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saturday jan29 2005 17 economist sun suntribune our frothy experts pick the tastiest brew for american footballs biggest game byjohncudmore staff writer ven before the miller brewing companys tastes great less filling tv commercial debates of the latter 20th centu ry became seared into our collec tive conscience beer and the super bowl regularly spilled into each others territory no surprise then that beer has risen to become a major player in the national football league as has anheuserbusch which has affiliated its products heavily with the most hyped sin gleday event on earth this year its super bowl xxxix scheduled to kick off feb 6 with defending champion new england patriots and philadelphia eagles in the spirit of pregame hype we tossed out a challenge to some members of the york region foot ball community to determine our own king of beers through an informal blind taste test though no means an official poll given the limited scope of our tasteoff our hosts at sneakers downtown sports bar grill in newmarket offered six popular beers and our panelists provided football chitchat for the york region newspaper group super bowl beer taste test using a fourpoint scoring system to judge each product panel members were asked to rate the categories from a low of 1 to a high of 10 beers were served in the fol lowing order labatt 50 sterling lager sleeman cream ale molson canadian alexander keiths and stella artois no need to go to the instant replay though as it was all in fun two of our three panelists our server elisabeth and the designat ed writer back the patriots to defeat the eagles a mock scenario what if you were hosting a super bowl party and suddenly found you couldnt serve up your first choice of staff photosjoerd witteveen elizabeth millar waitress at sneakers downtown sports bar grill in newmarket serves up beers to our intrepid panel jeff collett left frank hallinan john cudmore and kent buhner they were deciding what would taste best while watching the patriots and eagles battle for the super bowl title beers you need alternatives and you need em fast better get hopping on perfecting that two- minute drill like football in which offence and defence must perform in unison so too must a variety of issues converge for a tasty pleasing beer do you a roll out and pray for another beer store to have your brand b hope beer is available sooner rather than later like within the hour at the corner store c call a bootleg to the left or right and head for your local bootlegger its a worthy question when faced with situations requiring splitsecond decisions the answer sits at the feet of the provincial government of course to be answered one future day fact is everyone knows a beer drinker needs options just as much as a quarterback requires secondary receivers and a swivel head to combat whatever an enemy defence can present so make way for the audible that is an ad lib at the line of scrimmage our panel convened for a super bowl taste test at the sneakers downtown sports bar grill in newmarket consisting of dr gw williams wildcats senior high school team head coach kent bulmer jeff collett vicepresident of the york- simcoe bucs youth football pro gram and football fan atlarge frank hallinan a sneakers employee when it comes to a good beer and a championship football team certain ingredients are required to produce a winner like football in which offence and defence must perform in uni son so too must a variety of issues converge for a tasty pleas ing beer youve got to stay with a winner until they are proved otherwise said mr bulmer clearly throwing his support behind the patriots see plenty page 18 so which beer is best scoring is based on accumulation of placings from judges lower being better 1 stella artois 6 2 molson canadian 9 3 labatt 50 10 4 sleeman cream ale 11 5 tie alexander keith and sterling lager 12 anne brodie on movies chlldstar starring don mckellar eric stoltz jennifer jason leigh mark rendell and alan thicke now playing a meeting with 1 1 year old haley joel osment star of the sixth sense at the 1999 oscars gave mr mckellar this films writer and director the idea about the unnatu ral control of a the child star in hollywood a song by ron sexsmifh called childstar nailed it the resulting film shown at last falls toronto international film festival is fun eerie and cool as many of mr mckellars films have been what he calls a film noir about american culture in which pop stars create parallel universes for themselves in this case its 12 yearold actor taylor brandon burns rendall an american prodigy who comes to toronto to shoot the actionoriented film the first son when his father is taken hostage on air force one taylors character must save the white house and the world and his father from annihilation his mother played by mr mckellars pal jennifer jason leigh is fond of gift baskets and fleeing the set for shopping excursions so she can continue to do see mckellar page 18 lssj ti j n v v v v w mr prizes all l l daylong j 2 6 ft i screens jfor viewing now open 7 days a week at noon wing pitcher 905944wimo 9464 special 20 fred variey dr unionville just off main st unionville in the meat shoppe plaza