You read that right. I am back and striving to participate weekly in content creation/curation and bring back my weekly #beersaturday blog. Life happens and the blockchain lives on!

Source: https://www.pinterest.pt/goldensaintbeer/ with a little Zeke design on top.

While many projects and a world turned on its head has really screwed with my life and ability to participate in HIVE, you can rest assured that it hasn't hampered my enjoyment of beer! When the lock-down happened in Canada, I feared for my brewery clients and friends as I was sure they would be shuttered. Turns out, the government knew that enabling people to enjoy a few beers would make it more enjoyable to get through this, and deemed breweries and liquor stores as Essential. Probably an easy decision as the non-functional alcoholics would be a burden on a healthcare system bracing for a boom, and printing money for emergency funds would need to be augmented by continuing to tax the hell out of beer and spirits. No complaints here!

So, the brewery tours and blog have slowed down but I have saved up a few stories to share over coming Saturdays. Strap on your drinkin socks and lets do this!

As the story goes, some life events have brought me back rather often to my home town where I did most of my growing up. Since I have been gone, craft breweries have popped up and I have even managed to sample some of their product even being 5 hours drive away. So, while dealing with serious matters, it was a little salve to be able to visit each of these breweries and support them while getting some relaxation fuel.

Spearhead Brewing Company https://spearheadbeer.com/ has a solid Hawaiian style Pale Ale https://spearheadbeer.com/product/hawaiian-style-pale-ale/ which has been featured on my blog a couple times over the years. I generally head to a brewery to sample their standard hoppy while hoping to catch a one-off/playground beer of the IPA variety. Timing is everything in the second part of that objective and I had come up short in previous visits.

A month ago or so, I had discovered that Spearhead had produced a New England style IPA (NEIPA) https://spearheadbeer.com/product/neipa/ that turned out to be immediately popular. A couple subsequent visits resulted in the same UNAVAILABLE status and it appeared I would be denied. New England IPA has become my preferred style this year and it was a shame I would not be able to add this notch on my belt from my hometown.

It turns out that my last scheduled visit to town reversed my fortune! The second run of NEIPA had been done and the fridge held plenty for me to purchase. The nice lady behind the plexiglass safety barrier indicated that it has initially sold out so quick, that they decided to make another run immediately, and are planning to make it a recurring season offering.

Sweet and delicious as you would expect with beautiful haze, full-bodied flavour, and bitter/sweet balance that makes this such a great beer.

I will purchase this again and it may make it into my top 10 go-to list if it makes it into local stores.

Riverhead Brewing https://www.riverheadbrewing.com/ was a little lesser known to me but a similar story in that it was from Kingston, had HEAD in the name, and boasts a nice tropical IPA https://www.riverheadbrewing.com/tropicalipa My first couple visits there were rewarding because there were more than one IPA to choose from and they were solid indeed. What had me wanting was the mention of a Galaxy-hopped collab IPA that was supposed to drop but hadn't yet.

Wouldn't you know it but my last scheduled visit to town resulted in the triumphant scene of a bunch of these beauties in the fridge! I was REALLY looking forward to this because Galaxy are among my top 3 favourite hops and I love a good collaboration. Turns out the partner brewery is the legendary old school microbrewery that we used to visit was back in college aptly called Kingston Brewing Company https://www.kingstonbrewing.ca/

While Riverhead may be a working on their branding, messaging and use of real estate on the can label, you can see it ins this Dragon Rider No. 3 Galaxy IPA from Riverhead Brewing Company and Kingston Brewing Company featuring the mysterious bigfoot character. Aesthetically pleasing to this individual Beerologist or not, This is a fantastic beer. It seemed to be the underdog in the fridge shouldered up to the likes of my recent favourites Cowbell Brewing Hazy Days IPA https://cowbellbrewing.com/blog/hazy-days and Great Lakes Brewing Haze Mama http://www.greatlakesbeer.com/introducing-hazemama/

The great news is that it held up VERY well with such a great taste. The bad news is I think we bought every last can as we hit the highway home.

So there you have it. Good things come to those who wait and I had to wait over a month for the planets to align. They did so in fantastic style as these two illusive brews became available the same weekend for me, and they turned out to be as delicious as I had anticipated.

#kingstonbeerrocks

I have had hundreds of beers with my #BEERSATURDAY crew. It is week 160 already! @detlev/the-thirsty-beersaturday-week-160-love-to-see-your-post of the longest running beer-drinking club on any blockchain. Take some pictures, tell some pub tales, and become a Beerologist by posting your own suddsy story with @detlev and yours truly.

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Thanks for the support and stay tuned for more Covid-19 stories of beer, community and victory!