Every year I sit down and go back through every post I made on Instagram and look for the spark of a joyful memory to help me find the 10 most memorable pints of the last 12 months. It took a little more time this year, I find my ability to decompress after work has been curtailed and my inspiration to write disappeared along with it. But this morning finds me suitably fired up and after sorting the data, checking my lists twice, I have arrived at the conclusion of this very strange year in beer.
This is not a best of list, taste and perception is subjective to the individual palate and while I will push out a post about my favourites in each style category later this week, today is
much more special and important. It is about beers that stick out in my mind, I can still feel that anticipation and appreciation for what was to come and did transpire. The following ten beers are what made a difference to me when I had them and resonate even months later or perhaps they have become part of my regular life and give me a moment of zen on a regular basis.
I don't have a lot of rules other than I don't repeat any beer from year to year and to be honest, cutting down from the 748 reviews to 100 to 25 to just 10 took longer than I had anticipated, there were a lot of really great moments this year and for that I am grateful.
Let's go!
10. Clifford Brewing - Pinball Wizard American Pale Ale
It seems each year I find a go-to pint and latch on for dear life, a port in the storm that is pandemic drinking. 2021 saw me stopping at Clifford Brewing more often than not and grabbing a pint at the bar or the patio on the way home from work. And that usually was Pinball Wizard, the classic American Pale Ale that is part of the early 1-2 punch of Clifford beers (along with the award winning Porter) from the very beginning. What struck me about Pinball this year was the ease of which it just rolled into my day when anyone asked if I'd had time for a pint at the bar. It wasn't a thought, it was a reflex, usually after I had tried the newest release, I'd have another beer and it was almost always Pinball. The bite of citrus pith and pine in a biscuity toasted malt body and a consistent flavour profile that always delivers makes it an easy choice and in another year of lockdowns, waves of uncertainty and a world on edge, it became a touchstone for normalcy and comfort. While it may not have the flash and dash of a hazy IPA or big bourbon barrel aged bastard, it is a beer that brings me joy just by being exactly what it is.
I wrote about Pinball 5 times last year, but I'll share the one that I remember best, a post work pint on the patio in front of Clifford's...can't wait to get back again...
"After work patio pint...midweek feels pretty good out here at the Clifford Brewing Company patio.
Pinball Wizard American Pale Ale is always an easy choice, on tap it shines even brighter. West coast vibes with pithy citrus and resinous pine. Beyond the ordinary day, a stop at my local makes it extraordinary. Cheers! 4.6/5"
9. Gateway City Brewing 503 Dark Rye Lager
2021 was a lot to take in and with the constant swings in the world around me, I found myself gravitating to certain breweries and styles to steady the ship in the turbulent sea. My friend Paul delivered many a Gateway City Brewing beer to my glass and it is because of him that I found myself falling in love with this North Bay based brewery all through the year. I was so enamoured with what he brought me that when Kat and I decided on a late fall road trip, we knew it would have to be included on our itinerary. The visit cemented what we felt through osmosis, a working class brewery that delivered fantastic and innovative beer, making use of Rye as an ingredient better than anyone else...and more often too. But the standout was this dark and bready Lager, a smooth bodied pint that had me slowing down and relaxing to stretch out every sip. It had something special going on and I can still feel that moment after my first taste while sitting on the deck, the sun shining and the world fading away.
What I said in October of 2021 :
"This is a helluva beer.
Seriously.
Gateway City Brewing 503 is a 5.1% Dark Rye Lager that delivers a big time flavour punch in a crushable ABV. Smooth and bready malted body with caramel and a solid bitterness that finishes with a rye spice that enhances the sweetness with aplomb. It's so easy easy going, if I lived in North Bay, this would be my go-to, everyday beer...absolutely no doubt. it enhances every moment it touches, bringing joy to a day that needs it or a way to slow sip and contemplate the bigger things. It's a damn good pint.
Period.
Cheers!
4.8/5"
8. People's Pint Brewing Hey You Guys India Porter
It was late March and we had just crossed over a year into the current pandemic with another semi-lockdown birthday and a world seemingly getting better with the vaccines arriving and a spark of warmth for the coming warmer months. The long, slow days of winter were fading and we thought a corner was being turned...good times.
