I’m back in Kingston, Canada, the home of education and incarceration. [1] But this time I’m attending for the former, not the latter. It’s the Master Brewers Association of the Americas Ontario Division Conference, where knowledge sharing is caring and lots of beer is right here. The MBAA are all about, and I quote “Elevating expertise and mastering the art of brewing” on a journey from “passion to perfection.” Sounds like a solid plan to me.
At registration I met the dynamic duo of Kim and Mimi, their Hollywood couple portmanteau moniker being “Kimimi”. (with Joanie, the fido photobomber)
And as I strolled into the venue I knew I was in the right place. In one room was the makings of an 85 km pub crawl that I could literally do crawling if I had to.
Our favourite flamingo fronted brewer, Daft, had me reminiscing about the movie Office Space with their American IPA PC Load Letter.[2] And Something in the Water had me quaffing curiously with The Weakerthans and their hop saturated ale, Parallelograms of Light.[3] I was then over to strike a Fine Balance with their Kingston Pub Ale. And finishing up with the Brothers M and our favourite Portsmouth House on tap brew, a cool quaff of a MacKinnon Crosscut. Ok, it wasn’t exactly a one and done evening but they were small glasses.[4] Just like your favourite local radio station, great reception.
The knowledge sharing kicked off the next morning with opening remarks from the President! No not that President, it was Richard Preiss, President of the MBAA Ontario Division.
He welcomed us all to the 50th (or was it 51st) annual meeting. And he introduced the morning’s keynote speaker Brad Goddard. At least we think it was Brad, although for all we know it could have been his twin brother Chris in disguise (a bowtie) and no one would have been the wiser.
Next up was Luke Chapman from Beer Canada.[6] Luke had the cross Canada numbers, it appears someone is keeping tabs on my bar tab. The industry is having it’s ups and downs. When it comes to beer, how much we down is down. But how much domestic we drink instead of international is up. The statistics were telling, that is telling us to drink more beer.
Travis Audet is with Slant Six Consulting, flashback to my first car, a 1970 Valiant with the classic slant six engine. But Travis wasn’t talking cars, he was giving us a chemistry class and once the periodic table came up on the screen you could tell he was in his element. Me, not so much. My knowledge of oxidation is a bit rusty, but it appears it’s bad news for brews when it comes to keeping beer fresh.
Two famous chemistry teachers, the resemblance is uncanny! Coincidence? I think not.
Oliver Moreau, from Tonnellerie Moreau, was over a barrel, literally, with a hands-on cooper demonstration. And then a barrel aged Burdock Maple Brulee sampling, that was sweet.
Halfway through the morning I was drafting up a bucket list, from the bucket of beers the fine folks from MBAA and the participating brewers placed on our tables. No waiting at the bar at this conference, or tipping either!
The forecast called for a cold weather lager so my review brew du jour was a Dominion City Distant Lights, which was not at all light but quite alright.
Dr. Alex Speers of Dalhousie U, the senior statesman of the group, was making his 14th appearance on the main stage. His presentation was a four-alarm all hands-on deck wake-up call. No, not about the over-use of hyphens, but about the dangers of poor pasteurization in non-alcohol beers. After his staunch warnings I have halted the COMDB zero-percent experiment.
Murphy & Sons Eric Drost’s presentation on reducing COGS was not about gearing down because things were just getting rolling. What Eric was all about getting a handle on was an acronym for the cost of goods sold.
Road trip! Time for a brew tour of MacKinnon Brothers, and I must raise a toast to the host with the most.
The Brothers had a selection of their excellent brews to quaff while touring, as we all know that a brewery tour is thirsty work. A Brothers House Ale seemed like the obvious choice for me. From the cozy, dare I say inviting, tap room we strolled over to the big barn brew house. Floor to ceiling shiny tanks and pallets of brews, the tanks bright, the floor as dry as I was! It is an impressive facility.
Me reflecting on a bright tank.
