The Bar Towel

Stille Nacht should start to appear on shelves by next week. First bottle of this. wonderful. The kind of BSA I do not tire of, probably favor this over Chimay Bleu, Rochefort 8 and the like (which are of course great in themselves.) Thank you Gleemer for your assiduous curatorship of these exempla...

Collective Arts Toronto small batch brew: Luminous Sound an NE IPA collab with Town brewery. Nice hop flavour. They also have three other IPAs brewed in Toronto, two of which I picked up. I have not tried those two yet.

$2.25 for 473 ml cans is pretty inexpensive, including the imperial ipa. I wonder if you get your money's worth.

Recently: Saison Dupont Cuvee Dry Hopped (Amazing!) Boon Framboise (Unfortunately, not a traditional lambic. This has been sweetened.) Aventinus Eisbock (Also amazing) Hop City Boxcar Bock (Not bad) Muskoka's Munich to my Ears (Very good) I think the Munich is done for the season. I haven't seen it...

Recently:
Saison Dupont Cuvee Dry Hopped (Amazing!)
Boon Framboise (Unfortunately, not a traditional lambic. This has been sweetened.)
Aventinus Eisbock (Also amazing)
Hop City Boxcar Bock (Not bad)
Muskoka's Munich to my Ears (Very good)

I was just at Liberty Commons Big Rock Brewery. First off, I had their table saison. Honestly, it was king of bland, and only had a little bit of the saison taste. Next was their hazy IPA (I think it was called 'ask me later'). This had plenty of hop flavour, with tropical fruit tastes. It's right u...

I remember drinking Gritstone fondly, as well as Conner's Best Bitter, Wellington Best Bitter, and who can forget Dragon's Breath Pale Ale. DBPA was a very hoppy beer for the time. How times have changed.

Aventinus is excellent. Recently, I had Northern Maverick Hefeweizen, and it packed a flavourful punch of well made German wheat beer taste. I will have to try the Godspeed one sometime.

Flying Monekys Psycho Thrill Seeker is a DIPA with coriander and lemon peel. Luckily, the coriander and lemon peel do not overpower the hop taste. I'd have to try this side-by-side with Nickel Brook Metal Head DIPA to tell which I like better, but I think I like thrill seeker a little more.

I am now quaffing an Unibroue Autre Chose IPA a la peche, purchased from the LCBO. The strong peaches taste/aroma goes well with the citrus fruit hop tastes, an earthiness, and a yeasty spiciness. There is a lot going on in the palette, and it is all well balanced. I recommend it.

Nickel Brook Heavy Metal DIPA - at 85 IBU it is close to the level of hop flavour of Headstock a few years ago. I remember Headstock having a similar IBU, but the last couple of times I tried it, it seemed less intense. Inconsistency or change in recipe? I don't know. However, I am glad to have Heav...

One thing that impacts quality and diversity of beer is price. I once heard a statistic that Canada is second to Norway with the highest alcohol taxes in the world. The US is relatively low in comparison for alcohol taxes. On the other hand, in Ontario specifically, we have bulk buying benefits, sin...

I just visited Shacklands, Rainhard, and Junction Breweries. Shacklands has a nice quad, and a very good Belgian double IIPA collab with Rainhard. Rainhard had an Armed and Sabro pale ale, which displayed the hop variety well. I also tried an Age and Beauty #2, which was a decent sour. At Junction, ...

Anyone try Rodenbach Alexander? I am debating getting this vs. more Caractère Rouge. Caractère Rouge: $8.70, 100% aged beer (30 months) with cherries, raspberries and cranberries, 7% abv Alexander: $11.95, 66% aged (24 months) with cheeries, 5.6% abv I am sipping one right now. It's been over twent...

BeerIsGood wrote:La Trappe Quad. Definitely a step below Rochefort 10 and Westy 12 but a very good quad nonetheless.

I agree with this assessment. However, if you get the chance to age it 4 or 5 years, it improves dramatically. It becomes more complex.