Finding a "Go-To" Beer

I love to try different beers. My fridge and cold cellar are usually filling up faster than I can drink my acquisitions and it is not always easy to decide what to try some nights. Choice can be a devious thing. Studies have shown that too many choices can confuse and intimidate a person, freezing them into indecision. I honestly feel that way from time to time as I open the fridge and reach for a new brew.

A lot of time it is just a style thing. Do I want a strong beer? A refreshing one? Or maybe a little IPA love with some bitter, citrus kick? Oh the problems of a Craft Beer guy.
. I tend to stick to lighter and less filling beers at the start, moving to big bold ones as the night progresses. But I try to make sure I have several different breweries and their respective takes on each style in there, so I am often left waffling over where to start.

When I drank macro beer, it was easy. Lakeport, Brava Light and finally Old Milwaukee were my quick pick me up choices and I never gave it much thought. As I began to venture into Craft Beer, I would add a new beer or two a night, but it was so easy to grab an old faithful or more likely four of them, as the night wore on. When I made the decision to not purchase this type of beer anymore, it left me in a quandary.

What would be my "Go-to" brew?

By "go-to" I mean the beer you just want to chill after a long day at work. It is also a beer you have had before and loved. I am not always in the mood for something new and sometimes just want a good beer to relax and enjoy the evening with. Something familiar, yet tasty and well made. There are a myriad of choices out there for this type of beer and a lot of it will depend on your own personal taste and what is available near you.
For myself, I generally try to go with beers that are lower in alcohol by volume (ABV), so I am not getting hammered while I watch the game. Despite how bad my Leafs are, I still want to be able to enjoy the action, not stagger around in a stupor. 

Summer come soon!

Pompous Ass Ale from Etobicoke's Great Lakes Brewery is always in my fridge and I love chilling in my chair with one of these. I wrote about it here, on My Top Ten of 2015. Great, easy drinking beer and available at grocery stores as well.

The goal of having a "go-to" beer is to have something familiar that you can reach for when you just don't know what you want. I am often finding myself getting a Cause and Effect from Nickel Brook when I am thinking about what I want to review that night. Or maybe a Fireside ESB from The Collingwood Brewery. Can't forget Steamwhistle, my favourite Pilsner. I have literally dozens of beers I can grab at the LCBO just to have in my fridge for plain old drinking.

I love my Steamwhistle.

The thing I want to stress the most is that it is fine to enjoy a beer more than once. Hell, that's what beer is meant for. I absolutely love the pursuit of the Perfect Beer and all that entails, but I need to be able to just drink a damn beer once and a while. Especially when I am around other people. I don't want to be writing things down and trying to figure out all the different notes in the glass when talking to my friends.

Should I be doing this at a party? Hell no!

Those times call for something I know I like and will not be disappointed by. I used to hide behind my beer by getting drunk and blacking out. I now use beer as a social lubricant and consume with care. I want to be around when the night ends and to be able to carry a conversation past 10 p.m. is a fun idea too. So when I go out, I am choosing from a great list of beer that is pleasing to the palate, easy on the system and sharable.

Discovering that an everyday beer didn't have to include hangover inducing macro lagers is part of the reason I am here today and with my dogged pursuit of the next great beer in full swing, I have no doubt I will keep adding "go-to" brews to what is a pretty great list already.

Find your "go-to" beers and it will make your evenings full of tasty, yet familiar deliciousness.

Cheers!

