The Bar Towel

Sleeman IPA half-chilled, certainly the best bottling yet. It has a clean well-malted taste with the Goldings well-interleaved and lending a faint resinous aftertaste, i.e., most of said hop is working as aroma in this beer. It meets the 1820's Brittanica definition of ale as pale, brisk, sweetish a...

The Belgian double and triple beers would have been I think, and most still are, top-fermented and warm-conditioned and suitable for considerable storage. This would dry them out and lend a tart, "multiple-ferment" character (some of the additional ferments occur before the bottles are shi...

Reading some of the earlier posts, I see some samples of this beer are sourish or sour. Mine are fine. However, if they reach the sourish point, don't toss them. Use them to vat a porter in the 1800's/three threads manner. How much to add is a question of taste, I like to use only a little of the &q...

That's a good question and I don't really know the answer. There is a lot of information on Ron Pattinson's blog and in the fine writings of another beer historian, Martyn Cornell, on the great "gravity drop" that occurred during and after World War I. Due to steep rises in beer duty, and ...

An extreme beer can be valid, i) on its own terms, or ii) in terms of fidelity to a historical style where it seeks to emulate one. E.g., some double IPAs probably come pretty close to a brewery's best IPA (sometimes a brewery had two or even three versions of its IPA) in the 1800's. But even if it ...

Those interested in some "typical" Imperial Stout ABVs in the 1950's might check beer historian Ron Pattinson's entry for October 16, 2007 in his blog at www.barclayperkins.blogspot.com A number of British Imperial Stouts (including those made by Bass and Worthington) clock in between 3.58...

I had this again the other day and was more impressed than ever. I've been reading up on stout history and many Imperial stouts in the 1900's (in England) had lower gravities than we often today think of as the standard for an Imperial or Russian Stout. John By's ABV is not far off Samuel Smith's fo...

Tonight I had the "hand-pulled" draft at a Duke pub downtown (in First Canadian Place). It was similar to the canned one but better, full of fine aromatic English hops and sweet Maris Otter (or that type) malt. It could have fooled me, so close was it to the real ale version of London Prid...

The current canned version (4.7% ABV) is tasting the best ever. It has a lightish body yet with good malt sweetness and a fine flowery English hop nose and taste. This must be sampled at cellar temperature only. It pours and tastes as if no forced carbonation is used. Very real ale English-like. The...

I look forward to trying this. Coffee can enhance a beer and stout seems a natural for the treatment. This extract from a 1977 interview with the late (American author) Kurt Vonnegut may be of interest to some, it is from a Paris Review piece of that year: "INTERVIEWER Which member of your fami...

The Brakspear Oxford Gold is at Summerhill now, as is the Harviestoun. The Brakspear is really good, fresh and English malt-biscuity with an interleaved hoppiness from some impressive English varieties. It is almost 5% ABV and while not by my lights a winter warmer it is plenty good, drink it at cel...

I just tried this and thought it was really good. The relative mildness can be partly off-set by drinking it at a cellar temperature. A fridge chill tends also to minimise its natural, light carbonation. It reminded me too of a lighter Thomas Hardy, or of a Whitbread Gold Label Barley Wine, a pale b...

Not sure of the ABV. It did not seem very strong, but certainly was a beer! They drew it from a tap on the second floor (I was downstairs) so I couldn't see the tap handle or any details marked.

Gary

This year's version seems to have more roasty dark sweetness than last year's. The beer has the"aged" flavours one expects (fruity, a little Madeira-like) but with seemingly less "green apples" than last year's again. An excellent English-style strong ale, perfect for the season ...

I had a pint at Abbey on the Hill on Yonge recently and was impressed. A fresh-tasting beer that really does resemble the cask original in London (I assume it's a keg beer - filtered and pasteurised - but if so it's very well done). The fragrant English hops lift off the top and there is a nice inte...