30 Months of Co-Living

We are into the middle of our third year at the RobiRoost where we share a 5 bedroom house with another family of 4 (their last name also begins with Robi...). It was meant to be a single year of co-living in transition between our former homes and the anticipated cohousing project we were all a part of. When the project was delayed and then abandoned, both our families were left in a bit of a quandary and so we moved to a different house and continued our home sharing.

Our families live remarkably well together. We share essential tastes in food, drink, activities, movies, beliefs, and lifestyle. There is a mutual care and respect for each other. We trust each other. We play together. Look after each other's children for date nights. We built and then enjoyed a beer advent calendar (more on this soon). This arrangement has given us some relief from the disappointment of losing our cohousing dream as we have built in community.

My children will certainly have a defined memory of these surrogate siblings and parents. They get tucked in once a week by either Jasen or Heather. They play Lego and superhero and house and watch morning cartoons on the weekend with their housemates.



We decided to celebrate our big family Christmas by going out for some food and then walking around Commonwealth Park to see the holiday lights. It was nice to relax together in this way. For me it demonstrated that getting together is not as special as it used to be. We've crossed a familiarity barrier that few people cross beyond the nuclear family. It's uncharted territory. I joke with my work colleagues about having a sister-wife and brother husband because I haven't found an easier way to explain who they are.

This fine family has inspired, encouraged, nourished, shared, commiserated with, challenged and blessed ours. I hope we have been able to do the same for them as they have become very special to us.

Cheers to 30 months together!

Zaakistan 2013

January

Sick Day. Snow Day. Gaming weekend in Canmore. Concerts: Living with Lions, Whitehorse. Semester 1 ends: Math 10C, Math 20-2, Multi-Media

February

Dragonfly Cohousing Social Media Blitz. Man Scouts Beer Tasting. Demitor Visit in Edmonton. Peter turned 80 in High River. Semester 2 begins: Calculus, Math 30-2, Multi-Media. 

March

Mother-in-law visit. Turned 37. Fundraising Beer Tasting. Visit to South Africa: Waldrons, Seed of Hope, Game Reserve.

April

Visit to Malawi: World Renew, Kamanzi, Lake Malawi, Participatory Rural Apraisal. Morning stroll in Amsterdam. Daughter turned 6. Sister-in-law visit. Weekend in Radium with friends. Budget cuts at work.

May

Son learns to ride a bicycle. Dragonfly Cohousing Groundbreaking. Minhas Brewery Tour. Book Sale. Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. Mumford and Sons. Graduation. 

June

Calgary is flooded/Exams cancelled. Dragonfly Cohousing grinds to a halt due to construction bids coming in way over budget. Ultimate Frisbee (go Vicious Circles). Allan Family Reunion in Canmore. Bladder Infection.

July

Despicable Me 2 with kids. Son turns 8. Camping and hiking in Banff with friends (sickness). Anniversary Ride to Rocky Mtn House with sister. Montreal: Sister/Brother-in-law, Shakespeare in the Park, Biodôme/Botanical Gardens/Insectarium/Planetarium, Microbrew visits, Alouettes, BBQ.

August

VIA Rail NB: Papa/Step-Mother, Memere, Fern/Gail, Beach, Pugwash Campmeeting, Canoeing, 13th Anniversary, Dieppe Kite Festival, Plovers, Building a Geodesic Dome, Visit to Sackville, Mémere turns 87. Camping at Little Bow with Friends. Visit to Vulcan. Meadery tour.

September

Semester 1 begins: Math 10C, Math 30-1, Math 30-2. Camping in Rocky Mtn House with family and friends. Tennis with friends. Dragonfly Cohousing hires a new project manager. FallCon 26. Peter's Memorial Service. Kids begin homeschool. Beer Tasting.

October

Corn Maze with Dragonfly. Re-Design Workshops. Mom's Birthday. Reflektor is Released. Family Visit to Red Deer. Beer Tasting. Cystoscopy. Nenshi Re-Elected. Teachers Conference.

