Grab a beer and ride along with Zeke as he immerses you in the biggest beer battle of the month so far. It started out innocently and pleasantly enough....

"Hey why don't you come up to the cottage for the weekend and bring Skeeter?" - Fatboy

You don't have to axe me twice! I love that cottage and probably think about it daily as I grind through business with the sole goal of picking one up right next door to it. The kids love it too and summer outdoor cousin time is about the best and easiest memories to create for a lifetime.

Not only that, but we had the opportunity to recreate the infamous "Shot-guns on the Dock" picture from so many moons ago.

"Keg?" - Skeeter

Of course it has to go from awesome to the best in one word from the guy who, since starting to work at Great Lakes Brewery http://www.greatlakesbeer.com/, could turn a funeral into a keg party......and would probably try.

And so the gauntlet was tossed. Our very own keg full of Octopus Wants to Fight IPA - http://www.greatlakesbeer.com/beer/octopus-wants-to-fight-ipa/

Now, I am not sure if it is like this where you are, but as soon as a keg hits the ice in Canada, it starts taunting you with its existence and intimidating you so that you think you can't finish it before the event is over. It starts to get into your head because there are few things beer worse than having to lug a partially empty keg back for the deposit in the walk of shame.

To make matters better/worse, Skeeter thought it wise to also bring a case of Sunnyside Session IPA to be safe. http://www.greatlakesbeer.com/beer/sunnysidesessionipa/ This ale is FANTASTIC for the summer because it is light as hell (3.8%?) and actually tastes like something......unlike so many other lighter ales.

So, a gauntlet was thrown beside the initial gauntlet. No problem, we got this. Waitasec, there are a handful of cans in the fridge already. All good, we will have to buckle down but we are pros. You can take cans back to town but we still need to kill this keg.

Well we are giving it a good go (gittin' after 'er as one might say) and the cottage is awesome. This octopus obviously punches back rather hard at over 6% ABV but we have a couple people coming to the campfire that can help. Well, they didn't because they were not IPA fans and didn't want to mix their harder alcohol with the beer. Smart.....but we are in trouble. We had to come up with a plan......in that state.

The plan that eventually hazed into being was that we should hit a couple local cottage craft breweries and get growlers. That way, we could empty the last of the keg into these growlers and take them home for our fridges for future consumption, and make the walk of triumph to the brewery for our empty keg return! http://boshkungbrewing.com/ and http://haliburtonhighlandsbrewing.ca/ are both within barfing distance so why not?

You may have detected the hole in our logic which we eventually did. In trying to compensate for not being able to drink enough beer, we had inadvertently managed to buy some more......again.

It is hard to hold a Pickleman down though with such a positive and confident attitude no matter how hard things are.....especially when this is what my windshield always tells me.

Believe it or not, we gurgled that sonovabitch down to the sputtering bottom of the keg! With the recreation of the iconic moment in time, we signed our names to another huge beer victory and stamp on the historic Pickleman life Passport.

With the chugging of those tall cans on the dock as a bonus, I felt it fair that I take a growler home and enjoy a last couple pints of cottage while grilling at home. Fair?

Victory! HUZZZAAAHHHHH!!!!