Moon over McKinnon
I wasn’t able (allowed) to attend the Beer Stube that evening as I have been deemed a flight risk by the Department of Morality, the missus being my own home-based personal liquor control board. So I was bright and bushy tailed for day 2. But for those who went out to Karaoke after the Stube, when it comes to the morning after the night before I offer you a quote from my old man which I heard more than once or twice back in the day “No sympathy for self inflicted wounds”.
In perhaps a rash decision on my part I headed over to the breakout session.
Dr. Dan Malleck has quite a temper when it comes to temperance, and his comments were not tempered in the least. He gave an illuminating history of the tea totalling marketing mavens trying to trick us into sobriety. COMDB actually carried out an informal, anecdotal, and completely uncitable study which substantiated the good Doctor’s hypothesis, entitled “When is Enough Enough? When It’s Too Much”.
Matt Leki from BSG gave us the crop report and I wish Farmer Steve was in attendance as he is somewhat of an expert on the spreading of fertilizer, mainly by word of mouth.
When I heard there was going to be a presentation from the Ministry of Labour I just assumed it would be about the dangers of drinking while pregnant. These dangers were not widely known way back when the COM were conceived, increasing the possibility of us being ill conceived. [7]
The presentation was actually about workplace safety in breweries and labs with good advice and information shared. Amanda posed a serious question to the group, “what keeps you awake at night?” Of course, for me that would be my wife’s snoring. Just kidding, after 43 years I’m used to it by now.
WSPS offers a great (as in free) service to breweries to help them protect their people. Contact David Smith at [email protected] to signup.
President Preiss put a wrap on the tap with the official, well sanctioned and fully quorumed AGM. Being used to the COMDB AGM (Annual Golf Meeting) I was surprised to note that the loss statement could actually have a profit component as well! The conference had over 120 delegates and 20 technical presentations. The Ontario MBAA has 178 active members with both brewers and suppliers well represented.
There was so much great content with two sessions going on for most of the conference that I couldn’t cover all the speakers. Shout out to Niagara College Teaching Brewery who brewed a beer for the conference which I didn’t get a chance to sample while I was there but has now been poured and scored.
I know that conferences like this just aren’t possible without some serious sponsorships. Support of the craft beer industry has never been so timely, and is always greatly appreciated by us cranky old men drinking beer.
A jam-packed day and a half of knowledge sharing coupled with catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. And a bucket of beer or two thrown in for good measure.
Kudos to the Master Brewers Association of the Americas Ontario Division, the speakers, all the sponsors, and the brewers, you hosted a great conference.
[1] Editor’s Comment: In addition to Queen’s University, the Royal Military College of Canada, and St. Lawrence College, Kingston Ontario and area has been the traditional home of a number of Federal correctional facilities. Kingston Penitentiary operated for many years but is now closed and offers tours and is right across the street from what was the Federal Prison for Women which is now closed as well. The words penitentiary and prison are outdated, these facilities are now known as institutions, coincidentally just like our colleges and universities. Still in operation in the Kingston area are Collins Bay Institution (medium to maximum security), Millhaven Institution (maximum security), Bath Institution (medium security) , and Joyceville Institution (minimum security).
[2] Editor’s Comment: In the 1999 Mike Judge movie “Office Space”, the office workers at Intel constantly struggle with the copy machine that often provides a nonspecific error message “PC Load Letter”.
[3] Editor’s Comment: The name of the beer comes from a lyric from the 2007 song by The Weakerthans, “Sun in an Empty Room”.
[4] Editor’s Comment: And refillable as well.
[5] Editor’s Comment: I’m quite sure that comment is not politically correct.
[6] Editor’s Comment: Luke Chapman has been with Beer Canada since 2013 and is currently the VP of Federal Affairs. He is an alumni of Carleton University where he played for their basketball team for 4 years. A tall order indeed.
[7] Editor’s Comment: Although concerns about drinking and pregnancy were known from the early1900’s, the term “fetal alcohol syndrome” first appeared in studies in the early 1970’s. Shortly after that guidelines were put in place in many jurisdictions to make people aware of the potential dangers of drinking alcohol while pregnant.
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