the boozepaperThe University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly Since 1978 VOL XXXIV Issue 27 • May 1, 2012

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THE BOOZEPAPER2 May 1, 2012

It’s important to take the time to reward yourself with life’s simple pleasures. Invite Steam Whistle’s Home Delivery to roll in with some brewery-fresh draught and all the equipment you’ll need to get a party started. Just add good friends and some delicious chow.

Let Steam Whistle be the reward at the end of your day. Cheers!

www.thenewspaper.ca 3 THE BOOZEPAPER

Toronto brewers on the map

TORONTOMICROBREWERIES

A. Bellwoods Brewery (est. 2012)124 Ossington AveThe product of two Amster-dam Brewery alumni, this “brewery cafe” just opened in early April.

B. Black Creek Historic Brewery (est. 2009)Black Creek Pioneer Village1000 Murrary Ross Parkway

C. C’est What? (est. 1988)67 Front St EastOne of the more famous and well-stocked pubs in Toronto, C’est What was at the van-

guard of the

local craft-brewing move-

ment in the late 80s.

D. Cool Brewing Inc. (est. 1997)

164 Evans AveCool Brewing’s all-natural beers cleaned up at the 2010 Ontario Brewing Awards. Home delivery service is avail-able.

E. Denison’s Brewery (est. 1997)164 Evans AveDenison’s brews exclusively Bavarian-style beers and is slowly expanding its beers’ availability in southern On-tario.

F. Granite Brewery (est. 1991)245 Eglinton Ave E.Voted by Ontario’s leading craft brew website, The Bar Towel, for Best Conditioned Cask Ale in Ontario, and On-tario’s Best Microbrewpub.

G. Indie Ale House Brewing Company (est. 2012)2876 Dundas Street West

A recent addition to the local craft-brew landscape, Indie Ale has a mandate to be independent and “to make great beer that is never bland and never “lite”, “dry”, or “icy” in flavor.”

H. Junction Craft Brewing (est. 2011)2938 Dundas St. WestAnother new member to the local craft brewing commu-nity, Junction uses all-natural ingredients.

I. Kensington Brewing Company (est. 2011)319 Augusta AveA community brewery in construction, its beers are currently brewed at Black Oak Brewery and served at Burger Bar (319 Augusta Ave) and elsewhere.

J. Mill St Brewery (est. 2002)300 Midwest Rd, Scarbor-oughA major contributor to the revitalization of the Distillery District, Mill St. Brewery be-gan brewing out of an original tankhouse in the district be-fore turning it into a brewpub in 2006.

K.Mill St Brewpub and Store21 Tankhouse Lane

L. Steam Whistle Brewing (est. 1998)The Roundhouse, 255 Brem-ner BlvdSteam Whistle operates out of the John St. Roundhouse, next door to the CN Tower, which opened as a CN Rail train repair shop in 1929.

M. The 3 Brewers (est. 1986)275 Yonge StThe company’s only English-speaking location, this brewpub has its heritage in a line of brewers from northern France.

N. Toronto Amsterdam Brewery (est. 1993)21 Bathurst St.Amsterdam has its origins in Toronto’s first brewpub, opened in 1986, The Amster-dam and Brasserie and Brew-pub.

MICROBREWERIES GTA

O. Black Oak Brewing Co.75 Horner Ave, Etobicoke

P. Cameron’s Brewing Com-pany (est. 1995)1165 Invicta Dr., Oakville

Q. Cheshire Valley Brewing Company75 Horner Ave, Etobicoke

R. Great Lakes Brewery (est. 1987)30 Queen Elizabeth Boule-vard, Etobicoke

S. Old Credit Brewing Inc.6 Queen St., Mississagua

T. Trafalgar Brewing Com-pany1156 Speers Ave, Oakville

HOMEBREW

U. Fermentations!201 Danforth Ave

V. Soda Centre & Home Brewer’s Retail4180 Kingston Rd, Scarbor-ough

W. Swansea Brew Club22 Ripley Avenue

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As the popularity of craft beer has taken off in the last two decades, the city has become a hub for craft breweries. Most are micro- and local, some are now national brands, but all of them are a significant part of Toronto’s changing landscape.

Crooked Star - the DIY caesar

Cara: The house picante packs quite a punch, and gives the cocktail its alluring volcanic crimson, but the ingredients are neither shaken nor stirred. Worcestershire sauce steals the show but doesn’t know its lines. Helene: Best ratio of vodka thus far. What makes Crooked Star a great place for caesars is that each bartender here lends his own signature spin. First caesar resembled one of those sand-tastik colored sand art projects from grade school: the bottom layer was all worcestershire sauce, middle all vodka, and clamato floating at the top. I had to mix this myself with the straw. The next caesar was a great improvement, topped with skewered ginger. But the caesar that wears the crown is the French caesar; it’s shaken with dijon and capers, it’s the color of Brutus’ blood, and it tastes like sweet revenge.The Painted Lady - the dark horse caesar

Helene: Best rim job in town. Rooster sauce, Montreal sea-soning rim, and hot little twist-ed pepper definitely make this the most unique caesar. What a surprise. Cara: Like liquid BBQ in the best way possible. The bartender’s selection of hot sauces a la rou-lette make for a fortuitously satisfying concoction.The Bellevue - the hot-to-trot caesar

Cara: Lime juice, olive brine, tabasco (not their homemade hot sauce) and a good amount of good vodka make for a fiery elixir that’ll have you blowing smoke--off the solid amount of ice in your celery salted glass, that is.Helene: Vivid flavor. Hot and heavy, the way we all probably like it. The Lakeview - the steal of a caesar

Server: How hot do you like it?Cara: Hotter than Newt Ging-rich in a hot tub full of swing-ers. It’s spicy, but still a little too sweet for me. Bitter’s not a bad

thing, when we’re not discuss-ing ex spouses.Helene: Hot mama. Distinctive horseradish. Mama could’ve been a bit sweeter.Caplansky’s - the sweet and sour cocktail

Cara: This is what sweet and sour should save themselves for. While the sweet of the tomato juice overpowers the spicy tabasco and deliciously sour taste of the pickle garnish, I think the holy matrimony will last. Bodi: Pickle. It’s unusually sweet. I recommend Caplansky add a little au jus in this caesar.The Victory - the bloody but unbowed caesar

Helene: Sweet and classic. No rim frills, but it’s dependable. The lassie of caesars.Simone: A flame of spice with a sweet, peppery finish.

THE BOOZEPAPER4 May 1 2012

Save like a student, drink like an emperorStudents search for the best bloody caesar in the city, while keeping their wallets in fine fettle

To celebrate the opening of an Italian restaurant in Calgary, bartender Walter Chell spent three months developing Canada’s cocktail, the Bloody Caesar. Chell’s inspiration came from Venice, where he was served spaghetti alle vongole, pasta with tomato and clams. He took the tomato sauce and clam mixture and turned it into the base for a cocktail, differentiating it from the Bloody Mary.

The Caesar’s traditional preparation follows the “one, two, three, four” formula--1-1/2 oz. of vodka, two dashes of hot sauce, three dashes of salt and pepper, four shots of Worces-tershire sauce, and 4-6 oz. of Clamato juice. It is served with a celery salt-ringed glass and garnished with a celery stalk, lime, and, depending on the bar, spicy beans, jalapeno peppers, pickles, and prawns.

While an estimated 250 million Caesars are sold yearly in Canada, our national cocktail is virtually unknown beyond our borders.

