Hey Bartender

Last week a new single and accompanying single was released by a talented musician from my hometown of Sudbury, Ontario.

Ashley Joanisse is a Canadian singer-songwriter of country and pop music.

Her new single is called HEY BARTENDER.

I love how she did the video, duplicating herself to be both the patron and the bartender.

But she also used images sent in from other musicians, friends, and even strangers like me.

It's a great song and hilarious video.

But be careful, it might just inspire you to ask to have another drink poured.

Don't Judge My Love of Sharing Ghost Tales

In my weekly Free Friday Frights adventures I have enjoyed the combination of sharing live videos of reading my fiction or just sharing a ghostly tale from the research I have done for many of my non-fiction books on the paranormal.

 

And last Friday (Friday April 13th), while I was enjoying a couple of pints at The Winking Judge in Hamilton, as part of a quick teaser video that I had originally posted live to Facebook, I walked about the 2nd floor of this haunted bar and shared a few of the ghostly tales I had heard over the years.

I re-edited the original live video to add in a few fitting visuals as well as some haunting background music.

Here is the revised and enhanced video:

You can read more about this in a post on my Spirits Untapped blog entitled "Ghostly Tales From A Hamilton Bar," which also focuses more on the "beer" and "beer culture" aspects. (IE, if, after seeing the beer I'm holding and wanting to know what it was)

My 2015 in Beer: Top 5 Beers, Top Bars and Venues

Apart from being a lover of books, I've also long been a lover of beer.

And in the past 10 years or so, I've enjoyed making an effort at trying new beers. But it got to a point where I couldn't remember if I'd had a beer or not, so about 3 years ago (April 2013), I started using UNTAPPD to track my beer.

Fun beer explorations near Kelowna, BC

I'm far from a connoisseur (ie, I'm not all that good at describing the various flavours, and mostly just either "like" or "don't like so much" the beers I'm drinking) and I quite enjoy trying new beers and also the recent rise of craft breweries that have been exploding in the past couple of years.

I also try not to check in the same beer more than once. But occasionally, for the sake of checking in a beer at an interesting or new location, or for changing my rating of a beer (perhaps, upon second or third taste, I change my perception of the beer), I'll check in more than one.

Here's a look at my beer tracking as pulled from UNTAPPD, for 2015.

• I tried 789 unique beers in 2015
• I enjoyed them at 120 unique venues
• I averaged 3 beers per day in the year

Some other interesting stats:

My Top (Combination of rating plus number of times checked in) Beers drank in 2015 include:

• Buggywhip (Abe Erb)
• Blue Collar Pale Ale (The Hamilton Brewery)
• Pale Ale (Mash Paddle Brewing)
• Paranormal Imperial Pumpkin Ale (Flying Monkeys)
• Samuel Adams Summer Ale (Sam Adams)

In 2015 I gave 61 different beers a rating of 4.5 or higher (out of five stars) and gave 6 of them a five star rating. The 6 five star rating beers in 2015 were:

• Origin Wheat - MacKinnon Brothers Brewing Co.(Hefeweizen)
• London Pale Ale - Meantime Brewing Company (Pale Ale - English)
• Not Your Father's Root Beer (5.9%) - Small Town Brewery & Taproom (Root Beer)
• Pumking - Southern Tier Brewing Company (Pumpkin / Yam Beer)
• Samuel Adams Fat Jack Double Pumpkin - Boston Beer Company/Samuel Adams (Pumpkin / Yam Beer)
• Nightmare on Mill Street Pumpkin Ale - Mill Street Brewery (Pumpkin / Yam Beer)

The lowest rated beer from 2015 was one called Double IPA from Stoudts Brewing Company, which I gave 1.5 stars to and left this comment: "I'm not fond of the nail polish remover aftertaste."

Among the most popular and favourite venues I checked in this past year include:

• The Winking Judge (Hamilton)
• The Pony Bar (New York City - Hell's Kitchen)
• The Craft - Brasserie & Grill (Toronto - Liberty Village)
• Phantom Canyon Brewing (Colorado Springs)
• Valhalla (New York City - Hell's Kitchen)

I also attended a number of beer fests throughout the year -- and, my beautiful partner in beer-enjoyment and I were able to not only get to a number of them together, but also did some amazing explorations of beer locales within Southern Ontario, in and near Kelowna, BC as well as in various neighbourhoods in New York City. Liz and I have even more fun plans regarding our beer explorations this coming year which I will be posting about at a later date.  (Of course, our other plans for 2016 involve doing an extreme race together, a lot more hiking than we accomplished in 2015, and even more great walking tours of various cities that we travel to together - that should help reduce the somewhat negative effect of enjoying our favourite beverage so often)

Liz and I at Because Beer in Hamilton - Summer 2015

My totals, for UNTAPPD, to date (and which started April 6, 2013) include 1,831 unique beers and 669 badges (yes, UNTAPPD does a great job of the gamification of social beer drinking). I'm pretty sure that I'll get to 2,000 unique check ins before the end of the year, and, based on previous trending, I should hit about 1900 by time the end of January rolls around.

Of course, I also have writing goals.

Now, if ONLY my goals of writing and enjoying beer could ever be merged some-how. Hint Hint - news on that to come.