Hairspray Back in my short-lived childhood ballerina career, I once ran out of hairspray before a recital. In a flash of genius, my mother remembered a trick from the old days. She cracked a beer and began touching up my topknot. It worked, but I stunk like a brewery. Slug killer If your garden is […]
Beer Guide
Posted inFood + Drink
The gassy truth
Drinking beer doesn’t have to lead to a night of burps and farts. Allison Saunders tells us how to be a dainty, respectable drinker. It seems the tastiest things tend to piss off your stomach and sadly this doesn’t exclude beer, especially in mass quantities. For most, seasoned suds drinkers or otherwise, a night of […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Barley whines
Beer prices are going up, but there’s a made-at-home solution. Amber Young reports. Reports suggest it won’t be long before beer drinkers should start to worry about increasing barley costs. Due to dismal crops and gas prices, the price of grain is on the rise, which leaves beer drinkers torn between buying their favourites and […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Hot beers
Do you remember when “lite” beer was trendy? Actually, as someone who ignored that trend, I totally don’t. But I am keen on some of the current beer fads. What’s hot changes when you talk to a mainstream beer drinker versus a craft beer fanatic. The big breweries have been pushing “white” beers and fruit-flavoured […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Beer and food
Bob and Doug MacKenzie. Those toque-wearing, Rush-worshiping hosers are arguably the classiest part of the image cultivated by the beer industry. It’s sad, but even though advertising executives may suggest that the entire beer-chugging market is made up of frat boys and gyrating girls, it simply isn’t true. Whether you went for a beer on […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Hops Warrior
Greg Nash runs up the narrow metal stairs in Halifax’s Hart & Thistle brew pub, his 30th trip up and down since arriving at 8:30am. “Some people exercise, I make beer,” he jokes. Kneeling next to a steaming copper vat, he taps a dial on the heat exchanger and watches the needle on the thermometre […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Drink like an Irishman
From the hallowed, boozy days of Sam Mallone and Ernie “Coach” Pantusso on Cheers to weekly armchair visits to MacLaren’s, the haunt of Barney Stinson and the rest of the gang on How I Met Your Mother, our culture loves to celebrate the neighbourhood pub. But more than that, we like to go to a […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Green beer cheer
If you’re not sure where to go this year for green beer and Irish food, here are a few emeralds. Hart & Thistle Hart & Thistle’s owners happen to be the same as O’Carroll’s—the beloved Irish pub that’s closed for renovations. “St. Paddy’s was always a grand time at Halifax’s first Irish pub, and we’d […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Brewing from field to glass
In England, they refer to a pub that has an exclusivity agreement with a brewery as a tied house. Although many breweries would dream of deals like this, it’s illegal in Nova Scotia to tie a bar to a brand of taps. The Port, a gastropub—a pub that serves high-quality food—on the red banks of […]
Posted inFood + Drink
House beers
For the diehard beer hunter always looking for a new taste, there is a decent selection of blended house beers poured out in bars and restaurants across the city. Propeller currently has the most specialty blends on tap in and out of the city. “It’s not practical to do a single batch of beer for […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Shing a shong
The bartender tells me Fridays and Saturdays are the busiest nights. People drink lots, ’cause they are doing the karaoke. Laurie the Guy hosts 300 karaoke shows a year; he’s done it for 18 years. His first time onstage, at Big Leagues, he was totally sober—a sure indication he was born to sing in front […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Another skill testing question
The second biggest beer drinking activity we imported from Britain, right after fighting and passing out, is the pub quiz. It’s more a civilized, cerebral form of combat performed in teams. Everyone knows teamwork increases your trivia response rates and collective IQ. Teams increase beer consumption, too. Basically, the pub quiz is a great way […]