That old adage that “home-made is always better” is pret-ty much undebatable when it comes to food. But what about booze? Although not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of liquid happiness, the practise, nay, the art of homemade brews has been around for ages. In fact, if hooch-making was an actual occupation, it could probably best prostitution in terms of career longevity. The following is a collection of homemade liquors, varying by nation, process and sheer bad-assery.

Serbia- RakijaAlcohol content: 40-60%One thing’s for sure: Serbs take their home-brewing se-riously. The sheer variety of their moonshine, called rakija (rah-kee-yah) is testament to their dedication to the craft of homemade brewing. The most popular is slivovica, a plum alcohol so potent that at first it feels like you are literally drinking fruity fire. The after-taste (or after-fumes, more like) leave you with a heady, and decidedly delightful buzz, if you can survive the initial burn. Other common prod-ucts for Serbian hooch include apricots, apples, pears and blackberries.

Peru- PiscoAlcohol content: 30-45%Home-made alcohol, or pisco, is so common in Peru that it is not unheard of to consume it at mealtime on a daily basis. The manufacture and sale of Peruvian hooch is unregulated and actually legal, and is said to have been consumed by the ancient Peruvians. Pisco is a grape brandy that can be on

the lower side of alcohol con-tent. Flavoured offshoots of the drink, called chicha, typi-cally have a lower content and are reportedly even enjoyed by children from a young age, which can lead to alcohol de-pendence.

Finland- PontikkaAlcohol content: 40% and upOne of the many names for Finnish home-made vodka can literally be translated as “fire sauce.” It seems that this par-ticular variety of home-brew is not for the faint of heart. Now that it is much easier to buy reasonably priced alco-hol in Finland, the practise of making pontikka is rarer than it used to be. Nevertheless, the devoted few maintain the tradition, using grain, potato or sugar and using the simple process of flash distillation (ideally done 3 times) to make this potent drink.

Philippines- LambanogAlcohol content: 30-83% (multiple distillations)Containing some of the most interesting ingredients on the world moonshine stage, lam-banog is made of distilled sap from the nipa palm fruit or of the coconut flower. Called arak in other South Asian countries, the drink is usually consumed on its own or with ginger beer, a popular drink in South Asia. It doesn’t take much more to sell us on what sounds like a delicious home-brew, and it seems the Philip-pines are making the most of it, turning a former cottage in-dustry into a reputable mon-ey-maker with several known brands now legitimately sell-ing the product in a variety of flavours.

Suzie Balabuch

Home is where the hooch isA geographic jaunt through homemade

brews

THE BOOZEPAPERwww.thenewspaper.ca 5

True north, strong and free (read: independent) whisky

To say that John Hall knows a thing or two about whisky would be something of an un-derstatement. Owner of Kit-tling Ridge Estate Wines & Spirits in Grimbsy, Ontario, where he opened a winery and distillery simultaneously in 1992, Hall has been hailed as one of the world’s premier whisky makers thanks to his acclaimed Forty Creek brand. After a tour of his facilities guided by Hall himself, it’s not difficult to understand why. Hall exudes an appreciable passion for whisky making and possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of spirits and dis-tilling techniques the world over. As a result, Forty Creek is the product of a lifetime dedi-cated to the pursuit of excep-tional whisky.

A career in Canadian whis-ky

Distilled from fermented grains and produced the world over with distinct varieties based on regional character-istics and indigenous ingre-dients, the world of whisky is vast indeed. “I had heard back in the late 80s about the single malt scotch whiskies that were being promoted by the Scotch whisky industry and about the small batch bourbons down in Kentucky, but no one was do-ing anything with Canadian whisky,” explained Hall. “It seemed to have been the same old same old.”

Canadian whisky, histori-cally, is made with only rye grains and has since become essentially synonymous with ‘rye whisky.’ These days, how-ever, most of our blends tend to have more in common with American whisky, which is generally made from corn. So while the terms ‘Canadian whisky,’ ‘Canadian rye whisky,’ and ‘rye whisky’ are often used interchangeably, it’s curious to note that our whiskies are not required to contain any rye at all so long as the products “possess the aroma, taste, and character generally attributed to Canadian whisky,” accord-ing to our food and drug regu-lations. Forty Creek, however, is a blend of rye, barley, and

corn grains. As a result, Hall is blending the traditions of Ca-nadian, Scotch, and American whiskies. “I am not so much bound by tradition as I am in-spired by it,” Hall often noted.

The Forty Creek wayForty Creek whiskies begin

with a trio of rye, barley, and corn grains – rye for fruit and spice flavours, barley for its nutty notes, and corn for its strength and body – carefully selected and separately han-dled. The grains are crushed in a process called “milling,” and water is added to create a “mash” which is then carefully cooked. Enzymes then convert the starches released from the mashing process into sugar.

Fermentation follows, for which Hall has a cold cellar housing multiple stainless steel tanks. Here, yeast is add-ed to the cooled mash for a few days until the sugars are con-verted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The end result of the fermentation process is called “distiller’s beer” and contains approximately six to eight per cent alcohol. This substance is then distilled in copper pot stills, creating a “nice, colour-less, lively water called ‘eau de vie,’” according to Hall. Once cooled and condensed, it be-comes a young whisky spirit ready for maturing.

Poured into separate and specially selected American white oak barrels, Hall lets each spirit sit for up to ten years in his vast warehouse. “This is my favourite room; it’s where I want to move my desk,” Hall quipped as we strolled through the towering rows of patiently aging barrels. Once the rye, barley, and corn spirits have been ideally aged, Hall brings the three together in Sherry cask barrels for an additional six months so that they may become acquainted with one another. The final blend becomes Forty Creek Barrel Select.

A handcrafted Canadian whisky

Of course, there’s more to Forty Creek than that. While Hall describes himself as a humble whisky maker, his keen understanding of the in-

tricacies and nuances of pro-ducing world class whisky spirits make him worthy of be-ing considered a whisky artist. He matches each spirit with a charred white oak barrel of the appropriate age, grain, and tex-ture. The rye, barley, and corn spirits he blends are carefully selected marriages instead of arbitrary matches. His keen sense of whisky spirits even al-lows him to differentiate ages down to the year based solely on smoothness and aromatic content. In fact, Hall has tasted each of the more than 100,000 barrels of whisky spirits his distillery has produced. “It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it!” he joked.

However establishing a “handcrafted Canadian whis-ky” is just one aspect of his mission. In addition, Hall has, as he explained it, set out to “bring heritage back to Cana-dian whisky.” In the years be-fore Hall entered the whisky business in 1992, some 15 distillers closed down. Cana-dian Club - possibly the most prominent brand in Cana-dian whisky - is now owned by American spirits company Beam Inc. UK based Diageo owns Crown Royal, and the French company Pernod Ri-card has Wiser’s. Forty Creek, meanwhile, is entirely inde-pendent.

Privately owned, publicly enjoyed

At the end of our tour, Hall treated us to samples of Forty Creek Barrel Select, Double Barrel Reserve, and Confed-eration Oak Reserve. While demonstrating his whisky wisdom with each tasting note and blend appraisal, Hall makes a remark that would seem to define suc-cinctly the spirit of his indus-try: “People who enjoy whis-ky like to share it and bring it to their friends.” We then realized that we shouldn’t have been surprised that this genuine whisky magnate took the time to meet with us personally. For him, to spend a couple of hours sharing his passion for whisky is just an-other pleasure.

Andrew Walt

Whisky maker John Hall gives the newspaper a personal tour of the distillery.

