Month: June 2016

Beer of the Month: Queens English Mild Ale

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Back to beer blogging! Two of this month’s selections came from Stonehammer Brewing in Guelph, Ontario.  Formerly known as F & M Brewery, Stonehammer has been around since 1995 and all of their beers are made using spring water from Guelph’s artesian wells.

The first Stonehammer brew I tried this month was the Queen’s English Mild Ale.  It poured a dark almost black mahogany with almost no head.  Judging by their website this was a one-off specialty brew that was available for a a limited time. Though the description mentioned hops I didn’t really get a hops smells or taste with this one — the malt flavour and caramel notes took precedence.

Despite this being a dark beer than my standard fair I really enjoyed it.  It was flavourful enough without being overbearing – and is the type of beer that both Andrew and I could agree upon.  I’m looking forward to trying the Red Male Ale that also came from Stonehammer Brewing.

Listening: Chris Derksen

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The other day while I was driving into work I was listening to Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean.  One of my favourite parts of that show is the Canadian indie music that is included in every episode.  The episode that was on that morning was featuring Indigenous musicians from Canada.

I was blown away by a number of the artists featured but was particularly enthralled by the music of Chris Derksen.  Derksen is a trained cellist and weaves orchestral music around contemporary powwow music.  The unexpected combination of these two genres is unlike anything I have ever heard before – but is amazing.  It’s inspiring to hear a new form of music that is creating something completely different and unique.

Derksen’s third studio album Orchestral Powwow was nominated for a the Instrumental Album of the Year Juno in 2016.  Take a listen to her music – the only way I can describe it is mind-blowing. Derksen is also one of the individuals I hope to help create a Wikipedia page for during the upcoming Rewriting Wikipedia event focused on Indigenous women.

Return to Blogging

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You might have noticed a distinct lack of new blog content recently.  If you visit the Oslicken site instead of using an RSS reader or something you might have also noticed our site being down.  Long story short — lots of technical issues caused by really poor customer service from our long time hosting provider.

Many thanks to Andrew for working on this and transferring our sites to a new provider. With any luck we’re up and running again and there won’t be any similar interruptions in the future.  I have a whole backlog of posts waiting to be written so keep an eye out for new content in the coming days.

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