hold the chicken and grab me another beer

Duff's. Hot enough for ya?

When I think of chicken I usually think of KFC, Red Rooster or Oporto. What I don't think about is chicken wings and the million and one sauces it can be made with. Back in 2010 it just so happened that our trip to Buffalo, New York gave us the opportunity to visit the Buffalo Wings Festival, which you can read about here. It also gave me an excuse to try  different beers. Heck, I really don't need an excuse to drink beer.

Bottled version. Mine was on tap.

So here we are in the middle of Buffalo, New York walking into a bar and trying to order a beer. I asked the lovely lady behind the counter to help me choose (she probably knew from my accent) as I wasn't from these neck of the woods. She pointed out that the Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat beer felt like a good choice. When in Rome.....

I pay for the beer and leave her a tip. I walk outside and I tried the beer. Oh dear. I didn't like it. Don't get me wrong, the concept is a fascinating one but the problem here is the concept didn't materialise into a good beer. Ever tried the syrup from a can of cherries? Well, imagine that taste plastered all over your tongue like a bad tradesman painting the Sistine Chapel. You may as well have got a stick of gelignite, placed it in a can of paint and put it in the middle of Sistine Chapel, then detonated it. The beer was that much of a calamity.

Long Trail Pale Ale. Nice!

After that train wreck of a beer I was hoping this wasn't going to be a bad beer tasting town. I needn't of worried. Turns out that I come across one of my favourite beers while I was in Buffalo. We stopped for petrol (gas, if you're reading this in the US) and bought some items. I happened to see some beer that I hadn't tasted and bought a couple of different six-packs. Little did I know that one of those six-packs I was holding in my hot little hands was Long Trail Pale Ale. What a bloody gem of a beer!

And I guess my hot little hands were indeed very, very hot. Spending a whole day at the Buffalo Wings Festival gave me the opportunity to try chicken in a new and original way. Better still, why not eat a chicken wing called "Homicide"? Surely that has to be good for you? Eating all those hot chicken wings can make an Aussie man thirsty. So, while at Coca Cola field I drank the only beer that I vaguely liked: Labatt Blue.

Homicide. It's to die for!

It's a good thing I drank Labatt Blue, too. You see, Labatt Blue is the majority owner of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team and it had only been the day before that we hit Toronto, Canada. From Buffalo it's just a couple of hours away, so it was quite easy for us to cross the US-Canada border without too much trouble. It was here that by pure fluke we bumped into a brewery.

That brewery was Steam Whistle Brewery, which happens to be more green than the Incredible Hulk. It's also a brewery that brews the best Pilsner in Canada. I have to admit that, at the time, I wasn't a great Pilsner fan. I've drank Heineken, Beck's and similar beers in the past but rarely enjoyed them. So, for me, drinking this beer was somewhat of an experience in itself. I will admit, though, that the brewery tour, the staff and everything about Steam Whistle was extraordinarily brilliant.

Steam Whistle's Pilsner.

I was more impressed at how environmentally friendly they were more than the beer itself. Our brewery tour guide even told us how they recycle most things in the brewery (where possible) and how it benefits the community. It's such a pity I didn't fancy the beer. Ah, but how life changes and bites you (actually, me) in the ass. As I type, and we're talking July 2012, I can proudly state that I love my Pilsner beer.

I had the opportunity back in December, 2011 in Hobart, Tasmania to go on another "world beer tour" (in Hobart?!) that saw me have quite a few craft beers. I was lucky enough to come across a Bohemian Pilsner at a local tavern. This knocked my socks off - and almost my kneecaps! It was at that moment I realised the true Pilsner taste, one that I had been longing for. But I digress. Back to Toronto, Canada we go.

Duff's. We got the Mild.

The Steam Whistle brewery was fantastic and I even managed to get a couple of souvenirs to take back home. Pretty cool stuff. But I know what wasn't cool were these damn chicken wings I was eating all the time. Everywhere I walked in Buffalo there were menus full of chicken wing meals. I recall sipping that Steam Whistle beer and thinking to myself: 'I may not like this beer, but it'd sure as hell go down nicely after a bunch of spicy hot chicken wings'.

Now if only I did have that Steam Whistle beer while I was at Duff's, where the Mild chicken wings were hot enough to use as a paint stripper. I probably would have celebrated long enough to toast Barack Obama, who actually visited Duff's while on the road prior to his Presidential win. To be truthful, though, I don't really need to toast anyone to have a beer. Beer is everywhere in the US, and I found some good ones in Buffalo. Problem was,  the more chicken wings you eat the more you drink beer. With that in mind, you really don't need an excuse to drink beer.