as you will, I am no expert but I've learned a few things along the way.


1. Temperature Matters
  One mistake we make is moving beer from the fridge to the counter to the cellar and back again. Early on I was given probably the best piece of advice about saving my beer for years, keep it cool. If you have room in the fridge, tuck it in the back and leave it the hell alone. No need to move it, agitate or disturb the aging brew. Just keep it consistent, if left in an actual cellar, leave it there until you want to drink it and then move it when ready. Try to keep it in the low temps though, no need to speed up the aging process with warm, shelf aged beer...leave that for our lovely LCBOs.


2. No Light Man
  If you've followed rule number 1, that beer isn't seeing the light of day until it's going into your glass. We all know the natural enemies of our beer are heat, oxygen and of course the sun, natural or otherwise. Take no chances and keep those beauties in the dark until D-Day.


3. Age Appropriate
  There is little sense in aging a hoppy IPA unless your goal is to create a malt bomb. I recently had an almost year old IPA and it was like drinking a toasty glass of caramel, with little in the way of the hoppy deliciousness I was used to from this particular brew. Same goes for low ABV beers, they don't have the requisite chutzpah to go the distance. Dark beers with an ABV over 7% tend to populate most cellars with stouts, barley wines, farmhouse ales, bretty beasts, bottle conditioned gems and barrel aged anything are the usual suspects, The age tends to mellow out the heat or harsher aspects of the beer in comparison to when it's fresh and that can add a balanced complexity to what your drinking.

Do not age!!

4. Buy 2
  I don't understand just buying one of something I'm aging. How can you even begin to compare the two or understand why you're aging a beer if you don't know what is going on with it when it's released. I haven't come across a beer that was released and you were told not to drink it with the exception of last year's 11.05 from Sawdust City and Nickel Brook. It needed a little more time to can condition and we were told to wait a bit longer to give it time to develop that funk. For the most part, beer is released when it is ready to drink, although with the caveat that it can be cellared for enjoyment and comparison at a later date. For me that's what it is all about, contrast and compare what happens from a year spent aging versus the current release. A prime example was the 2016 versus 2017 Kentucky Bastard Imperial Bourbon Barrel aged Stout from the aforementioned Nickel Brook. While the latest release was delicious and boozy, it's older counterpart had lost some of that heat from the alcohol and melded together to create an amazingly balanced beer. Truly sublime.

A truly sublime experience. 2016 Nickel Brook Kentucky Bastard.

4. Forget about it
  The hardest thing to do is look at a beer, day after day, trying to decide if it's the right time to drink it or not. My friends who aged a lot of beer tell me the secret is to put it out of sight, make it something you don't see and you will let it go from your thoughts. Make your cellar or fridge space where you keep your precious and unique treasures as out of the way as possible. The bottom shelf, back of the fridge works best for me, covered by all my other stuff and tucked away out of my eyeline. Proper rotation is, of course, paramount and should be the only time you engage the shelf or cellar until it is to add stuff or when it is time to drink said treat. Which brings us to the next and last tip...


5. Say When
  As with all things, there must come a time to say enough is enough. While I am dazzled by the collections so many of my friends have built, mine remains relatively modest by comparison. I do not have the patience or fortitude to sit on multiple vertical stashes for years on end. The ability to set it and forget it is lost on me and I have a pretty decent amount of self control for the most part. So for us, saving it for a special occasion means whenever we think it is the right day. While many people are saving a beer for a special occasion, I say that the beer itself makes the day special, even if it's a Wednesday in January and you just want to brighten a dreary winter day. My personal rule of thumb is about a year or until the next annual release of what I have in the cellar. I love comparing the differences the age has made and don't want to sit on a beer forever just because. It can become a form of indecision paralysis when it comes to drinking something from your cellar and that can be quite a problem. Knowing that when this beer is gone, its gone forever can be tough and no one likes to say goodbye. But saving a beer forever means you might never get to try it or in the most terrible of endings, oxidized and become nothing more than an aged drain pour. Try and keep your beers in some sort of order and pull the trigger while you can.


6. Share the Wealth
  There is nothing quite like a child's face on Christmas morning when they get their first look at that tree and all the presents Santa has left for them. That is what a beer lover experiences when you bring out a rare whale to share just because you care. Sharing the wealth of your diligent saving means bringing joy to another person and really that is what beer should be all about. Hoarding and being a  miser doesn't pay homage to the hard work and love you put into saving that beer and what better occasion than a friend visiting, maybe with good news or just some cheese and crackers, to crack open that 2015 Barley wine and making the world a little better. Try organizing a 'Cellar Night' every so often and have everyone bring a few things they would like to share, believe me it can bring joy to a dreary day when you open the door and see a friend with something to open and savour. Your beer karma goes up when you become a beer saint and the universe tends to make things balance out in the end, so be happy and make it a night your friends will be talking about for months to come.
 