November

Glenbow Museum. Sleeping Beauty Ballet. Banff Mtn Film Fest. Wife turns 35. First Batch of Beer. K-12 Unsolved Conference in Banff. Visit Demitors in Westlock. Old Fashioned Family Portrait. Grey Cup Party.

 December

Son gets his Yellow Belt in karate. Re-Design Workshop. Hobbit 2 Premiere showing. Snow Day and a half. Power Out Day. Beer Tasting. Second Batch of Beer. Friend goes missing in Belize. Christmas in Calgary. Nutcracker. New Years Eve Fondue with Family in Red Deer.

A Personal Update: Zaak aged 37 and 1/4

I'm involved in a lot of stuff. A lot. So I haven't been a mental state to articulate thoughts on my experiences in Africa, recent beer tasting, cohousing activities, educational philosophy, political musings, musical tastes, and Christian thought. At least not on this blog. I have been in conversation about all of these things on a daily basis with a wide variety of people. Maybe this fact brings into question the purpose and role of this blog. I'm currently 95 movies behind on my movie blog too (incidentally, Man of Steel didn't shake me up any).

I got back from 3 wonderful weeks spread over South Africa and Malawi back in mid April. I left with a great feeling of encouragement and rich for having walked alongside Africans.

I continue to love my church where I am appreciating the diversity of our membership and the growth I am experiencing in my life with God. I'm reading Wendell Berry and listening to podcasts by Tim Keller, This American Life, and CBC's Ideas. These keep me engaged intellectually.

Two weeks ago, our family joined 20 of my relatives in Canmore. They came from Washington, Florida, New Mexico, British Columbia, North Carolina, Alberta, and Nevada. It was really quite wonderful to reconnect with aunts, uncles, cousins, and my grandmother - all of whom I hadn't seen in 13-21 years.

The way we are delivering education at my school is changing. We are focusing on giving the students more responsibility for their learning and we teachers become more facilitators and guides and resources for them. This is not an overnight transformation, but some big changes are being implemented. For me the greatest change will be as the only high school math teacher (at some points, there were three of us). I will be teaching 6 different math courses through the year - and that's it.

My children continue to amaze me and humble me and love me. My wife continues to charm me and support me and love me. I am very grateful to have them in my life and to them lovingly mould me as their husband and father. Blaise is going to lose one of his top front teeth soon. Acadia is the first person I talk to every morning. Amber and I joined an ultimate frisbee team - go Vicious Circles! We have another family living in our home and it has been a joyous experience to share so much and to be living in community.

As time passes, I am less and less interested in national and international politics (I follow it generally through CBC Radio, Colbert Report, & HuffPost). I'm far more interested in local civic issues and process. My city is still recovering from the greatest natural disaster it has ever seen and my esteem for our mayor has only swelled to greater depths (Naheed Nenshi has the highest rating of any mayor in any North American city - or so I am told).

Lately, I've been listening to Atoms for Peace, The National, Band of Horses, Mumford and Sons (who we saw in concert a few weeks back), Sufjan Stevens, and City and Colour. Certainly some favourite songs which I may blog about in the near future.

Beerwise, I'm looking forward to tasting some local brews while in Montreal. Lately, I've been quite enamoured with 8 Wired Superconductor, a double IPA from New Zealand. As a regular drink, I am quite content with Co-op's Classic Premium Ale (it's the very same Big Rock Traditional Ale) and Lagunitas Maximus (another glorious imperial IPA). Picked up a 4-pack of Fuller's London Porter the other day and I'm enjoying that too.

Cohousing. Well, we were flying really well until 3 weeks ago. We had 33/36 units sold and more members lined up to buy in the coming week. We had $8.7M worth of financing lined up. Our building permit was essentially approved by the city as our building documents were completed. Then the bids came in and our contractor had to break the news (about 8 months too late in our mind) that it was going to cost 75% more to build than he initially told us. We are looking at various options which basically mean way more time for this project to be completed. A couple members have dropped out. The community (myself included) is feeling pretty stressed out.

