The arrival of spring, my friends, the arrival of spring! Temperatures are set to hit the high teens today and tomorrow – that’s Celsius, not Fahrenheit, for my American readers; Toronto is not that far north – and that means spring is officially in the air and the lousy, cold winter of ’08-’09 confined to the dustbin of meteorological history. Thank goodness!
To celebrate, I’ll be working on a new column for City Bites that focuses on what is unarguably one of the top summer beer styles, or rather, two of them. The theme will be wheat beers, subdivided into Bavarian and Belgian styles. That means Schneider Weisse, Hacker-Pschorr Hefe Weisse, Blanche de Chambly, Brussels White and many more wonderful wheats, even my first taste of Alexander Keith’s Premium White, which I’m wondering might not actually be a wheat beer at all, and some Samuel Adams Summer Ale thrown in for good measure. (I’ll be reviewing that last one for Cheers Magazine, rather than City Bites, since it’s unavailable north of the border.)
In between all that banana and clove and citrus and coriander, I plan to drop by the grand opening of Black Oak Brewing’s new digs in west Toronto, details of which are posted at The Bar Towel for the assistance of anyone who might be in the Toronto area on Saturday.