How are we all breathing out there this morning? New York is mired in poor air quality that reminds me a bit of apocalyptic scenes from movies and a bit of my visit to Oregon in 2020 in the midst of their wildfires, when the air quality index spiked in Portland to well over 400. This being 2020 and with outdoor dining being the only thing some establishments felt comfortable offering, it shut down a good chunk of their economy, even when the fires weren’t posing a threat themselves. Thankfully, these days, we’re just stuck indoors on what would otherwise be some lovely late spring days.
The smoky aroma in the air reminded me that I failed to wax poetic last month about a beer from my local, Kings County Brewers Collective: their Who the Helles Anton Paar?, a smoked lemon Helles that manages to make Rauchbier taste downright refreshing. By the way, to answer the question posed cheekily by the beer name, Anton Paar was an Austrian locksmith who founded a company that specializes in laboratory instrumentation, including devices that can be used at breweries to measure CO2, dissolved oxygen, alcohol content, gravity, and more.
Anyway, stay safe out there (or in there, rather), and here’s hoping the fires go out and wind shifts soon.
Pils & Love is this Friday in Westchester
After a four-year hiatus, Birrificio Italiano’s Pils and Love festival has returned to the U.S., and it’s not far from the city if you’re looking to find something to do with your Summer Friday tomorrow.
The event, an international celebration of the Pilsner, will be held at DeCicco & Sons in Somers tomorrow from 5-9pm. It’ll be a much smaller version of the event than in past years and venues (Oxbow in Maine and Firestone Walker’s Propagator in Los Angeles have hosted past iterations), with limited tickets still available as of press time for $55 for unlimited pours and a commemorative glass. Among the breweries in attendance: the aforementioned Birrificio Italiano, Oxbow, and Firestone Walker, plus Suarez, Schilling, West Kill, Bierstadt Lagerhaus, Heater Allen, Von Trapp, and many more of the nation’s finest lager makers. They’ll also have food for purchase from Smokehouse Tailgate Grill.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 3,095
Total breweries visited in 2023: 200
Total breweries visited in Ontario: 39
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #1306, Godspeed Brewery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Visited 19-Oct-2018)
Enjoying a new-to-me brewery on my first visit is always a joy, especially when you don’t know much about it — except that everyone in town seems to be raving about it. Godspeed was a little over a year old when I first visited back in 2018, and it was immediately clear to me that brewer/founder Bim Lafontaine (who was previously the head brewer at Dieu du ciel! in Montreal) had created something special. There were beers with ingredients inspired by his time in Japan, like a Yuzu Saison and a Green Tea IPA, plus several offerings with a decidedly German slant that wouldn’t have felt out of place in Dortmund, Frankfurt, or Munich. Everything was dialed-in in a way I hadn’t experienced at many other Canadian breweries at the time.
Breweries evolve over time, and in recent years Lafontaine’s attention has turned to Czech-style beers — something that requires skill, patience, and a more educated customer. Seeing this evolution in person has been enlightening. These days, that Yuzu Saison and Green Tea IPA are still on the menu, but so is a parade of Czech-style beers like a Pale Lager fermented in pitch-lined barrels — a product of Lafontaine spending time in Pilsen at Pilsner Urquell (you can read more about that and more in Will Cleveland’s recent interview with him ahead of this weekend’s Rochester Real Beer Expo). The pendulum at Godspeed has swung even more toward classic beer styles, and I’m enjoying it even more with every passing visit to Toronto.
Long Read of the Week
Are Hazy IPAs getting more bitter? Em Sauter explores the trend that’s pushing the style beyond its defined guidelines in this piece in All About Beer. Personally, I’ve noticed this, but the most bitter hazy IPAs I’ve had lately are branded “West Coast IPA” yet bear absolutely no resemblance to West Coast IPAs. Breweries, please stop doing this.
One More Thing
I’m heading about as far east as I can go without a transatlantic flight this weekend: St. John’s, Newfoundland. I look forward to visiting Canada’s easternmost brewery and escaping the smoke and, hopefully, not seeing the winds shift enough for the smoke to follow me. Not that it matters — it’s supposed to be raw and damp all weekend, which is perfect weather for eating copious amounts of fish and chips and maybe even getting screeched in.
Cheers,
Chris
The west coast IPAs that are just slightly bitter hazy IPAs drive me crazy! And the worst part is I fall for it every time.