New Years Eve 2012 Beer Tasting

Now becoming a tradition, the Robiroost hosted a beer tasting as a New Years Eve party. It has been and is such an event that there seems to always be a contingent of attendees who don't even like/drink beer. Happy to have them there.

Everyone attending came from our Dragonfly Cohousing circle except a contingency from Regina who was passing through bring with them some delightful drink from Bushwakker brewery and debates about workers unions.

The sampling came from those sampling and what a delicious review. The evening's top four of twelve are as follows:

• Trois Pistoles (Unibroue)
• Maximus IPA (Lagunitas)
• Innis & Gunn Spiced Rum Finish - (Innis & Gunn)
• Chimay Tripel (Bières de Chimay)

Then we had a 4-way tie. The middle ones were:

• Blackberry Mead (Bushwakker)
• Winter Beard Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout (Lakes of Muskoka)
• BNL Imperial Chocolate Stout (Flying Monkeys)
• Chico IPA (Bushwakker)

The lowest scoring, though by no means bad brews:

• XXXXX Stout (Pike)
• Trephination Double IPA (Bushwakker)
• Attilla the Honey (Mt. Begbie)
• Apricot Summer Weizen (Okanagan Spring)

A great time, hopefully to be replicated annually. Happy New Year!

Dragonfly Cohousing Project Update

I attended my first cohousing meeting October 8, 2009, about a year after this project was initiated. Amber and I became equity members on October 14, 2010. So much has happened since (land purchase, development permit), but in the last few months:

• building documents are being drafted with a building permit application going in in the next week or so
• 33 of the 36 units are sold
• our group of equity members have put together just over $4 million

My role in all of this has been in the membership/marketing team. I led an online media campaign on Facebook and Twitter for the month of February including remaking the website on WordPress and producing a video (and another that I just haven't felt too pressured to finish). I got to see the relevance of online advertising and creating a content calendar. I also got to see that it is quite easy.

We hope to have a mighty machines on the ground in early May with a move-in date approximately 12 months later.

King's Creek Ridge, Kananaskis

To celebrate turning 40, our friend Jana invited friends to do a hike off "40" in Kananaskis. Anne's suggestion to hike King's Creek Ridge won out and Wow! What a terrific hike!!

Almost everyone on the hike was from Dragonfly. We enjoyed a luxurious lunch at the summit complete with wine, cake, and chocolates. More and larger photos here.

Downsizing by 51%

We are giving up hour 1200 square foot (plus 600 sq ft unfinished basement) townhouse. In fact we've already given it up in that we are renting it out. Our family of 4 is renting half of another house with another family of 4 who has the other half of the house - worthy of another post. Within the next 18 months (Lord willing), our family of 4 will move into a 762 square foot flat in the brand new Dragonfly Cohousing complex Crescent Heights, Calgary. We will also have access to 90 cubic feet of storage space (10 sq ft of floor space).

The new space is officially a two bedroom unit, but a 6' X12' storage room has a window and door, so it can serve beautifully as our son's bedroom. To create storage and study spaces, all of us will be sleeping in loft beds with our clothes hanging underneath them and shelves making up the raised bed frame. Amber and I will have our office space in our bedroom. Since Acadia will have the most space per capita in her bedroom, she will have to accommodate the most storage in her bedroom (probably in her closet).

But, since Amber and I have been amassing stuff since we were old enough to understand the concept of private property, we face the issue of ridding ourselves of stuff. Even with clever shelving (like a 7' high book shelf that sits above couches and the dining area) and innovative space saving, we would be in a tremendously cluttered space if we didn't eliminate as much useless stuff as possible.

So, we have already begun to trim the fat.

