It occurred to me that it has been a while since I put together an article about beer. Not that I have forgotten to mention it in other blogs, just that it really does deserve a post on its own.
As things do, this one lingered as a notion til that pic showed up on my facebook feed from 3 years ago when a friend brought me back some awesome beers from a brewery WAAAY up north in Sudbury Ontario. I would have never heard of this, been able to get any, or had the chance to sample the Shatter Cone IPA which is fantastic if memory serves me well.
The second reminder was a #beersaturday post by my long time friend 
Rather than wait for strike 3, I am swinging back into this with my most recent discoveries. I have a post all loaded up with a bunch of awesome ones from a fantastic brewery but this one will focus on what's new and what I think of them.
Steamworks IPA - http://www.steamworks.com/ is a brewery out of British Columbia which is the left coast of Canada and many thousands of miles/kilometers from here. This was one of two beers that was not in the regular aisle for whatever reason. There is a section with bottles and obscure European beer (not the Heineken regular stuff) which I generally avoid for the local craft brewery aisle and that is where this one was. Last time I visited, I found an Iron Maiden beer and a big can of Founders so it was worth a check again. Pretty solid tasting IPA and I will most likely get it again the next time I go. Have to make sure I give it a good second chance and have it another time in case that was a one-off shipment. Plenty hoppy and sweet but didn't knock me off my feet at first pass. They seem to not like to brand their beer with a lable that can be appreciated at a glance or in one picture. Consolidate that!
Propeller Brewing Company India Pale Ale - http://www.drinkpropeller.ca/ This was the second from the weird aisle where I was surprised to find a second IPA not from these parts. This brewery is from Dartmouth and Halifax which, by contrast, is the East Coast of Canada. It was nice and tasty and hazy but again, I can't recall anything specific about it that was excellent or sub par. This is generally a good thing with the variety of IPAs I get to sample, and the fact it is my favourite brand of beer in which it fits so well. Again, I would say good but not great, and I have to simply try again. I think this may be a good strategy to get folks a few provinces away to buy twice as much as they normally would?
Lake of Bays Brewing Company - Starboard New England IPA - http://lakeofbaysbrewing.ca/ I have an on again/off again relationship with this brewery. Their first past at an IPA and other styles of beer were so pedestrian. Then, they replaced a couple hops with Mosaic in their IPA and actually went to the effort of making that distinction on the design of the can. This, coupled with the fact that I love Mosaic hops and the beer was good, meant it was on again. Then, my brother (works for Great Lakes Brewery) says he won't drink Lake of Bays because it is Labatt's (big shitty mega brewery) which would put it off again. Then, they make a New England IPA (which I have been digging lately) and load it with sailing stuff like Starboard and the boat on the can. So it may be on again. If you take a look at the beer in the glass, it has some serious floaties in it (which is not uniformly bad,) the beer is not great (something in the hops combination is off,) and that strangely trimmed mainsail with no jib or spinnaker shows you that nobody really knows what they are doing over there. This may just be a beer and sailing snob talking but it is off again. ;)
Well, there is a little journey through my recent discoveries at the beer store. Please consider leveraging the #beersaturday tag sported by my buddy 