A Fork in the Road: Navigating Your Arts and Crafts Order

By Anton MacFadyen & Tristan van der Mieden

Ordering a beer should be one of the easiest and most stress-free parts of your day, but Arts and Crafts (A&C)—SIPA’s unofficial watering hole at the corner of Amsterdam and 116th—might make it seem like a herculean task.

As you descend the stairs, your eyes are immediately drawn to a massive blackboard with 24 different beers, ciders, and meads written in various colours with names like Maduro Brown Ale or Apple Cider Donut Silhouette. So you panic, and to avoid showing you don’t know the difference between East Coast and West Coast Hazy IPAs, you order the Lionshead pilsner—a safe, if unambitious, choice.

To untangle this mysterious web of drinks for you, we tried every beer on the menu. (Literally all of them.) A&C rotates beers 1-19 but stocks 20-24 year-round. Yet there’s some continuity: 9 is always a mead, 10 and 11 are always ciders, and 7 and 15 are always hazy IPAs.

The Dark Beers

First up in our sampling rotation: Darker beers (numbers 1, 2, 3). The first beer we tried, Long Live Beerworks - Southside Sue, was an immediate surprise: This dark imperial coffee stout felt like a happy marriage between a Guinness and an espresso martini. The second beer was technically a barleywine; Threes - Sound of Exclamation is unlike anything you’ve ever tasted (not necessarily in a good way). Our next entry, McPeake’s Nitro Irish Stout, is a Guinness-like stout brewed using nitro bubbles. Smaller than traditional CO2 bubbles, these give the beer a more velvety sip than a normal stout. A must-try if you enjoy Guinness for reasons other than simply splitting the G.

The Sours

Moving down the chalkboard, we have Apple Cider Donut Silhouette at 4—a very popular (and delicious) sour “flemish red ale” style cider—and Pumpkin Cheesecake at 5. If you ask us, cheesecakes shouldn’t come anywhere near ciders. This is no exception.

The IPAs

The Ecotone, coming in at number 6, is a traditional West Coast IPA, meaning it’s filtered, clearer, and more bitter than its East Coast counterpart. Beers 7, 8, 12, and 15 are all hazy IPA’s. A&C claims there are large differences in flavour between these. Our palates were clearly not refined enough to make this distinction.

The Mead

9 is always a mead, which is technically a honey wine. Traditional meads are high in ABV and intended to be sipped on the rocks. However, Nightwolf is more akin to ciders and beers with a lower ABV. The perfect drink for cold winter days huddled around a roaring fire.

The Ciders

Ciders are permanent residents at 10 and 11. Hudson North’s Caramel Apple Cider wasn’t for us, but Toasted Pumpkin more than made up for it. It was everything the Pumpkin Cheesecake should have been: earthy, refreshing, sweet, and a little tart.

The Heavyweight

14—Brewer’s Reserve, Call Me Old Fashioned—is a barrel-aged imperial red ale. Don’t be fooled by its light, fruity undertones. With a staggering 12% ABV, this is the most formidable beer on the board. Order at your own peril…

The Hometown Hero

17 is special for multiple reasons. This Belgian beer is the only imported drink on the menu. Tristan, being Belgian, says, “You can take it from me, this is a great choice.” But if you doubt his impartiality, Delirium Tremens has won “best beer in the world” numerous times. A strong golden ale with an ABV of 8.5%, this will appeal to those who like a bit of a punch in their beverage.

Best in Show

18 is our champion of this tasting. Staves is a farmhouse ale, or colloquially, a “saison.” Historically, saisons were brewed during the cool winter and spring months to be stored and served as crisp, refreshing farmhand drinks. This saison relies on high-temperature fermenting yeast strains, producing a more carbonated and crisp profile. Simply perfect.

The Closers

19 is a classic German-style lager, also known as a dunkle. Dunkelfueler displays a beautiful dark amber colour from the malted barley. If you enjoy slightly darker blondes or lighter ales, this is for you.

The Permanent 5

At 20 is Run Wild Non-Alcoholic. It’s almost imperceptibly non-alcoholic; we challenge even the snobbiest of beer drinkers to turn their nose up at this one.

We move on to 21, Ommegang Witte. You can tell a lot about someone based on their beer choice, and anyone who orders a pint of this is a friend of ours.

The Cigar City “Maduro” Brown Ale occupying tap 22 is a typical British brown ale with an American twist. Silky, smooth, and more similar to a stout than an ale. Not bad if you like your beers on the darker side.

The Lionshead pilsner on 23 is what we call the perfect safe choice. It’s your average Joe, a nice, crisp lager, though a bit unremarkable compared to the rest of the lineup.

Last but not least, we have Singlecut 18Watt IPA. This rock-and-roll-inspired IPA is named after the iconic 1960s low-tube amplifiers, a playful ode to the brewery’s connection to music.

We’d like to end by extending our gratitude to A&C for hosting us. We have spent many hours within A&C’s halls, and for far too long ordered the Lionshead. Lately, we’ve dared to venture out—and trust us, the world beyond is far better than the status quo. We hope our beer adventures inspire you to explore. And don’t be afraid to ask the amazing bartenders for help!