Looking back through the year in beer means reflecting on the events around every pint and word and knowing that a lot of days were just one beer and done but that sometimes that one beer sticks in your head with an iron lock and it's memory is a joyful one to have in there. Such is Hey You Guys, a bold India Porter from Toronto brewery People's Pint. I'm a big fan of both their beer and their community minded work, plus they have Maris, a brewery cat with a heart of gold. Good folks making great beer is something to be celebrated and this slow sipping dark beauty was indeed just that, a celebration of hope over despair and love over hate. I invest a lot of emotion in beer that speaks to my soul and this one is that kind of beer...
What I said in March of 2021 :
"One and done tonight and what a one it is! People's Pint 5.9% Hey You Guys! India Porter is a rich and hopped up beauty to soothe the working the weekend beast. Smooth but bold roasted malt backbone with dark chocolate, bitter black coffee, tobacco, molasses and a noble hop bitterness that ties it all together quite beautifully. It's got a bite and some legs and delivers a great single pint night experience to tide me over till tomorrow night when we will do it all over again. Cheers! 4.4/5"
7. Sawdust City Brewing Flapdoodle English Best Bitter
I have all the time in the world for Sawdust City beers. They make some of my favourite seasonal and core beers, from Titania Bourbon Barrel aged Imperial Stout to Lone Pine West Coast IPA to Little Norway Pilsner and all points in between, Sam and the team in Gravenhurst are consistently hitting the high water marks with each release. I could have easily chosen any one of a dozen pints at least, but this one really stood out from mid-October and I think it set the benchmark on what I call "
Sunday Beers". Flapdoodle was an ESB, a toasted malt, bready beauty that felt like it could be re-upped all day long on a patio or in a pub as we drank the afternoon away with some friends. From first sip to last, it gave rise to a feeling of happiness and would be the kind of pint that becomes part of the day, not the focal point, but an enhancement and a true companion.
What I said in October of 2021 :
"Oh...my...
This is the epitome of what I call 'Sunday beer', the easy going Best Bitters and Milds that are made for hanging out with friends on a Sunday and just wasting the day doing nothing but drinking and eating together, swapping tales and chilling. It's my Sunday today so it fits real well...now to find some friends...
Sawdust City Brewing Flapdoodle is a 4.4% English Best Bitter that brings that bready toasted malt body to play with notes of toffee, light bitterness and easy going crushability. It's a delightfully put together beer that is absolutely what I seek when I turn to this style. Cheers! 4.8/5"
Video review can be found over on the
YouTubes.
6. Willibald Farm Brewery Succession Triple IPA with Citra, Galaxy & Simcoe
How does the memory of a beer stay with you for a year to the point that it makes this list through more than 750 other pints that came after it? By being so good that it demands your respect and attention long after it has disappeared down the scroll of the social media feeds. When this one came up as I went over every post of 2021, I could taste and feel it all over again and immediately put it onto my radar for The Ten and it stays here still out of sheer enjoyment. Willibald Farm Brewery has dropped some stellar stuff and while I have only had a smattering of what they offer, I have been impressed every time...none more so than this early January Triple IPA called Succession. Brewed with Citra, Simcoe and Galaxy, it was an ephemeral treat that I may never see again, but will always remember. It was 10%, but felt like an easy going crushable pint and delivered something real special in a style that often gets repetitive real fast, no easy feat.
What I said in January 2021 :
"Yes it's a scrimmage.
Yes I know it doesn't matter.
Don't care, just happy to have some Leafs hockey on a Saturday night for a touch of normalcy.
Leafs win, Leafs lose, I am here for the years and years of trying again and again.
Beer helps.
Willibald Farm Brewery Succession is a 10.0%, Citra,, Galaxy and Simcoe hopped Triple IPA that is so smooth and tropical, that ABV is nowhere to be felt. Seriously good beer with peach, passionfruit, grapefruit pith and dank pine in a dance for the ages. Most assuredly a contender for the best of 2021 and we are only 9 days in.
Boom!
Cheers! 4.8/5"
Video review can be found over on the
YouTubes.