Ontario’s Forty Creek Whisky maintains its Canadian roots

THE BOOZEPAPER6 May 1, 2012

Our favourite drunks from the movies:

While it’s obvious that “The Lost Weekend” has an anti-booze message that documents the protagonist’s utterly miserable near-

suicidal binge, with “Arthur” it’s much tougher to tell. Arthur is so charming, funny, and content to be an alcoholic, why would you take

the bottle away from him? So what if he has a Superman poster on his wall and basketball hoop on the back of his door well into

his thirties. It’s all part of his man-child appeal! And considering he’s a millionaire, he probably throws the greatest parties, so in recommending he quit you’d really just be depriving yourself. Clearly his old British personal butler (John Gielgud) is inclined to agree. All I know is I wish I could drink

whiskey from a paper bag behind the wheel of a convertible, and I wish

John Gielgud was my enabler.

The Fun Drunk – Dudley Moore as Arthur Bach in Arthur

As it would plainly be a crime not to include a Dennis Hopper performance on a list such as this, his Oscar-nominated turn in Hoosiers would seem to be the obvious choice. Shooter is the (kind of) endearing, basketball-obsessed town drunk who publicly embar-

rasses his family and is eventually hospitalized, despite his best efforts to kick the bot-tle so he can help his son’s team to victory back in the early 50s. Wait a minute – what about the countless drug binges and physical threats on his own family? Oh, my mis-take that’s the real Dennis Hopper. My apologies, Shooter! Call me old-fashioned, but of everyone listed here, this wash-up really is my type of guy. He’s just such a whole- some drunkard!

The Recovering Drunk – Dennis Hopper as Shooter in Hoosiers

The Closet Drunk – Ray Milland as Don Birnam in The Lost Weekend

Now here’s a real pro. This guy could tour the country running seminars about how to hide your addiction from everyone who cares about you. The scene where, in quick succession, he checks all of his usual hiding spots for secured liquor lasts almost a full minute! And what’s most impressive and/or inspiring is the pride he holds in what a prolific liar he is. Viewers beware, however. At one point Don’s brother finds a full bottle of rye he’d stashed and pours every drop down the drain: this is possibly the most heartbreaking shot in the whole picture. From the way the other characters react, it seems much easier to be a secret drunk these days, as you don’t have to put up with the crazy social stigma. And yet some things never change – Don remarks to the bartender “You need it most in the morning; don’t you know that by now?” Amen!

this page: written by Dan Christensenopposite page: written by Alan Jones

THE BOOZEPAPERwww.thenewspaper.ca 7

which drunk do you want to be? The Self-Destructive Drunks

– Mickey Rourke as Henry Chinaski and Faye Dunaway as Wanda Wilcox in Barfly

The Lucky Drunk – WC Fields as Egbert Sousé in The Bank Dick

The Suicidal Drunk – Nicolas Cage as Ben Sander-son in Leaving Las Vegas

Egbert Souse is one lucky guy. It may not appear so at the be-ginning of the film, but everything is bound to work out for him. On his way to look for a job, he stops off at the tavern for a drink. Who does he meet? A film pro-ducer looking for a director. Afterwards, he stops to read the newspaper, and inadvertently trips a bank robber, becoming a town hero. I won’t even mention his rather unsafe driving habits. Throughout the film, Sousé (“It’s pronounced ‘soo-ZAY’”) has a habit of end-ing up on the good side of fate’s sometimes cruel decisions, and not because his plans ever work

out. And I’m not sure if it has anything to do with luck, but WC Fields has one

of the most impressive pro-boscises I’ve ever seen.

When washed-up Hollywood screenwriter Ben Sanderson heads to Las Vegas, he intends to do

one thing and he intends for that thing to be the last thing he ever does. He intends to drink himself

to death. In the process, he forms a relationship with a world-weary prostitute (Elisabeth Shue) and vomits and

gets some seriously bad hangovers and spends an awful lot of time shaking uncontrollably as his body rejects the poison. If the idea of

suicide by alcohol is new to you, as it was to me when I first watched this film, Nicolas Cage’s performance renders it utterly believable. And like Arthur,

Ben Sanderson is a drunk with financial means, so unlike Henry Chinaski, a lack of funds won’t prevent the inevitable.

Barfly is a semi-autobiographical film written by the great Ameri-can poet and novelist Charles Bukowski, who famously spent a great deal of time in bars, taking ten years off from writing at one point in order to get drunk. Given the subject matter - a rude crude drunk

with the soul of a poet - one might expect a film like Barfly to offer a self-serving romantic view of the life of an alcoholic,

but Chinaski is too stubborn to try breaking the cycle of ad-diction. Likewise, fellow barfly and newfound lover Wanda is under no illusions about her drunkenness. At one point she warns Henry that she’ll leave with any man who offers her a fifth of whisky, and low and behold, she does. Per-

haps the most incisive touch is the ut-ter lack of character growth. Chi-

naski ends the film the same way he begins it: a

drunk looking for a fight.

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“Beer is hot!” Stephen Beau-mont exclaimed over his pint of pale ale at Le Select Bistro on Wellsley and King Street. Beaumont, who makes his living tasting

and writing about beer and other alcoholic beverages, was not referring to the ale’s temperature but rather the surge of popularity beer gained among Canadians in recent years. Ontario craft brews are no exception to the growing trend.

Beaumont’s recently co-authored book to come out this fall, The World Atlas of Beer, is an ambitious at-tempt to catalogue craft beers all over the world. “What I discovered at the end of the book was that craft brewing around the world is a whole lot bigger than I thought. It is massive. And it’s only going to get bigger,” said Beaumont.

The 20th century saw a homogenization of large beer companies in Canada, such as Molson and Labatt, while “craft brewing was in crisis,” according to Beau-mont. However, in the early 1980s, the success of inde-pendent breweries such as Upper Canada and Brick Brewing Company marked the beginning of the Cana-dian craft beer movement. Beaumont explained that big brewers are currently looking elsewhere. Last year, Budweiser fell from the second to third best

selling beer in the States, and Anheuser-Busch barely batted an eye. “Big brewers have basically given up on the Americas and Western Europe.”

The growth of craft brew-ing in Ontario is due in part

to the changing drinking patterns on this side of the globe, explained Beaumont, and people’s desire to diver-sify their palettes. Current-ly, Ontario beer drinkers have over 150 local brews at their disposal to satisfy such curiosity.

The Liquor Control Board of Ontario is partly respon-sible for the boom in craft beers available to Ontario consumers. For the first time in Ontario history, the LCBO will attend this year’s Craft Brewers Conference in San Francisco. “The LCBO recognizes where growth is. They have the most up to date numbers because they sell every bottle of alcohol in the province,” said Beau-mont.

While the LCBO is more receptive than in previous years, the government cor-poration still poses barri-ers to some craft breweries. Flying Monkeys Smash-bomb Atomic I.P.A. was banned from LCBO shelves in March, according to the Torontoist, because the brand’s potentially provoca-tive packaging risked vio-lation of the government’s mandate to promote a cer-tain image of alcoholic bev-erages.

Craft brewing in Canada varies among provinces, explained Beaumont, ver-bally mapping out the vari-ous characteristics of beer across the country. “Ontario has always done straight ahead beer styles very well,”

said Beaumont, citing Ger-man lagers and English ales as Ontario’s staple beers.

