The inaugural Beerstitution took place this past Wednesday, October 1st, 2014. It was a rousing success with a modest turnout of excited mouths, brains and bodies. This volume was hosted by Corey Pomkoski and the chosen style was India Pale Ale (IPA).

We had 8 eager Beerstitutioneers at this inaugural Volume and everyone showed up with a serious piece of beer (except maybe the lone Lyonnais, Boris… poor guy). I gave a very brief overview of the IPA style and explained why I chose this style. Oddly enough, everyone seemed to be into learning… love it! I also distributed this month’s edition of the Bières & Plaisirs Journal and a printed copy of the explanation doc.

We then moved right into Volume 1! We tasted the following variety of IPAs, each with a serious unique offering:

1. Yakima IPA | Microbrasserie Le Castor | Rigaud, Qc. | 660ml format. Corey [host]
2. 10 Bitter Years | Black Oak Brewing | Etobicoke, On. | 650ml format. Daniel
3. 30¢ Black IPA | Pit Caribou x Microbrasserie Le Castor | Rigaud, Qc. | 660ml format. Phil T.
4. Ale Amérindienne | Microbrasserie le Naufrageur | Gaspésie, Qc. | 500ml format. | John
5. La Chouape IPA | La Chouape |  Saint-Félicien, Qc. | 500ml format. Dave
6. IPA | Microbrasserie Alchimiste | Joliette, Qc. | 341ml format. Amadou
7. St-Ambroise IPA | McAuslan Brewing | Montréal, Qc. | 341ml format. Banane
8. India Pale Ale | Alexander Keith’s | Halifax, NS. | 341ml format. Boris

During the tastings, we were also adding our reviews to Untappd, which is pretty not bad for keeping track of yer brews. My user name is cpom, look me up and connect with the rest of your Beerstitutioneers! If anyone has another social beer app favourite, I’m all ears! At the end of the tastings, everyone proclaimed their highest love for one beer and the results were:

1. 30¢ Black IPA (4 votes): Corey, Boris, Amadou, Banane
2. Yakima IPA (1 vote): Dave
3. La Chouape IPA (1 vote): John
4. St-Ambroise IPA (1 vote): Phil
5. 10 Bitter Years (1 vote): Daniel

At the end of the evening, we ran a small Blind Taste Test to see how good everyone’s tongue memory was… Turns out, not so great. 50% of us got it right, which probably just means that those 4 ppl were less drunk than the other 4 ppl. But I digress.

All in all, I thought this first Beerstitution Volume 1 was a great success! My fellow Beerstitutioneers and I revelled in the glory that is IPA and each other’s company. We discovered some awesome beers together and even converted a diehard IPA-hater into a diehard IPA-still-hate-but-could-stomach-a-black-IPA-if-needed (looking at you, Amadou)! Nice work, team!

Til next time Chez Thorne!

Corey
That Guy From Beerstitution