5. Cameron's Brewing Beste Bock
In the Lore of Polk, looking back way into the past, you find a special relationship with Oakville based Cameron's Brewing. Many an elbow bent at their monthly Cask Nights way back in the early days of my writing about beer and life, friends made and beers shared as we watched our community grow and change. It's been a while since we saw them for such a party, but hopefully one day soon we will return to the brewery for frivolity and pints. But 2021 did see a lot of exciting releases from the brewery and while I was leaning toward the retuun of the Rye Pale Ale for The Ten, this one kept nudging it aside in my memory...good beer. Beste Bock came out in February and returned again in their holiday mix pack, a rare double threat in a single calendar year that cemented it's position with a tasty roasted malt back and smooth presentaion. It harkened to a time not quite lost, but cloudy with many days passed by. It was delightful to feel the memories brighten and the skies clear from the first sip onward.
What I said in February 2021 :
"Dang.
Well, better yet...damn.
Cameron's Brewing doesn't go crazy with new releases, but the ones they drop are so on point that I never miss one. First up for 2021 is the 6.6% Beste Bock, a smooth and delightful pint of awesome to kick off my night. Roasty and rich with toffee, caramel and cocoa, bitter but not overpowering, a great dark lager that is right what I want in my glass as the cold winds blow. Cheers! 4.6/5"
Video review can be found over on the
YouTubes.
4. Collective Arts Brewing (Toronto) & Great Lakes Brewery Old Timer West Coast IPA
When I began looking back at the year in beer for 2021, I found that between Collective Arts (TO) and Great Lakes Brewery combined I had posted 94 times (59 CATO, 45 GLB) or 14% of all my reviews for the entire 12 months. It was not just the sheer amount of new and returning beers that made that happen, although it certainly helped, it was also that there were so many bangers included in there. My top ten of each style will be littered with beers from both of these breweries and it came as no surprise to me as I perused my lists that this one jumped out at me from October. The label is one of my all-time favourites, a pigeon in a Hawaiian shirt, and the tasty West Coast IPA in the bottle were a combo made in hop heaven. It was so good, such a bold old school pint of pith and pine, it gave me pause and inspired the words that followed...
What I wrote in October 2021 :
"You know what...this is the kind of beer I dream about when I dream about beer...which is often...especially after the day at work I just had...#beerme
Collective Arts (TO) and Great Lakes Brewery collaborated on this absolute gem of a pint and now I sit here enjoying the fruits of that labour.
Old Timer is a 6.9% (alright, alright, alright) West Coast IPA brewed with Simcoe, Cascade, Centennial & Columbus hops and it is all that you think an IPA from these two giants could be.
Bold grapefruit pith, lush tropical citrus pineapple and orange, earthy, resinous pine, a little spice and a smooth body that leads to a bitter finish that invites another sip, another bottle, another song to be sung. It is sunshine on a cloudy day, if it's cold outside, it's the whole month of May. I guess, you'd say, what could make me feel this way? This beer. This beer? Talking 'bout this beer...it's real damn good...seriously. Also, the bottle art from Franki Ludwig is outstanding and shall take up a place on one of the Walls of Fame I have down in The Crease. Don't miss this beer, it's one to remember when talking about the best of 2021...
Cheers! 4.8/5"
Video review can be found over on the
YouTubes.
3. Third Moon Brewing Kills Czech Pilsner
Here's the thing, I could do a top ten of just Third Moon beer and still have a dozen more clamoring to join the list. They produced a mega-ton of excellent IPAs, Double and Triple IPAs, rich and heavy stouts from pasty to barrel aged and still I would tell you if you wanted to see the true talent of the folks from Milton that this was the beer that showcases pure genius. Kills left absolutely no doubt that they could capture the magic of any style they choose to brew, a straight piece of ambrosia I called it then and I can still feel it now. Nowhere to hide and nothing to do but straight up put everything into this style which so many fail to deliver on. I know it's easy to dismiss a Czech Pilsner as just a beer that tastes like a beer, but this is so much more and I think it deserves a bigger audience and much more love. I can still feel the luxury of what it brought to my glass, the noble largesse of centuries of brewing in a single can of excellence.
What I said in April 2021 :
"Because they can and because they can do it oh so well.
Third Moon Brewing drops a 5.8% Czech Pilsner like it ain't no thing and I would kindly like to acclaim them from the top of The Grotto to the bench in The Crease as absolute beauts. Banger of a Pils, this one is. Named Kills with a solid label art to back it up, pour slowly and let that head build. Fluffy, boo-boo. Solidly built piece by lagered piece, it is crisp, clean and a pure joy to behold. Blessed be the Saaz.