1. We no longer have a guest bed (there will be some available in the common house). 
2. We have 2 living room chairs for sale on kijiji as our couch, loveseat, and ottoman will be sufficient. 
3. I brought my 500 CDs to the used CD shop where they gave me $450 of in-store credit (I turned down the $150 cash) for 150 CDs. I've already picked up 40 DVDs with the credit. The rest of the CDs went to Good Will.
4. Before our move in July, I brought 2 boxes of books to a used book store (and then Good Will). After the move, I went through my library again and shed another 4 boxes. I think I'm down to 6 boxes of books now.
5. Amber and I have 5 boxes combined of university stuff, newspaper clippings, cards, letters, and other personal effects that we plan to digitize over the next couple winters.
6. Four boxes of photographs and photo albums are on the chopping block too - all to be digitized and then tossed.
7. The kids have gotten rid of countless boxes of toys they no longer play with.

Here is a list of the following excuses I could use not to downsize:

• I already have it, why
• throw it away (landfill abuse)?
• sell it (below cost)?
• digitize it (hours I could spend volunteering)?
• I already have the space, why pay more to have less space closer to downtown and in a community?

I guess that's it. The positive reasons to downsize:

• We would be more focused on quality and purpose, not quantity when purchasing stuff.
• More people in smaller space forces interaction.
• Less space 
• to clean
• to heat
• to light
• to accumulate junk
• Theoretically less driving, more transit use since we live downtown (true for everyone else in my family, not me).
• Having less stuff will force us to depend on others (others who have downsized will depend on us) and share more resources

Dragonfly Cohousing: We have a Development Permit from the City of Calgary

Dragonfly Cohousing: We have a Development Permit from the City of Calg...: Our Permit request was granted today after several months of deliberations with City Hall and redesigns by NORR Architects. This marks a landmark in our process to build Alberta's second cohousing development.

Preparing the House for Sale

Perhaps the biggest drag to getting into Dragonfly Cohousing is the sequence of housing that precedes living in the project. When construction is completed - sometime next year - everyone involved needs to purchase their unit within a week of the finish. We won't know that date exactly until perhaps a couple days prior. So, we have to sell our current homes well in advance to this.

Three families in our cohousing community have already sold their homes. Ours is for sale now and once it sells, we will move into a rental home with some friends. Yes, we will share a 5-bedroom home with another family of four. This way we can give notice to our landlord a month in advance to the completion of our cohousing project and close on our new property when it is required.

But in order to sell our current home, some minor renos had to happen. I had to remove my DVD shelves (which held 800 DVDs on display in our livingroom) and all the pictures on the wall. I then went around and puttied all the holes in the house and painted.

Then I replaced our carpet with laminate flooring. This proved to be a large job and it was only possible with the help of my good friend Tamer. He lent me all of his tools including laminate installation specific tools, a skill saw and a miter saw.



Tamer also gave me hand tearing out the carpet and giving me very helpful tips on putting the laminate in. The actual laminate was free as our friends (the ones who we will move in with) had their basement laminate replaced because it was slightly damaged in one area (insurance had the whole floor replaced because that type of laminate isn't available anymore). So I picked up 700 sq ft of perfectly laminate flooring. I even sold the last 92 sq ft on kijiji!



Now the house is ready to go. We are selling with Comfree.com - which stands for commission free, so we will only pay the buyer realtor a flat fee that we agree upon, saving us up to $10,000. It only cost us $300 to have our house listed on the comfree website, have photos taken, 4 signs, a discount on a lawyer, have the selling process explained and have our home listed on realtor.ca (MLS). Pretty sweet deal!

Page 3 in the Calgary Herald

I was interviewed along with 4 cohousing friends by the Calgary Herald 3 days ago. The feature article ran in today's (Sunday, April 22) paper. I think she did a fine job representing our project and values.

You can read the article online here or if the link dies, on the Dragonfly Cohousing blog.

