The Bar Towel

I tried my first one of these in Feb/Mar of this year and thought it was quite average, with some distinctly off-putting characteristics....under-carbonated, slightly sour aroma, unbalanced hop-to-malt ratio (overly grainy with not much of malt profile). I let this sucker sit for 5-6 months as per t...

Due to the crappy, rainy, cold, fall-like day outside, I decided to get a little more "toasty" than the wheat, PA, IPA brews I've been drinking for most of the summer. Tonight I put down..... -Neustadt Big Dog Porter -Bells Kalamazoo Stout -Brakspear Double Drop Bitter (this took a while t...

I know you shouldn't judge a beer by it's labeling or can. However, is it just me or it the Georgian Bay Dipper the most ugly can in existance? How much effort actually went into designing that monstrosity? If a craft brewer is proud of his/her product, shouldn't it show in all its facets? Just a th...

Bell's has mini kegs of Two Hearted??? I just had a friend from K-zoo bring me a 6 pack of the Two Hearted and a mini keg of the Oberon. Should have asked for it the other way around. If only I knew! Also very jelous of your Expedition Stout.

This afternoon I've got some interesting stuff; Lost Coast 8 ball stout Paddock Wood 606 IPA (Saskatoon) Elysian Perseus Porter Love the 8 Ball. Nice and roasty, yet surprisingly hoppy I found. Going through a Tripel Karmeliet right now. Wow, it's complex. Yeast, bananna and citrus in the aroma. Ba...

I just got back from "Beerfest" at the Pheonix in Hamilton. About a dozen Canadian craft brewers showing off there wares. I found out about it this afternoon, so sorry for not posting notice for you beer geeks out there. Aside from old favorites, the hands down best new beer that I tried w...

The Okanagan 1516 was OK. Aroma was mostly grainy but also had some nice fruity esters in there too....intentional or not, I can't say. Importantly, there was very little cooked veggie/corn dimethyl sulfide that I hate and find so prevalent in macro lagers. Grain followed through in the flavour, wit...

Started off slow with a Okanagan 1516 lager and a Guinness draught. The Guinness was left at my apartment months ago and it was one of those procrastination drinks that I finally killed off tonight. Picked up the game by having a couple Tree Brewing Hop Head IPA's. These were as good Canadian brewed...

Yeah, the LCBO advertised a July release. Big deal. Delays are part of any and every buisiness. How often has Microsoft advertised a release date only to push it back? That's just what happens sometimes. It sucks, but the LCBO didn't invent delays. There are real problems with the LCBO that need fix...

I had a rare trip into TO this morning and tried to stop by Volo for a "lunch" Hop Head IPA. Alas, I am a dumb-ass and didn't check the hours online, only to read on the door that it opens at 4 (the bottles inside were mocking me!). Instead, I am now back in the Hammer, sitting down to my ...

I talked to a very helpful LCBO employee at Copper St. this morning about DFH 60. He checked the system and told me that it now has a shipping/arrival date of August 7th, with it likely hitting the shelves about a week after that. He didn't know if it was a quality control thing or problems at the b...

If anything, this article speaks to the absolute abysmal state of craft beer and places to drink craft beer in Hamilton. I love Chester's like family members begrudgingly love the underachieving slacker brother...it could be so much better and always ends up costing you rediculous amounts of money. ...

As I've said in previous posts this beer is no longer what it was. Doesn't mean it's not a decent beer...it's just not the standard bearer for IPA that it once was. For those who are trying it for the first time and liking it...more power to you. But you don't have the kind of history with the beer...

I bought my first 6 pack of SI IPA about 2 months ago, drinking hallf of them then and half of them tonight. Having only one recent 6 pack ever I'm still kind of surprised at the response to this on the Bar Towel. It's definitely not a standard IPA. I get a lot more cantaloupe off the aroma than gra...

I just finished a trip to Calgary (my home town) a couple of weeks ago. I didn't pub it up much, but you can't really go wrong with any of the brews from either Wild Rose (Calgary) or Alley Kat (Edmonton, but widely available across Alta.). One of the better pubs in the city that I didn't make it ou...