“But Montreal is the heart-land of experimentation,” said Beaumont, who attributes the experi-mental approach in Quebecois craft brewing to a strong Belgian influence in the province. If you ask a Belgian brewer what style of beer they brew, they will tell you, “it’s my style,” said Beau-mont who looks for-ward to his frequent trips to the country famous for its craft brewing, and hopes to see more of its influence on this side of the Atlantic. “They don’t tend to fall neatly into cat-egorization.”

Currently, many Ontario craft brewers produce beer with strong hop flavours, but original styles continue to emerge, such as Muskoka’s Spring Oddity, which uses Belgian yeast, juniper berries and orange peel to give the beer its distinc-

tive flavour. “Just now, we’re starting to do more experi-mental things. Sour beers, barrel aged beers, with dif-ferent yeasts and bacteria in them.”

Toronto bars and restau-rants have a stake in peo-

ple’s current interest in craft beer. Beaumont cited bars on Ossington Street and Col-lege Street’s Smokeless Joe’s as providing a number of

craft beers on tap. “There’s now an understanding that when you open a place you really have to pay some at-tention. You’re not going to open with Canadian and Blue.”

THE BOOZEPAPER8 May 1, 2012

Where in the world is Ontario beer?“When it comes to brewing, Ontarians could be more like the Belgians,” says Stephen Beaumont, Toronto based beer reviewer

BOD

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Cara Sabatini

“Sometimes I just want to have a pint.,” says beer reviewer

Stephen Beaumont at Le Select Bistro

WWW.AMSTERDAMBEER.COM

VOTED #1BY YOU

AVAILABLE AT THE LCBO AND THE BEER STORE

THE BOOZEPAPERwww.thenewspaper.ca 9

The ice wine makers of the fabled Niagara region have had some interesting weath-er to deal with this past win-ter. With one of the warmest winters in recent memory, temperatures were well above seasonal averages.

Ice wine grapes can be delicate and thin-skinned, depending on the variety, and must freeze on the vine in order to be considered an authentic ice wine. In November, the ice wine grapes are netted to protect them from hungry birds. Then, the grapes are left on the vine until they are fro-zen and ready to be picked, which can be anywhere from December to February.

Mild tem-p e r a t u r e s like the ones expe-rienced this past winter can be wor-rying for ice wine makers. For Inniskillin’s Senior Win-emaker Bruce Nicholson, warm weather is not an ex-treme threat to his grapes, just something to adapt to. “Milder temperatures mean you’re just waiting. The pro-cess of thawing and freezing actually is a good process, meaning not to the point where you have to pick it.”

Deborah L. Pratt, the Pub-lic Relations representa-tive at the award-winning

ice wine company, seconds Nicholson’s opinion. Being mindful of weather changes and patterns is important and can help guarantee a good output. “We’ve always been used to fluctuating in the temperatures for winter, so we watch the extended forecast. We have picked as early as December 2nd, as late as March 5.”

Apart from the more ob-vious freezing process for which the product is named,

ice wine makers must also follow strict Vintners Quality Alliance rules when it comes to harvest-ing. A sustained temperature of at least minus 8 degrees Celsius must be reached over the period of a few days.

This rule is based on the ori-gins of ice wine in late 18th cen-tury Germany, during a particu-larly cold spell when the grape harvest was fro-zen on the vine before being har-vested. The Nia-gara region, with its warm, sunny summers and reasonably cold winters was the perfect region for German immi-grants to intro-duce the produc-tion of the famed dessert wine.

Pratt empha-sizes the im-

portance of keeping in the tradition of harvesting ice wine. “If you start to make a product that’s already estab-lished in another country, you owe it the respect... We didn’t invent ice wine, and so out of respect for Ger-many, we set the rule saying it can only be called an ice wine if and only if it follows this set of rules.”

The typical Niagara win-ter is able to provide a string of consecutive days hov-ering around the minus 8 mark. With the mild winter this past year, the outlook for the usual stability of cold weather was uncertain. However, the vintners’ wor-ries disappeared when a se-ries of colder nights (which is when the grapes are usu-ally harvested) made it pos-sible to pick the grapes in early January. By the end of the first week of the month, Inniskillin’s Vidal variety grapes were harvested and ready for pressing.

Nicholson stated, “We like to have a freezing and thaw-ing process. I don’t like rain, particularly, depending on the variety you have on

the vine. Some of them are more susceptible to rotting because of the thickness of the skin. Vidal, which is the vast majority of the grapes left for ice wine, have a thicker skin, so they can handle winter in the milder temperatures a little bit bet-ter.”

Worrying about winter temperatures is all part of the finicky ice wine mak-ing process. Although there is always the possibility that the yield will be lower because of certain weather patterns, the quality of the wine always comes first.

Nicholson re-affirms his calm approach to some of the problems faced as a cause of the warm win-ter, choosing to see it as an advantage. “Freezing and thawing is what enhances the character. I believe that it actually removes some of the bitterness and some-times, the medicinal charac-teristics that you’ll get if you pick them early, very early.”

Sounds sweet to us.

Ice wine stands the chill wind of an unusual winterNiagara’s ice wine industry overcomes mild winter temperatures, produces more savoury product

Suzie Balabuch

Frozen grapes are handpicked and pressed in the vineyards of Niagara on the Lake, Ontario

Wine, as most of us know it, is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented grapes and a staple of Western Europe. But the beverage has a varied his-tory, inspiring some discus-sion about what constitutes wine, and its proper modes of production and consump-tion.

The first production of wine dates back 8,000 years ago in Georgia, and made its first appearance in the Bal-kans in 4500 BC.

Currently, some of the most popular wines found on Canadian restaurant menus are Merlot, Cabernet Sauvi-gnon, Shiraz, and Pinot Noir. These wines are produced by fermenting grapes with deep red and purple skins. After the grapes are crushed, the juice is left in contact with the skin to give the wine its rich red color and taste.

However, not all wines are grape based. There are also wines made from fruits, starches, flowers and weeds. one can find wines produced from apples, elderberries, rice, dandelion and even marijuana!

California vintners began experimenting with mari-juana wine in the 1980s. “It had a pungent herbal aroma that called to mind a col-lege dormitory on a Saturday night” wrote wine columnist Michael Steinberger in the The Daily Beast, the Internet magazine Slate.

The original marijuana wine of California vineyards blended the bud with rosé. To produce such a delicacy, winemakers use a pound of marijuana per cask of wine, ferment it for nine months, and voilà! Perhaps a more re-fined alternative to the weed brownies?

Wine is also an important cultural aspect in the Eastern Hemisphere. The most popu-lar rice wine is the Japanese sake. Made from rice and water, sake is made through a process that is similar to the production of beer. Al-

though made from rice, there are over 50 different rice varietals, giving a range of distinct flavors, just like red wine. Winemakers are highly selective of the water they use, as water is very im-portant to the taste and the final result of the sake.

Sake can be consumed warm or cold, but if you are in Japan, do not be rude by drinking sake and pouring it only in your cup! In Japan it is polite to pour sake into each other’s cup.

Speaking of traditions, for the traditional St Pat-ty’s Day in Ireland, not everyone drinks beer. Some opt for a love affair with mead, a honey wine consumed for centuries by Celtic nations! Discov-ered by Irish monks in the medieval times, mead was believed to enhance viril-ity and fertility. Hence, consumed at Irish wedding ceremonies, it is believed to have given birth to the term “honeymoon” when for Irish tradition the newlyweds would drink Mead for one full cycle of the moon.