World Premiere of "For What it's Worth, Milk a Goat"

What a great evening! We had 37 people come out the evening of March 3rd to the world premiere of my second feature length documentary. People from various parts of my life (long time friends, cohousing, church, work) and a few strangers who came with some friends filled the seats at 7 pm. Blaise and Acadia came too, watching the movie from a blanket on the floor in front of the first row.



I introduced the film upstairs at the West Hillhurst Community Association before clicking play and turning out the lights. Then, sitting with my own anxious thoughts, Amber joined me and I was able to relax a bit and enjoy the movie. More so, I was able to enjoy watching and hearing others watch the movie. The audience laughed consistently at all the parts I thought were funny, and then some.

Before and after the film, the audience enjoyed some snacks we provided (goat cheeses with baguette, liquorice, M&Ms, veggies, Jones Sodas). I had to veto Amber's wish to provide potato chips. Chips!! at a movie!!

After the 72 minutes were up, the audience generated some good applause. I conducted a Q & A with them and got some great affirmative feedback saying I captured many of the aspects really well. I had anticipated most of the questions: What happened to the goats after you left Guatemala? What is your next film project? What life goals are you working at now? What were you doing in Guatemala? Will I ever keep goats again? There were some more unexpected ones: Tell us your thoughts on pasteurization. How much milk could a goat produce? The supportive and complimentary feedback was really nice to hear from everyone. I recognize that, yes, they are my friends, but I can tell feigned enthusiasm and it wasn't feigned. And really, that makes it worth producing the film.



The best part though, from my seat, I could watch Blaise and Acadia's response to the movie. They laughed with everyone else and sat mesmerized by the goats the entire time. I'm proud of them for staying up 2 hours past their bedtime to share the evening with us. Acadia's thankful words this morning: "Thanks that we got to stay up late last night."

What to do with the film now? Several people have told me they are interested in a downloadable version and so I'll look into that. I may organize a couple more informal viewings here in Calgary or send the film to friends who want to screen it for others. I'm pretty open to whatever.

Last night has injected some filmmaking life into me. After having "For What it's Worth" rejected at all 6 festivals it was submitted to and having no time to dedicate to my current projects, I've mentally just abandoned my film production aspirations. After watching the film again and enjoying the viewers' positive reaction, I'm more hopeful of producing more movies in the future.

Finally, to everyone who contributed to the film as characters, camera operators, as the narration recorder (Angus) and as the soundtrack composer/performer (Justin): Thank you!

Astrological Surprises

A little over a week ago at a cohousing general meeting, Amber led an activity just to break up the policy discussions. She began by dividing us up by our birthday months - Jan/Feb here, Mar/Apr there, etc... As I joined my March/April groupies, I was shocked at the exclamations of "Oh, are you a Taurus or an Aries?" and "I figured you were an Aries" and "Can you believe I married a Scorpio?" These are professionals all of which have had post-secondary education and yet here they were excitedly divulging their belief in the Zodiac.

By the way, I'm a Pisces. According to astrology.com, today:

 "You’re thinking quite a bit about your future and how things are going, so see if you can get yourself into a quiet corner where you can ponder what comes next. Things are looking up!"

but if I were a Sagittarius:

"Your mind is sharp today, and you should be able to figure out even the weirdest ideas today. Apply yourself to the hard stuff, as you never know when your mental energy is going to wane."

or if I were an Aries:

"You should find that people are easier to get along with today, thanks to some great energy that brings you closer together socially. It’s a good time to build bridges and to check in with distant allies."

None of these counsel morsels are uniquely helpful in anyway. When should I not be thinking about my future or not applying myself or building bridges? What's worse is that they are so self-focused, all about me succeeding and little regard for the other or growing through suffering. Success is defined by good days and bad days.

Nerdvana 2012

Every year for the past six or seven years, my friend Jasen has organized a little board gaming retreat. We spent a couple nights in a hotel in Canmore surrounded by mountains only to sit facing the middle of a table playing board games for two and a half days. Well, I gazed at the mountains a fair bit actually. That and I ate very, very well.



