Brews News: Caribbean-inspired lager on tap for Island Fest

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Looking for a little TNT with your beer? London’s got it.

The spirit of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica arrives with a fresh festival and a new lime-infused beer.

The festival is Island Fest, a free event July 29-30 at Covent Garden Market that celebrates Caribbean culture with food, music, art, a fire-breather and a beer brewed at Forked River.

The beer takes inspiration from Carib, the most popular lager in Trinidad and Tobago, and adds the flavour of lime. Without the lime, you’ve got Forked River’s Lo-Town lager. With the citrus, you’ve got visions of seaside cabanas. Island Fest Lager is 4.5 per cent alcohol and an easy-drinking hot weather thirst quencher.

The curious can get a jump on trying it ahead of the festival at Forked River, where it’s available in person or online in 473 ml cans.

The Island Fest schedule includes 11 live music performances, three dance performances, spoken word presenters, 10 food vendors, and 11 artisans.

BEER IN STORES

Eight years since Ontario started allowing beer to be sold in grocery stores and the star is fading.

Some Ontario stores have given up, citing low margins and theft. I’m not sure what their margin is on beer sales – maybe 2 per cent? – but I am sure beer exits the stores unpaid through the self-checkouts.

Meanwhile, convenience stores want a swing at selling beer. Maybe they won’t have a theft problem because they don’t have self-checkouts. But they will need staff who are old enough to sell beer.

Maybe the right models are the Beer Store and LCBO after all.

NEW AND NOTED

Need a way to keep your beer cart beverages cool on your favourite golf course? Moosehead has a dapper and golf-themed way to pull it off with a tube-shaped cooler bag. The Fruit Wedge can hold six short cans of, for example, Moosehead Radler. The radler, which is 4 per cent alcohol and 15 per cent fruit, is sold at many courses. The bag that can hang off your shoulder or golf bag is sold at mooseheadbeershop.ca for $16.99.

I love the great beer state of Wisconsin, hands-down the place in America I’ve visited the most. Locals love Canadians and now two breweries there, G-Five and Rocky Reef, are in cahoots with a good-natured poke at us. Their collaboration beer, Blame Canada, is a session IPA with a name that takes inspiration from a famous line from South Park and the smoky haze that drifts over the state from forest fires in Canada. The smoke and poor air quality in the American Midwest forced patrons to abandon patios for indoor taprooms. The label is the Toronto skyline in flames. The recommended food pairing at G-Five? Canadian Wildfire hamburger with spicy maple syrup, bacon, jalapeno and pepper jack cheese.

Justin Francis, owner of the tiny two-person Base Camp Brewing in the Ottawa Valley town of Almonte, died in June just months after opening the brewery. On July 15, his widow and brewery partner Rebecca reopened to sell the inventory and beer lovers of brands such as Final Frontier Double Dry-Hopped New England IPA, Day Pass pale ale and Wild Harvest, a Belgian saison, formed a long queue according to CBC. Francis was 35 and a father of three. Rebecca won’t reopen Base Camp, but hopes someone will buy it and continue what she and Justin started.

Railway City of St. Thomas has a new beer of the month, the German lager Express Limited Edition brewed to pair with fresh, crisp summer salads.

There’s a new Shook at Stormed Stayed in London. Shook with sweet cherry, apricot and lactose is a tart and refreshing addition to the series.

Wayne Newton is a freelance journalist based in London.

wayne.newton@bell.net

Twitter.com/WayneWriteOn