In many areas of the world, there are other traditions and sanctions surrounding the beverage. In the European Union the word ‘wine’ is pro-tected by law and defined only as fermented juice of grapes. The legal definition has been the cause of a few verbal wars in the European world of wine. The French refused to acknowledge Ger-many’s alcoholic beverage made from pressed apples, Apfelwein, as wine and opt-ed for its exclusion from the definition.

The main difference be-tween the grape-based wines and the fruit wines like Ap-felwein, apart from the differ-ent ingredients, is that fruit wines do not improve with bottle age and unlike grape-based wines, are meant to be drunk within a year.

However, apples or grapes do not seem such distinct in-gredients when compared to

some of the following wines that used to be on the market. Fish was the main ingredient used by the Chi- n e s e

who a t -tempt-ed to m a k e f i s h wine in the 21st centur y. If that s o u n d s odd, some of the A m e r i -can win-e m a k e r s used army worms to p r o d u c e their wine. W h i l e i n the past and still today, poison-ous snake wine can be found in Thailand, Vietnam, Japan

and Korea. How do you make poison-

ous snake wine, you ask? Simply catch a poisonous

snake, put it in rice wine, and add a

pinch of herbs. There is no dan-ger in consum-ing such wine, as the venom is dissolved by ethanol.

The final oddity of wine is simply its taste. Not eve-ryone enjoys sipping wine, so there are things that people do to make it taste better. Jancis Robinson, a wine critic and author told CNN her ex-perience

of wine t a s t -ing in

Shang-h a i ,

C h i -na. “In

Shanghai wine is

completely misunder-stood and something people feel like they ought to taste be-cause it’s f a s h i o n -able,” said Robinson. “ P e o p l e with a lot of money here buy very ex-p e n s i v e F r e n c h wine, but don’t re-ally like the

taste, so they pour something like Coca Cola or Sprite into it.”

While others might think that mixing two good things cannot be wrong, French,

Italians, Por-tuguese and G e r m a n s might criti-cize such practice as putting new wine into old bottles, so to speak. What cannot be doubted is the evo-lution of m o d e s , m e t h o d s and prefer-ences in the world of wine.

THE BOOZEPAPER10 May 1, 2012

A short journey through the history and geography of wine What’s in a wine?

Elena Churilova

www.thenewspaper.ca 11

Founded in New York in 1935, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was among the first formally established fellowships solely dedicated to attaining – and maintaining – sobriety. Today, the organization and its tenets have famously come to rep-resent a tried-and-true model for recovery from alcoholism. Popularly depicted in televi-sion shows and movies as of-ten-somber church-basement gatherings, AA group meet-ings have become iconic of support-group subculture, and of what the road to sobriety might look like.

However, these dismal de-pictions are rarely congruent with the positive experiences of scores of people who have considered themselves part of the AA fellowship over the past 70 years. Unfortunately, for many people (alcoholics or otherwise), AA has remained shrouded in secrecy and mem-bership or meeting attendance stigmatized by shame. The double-edged social stigma of alcoholism and abstinence as well as the negative portrayal of AA in popular culture has deterred many would-be sobri-ety seekers from attending a first meeting.

When I contacted Roger, the AA Toronto Agnostics website administrator about attending an open meeting as a writer, his response was immediate-ly enthusiastic: “Yes, you can come – it’s a great meeting!” On the phone, he added kindly, perhaps in reference to un-spoken assumptions I might have: “Of course, you must be terrified.”

I had assured Roger other-wise, but as I walked to-ward the First Uni-t a r i a n C o n -grega-t i o n o n

Tuesday evening, my heart was pounding. After I found the meeting room and joined the seated circle of people, the first name call-and-answer in-troductions began: “I’m John, and I’m an alcoholic.” “Hi John!” and so forth. When it was my turn, I stuttered out my name and my reason for attendance, to which everyone responded, “Hi Talia!” After the introductions finished, how-ever, a fellow raised his hand in protest; he felt that my pres-ence at the meeting was inap-propriate, and in violation of the principles of AA’s twelve traditions.

As he spoke, I was overcome with shame at realizing my imposition – how my presence could be a rude intrusion into the sacred space cultivated by a common experience I did not share. But as I stood up to gather my things, a chorus of voices protested my departure. The woman beside me remind-ed the group, “We do things by consensus here.” As others responded emphatically that I was welcome, it was agreed that I should stay.

The meeting began and peo-ple took turns sharing their thoughts and feelings on the three topics elected for discus-sion: compassion, anonym-ity, and public controversy. A far cry from dreary scenes of folding-chair circuits of de-spondent strangers, the meet-ing atmosphere was warm and comfortable, marked by a strong undercurrent of mutu-al respect and friendship. The topic that drew the most atten-tion was public controversy – sparked by the discussion

about my place at the meet-ing and the involvement of

the media in a recent con-flict within the Greater

Toronto Area Intergroup of AA.

The conflict, which involved the remov-

al of the agnostic branches of AA,

including We Ag-nostics (whose

meeting I at-tended that

evening) and B e -

yond Belief from the GTA Intergroup official roster of meetings, was made public last summer in a Toronto Star article. Torontonian mem-bers of AA felt that the city’s agnostic groups had diverged from the traditional doctrine through their modification of the “Twelve Steps” to exclude the word ‘God.’ However, To-ronto’s agnostic AA groups felt that God had no place in their path to sobriety, but wanted to follow the AA framework.

In particular, AA’s success is often linked to adherence to the principles of its “Twelve Steps” program, which has long drawn fire for its reli-gious language and Christian overtones. Historically, AA emerged from the folds of the Oxford Group, a religious Christian movement that em-phasized personal salvation through individual convic-tion, confession and surrender to God. Much of AA’s doctrine and language still echo these principles.

Indeed, the role of religios-ity – whether in spiritual be-lief or devotion to sobriety – is a foundational element of the AA model. For many, however, the inclusion of God in AA’s “Twelve Steps” and other pub-lications has discouraged par-ticipation in the program.

Even for those who initially joined AA, the agnostic groups are a welcome alternative. Ylana, 27, came to her first AA meeting when she was 22, six months after finishing her undergraduate degree. For her, the religious aspects of the program held little inter-est. “At first I blocked it out of my head – a lot of people were talking about God and I didn’t understand what that meant or why they were talking about it. It didn’t have any real meaning for me,” she explained.

For Ylana, it was the community of people she encountered that made AA helpful right from the start. “It was success-ful because there were a lot of sup-

ports

and people at the meetings who were really friendly, of-fered me their number and just held my hand, basically,” she explained. At that point, Ylana was attending meetings every day, where she knew there would be people who she could talk to about her problems. “They all had really, really, similar characteristics and disabilities, and I felt like I could really easily connect and that they could understand me and offer me the kind of advice I needed,” she explained.

However, Ylana began to feel that the language and belief system embedded in the AA doctrine was limiting. “A lot of the meetings had a lecture-like, dogmatic tone to them. It felt like people were saying the same clichés; they seemed to just fall back on things that they’d read or things they’d heard and it just didn’t sound real – or as real or open,” she explained. While the sense of camaraderie rooted in shared experiences remained, Ylana became interested in find-ing people who were open to discussing topics that veered away from AA’s rigid spiritual doctrine.

