For an archive of older Kitchen Table Tastings, click here.

C’Mon Sleeman, You Can Do Better Than This

July 12, 2008 -- I know that Canada’s Sleeman Breweries can craft good beer. A couple of years back, after all, they came out with the impressive Fine Porter, and a little while after that they produced a credible India Pale Ale under the same John Sleeman Presents... brand banner. Plus, their flagship Cream Ale is, in my opinion, pretty much the modern definition of the style. So what’s with this 20th birthday beer, then.

Did It Hurt?

June 9, 2008 -- Well, ya, kinda. But I sort of got the feeling that was the point.

A Seasonal Trio

December 12, 2007 -- Okay, so the title of this post is a bit misleading, since two of the three beers I’ll be dissecting and discussing aren’t really “seasonals” per se, but rather limited release beers which just happen to have been launched around the holiday season. But it still makes for a catchy hook.

A Taste of the 2007 Great Canadian Beer Festival

September 17, 2007 -- Over at my blog at thatstheSPIRIT.com, I recently reminisced on some of the excellent beers I sampled at the 15th annual Great Canadian Beer Festival in Victoria, British Columbia. But as is so often the case with such events, there was not nearly enough room to wax rhapsodic on everything worthy of praise, so here, then, are a few more tasting notes from Canada’s longest-running beer fest.

A Pair of Rogue Rums

July 14, 2007 -- Expressing curiosity, Jack Joyce, the founder and head of both Rogue Ales and the much newer Rogue Spirits, asked me a while back to taste and assess the three rums his company is currently producing. They had won a bunch of awards, he said, but not being a rum drinker himself, he was wondering how I might view them within the context of the greater rum world.

Wisconsin Unplugged

May 10, 2007 -- “A few times a year, we will cut Dan loose to brew whatever he chooses, uncensored, uncut, unplugged.” So reads the label of the beer called Enigma, from the New Glarus Brewing Company of New Glarus, Wisconsin. The “Dan” of which that text speaks is Daniel Carey, an innovative and exciting brewer if ever there was one, and also the owner, with his wife Deborah, of the brewery.

Drinking the "Third Coast"

January 16, 2007 -- As I noted in an email to a friend only this morning, the North American beer world’s best kept secret has to be the state of Michigan.

A Tale of Two Wits

June 28, 2006 -- I recently had a chance to sample two very different Belgian-style wheat beers, or as they’re variously known, witbiers or white beers or biéres blanches.

The Brews from Brazil

May 19, 2006 -- I’ve been far too long getting notes up on the wares of a new-to-North America Brazilian craft brewer called Cervejaria Sudbrack. Based in Blumenau, on the coast south of Rio, the brewery representative who contacted me suggested that their goal was to change the popular perception of Brazilian beer. On the basis of these bottles, I’d have to say that they’re well on their way.

Tasting Ontario's Craft Breweries

May 31, 2005 -- The launch of the new Ontario Craft Brewers group brought to my door a promotional selection of beers from a handful of member breweries. Although I was well familiar with every one, it had been some time since I last tasted a number of them, so I felt an Ontario tasting was in order. Here’s what came of it.

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