Hay, toasty malt back, noble hop spice, touch of sweet, touch of bitter, touch of gold. Beautiful. Full. Rich for the style, little left unsaid. Constant sipping, angling for a little more each time. If ever a beer needed a second can just because the two beer buzz would be pure ambrosia...it is this.
Cheers!
5/5"
Video review can be found over on the
YouTubes.
2. Collective Arts Brewing English IPA
The funny thing about a beer that comes roaring into your life and then disappears is that you begin to wonder if it was all just a fever dream. A brief respite from the swirling world of darkness that surrounds us today, a bright mark leading us up to the light of day. I don't know is this beer will ever return, but Collective Arts brought a spark of happy in April of 2021 and I carried it with me all year long. The simply named English IPA brought back memories of my early forays into craft beer, the malty toasted biscuit backbone accentuated with Mosaic, Chinook, Citra and Nugget hops amping it all up. It was so good, posted about it again a week or so later because I had gone back for another 6-pack and wanted more people to know about this gorgeous pint of love. I can still remember the joy it brought me and maybe one day we will meet again,,,
What I said in April 2021 :
"Catch me outside, drinking beer.
Collective Arts Brewing 6.5% English IPA with Mosai, Chinook, Citra and Nugget hops dropped into my life today and I am very happy to find this little bit of sunshine amongst the gray to give life hope. Solid bready toasted malt body with a fruity bit of citrus, noble hop spice, toffee and a bitter finish that feels like you need another sip. It's an excellent damn beer, precisely what is needed right now amongst all the choices I have in my fridge. It speaks to me on a deeper level, taking me back to the beginning when all this started and this kind of bitter but accessible IPA was my introduction to a life much different than I knew before. Maybe another pint is needed to shake out some of the dread of the last few days, we need a break and a little self care could be more important than we know. Stay safe, stay sane, stay the fuck at home and get beer delivered...Cheers! 4.7/5"
You can find the video review over on the
YouTubes.
1. Meuse Brewing Saison de la Meuse
From beginning to end, this list is about not just excellence, it is about moments in time that live on in your mind with reckless abandon. It is about love and joy and life being lived in that moment with every fiber of your being and then finding a way to carry that with you as you move on and the hours and days become years and decades. Writ large in beer is a personal story each brewery has, the tales of beginnings and risks, of dreams laid out in every release and the hope that the world will see what you see and enjoy that with every pint they pour. This is a romantic view, I know, but if you've had a chance to visit Meuse Brewing in Scotland, Ontario, then you may have some sense that there is romance to be found in the stories and tales of dreamers who chase down rainbows.
Saison de la Meuse is their flagship beer, a Saison that entered the market saturated with IPAs and sour beers and made a name for itself amongst folks who know their stuff when it comes to beer. Rising to the heights of the legends who came before them like Saison DuPont and (in my humble opinion) Saison Davenport from Shacklands, Meuse brought the truest form of Belgian beer to the world and in doing so gave us a chance to have a moment of real and true zen inspiration. They have a solid beer list of varied styles, their Cuvee is divine, but this working person beer is something very, very special and if you want to have a chance at a golden hour, find it and join us.
I had zero hesitation in placing this beer at the top of The Ten for 2021, I can still enjoy it today, a small reserve stock in my fridge and finding it at some LCBOs for good measure means it can be brought out as needed for inspiration. The memory of that day I had it for the first time remains vivid in my mind and the pureness of what I felt is a much needed boost as we continue to work though what the world has been thought the last two years. This beer is joy and for that, my love is won.
What I said in May 2021 :
"Well now, isn't this a beautiful beer for a lovely day.
Meuse Brewing Saison De La Meuse is a 5.0% Farmhouse Blond Ale that is a world class entry from a very new brewery from Scotland, Ontario. It's got all the things I need from this style, bright with light citrus, herbal and floral notes, banana, clove and a solid peppery back, this is what we need more of in beer right now. You can feel the dedication and love in it, I'm a fan and will be adding this to our Grotto fridge rotation as Summer 2021 steams towards us. Get some at the LCBO, if yours doesn't have it, ask for it, this is a real and true genuine 5/5. Cheers!"
Video review can be found over on the
YouTubes.
That's a wrap on The Ten for another year, look for my Best of 2021 by style list later next week and of course, The Disappointments of 2021 and Predictions for 2022. I'd like to also drop a huge Thank You to everyone who's following along. I wish you happiness and love for the coming year and may your glass never be wanting of good beer.