“I stumbled upon the agnos-tic meeting, and what I liked about it was that they were more open to just talking, to exploring philosophies and ideas with a more open mind. It felt more comfortable, less like church,” Ylana said. She felt that the traditional AA meet-ings were too “formulaic,” and described sometimes feeling alienat- ed, “I just stopped

going to meet-ings, because I

thought ‘Okay, I don’t feel

like having this con-

versation a n y -

more.’ I

thought, ‘I don’t want to drink but I don’t want to follow this either.” Through the agnos-tic groups, Ylana was able to find find a space to discuss her own thoughts and experiences more freely.

As the conversation contin-ued at the We Agnostics meet-ing Tuesday night, people of-fered their thoughts on the place of the group under the broader AA umbrella and dis-cussed the ways that anonym-ity can sometimes perpetuate the stigma around alcoholism. Many addressed me directly, warmly and thanked me for coming. When it came to the gentleman who had earlier expressed discomfort with my presence at the meeting, he elaborated his concern, “You can’t just come to one meeting and think you know what AA is all about; you could come to ten meetings and still have no idea. I’ve been coming to meet-ings for 33 years and I’m still figuring it out.”

His words struck me power-fully. In attending, I had sought to capture the thoughts and feelings that night; at the very least, a facet of the AA experi-ence, and to break open the misconceptions that might prevent people from coming to meetings. I had hoped, per-haps, to gain a better under-standing of the agnostic ap-proach to the AA model. That evening, as a stranger – an observer and an outsider – I found myself folded into the atmosphere of collectivity and support created by the people who welcomed me and shared

their thoughts and feelings.

Excluded from GTA Alcoholics Anonymous, agnostic sobriety support group welcomes guest

AA model: open for discussion

Talia Gordon

THE BOOZEPAPER

THE BOOZEPAPER12 May 1, 2012

As anyone with a televi-sion knows, beer marketing rarely features women, un-less they’re wearing booty shorts. But what is shown in the mainstream is far from the reality of the beer indus-try, both in terms of its con-sumer base and producers.

Take Mirella Amato. She’s currently Canada’s only fe-male cicerone, the technical term for beer connoisseur. She entered the industry as a second career and has found significant success with her own company, Beerology. “I’ve always been a fan of craft beer, I was very lucky to have discovered it early on,” said Amato. “I became very curious about it and studied it on a personal lev-el as a beer geek. And then later on when I was contem-plating a career change, I fig-ured I might as well pursue my passion,” she added.

The community of ladies working in the beer indus-try, be they brewers, lab techs, drivers, or really any-thing in between, is grow-ing. And, more importantly, they are growing closer to-gether thanks to networks like Barley’s Angels, and the Pink Boots Society (PBS).

Barley’s Angels, an inter-national network of beer education clubs for women, is essentially the consumer branch of the Pink Boots So-ciety, and it has grown from five to seventeen chapters in only one year.

The Pink Boots Society started almost five years ago. Initially just a list of women brewers, it has grown to include all women who work in the beer indus-try. Founder and president Teri Fahrendorf had the idea while on a cross-country brewery tour. After making connections with women brewers across North Amer-ica, the all-volunteer-run PBS took off. Fahrendorf spoke with the newspaper

from Portland, Oregon earli-er this month. She said PBS’ goal is to encourage women to overcome gender barriers in the beer industry. “They have role models now, the ones I met thought they were the only one. And this way you gain some instant confidence, because all of a sudden there are other

women that you can now connect with and network with,” Fahrendorf said.

A beer for all tastesWhat about those “girly

beers”, perhaps with fewer calories and a fruity taste, or a stereotypically girly logo and colour scheme?

“It’s been my experience that women and men - eve-ryone has their own palette, and different flavors are go-ing to appeal to different people,” said Amato. “The sad side effect is then that men who like fruit beers feel weird about it,” she added.

Lundy Dale, founder and president of the British Co-lumbia branch of Campaign for Real Ale, is more blunt about her feelings on the in-dustry’s attempts to cater to

women’s “beer needs.” “We do not need special beers, we just want opportunities,” she told the newspaper in an email. “There are now a lot of women beer bloggers and women's beer groups and the word is spreading,” she added.

Sonja North of Black Oak Brewery in Toronto agrees

with Dale. “As a female beer consumer, I don't want to go to Bud Camp with the Bud girls, but I also don't want to drink a beer with a pink label,” she said. “I think that in the past, this has led to fe-male beer drinkers feeling a bit abandoned. We need to educate women that craft beer isn't just for the boys.”

Supporting women in the industry

Educating women about the challenges they face in the beer industry is a top priority for these beer babes. As Dale puts it, “Part of the reason I took this on, was be-cause women were scarce in the executive and the indus-try, and my hope was that I could draw more women in. Women want to learn,

some are not intimidated by the world of men around them, but many are, and feel more comfortable learning around fellow women.”

In comparison to ten years ago, more professional op-portunities have opened up for women interested in pursuing a career in the beer industry. But, as many

of the women in the beer business will tell you, the industry is still not without its difficulties. “Some of the challenges that I face (be-sides not being able to lift a 58L keg) have been seem-ingly subtle but really stick out in my mind,” said North. “I'm often challenged about my beer knowledge. Last week I had a security guard give me a hard time enter-ing into the back of an event because he didn't believe that I worked for a brewery. Thirty seconds later, a male from another brewery sailed right by him and he didn't question it,” she added.

Despite these challenges, North and the other ladies that I interviewed said the most important thing was to support one another and

the industry as a whole, men included. In fact, these women's beer organizations have significant support from men in the business. It’s the passion and per-haps a new perspective that women bring to the busi-ness that leads Fahrendorf to believe that “women can revolutionize the industry.”

These groups have made it their goal to improve the beer industry by supporting talented individuals, regard-less of their sex. Fahrendorf explained, “We decided, we’re not gonna say nega-tive things about anybody because we would rather be beer champions, we’d rather champion our members. Thats the bottom line: are you a woman, and are you passionate about beer.”

At the end of the day, it’s all about the beer. “I think good beer is awesome be-cause of its versatility. From a velvety stout to a crisp bready lager, the amount of flavor profiles are epic,” said North. This sort of ap-preciation is what Amato hopes to spread through her work. “To people who say they don’t like beer, I say, how many have you tried? Although I can’t relate to it, I’m sure there are people out there that don’t like beer. My main goal is to get every-one to be more adventurous with what they’re drinking,” she said.

And really, it shouldn’t be surprising that women are fi-nally awakening to the huge potential of working in the beer industry. After all, the first brewers were women, it was simply part of their role in the home. “I would love to see every brewery have tours on mothers’ day,” she said. “Maybe women who never drink beer might, just for the sake of history, toast the moms that first started brewing.”

Vanessa Purdy

Brewmaster Teri Fahrendorf mashes out malted grain on one of her many stops at breweries across theWest Coast.

Babes in BeerlandThe woman of beer. No, we’re not talking about the Bud Light Girls.

THE BOOZEPAPER

Beer geeks seek refuge in the MarketKensington’s new hole in the wall, Thirsty and Miserable, serves only beer Tucked in between a fish

market and the Army Sur-plus Store, Thirsty and Miserable is a low key dive bar for Toronto’s beer lov-ers. Open since February 2012, the bar serves beer exclusively. Manager Ka-tie Whittaker established the bar as a venue where beer is the drink of choice, straying from the tradi-tional well-stocked back bar.“It’s basically a beer geek dive bar,” said Whittaker of Thirsty and Miserable. “You’re in the middle of Kensington Market, you’re surrounded by fish stores. It’s not fancy, it’s down and out, but we’ve got good beer.”

