The Brew Master

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News & Reviews
   
Interested in getting caught up on the progress of The Farmery — the estate brewery being launched by brothers/Luxalune Gastropub owners Lawrence and Chris Warwaruk? Check out their YouTube page for some cool little videos they’ve put together. They do a good job on Twitter, too — check out twitter.com/luxalune for more.

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Speaking of Manitoba-based breweries, Half Pints’ recent Brewer’s Blog on its website (www.halfpintsbrewing.com) indicates it has two new brews coming down the pipes (literally, I suppose): Black Galaxy, a "hoppy, dark beer with boatloads of Galaxy hops in the finish" as well as Saison de la Ceinture Fléchée, "an amber Winter Saison brewer with malted wheat, barley, goldings hops and a special blend of farmhouse yeast from France."

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Remember a couple of weeks ago when I mentioned it didn’t sound like Fort Garry would be making the Fort Gibraltar beer again for Festival du Voyageur? At first I thought maybe Half Pints might have taken over that role, what with its "Ceinture Fléchée" beer and all. A quick perusal of the Festival’s sponsors page on its website, however, shows the Molson Coors logo. I’m told the featured products will be Rickard’s Red, Coors Light and Molson Canadian. The Molson Coors Snow Bar will also feature Heineken and Corona, and appearances by the "Molson Girls" on both weekends. Dress warm, ladies.

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Speaking of Molson Coors, it turns out Coors Light is now the second biggest-selling beer in the United States, according to a report by Advertising Age. Surpassing Budweiser, Coors Light shipped 18.2 million barrels of beer, with Bud moving a mere (!) 17.7 million barrels. According to the report, Budweiser was moving around 50 million barrels of beer at its most popular in 1988. Oh yeah, the biggest-selling beer in the USA? Bud Light. While Anheuser-Busch’s numbers weren’t included in the report, it states Bud Light is the best-selling beer "by a wide margin." Yikes.

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Baltika 7 Premium Lager
(Russia; $2.57/500 ml)
   
There’s some light skunkiness on the nose of this pale golden lager and, while I don’t mind that so much, the chalky, yeasty cooked-corn component that comes with it isn’t so pleasant. There’s a slightly sweet note to the Baltika 7 that augments that corn flavour — then a strange wet cardboard note takes over. There are better lagers available for the price.

Russell Brewing Company IP’eh India Pale Ale
(Surrey, B.C.; $5.22/650 ml)
   
Deep gold in colour, the IP’eh brings big bright hoppy notes on the nose — think pine-tree resin — with some rosemary and orange peel aromas in there, too. It’s crisp, showing some of that hoppy bitterness on the palate, as well as white pepper and a hint of caramel. The carbonation is pretty intense, too, keeping things nice and crisp.

Newcastle Brown Ale
(Dunston, England; $2.14/330 ml)
      
Light caramel in colour, the Newcastle brings toffee, candied almond, toasty malt and some vanilla aromas on the nose. It’s a smooth, fairly nutty brown ale, with some light caramel and chocolate flavours coming through, as well. The carbonation is soft and smooth — it’s decent in the bottle but better on tap at your favourite pub.
 
  
Like most wine columnists/judges, Ben MacPhee-Sigurdson is also passionate about beer, and has a hybrid beer-and-wine gut to prove it. Follow him on Twitter at @bensigurdson and/or email him at uncorked@mts.net.