#lagerlove

My Current Go-To Beer List

All Available at the LCBO

1. Steamwhistle Pilsner 5.0% - Steamwhistle (CAN)
2. Pompous Ass Ale  4.2 %- Great Lakes Brewery(CAN)
3. Lake Effect IPA 7.0 % - Great Lakes Brewery (CAN)
4. Pale Ale 5.6 % - Sierra Nevada (USA)
5. Fireside ESB 5.8 %- The Collingwood Brewery (CAN)
6. Headstock 7.0 % - Nickel Brook Brewing(CAN)
7. Boneshaker 7.0 %  - Amsterdam Brewing (CAN)
8. Boston Lager 4.7 % - Samuel Adams (USA)
9. Barking Squirrel 5.0 % - Hop City Brewing (CAN)
10. Wells IPA 5.0 % - Charles Wells Brewery (ENG)

 

 



Beer of the Week - January 3rd to January 9th, 2016

The first week of the year is usually filled with grumbled thoughts of going back to work for those who took a vacation at Christmas and the resumption of everyday life after the hustle and bustle of the season. I've even seen something called "Dry January" taking hold, with no drinking...at all... for 31 days. Maybe some people need that but I am okay with my choice to have a pint or two a day of new beer and report back to you, faithful reader.
When choosing my Beer of the Week (BOW), I am trying to be conscious of what makes a beer memorable to me. What stands out in the flavour and texture of the brew? Label and bottle choice can be important from a visual or tactile point, with some artwork grabbing my mind and not letting go. As I move forward in the Year of Beer: Project 366, I have no doubt that I will have weeks when one beer stands out above the rest without a challenge. This was not one of those weeks. Our journey to the States, combined with my usual stops to the local LC and a very pleasant afternoon in Wine Country with my mom at two breweries has left my cold cellar and fridge bulging with new beers to try. I really need to get a handle on what is in there so nothing expires or goes off its intended flavours. Something to explore another day.
I try to mix my American and Canadian Craft beers in an attempt to balance my stash. Getting the beer from down south involves a little more work than the stuff close to home, so there is little sense in plowing through them too fast. Plus, there is the fact that nothing made down there is better than what I can source locally. Canadian brewers are among the leaders in innovation and quality, so it is with great pleasure I choose a simple, yet tasty beer from a micro-brewery in Virgil, Ontario as my BOW.
The Dark Lager from Niagara's own Silversmith Brewing Company was a beer I had been waiting to get to for a while. Only available for bottle sales at the brew pub, I made the short journey down the QEW with my mom this week. I chronicle our short trip in my post Niagara-on-the-Lake Beers with Nana and I.

Sometimes anticipation of a beer can be a terrible thing. You build it up in your head and think it is something else and when you finally drink it there is no way it can live up to your expectations.. This is not one of those times. I'll quote my Instagram post, because I cannot do better than when I drank it.

"Finally, it is time to get into The Black Lager from Silversmith Brewing Company. I've been waiting all day for this one. Couldn't do it without a beauty glass from the pub. Pours black with some amber poking through the light. Nice creamy tan head that hangs on all the way through with some beauty lacing. Smells roasty. On the sip, those roasted malts spark this brew up into the sky. Just a wonderful combination of coffee and chocolate notes. Some dried fruit and sweetness in the middle, but it is the crisp medium mouthfeel that is taking me over the top. You see a dark brew and get that feeling that it's going to be thick and sticky. This is a black lager that plays bigger than the usual beer. Finishing with a nice bitterness that is complimented by a cocoa flavour. Glad I made the journey to the brewery, sad I only grabbed one of these angels of the dark. If this what the rest of my Niagara beers are going to be, it might be one of the best tasting weeks of my life. 4.25 / 5 "
I really wish I had grabbed two, but it's only a 40 minute drive and I didn't do the brewery tour, so a return visit is in the near future.
 This year is off to a roaring start that I hope leads to bigger and better things. What started off as a simple way to keep track of my beers has become a larger platform from which I can express so much more. I thank you for your continued support and hope you keep coming back to see what the future holds for this Polkaroo.

Congratulations to Silversmith and their delightful Black Lager on being my BOW this week. Please do yourself a favour and take a drive soon to visit them.

 Their pub is a gem, the food is amazing and the people who work there are fantastic .

The beer will speak for itself.

Cheers!

Check out their website for details and hours of operation.