It's been a good week for beer.
The Huffington Post Canada along with OpenFile in Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton and Waterloo asked you what your favourite beers are. We also asked you to vote for your preferred brew out of a list of well-known favourites.
The top five ranked beers in our photo gallery of admittedly random brands were:
- Molson Canadian
- Guinness
- Steam Whistle
- Alexander Keith's
- Heineken
You can see the rest of the results here.
But many of you had strong words about the brands excluded from the gallery and offered dozens of recommendations through our comments, Facebook and Twitter using the #BeerEh hashtag.
Here's a collection of your Tweets. You'll find a full list of recommendations at the bottom of the page.
- @effandtee suggested Great Lakes Beer Golden Horseshoe Lager, a light bodied beer great for summer.
- @duotang suggested Alley Kat Aprikat, an apricot-flavoured wheat ale.
- @adambrewsbeer suggested Driftwood Brewery's Fat Tug IPA a northwest style India pale ale made for hops lovers.
- @emmagodmere suggested Creemore, an Ontario lager.
- @KatyAnderson suggested Wild Rose Brewery's WRaspberry Ale, an easy-drinking ale with the taste of raspberries, of course.
- @thefuzzymethod suggested Mill St. Lemon Tea , a slightly sweet beer made with black tea leaves and lemon in an aging tank.
- @fisherville sugested the Pump House Brewery in Moncton, New Brunswick, which offers a variety of ales from blueberry to scotch.
- @StefanChiasson suggested Hop City's Barking Squirrel, winner of the People's Choice Award and Silver Medal at the 2010 Ontario Brewing Awards. It also won Silver at the 2010 Canadian Brewing Awards.
- @Crizwell suggested Sweet Nikki Brown, Bulldog Amber and St. James Pale Ale from Half Pints Brewing Co. in Winnipeg.
- @erinmillar suggested Central City's India Pale Ale, which has an intense aroma and lingering finish.
- @SUNDaleD suggested Big Rock's Warthog Ale, a beer inspired by "the ugliest creature" the brewer had ever seen.
- @AMHickey suggested Unibrou's Éphémère Apple, a Quebec white ale with a hint of sweetness, tartness and Granny Smith apples.
- @SandraOldfield suggested Back Hand of God from Crannog Brewery, a smooth but strong stout.
- @learning_guy suggested Best Bitter from Picaroons, an English-style pale ale.
- @_ambrose suggested Erdinger, the world's largest wheat beer brewery.
- Liane McLarty suggested Grolsch, a Dutch beer.
- Janice Rosen suggested Blue Moon Brewing Co., which brews the Summer Honey Wheat, a wheat-ale made with honey and a hint of orange zest.
- Wes Behn suggested Yukon Red from the Yukon Brewing Company, saying "I could drink that all day every day."
- Bruce Bachand suggested Quebec's St-Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, which received the second-highest rating at the World Beer Championship in 1994.
- Philippe Le Phan suggested Dos Equis, which makes both lagers and ambers.
On Facebook, we asked you what brand of beer you wouldn't be able to live without, and the answers were varied from well-known brands to local microbreweries.
Here's a list of your beer recommendations in no particular order. If your brew isn't on this list, Tweet us at @HuffPostCanada with the hashtag #BeerEh
- Beaus Brewhouse Lugtread
- Creemore Springs Lager
- Golden Horsehoe Lager
- Fort Garry Dark Ale
- Mill St Organic
- Grasshopper from Big Rock Brewery
- Back Hand of God from Crannog Brewery
- Mill St Organic
- Trois Pistoles
- Kokanee
- Rickards White
- Picaroons Best Bitter
- Erdinger
- SteamWhistle
- Sweet Nikki Brown
- Bulldog Amber
- St. James Pale
- Little Scrapper IPA
- Hop Yard Ale by Garrison Brewing Company, NS
- Red Racer IPA
- Cherry Chocolate Porter by Tin Whistle Brewing's
- Pabst
- Blueberry Ale (Pump House)
- Fat Tug IPA Driftwood Brewery
- Wild Rose
- Bowen Island Cream Ale
- Moosehead Lager
- Saranac Lake IPA
- Blue Point
- Toasted Lager
- Creemore to Tankhouse
- Garrison Blackberry Wheat Ale
- Picaroons Dooryard
- Beau's Lug Tread
- Big Rock Grasshopper Wheat Ale
- Mill St. Lemon Tea Ale
- Garrison Raspberry Wheat Ale
- Barley Day's Pale Ale
- Central City IPA
- Mill Street's Coffee Porter
- Big Rock Brewery's Warthog Ale
- Brick Waterloo Dark Galt Knife Old Style Lager
- St. Ambroise Apricot Ale
- Wild Rose WRaspberry Ale
- Oatmeal Stout
- Island Lager by Granville Island Brewing
- Vienna Red by Paddockwood
- Howe Sound
- Alpine
The Huffington Post Canada has teamed up with OpenFile, a collaborative local news organization operating in seven Canadian communities, to look more closely at Canada's thirst for beer.
OpenFile will examine the story of beer as told through the mouths and wallets of Canadians. Using input from the public and a network of professional reporters, we'll get answers to questions such as, what's the cheapest city and province in Canada to get a beer? Has a craft culture emerged and how is it changing beer-drinking habits? Do beer prices fluctuate during those hot summer months?
The result will be an interactive picture of the price and popularity of beer in different cities, and the culture of beer-drinking across Canada.