The Bar Towel

Ken: the Double Chocolate Cherry Stout was terrific, IMO. Someone described it as "black forest cake in a bottle", and this seemed pretty close to me. I'd also like to know if, as a seasonal, will it be available in bottles at the brewery. Here's hoping.

Funny you should say that - is Corona really all malt? I've always secretly preferred Corona over Canadian or Export or Blue, etc. (if those are the only choices available at some unfortunate event), but I've also always wondered if I was just falling victim to the advertising, the packaging, the li...

Thanks to Cass, the Bow and the Headstrong reps from me as well and nice to meet those that I did, even though I had to leave early. A curious thing happened at the beginning of the tasting. Did anyone else have an initial sample that was not at all like those that followed? I was sitting at the end...

If the bottom of the tap, where the beer comes out, has a long black gizmo attached to the bottom, like a Guinness tap, then that indicates nitrogen dispense, does it not? That's how it was rigged the night I was there.

The dry hopped Best Bitter is dispensed, if I recall, under nitrogen. Generally I am not a fan of this but it seemed to work OK at Pepperwood (i.e. not detract unduly from the hop flavour). I'd prefer the beer cask-conditioned (they used to have a beer engine, if memory serves) but this seemed to be...

I'd buy a case of that.

Felt like something new or new-ish tonight and, intrigued by old faithful's comments, I set out to the LCBO at Wilson and Dufferin for some Trafalgar Portside Amber. Of course, they didn't have it. My fault for not checking the web site first. Anyway, I picked up six Iron Duke, mindful of the advice...

I finally made it to the Bow for my first pint of Macleans in some time, in a state of high anticipation given old faithful's review above. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed. The beer seemed very tannic and green to me, with the hops overwhelming and drowning out any complexity I was hoping fo...

Wasn't the Taylor & Bate brewery in St. Catharines a revival brewery too, at least in name?

There was Orval just now at the new Wilson big box store (between Dufferin and Bathurst). I was just there.

I have always been interested in the history of Guinness in Ireland and am intrigued by the comment that Guinness was blended, in the pub, up to the 1950s. Does anyone know more about this or have a reference for some objective Guinness history? When did it go to the ubiquitous nitrogen dispense (wh...

Gary:

It's quite easy (I live in Toronto too). QEW Westbound to Brant St. exit. South on Brant St. until it ends at Lake Ontario. Pepperwood is at the corner of Brant St. and Lakeshore, more or less (actually on Lakeshore just west of Brant).

Bottled Guinness is all but extinct in Ireland, at least if my 10-day, multiple-pub sampling last year is any indication (and I did look for it everywhere I went).

I agree with old faithful's last post. DFH 60 and 90 are good examples of this too. Generally, the super-hopped American ales are too much for me, but the DFH have delicious malt backing.

I read the government Q&A from the URL above. This may be somewhat off topic, but how, as a practical matter, is a restaurant supposed to re-seal an unfinished bottle of wine "so that the cork is flush with the top of the bottle"? Do you need a cork press to run a BYOW restaurant now?