Thirsty and Miserable offers a diverse range of beers on tap, many hailing from Belgium and Canada. Bottled beers come from Belgium, Canada, and Ger-

many. Everything is ordered straight from the bar, with the options scrawled on chalkboards. Make sure to bring some cash along, as the bar has no ATM.

Whittaker enjoys the rough and tumble feel of the bar. The bar is free from adornments like televisions or pool tables, so music and conversation fill the small space. Whittaker hopes the beer and the casual atmos-phere will speak for itself.

Located in the heart of Kensington Market, Thirsty and Miserable fits in to the international vibe. A spec-trum of beers and an unas-suming venue are condu-cive to casual nights out. The only way you’ll leave thirsty and miserable is if you show up expecting a cosmo.

Thirsty and Miserable197 Baldwin StreetToronto, ONOpen every day 6 p.m. - 2 a.m.

Jackie Booth

The One Mile Beer: Ontario brewery gets local for nostalgia’s sake

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Last September, Toronto’s Black Creek Historic Brew-ing Company set out to grow all its ingredients for a new beer within a square mile of the brewery. By us-ing techniques and ma-chinery that settlers in On-tario would have nearly 150 years ago, Black Creek plans to put a truly local beer on shelves this November.

“We’re returning beer to its original, local roots,” said Nick Foglia, Manager of Food Services at Black Creek Historic Village. “It tasted like it would have in the 19th century. This is the closest you would get to how it was back then.”

In the 1860s, brewers used

various plants from their estate to add to their brew, such as lavender, lemon balm or rosemary. “In [Black Creek’s] second year, they started getting creative . . . putting stuff into the beer that would give it a different flavour,” said Foglia, citing Black Creek’s lemon balm beer as an example of this creativity. “This project is an extension of that.”

The Village planted a hops garden two years ago and, last spring, planted half an acre of barley. In August, Black Creek employees har-vested, dried and threshed the hops by hand. However, Black Creek’s “pioneer style burning system” is without the benefit of electricity, so the process is not entirely

on site. Trafalgar Ales & Meads in Oakville will malt, roast and return the barley to Black Creek in the fall to

complete the brewing process.

“The best thing about this project is it reminds people that beer is an ag-ricultural product,” said Foglia. As such, the project is subject to the exigencies of the growing season. Black Creek’s plans to reduce their carbon footprint and reclaim the local aspect of original Ontario brewing have proven a difficult task.

“[Last year] we just didn’t have a good crop. It didn’t take.”

While he admits that growing and processing all ingredients on site is not a sustainable business model, Foglia insisted that a one-kil-ometer beer is more sustain-able for the local commu-nity. “We’re going to invite members of the public to be involved in the process.”

People have become more interested in craft beer and want to try new flavours, ex-plained Foglia. “Back in the day, in the 1860s, there were

probably over 150 microbreweries in On-tario,” said Foglia. The 20th century saw the rise of large companies like Molson and Labatt, and the disappear-ance of experimental craft brewing. “It’s kind of funny because we’ve come full cir-cle.”

Black Creek One Mile Beer will be available for purchase in November. Visit blackcreek-brewery.ca for more informa-tion.

Cara Sabatini

Black Creek Brewing Co. goes back to its roots, growing all ingredients on site

www.thenewspaper.ca 13

THE BOOZEPAPER14 May 1, 2012

Beer without barley? You betchaThe gluten-free beer market grows with the arrival of Toronto-based Heady Brew Company

The gluten-free diet has

gained a lot of foot-ing in recent m o n t h s , winning over celebrities like tennis pro Novak Djokovic and actress Gwyneth Pal-trow. Although a sort of fad diet for the rich and the famous, gluten-free eating is an actual necessity for people suffering from celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that is caused by a reaction to glu-ten protein found in wheat, barley and rye. People with celiac stick to gluten-free di-ets out of necessity, and al-though the diet has positive effects such as increased en-ergy and healthy weight loss, the restrictions can often be daunting.

Unfortunately, beer is on the list of items that people with celiac cannot consume, since beer traditionally con-tains cereal grains like wheat and barley. A sad thought in-deed, said Mary Culver, Pres-ident of the Toronto Chapter of the Canadian Celiac Asso-ciation. In an interview, Cul-ver lamented the sheer irre-placeability of a cold pint. “In the summer, there is nothing that quenches your thirst like beer,” she said.

Fortunately for the beer-loving, gluten-sensitive among us, a new product has arrived on the burgeon-ing gluten-free beer scene. Toronto-based Heady Brew Company, created by Robert Cundari, has created a tasty, satisfying beer that is sure to satisfy celiacs and non-celi-acs alike.

It all began when Cundari took over as bakery manag-er at his family’s gluten-free food company. Cundari had been working for the com-pany while completing his education, finally becoming more of a permanent fixture about six years ago. Cundari’s niece and mother have celiac and gluten sensitivity respec-

tively, which maintained his interest in trying out new products.

The road to the perfect glu-ten-free beer was not an easy on e . With his

y o u n g free- beer seek-i n g c o u s i n T y l e r , Cundari began exper- imenting with his first g l u t e n -free recipe in his non-na’s basement kitchen.

“My beer went from un-d r i n k -able, to ju i c e , t o “ N o t bad,” back to undrink-able, and then finally I found the sweet spot for the Honey Citrus. I wasn't going for any particular style of beer. I just wanted something that had flavour and was very drinkable....Throughout the course of making this beer, I brought it to as many places as I could - parties, Jack and Jills, home. Everyone loved it. I have friends that now crave my beer. It's a great feeling,” Cundari shares.

For Cundari, the evolution of Heady Brew Company is very much a family affair. In reference to his niece and mother, Cundari says, “I now have some guinea pigs for my new products, who are also my two hardest critics. What's interesting is that for me and everyone else that I speak to do not know any ce-liacs, until they know what a celiac is.”

Culver echoes the lack of awareness surrounding celi-ac disease, emphasizing that the number of those suffer-ing is actually much higher than estimates can tell.

“For every member, there

is another member. For di-agnosed celiacs, there are around 15 to 20 000 in Cana-da that we know of. And then there are a lot of people who are not celiac, but have non-celiac gluten sensitivity.”

With so much gluten-free experience in his family his-tory, Cundari can sympa-thize with those with celiac disease and gluten sensitiv-ity. “I understand how hard it is to find good gluten free products and I enjoy giving

people something that I created. It's nice to know

that people enjoy some-thing that you put

time and effort in. If someone comes in

to my bakery (we do not have a re-

tail space) for a meeting or

a plant tour and I find

out that they or

some-o n e they know is a celiac or can't eat wheat, I make sure that they do not leave empty handed.”

Culver excit-edly supports the new venture, and the

chance for a tasty pint when out on the town. Her excite-ment upon hearing the news of a Toronto based gluten-free brewery is palpable. “When I’m out, I always look for it because we publish a newsletter four times a year, so we like to keep our mem-bers informed of any new breweries or new bakers.”

Cundari echoes the senti-ment, and emphasized the simple, yet essential point of his venture. “I hope that celiacs can go to a pub, or-der uncontaminated gluten free fish sticks and a pint of Heady, while their friends are sitting there with their sepa-rately made gluten full fish sticks and a pint of Mad Tom IPA without anyone blinking an eye. It's the simple things in life that people miss out on and I understand their plight. I'm lactose intolerant and allergic to eggs. My wife loves cheese-filled omelettes. Go figure.”

