I have been very busy the last couple of weeks but am back in a huge way for week 385 of #beersaturday!
I have come to find, being The Blockchain Beerologist definitely has its perks, including but not limited to getting paid to tour breweries and sample new beers! When I am not globetrotting or brewing my own beer, my fridge looks like a colorful mosaic of regional craft beer I enjoy sharing with the #beersaturday alliance of #beer bloggers on #hive.
This week, we gather up a couple dozen other #beerologist types for a 6-brewery tour and BEER Advent Calendar exchange!
The Pint of the Week is a popular feature as I can share a social pint, which is probably the optimal way to enjoy a beer. This week's hops is jammed full of pints of the week but this is a good one along the trip. I will get to the brewery itself on stop 2 of our tour but it is a Foggy Days pale ale enjoyed for lunch on our tour. In the background, you can see a refreshing cola being enjoyed by our designated driver for this journey. Better him than me!
Stop 1 - Shakespeare Brewing
We chose Shakespeare Brewing Company as our first stop as it is just outside of town, has a nice accessible parking lot to gather, and is a 1-of-a-kind brewery. They opened an hour early to accommodate our group as we started our tour out at 11am.
We gathered and enjoyed a guided tour through brewmaster Aiden's line of beers which range from light and clean to dark and malty. This one was a nice farmhouse ale with the brewer exuding
exuberance and his brew room in the background.
A really nice, family run, small town brewery was a perfect way to kick off our long day. Thanks for having us!
Stop 2 - Madmash Brewing
Stop number 2 was down the road 10 minutes in another small town called Tavistock. MadMash Brewing is another completely unique operation that has been in business about 1 year and I have only visited previously once on our dry run of this tour.
While I opted for the PotW up there, a flight is definitely the way to go when visiting a brewery for the first time. One of my new friends took that route and enjoyed everything from clear and light through hoppy and hazy to the dark Cherry Porter.
Here as well, we had the pleasure of the owner and master brewer pouring the pints for everyone. Definitely a different experience as far as the beer goes and it is nice to taste the humble beginnings and see them develop. He even closed down the place after we left and joined us at the rest of the breweries on our tour. Good guy!
It was a crazy day filled with plenty of beer and this is probably the best and only shot of our group. Madmash is not that big so we almost filled the place. Fantastic food too and a great place to stop for lunch to soak up some of the pints of the day.
Stop 3 - Broken Rail
Next up, another 15 minute drive to another town called St. Marys and Broken Rail Brewing which I have visited many times before. Probably about the same size as Madmash except we were not the only group there. The parking lot was jammed with a big bus and the taproom was equally as crowded with another group visiting this wintery day.
There were flights all around but I opted for a strange new one as I had already sampled many of these beers. Simply for fun, I went with their Candy Cane Lager expecting to hate it, seeing as lagers bore me and distracting flavour additives annoy me. To my surprise, it was quite enjoyable and matched the Christmas theme quite well. I would sample this one again!
Stop 4 - Donnelly's
I touched upon Black Donnelly's Brewing during our last dry run visit and was excited to return. The story behind the brewery is quite historic and colourful and you can read a little more here Neat and all but I was there for the #BEER!
Having only sampled their IPA last visit, I was in for a flight. Sure I had their Session IPA and a Hazy IPA (that was not so hazy) on the flight but I also mixed it up a little with a dark lager and a stout. Surprisingly enough, it was the dark lager that I enjoyed the most and I took a couple home from the bottleshop for the fridge. Perhaps I will review that in a little more detail another #beersaturday
Stop 6 - Jobsite Brewing
Those who are paying attention at this point will be wondering what happened to stop number 5! It was Black Swan Brewing but we passed on that because we had to make a stop at home to let some dogs out and sample a couple of our own beers with one of our crew. Good news is I have been at Black Swan dozens of times and I had already purchased a flat of their special IPA as my contribution to the beer exchange.
Speaking of beer exchange, that is the theme of the day. All of these folks toured all of these regional breweries with Jobsite Brewing as the final destination. We all gathered here with another 30 or so people and 24 of us total brought 24 beers each, all wrapped up.
It was quite a colourbul scene as volunteers took a beer from each of the cases we brought and arranged them in cases of 24, different beers that are not available except at 24 different breweries across the land. This left us each with 24 beers to enjoy starting December 1st, in an advent calendar of beer all the way to Christmas eve! This should be some good content the next few weeks for #beersaturday as I discover a different craft beer of assorted styles and origin all this month. What a day!
#BEERSaturday!
The older I get, seems the more I relate to The Grinch!
Join me, 
Cheers to our global family of beer drinkers!!
