The Citizen has a beer column? [General]

2013 Jan 24
Yup, as of today, written by Vito Pilieci, called News on Brews. It looks like he's going to be focusing on local and Ontario/Quebec microbreweries. This is good news imho. It may be every other Thursday, though the editor says "twice a month". See www.ottawacitizenstyle.com for his first column.

2013 Jan 30
I saw that too and was as surprised, but the tone and focus seemed interesting.

It was a reasonable writeup on the event, and I can always agree on getting more people to try the Lupulus.

However, the last paragraph of the article undid some bit of credibility for me: "The beer is relatively high in alcohol, seven-per-cent alcohol by volume." Um, when speaking of microbrews, 7% is the high end of normal strength. 8% and above is "relatively high". Had it been "a bit high", I'd have agreed - and it even takes less space.

(Also, as a grammar geek: "seven-per-cent"?? It's a proper "X per cent" elsewhere in the article.)

2013 Jan 31
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it is a weekly column.

I don't associate microbrews with higher alcohol content, but rather individual beer styles. Correct me if I'm wrong but wheat beers aren't known to have higher alcohol content, and british style ales may or may not. So i'm not sure if his comment was that out of line.

2013 Jan 31
I didn't find it out of line - the Le Cheval may have a relatively high alcohol content compared with the two styles it claims it's heritage from. It does sound like a beer I might like so I'm happy to learn of it and hope through his column that he'll introduce us to some others we haven't tried that will have some appeal. Indeed in an email reply to me he said as much - "I hope I can dig up some great stuff and spread that news around."
tourist there was an editor's note in the paper about the column being twice monthly that is not in the online version.
And Niall, you'd get a-long just fine with my dd, the linguist and fine beer aficionado. Nyuk!

2013 Jan 31
A 7% weizenbock is below what one might consider the lower bound for the style. That said, it is relatively strong compared to most beers (IPAs, barleywines, etc. notwithstanding) and you would expect to get a bit of heat off it. I usually consider anything above 6% to be something of above average strength.

EDIT: there does seem to be some confusion about the style though. I thought the Shawinigan Handshake was a weisse, not a wit. Should probably get that right.

2013 Jan 31
They call it a Weisse on their site

www.troududiable.com

though technically Beer Advocate would be right in calling it a Weizenbock

beeradvocate.com

But the confusion may arise from the fact the Brewery has a "Weizengripp Indiaweizen" whatever the heck that is

www.troududiable.com

2013 Jan 31
Well, at any rate, it's not Belgian in any way, so that's wrong. One of the biggest problems I've encountered since beer has become mainstream is trying to get a straight answer from waiters/bartenders about whether their "wheat" beer is a wit, or hefe, or kristal, or American... It's one of the easiest styles to differentiate but you usually just get blank stares.

2013 Jan 31
Yup, I get frustrated by that too since Hefeweizen is my favorite beer. I got into an argument with an LCBO employee about it a few months ago in fact.