  Finally and most importantly, drink your damn beer. I say it all the time and mean it with all my heart. Life is so very short and while the rewards of a 10 year vertical of Bellwood's Barn Owl cannot be measured, there is no guarantee that either of us will be around to taste them all. I don't want to miss a thing and that includes my cellared beer. The finest things are worth waiting for but if you keep saving everything for a special day, you might just have missed the one you were looking for.  Life is best lived in the present and while I encourage and applaud those of you with the ability to save beer for such a long time, I think I've found my happy medium and can't wait for that random Tuesday in March when I can open something to brighten my day and bring back the memories of beers gone by.


Cheers!


Polk

School Daze - From Genius to Drop Out in 13 Years

 

Baby Polk had great hair and no clue what was coming.

  I used to be smart.
  Well, book smart anyway...not so much with the life decisions as it turns out.
  School was always easy and I never doubted that I was headed to university at some point and a life as a lawyer or perhaps teacher in my future, with a side of semi famous novelist on the side. And while those dreams persisted for many years, by the time I hit grade 11, it was evident to me and those who knew me that my attention to pursuing higher education had waned and the appearance of drugs, alcohol and bad decisions was taking a premier place in my life. It wasn't a certain event that took me from scholar to scumbag but rather an indifference to the entire process that crept in as I learned just how much effort I actually had to put in to stay ahead of the curve. Making my teachers like me was pretty easy if I behaved, turned in good work and didn't stir the pot. I was quiet, appearing attentive in class and never missing a beat, even when I hardly gave any thought to what I was doing. Their attention was always on the troubled kids, so a supposedly smart one didn't warrant any attention as long as the high marks continued and the behaviour didn't change. I should have seen it coming and maybe they should of too, but the blame falls squarely on me as I knew way earlier than anyone that I was slowly sliding into a morass of doing just enough and not caring anymore.
  The beginning was much like anyone's at school, I enjoyed going and developed an affinity for English, history, math and science very early which had me tested and labelled as advanced in my grade school years. Attempts were made to keep me stimulated with early 80's computer lab programming and skipping ahead in math to the higher grade bringing me some focus and making me work a bit for what I had. Good teachers and parents who wanted nothing but the best for me felt I wasn't ready to skip an entire grade or two, fearful for my social integration, which even then wasn't my strong suit. Looking back is easy but who knows what would have happened if someone pulled the trigger on that move. I don't think it would have made much difference as I was already manipulating the system and taking advantage of my standing as a good kid.
  Then came The Move and I found an even easier way out.
  As a new kid and part of a rather large class with established social hierarchies I fell in with the nerds and some of the kids on the perceived wrong side of the tracks at the same time. A mix-up in my transfer led to me being assigned to math classes way above where I had been and it turned me off the entire thing as I didn't want to bother anyone and struggled for the first time in my life. Instead of buckling down, I began to explore even more ways to make my life easier even as it got more complicated. I kept my grades high but the effort was falling every month, never a good trend as High school loomed.

Grade 8 Grad.
Channelling my inner Punch Imlach

  Going to a private high school for grade nine and abandoning all my new found friends and then quitting that for a local public school after one year left me grasping for some stability and that was where things really started to go off the rails. Perhaps I was searching for something I used to have or coming to the realisation that my youthful burst of intelligence was but a façade that covered up a mostly lazy kid who did just enough to get by. Either way, by Grade 11, it was clear time was up and I had to choose a path, right or wrong, light or dark and when The Party happened, away I went.

One of the few pictures in existence of me from age 17 to 19
I was like the Loch Ness Drunk

  My aptitude for learning never stopped but my ability to sit in a classroom and deal with deadlines and group work was done. I pursued several attempts at going back and even when my aunt and uncle offered to fund my first years tuition if I would enrol in University, it wasn't enough to get me to look at where I was headed.

Working nights at a gas station and hanging out with weird chicks.

 I slogged on with life, ultimately ending up here and now in this moment. Did I miss out on my true calling by abandoning higher education and pursuing my early dreams? An answer I struggle with because had I chosen a different path, I never would have met Kat, nor the other hundreds of people who helped shape the person I am today. I am sure I have made a difference to someone I've mentored or given advice to along the way and that is a comforting thought. I am not a believer in destiny or religion but I always feel like I am where I am solely because of the decisions I made and that is what it is supposed to be. We are the sum total of every choice we make up to this very moment and while shaping my life by not chasing my early promise was something I did unconsciously, it was ultimately the first in a series of things that led me here.
  My true comfort comes by being able to write and share about what I've done and that may be the best thing about what this entire endeavour into craft beer has brought me. A sense of peace with each part of my not so glorious past that I write about. It is almost like once I see the words scroll across the screen, I let go of whatever pain my mistakes caused me go into the universe, troubled by that moment no more.