For more information on Heady Brew, visit http://

h e a dy b re w c o mp any.com/. For more informa-tion about the Toronto Chapter of the Canadi-an Celiac Association,

visit www.torontoce-liac.org

Corrections officer

charged with smuggling

alcohol and drugs into

Etobicoke jailLast Tuesday, police arrest-ed a corrections officer at the Toronto West Deten-tion Centre for allegedly trying to smuggle alcohol and marijuana into the prison. The suspect, Adam Bertoli, 33, was found with a package containing al-cohol, cigarettes, lighters, rolling papers, and mari-juana. Police obtained a warrant to search his home in the area of Poplar Roads and Childs Drive on Tues-day, seizing marijuana, oxy-codone, cocaine, and mon-ey. Bertoli is set to appear in court this week.

in the news

Vanessa Purdy

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www.thenewspaper.ca 15THE BOOZEPAPER

Across1. Dish on a spit6. Bird’s nose10. Computer scratchpad13. Pancake topping18. Suffice19. Merit20. Lifetime21. Momentarily stop play-back22. Sporting venues23. Stately vegetation24. Fisherman’s friend25. Property manager26. Chinese philosophy27. Rioting group29. Caesars, for example

31. Keypad code32. Gentle yank34. Keep quiet; be ___36. Duo37. Once prominent inter-net company 38. Pod partner41. Flight board informa-tion42. Cellist ___ Ma45. Not quite right47. Roman household deity48. Tweak, as a video game51. Clemency53. Diamondback snakes, notoriously56. British luxury and sport cars60. Breakfast beverage

61. Can be divided62. Is assisting a criminal64. Adult males66. Hawaiian souvenir67. Things to be connected68. Thin70. Dinner dish73. Wipe out77. Tokyo, once78. Insults online80. Baseball parks82. Juniper drink83. Thick85. Hangs on to87. What the floor is made of, if you’re a bored kid88. Larson musical

89. Common conjunction91. Colourful stain92. A Subject, object, and verb unit94. Umpires and referees99. Ontario gallery102. Disperse widely103. Hostile physical ac-tions104. Smells the roses; ___ down106. Long expanse of years107. Each and every108. Nocturnal duration110. Symbol of sadness112. Possessive pronoun115. Guided a tour116. Sick of; ___ up117. Corn unit119. Beaver project121. Simple negative ad-verb122. What losers of battles hope to win123. Aquatic126. Tab bonus128. Tail motion 130. Upstairs storage place133. Knight’s address134. Ego; sense of ___136. Injury138. Trade139. Industrious insect140. Relax141. Afraid 142. Models of 56 across143. British progressive rock band144. Slow boiled meat and vegetables145. Cultivates; ___ toDown1. Martial art2. Scrape by, as a living3. Stiller or Affleck4. Eve’s mate

5. Breast6. Wager7. Aural organs8. Length times width9. Was on bended knee10. Chaotic11. Grows old12. Manhattan opera com-pany13. Taint14. Tired sigh15. Flee; ___ away16. Application17. In and of itself; ___ se18. Gym floor28. Spend money 30. It’s where a will is31. Regarding the mail ser-vice33. Ranges35. Mother37. Without delay38. Commoner39. European social rank be-low a marquess40. British bottom43. Still (adv.)44. Raw mineral46. Wrath49. Breakfast grain50. Search for oil52. Enjoy the great outdoors54. Forests and jungles55. Antagonist’s abode56. Cynical57. Home sweet home58. Hurry up; ___ with it59. Lurk in the shadows61. Shelled slug63. Social pass time65. 2003 Will Ferrell movie69. Necessities71. Hot morning beverages72. Santa’s little helpers

74. Bond, Bourne, or Bauer75. Because, with a tempo-ral tinge76. Go inside78. Chain link boundary79. Double 74 down81. Move rhythmically84. Head out to sea; set ___86. Cuddly marine mam-mal88. Hold in, as information or water90. Evening meal93. Thick black goop94. Elongated circle95. Do clerical work96. Prepare a paper aero-plane97. Corrosive substance98. Tour journey100. Acquired101. Be in debt104. Great ball of burning gas105. Glum109. Blood pumps111. Snitch113. Motion forward114. Performance platforms116. Morsels of truth118. Reverts from 9 down120. Among; in the ___ of122. Man’s married mate123. Selfish word 124. Wine and spirit prefer-ence125. Ultimatum word127. Speed limit129. High school certificate130. Play a part131. Attempt132. Dance genre133. Speak135. A small handful137. Adult male

The Crossword

73 75

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76 74

82

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48 49 50 51 52 53 54

58 57 56

55

59 60 61

62 63 64 65 66

67 68 69 72 71 70

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18 19 20 21

22

26 30 31

36 37 38 39 40 32 33 34 35

23

27 28 29

24 25

143 145 144

118

114 107

127

115 116 117

126 125 124 123 122

119 120

131 130

121

129

132 133 134 135 137 136

138 139

142

141 140

83 88 87 86

92

102 101

128

111 112 113

100

85

93

98 97

90

84

91

96 99 94 95

103

108 109 110

104 105 106

89

Dear Boozie

Dear Suzie, I recently got in touch with my old friend from university. We used to be really close, and would spend all our time together, but him and I were just friends. He got in touch with me, and after 15 minutes of talking, he confessed that he had been in love with me from the moment we met. We’ve known each other for 6 years. On the one hand, he was always just my buddy and I could literal! ly walk around in my undies around him with no awkwardness. On the other hand, I always found him attractive. When we at school together, he always had a girlfriend, so he was not available, and because of that, I was quickly able to just see him as my friend. After this confession, I don’t know what to do. Should I talk to him about it? How do I bring it up? Signed, Doe

Dear Does,I think you are just the greatest because you are in touch with your feelingsQ!!! AH-hahaa. hahahahahaa. Ok, down to business. TThis guy is into you, that’s fo shizzle. So now, waht do you do??? Well. Well, you should definitely talk to him and tell him how you feeeeel. LIke in an old soul number from the 60s where everyone wore matching suits. Just tell him that you’ve always liked him, and that now that you know how he feels, maybe you could work something out. Don’t keep your feelings in the dark because this one of thsoe things that you will regret when you’re 67 and old and kinda smelling like rice pudding. So do it! YOu only live once. You’ll sleep when you’re dead.

Sincerely,Booozie

Dear Suzie,I recently started dating a great guy. When I told one of my friends (whom I love dearly), she all but told me that she did not approve. I know that she meant well and that she expressed her opinion out of love and honesty, but I was a little bit annoyed with her. What should I do in this friendship situation?

Dear Anonyomous,Oh my! This friends sounds likes a major beeyotch. No offense, I know she’s your freind but serisouly, where does she get offf? Has she even met your guy? Probably not. Let me guess: she’s kinda uptight, has her shit together, and has been with one guy her whole life and therefore thinkgs she is the shit. I say NO! CAPS LOCK ON. No to the oppressive friend. You have to tell her that your lovey-dove love means a lot to you, and that you hope that she will give him a chance, at least. It wouldn’t kill her to take a minute out of her day to get to know a very important person in yoru life. It’s your life! It’s your life, don’t you forget. Ok? OK.

Good luck you can do it, don’t be afraid!! Just get to it. Bitches be crazy.Suzie, I mean Boozie.

Want to ask Suzie a question? Email Suzie at suzienewsie@gmail.com, or submit (anony-mously, of course!) at www.thenewspaper.ca, in the blue box on the lower left.

Trust an old friend about a new guy? Find a new guy in an old male friend? Or just get drunk and say how you really feel?

HELENE GODERIS