I ended up playing 17 different games, 15 of which were new to me. The people participating were great sports and everyone was patient as they taught the rules to newcomers.

Kingdom Builder is very quick to learn, never the same set up, and can play 2-4 players. I played it 3 times and I could have played it more too. Another great thing is that it is a relatively short game (30 min).
Troyes is a more complex game with lots of variables. I definitely would like to play it again. Plus, I won my first time playing.
Biblios is a deck building game that ends in an auction. Pretty decent and quick game play. Easy to learn.
Takenoko is a quick, easy to learn game that kids can pick up quite quickly. The goal is to feed your panda by cultivating bamboo in different gardenscapes by ensuring they are irrigated and fertilized.
Hawaii is super fun and reminds me quite a bit of Stone Age
Dvonn is a game from the Gipf Project. You have to collect tiles by jumping over tile spaces and claiming your opponents tiles by stacking on top of them. Very neat strategy game and far more advanced than checkers.
Trajan is another multiple component, have to play 3 times to be able to develop a decent strategy board game. I'm sure it's good, but I don't know if I want to invest much time learning it (again).

Paris Connection is fantastic. It's a bit like Airlines Europe, but simpler, faster and with a twist. Each player gets to build their stock in different colours of trains while at the same time building the value of the train lines in France. Of course if a line gets too valuable, everyone wants the stock. I won at this a couple times.
Vanuatu is perhaps my favourite from the weekend because of the stress and competitive rounds. It didn't take too long to learn, but the challenges weren't anticipated making the game very exciting.
Strasbourg was probably my least favourite, but it's because I wasn't anticipating that the game was so short and rigid in the ways to achieve player goals.
Tichu is a great team card game similar to 200 or Rook. The trio I played with were very patient with me and I managed well enough to win and even call "tichu" on my own.
Bits is a tetris/dominoes kind of game where you get points for joining certain colours in certain patterns (the goals are different every time). Quite fun and I totally dominated!

23 is a new card game that is still only available in Europe (we had to look online for the rules since the game only included Germain rules). It's a terrific game of manipulation and gambling - I rocked this one too.
7 Wonders wasn't new to me but I still enjoyed playing with the heroes expansion. Games are short and vary everytime you play which keeps it fesh.
Octopus's Garden
Gipf is one of the Gipf Project games and I have to say that it is quite addictive and very challenging. It's a tile collecting game. I played it a couple times and since the rules are easily understood I was able to immediately engage some strategy and win. Twice.
Can't Stop is a gambling game where you try to make different combinations of numbers with 4 die. You van quit any time and sit with your scores or risk it all with further rolling. Makes for great excitement and also builds math skills. Blaise really enjoyed this one.

And did we eat! For starters, the hotel gave us a deal on the in house restaurant (Chez François) breakfasts which were both delicious and filling. The kids ate the continental breakfast before we sat down to a late breakfast, so they helped Amber with her plate of food.

Our first evening though, we visited Thai Pagoda which is owned and operated by a Belgian chap who loves beer. The beer menu is beautiful as a result. The service was a little slow, but the food was delicious. I was disappointed with the beer I ordered as I found it tasted a bit soapy. I didn't complain since everyone who tasted it said it tasted fine. Next time I'm not fooling around, I'm getting the Young's Double Chocolate Stout.



Saturday night we went to the Korean BBQ Restaurant and oh did we eat! I don't remember all the food we ate, but the hot pot was superb, especially with the added hot sauces and bean sprouts.



Before leaving Canmore on Sunday, we fattened up at La Belle Patate, the premiere poutine eatery west of Québec. Amber and I shared the large smoked meat poutine and didn't even finish it - so much food.

We look forward to Nerdvana 2013!