Cheers.
Polk

One more Baby Polk pic because I miss that mop of hair

Beer Festivals and Polk - A complicated relationship

  

I don't think there is any other way to do this. I mean I've known for a while my true feelings and kept them to myself. I tried and tried to get in line with popular thinking and experience the things like everyone else does. I want to be part of the good time gang but it is time to admit the sad truth about life as Polk.
  I don't like going to beer festivals.

  There I said it and I'm sure I will feel better at some point. I am not sure when this transformation happened, what kind of beer loving person wouldn't love seeing tens of great craft brewers in one place, hanging out with like minded people and experiencing all the frivolity a festival can bring? Apparently it's this guy and as I usually do, I have a theory.
  At the beginning, beer festivals were novel and fun, Kat would drive or we'd take a cab and get bombed on great and not so great beer, one 4 to 6 ounce sample at a time. I always went to every event with the intention of only sampling a few beers and maintaining my wits but ten minutes in and  I'm downing beer like Nic Cage in Leaving Las Vegas and trying to test every beer offered. It's loud and the lines may be long but all I can think of is pounding the next one, regardless of style or flavour profile.

  What makes me like this? I practice self control all the time at home and this should be no different except for one thing...I have to be social and that's when the anxious nervousness kicks in and I turn to the one thing I know can calm me down. Every sample alleviates my fears, bringing a false peace that exists only if my blood alcohol reaches a state of pure drunkenness. I have never gotten comfortable in relating to other people without alcohol and that is something I guess I should work on but I'm not sure if a hall full of $3 beers is a place to explore and confront the demons of anxiety.
  I don't like waking up the next morning feeling the effects of the previous evening. When I drink at home, I never go hard, preferring to enjoy every beer for what it is and not get hammered. I have no desire to see the return of the blackness and despite my best efforts, it always happens when I get together with a group of people and the beer flows. I chase inebriation in a crowd like a dog on a bone, my one skill as a former heavy drinker is the ability to put away a lot of beer faster than almost everyone else. The slurring words, half open eyes and poor motor skills are but a happy by product of a night filled indulging the worst of who I was and could be, I don't blame the festivals or the people I know, I just can't help who I am. That nagging voice comes creeping in whenever we hit the entrance and my self doubt about being able to handle a crowd without liquid courage roars into the front of my mind.

  It is funny that I spend 50+ hours a week working with the public in my job and at no point do I crave a beer. I mean, who wouldn't love a pint at lunch but I don't need alcohol to be able to do what I do. I talk to and deal with so many people and their problems every day and don't let it affect me but put me in a convention centre with 20 breweries and 5 friends and I'm looking for a funnel and a keg. It's not normal but it is what I deal with. Maybe it's the bro factor, no matter where we go, it's creeping its way into this craft beer space as the scene becomes more popular and mainstream. Or maybe it's that I can't really enjoy and experience each beer the way I've trained myself to that makes me lose control. Not staying focused and present in the moment and scrambling to get to the next one is not how I drink anymore nor do I have any desire to return to that life.
  It would be silly to say these festivals aren't about drinking a lot of beer. If you have 20 brewers show up with even 3 beers each that's 60 possible samples over perhaps 4 or 5 hours at best. After the 10th one, you're not really getting much out to them anymore except the ABV if you're being honest and that is fine for most people. They attend these events to have fun and let loose and I can support that whole heartedly. I will continue to promote and encourage people to go to these events but for me, right now, the cost in both money and my self worth is far too high a price to pay.
  The answers I seek about myself aren't always the ones I like to find but my pursuit of an honest and open life mean that is what I get sometimes. I don't want to give the impression that I don't like festivals, the people who attend them or the breweries who participate, I just am struggling with the person I become when I go. Not everyone has that kind of problem and I do love to see the pictures and stories my friends share when they go to various events around the world. I hope someday I will be able to come back in a better state of mind and without the anxiety driving me to forget everything I've worked so hard on and lean in hard on getting my drunken stupor on. Life is funny but not when your knee deep in a sea of trying to bullshit yourself about being in control.
  I'll be cheering you all on from the sidelines this year and hoping everyone has a safe and fun time at every event. The people who volunteer or work them are pretty awesome too and along with my extended beer family, those are the things  I will miss the most. But after a lot of time spent reflecting on my own mental health, I do need a break from that part of my craft beer life so that I can keep my sanity intact.
Have fun and remember to try something new when you get the chance, that's a pretty awesome part of any festival for me.


Cheers!
Polk