Development Permit Application

Behold our latest massing diagram from NORR Architects Planners. It consists of our 6000+ square foot common house (bottom corner), 36 underground parking stalls, 6 one bedroom units, 10 two-bedroom units, 14 three-bedroom units and 6 four-bedroom units. Because of the slope of our acre of land, there are four tiered courtyards spread through the project and a large garden plot at the top of the hill.

The smaller envelope of buildings (fewer building structures) allows for more energy efficient buildings. In pre-permit application meetings, our architects discovered that we would be required to build with steel framing because of new provincial fire codes. The new design also allows for 100% accessibility (for the mobility challenged) to all front doors. You can see the pathways in front of the units and the 2 elevators (darkest sections).

The documents related to this plan (still being developed) form part of our development permit (DP) application to the city of Calgary. The process takes 4-6 months and this DP from the city is needed before we draw up building plans (and get a building permit) and engage a builder.



Jasen is one of our lead design team members. He led us in discussions regarding the site plan and unit floor plans on January 18. I am still very impressed with how our cohousing group functions through consensus decision making.



Chris ScottHanson is our project manager and continues to keep us focused on the important elements of our project.



Can you spot Amber in the pink scarf? This is a pretty exciting time for Dragonfly Cohousing. Our membership grows almost every week and we are nearing our sales goals bit by bit.

Beer Tasting: New Year's Eve

As a part of our Dragonfly Cohousing community development, we plan social events where members can interact outside of business meetings. Now that our group has grown to 60 people, the Social Team is planning more frequent smaller get togethers. Amber and hosted just such a gathering on New Year's Eve: Beer Tasting.



Every attendee brought a couple interesting beer and I outfitted them with a score card and a small glass. Since there were 9 people, we had 18 beer to sample.



The suggestion was made that we try each one blind so I asked Jae to help me pour and deliver the various brews. We were also among the more enthusiastic drinkers so we finished everyone else's samples when they didn't want to (there were 3 people who didn't like beer at all).

First the fruit beer, then the rest:

1. Van Diest Früli (Strawberry Beer, Belgium, 4.1%)
2. Brouwerij Lindemans Pecheresse (Peach Beer, Belgium, 2.5%)
3. Brouwerij Huyghe Floris Kriek (Cherry Beer, Belgium, 3.5%)




4. Harviestoun Mr Sno'balls (English Pale Ale, Scotland, 4.5%)
5. Fernie Brewing CompanyWhat the Huck (Huckleberry Wheat Ale, Canada, 5%)
6. Pivovar Litovel Original Litovel Premium (Czech Pilsener, Czech Republic, 5%)




7. Boddingtons Pub Ale (English Pale Ale, England, 4.7%)
8. Fuller's Organic Honey Dew (Honey Beer, England, 5%)
9. Diebels Premium Altbier (Altbier, Germany, 4.9%)




10. Half Pints Little Scrapper I.P.A. (American India Pale Ale, Canada, 6%)
11. Howe Sound Brewing Devil's Elbow IPA (English IPA,  Canada, 5.7%)
12. Natural Brew Outrageous Ginger Ale (Ginger Ale, USA, 0%)




13. Young's Double Chocolate Stout (Milk Stout, England, 5.2%)
14. Rogue Ales Shakespear Oatmeal Stout (Oatmeal Stout, USA, 6.1%)
15. Microbrasserie Charlevoix La Vache Folle - ESB (Strong Bitter, Canada, 6%)

Everyone had very different scores - some giving their lowest scores to my last beer tasting's winner (Young's Double Chocolate Stout). So, I'll tell you my top 7: Young's Chocolate Stout, Devil's Elbow IPA, Mr Sno'balls, Little Scrapper IPA, La Vache Folle, Organic Honey Dew, Pecheresse)

I did mention that we had 18 beer on the menu, but we petered out at around 11:30 and didn't get to the Maple Stout, Benedictus, and Innis & Gunn.



CHEERS! & HAPPY NEW YEAR!