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Queens Head in Oakville

Discuss Ontario's brewpubs, pubs, beer bars and restaurants here.

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JWalter
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Queens Head in Oakville

Post by JWalter »

Just a quick FYI - the Queens Head in Downtown Oakville - is a really nice English pub, I always enjoy going in there. It's a nice change from all of the chain-style pubs. Beer selection is pretty typical, many of the usual british imports, but they do have Fullers London Pride on a handpump! Hello! Quite possibly the best pint to be found between Toronto and the Pepperwood in Burlington... and you can get Chips w/ Curry sauce... :)

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El Pinguino
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Post by El Pinguino »

I agree this is a decent stop downtown. Never frequented it very often, and actually didn't know about the Fuller's on hand pump! Decent food...pretty typical, low-key pub. (which is why I've never expected anything 'special' I guess!)

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Post by GregClow »

JWalter wrote:they do have Fullers London Pride on a handpump!
I could be wrong, but I don't think there is any Fullers available anywhere in Toronto on handpump. I seem to recall a thread about this a year or so back when someone mentioned seeing it on what they thought was a handpump at some other bar, but it just ended up being a regular tap made to look like a handpump.

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Post by clasher »

GregClow wrote:
JWalter wrote:they do have Fullers London Pride on a handpump!
I could be wrong, but I don't think there is any Fullers available anywhere in Toronto on handpump. I seem to recall a thread about this a year or so back when someone mentioned seeing it on what they thought was a handpump at some other bar, but it just ended up being a regular tap made to look like a handpump.
There's one of those outside of Kitchener in the boonies... I was awestruck by it, but it was just a handpump hooked up to a keg... sort of like a jerry-rigged keg-breather, but with pasteurised beer I guess.

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Post by JWalter »

GregClow wrote:I could be wrong, but I don't think there is any Fullers available anywhere in Toronto on handpump.
Elephant and Castle on King St has it as well... I can't say I've had a really close look, but I have had a few pints and they were very good...
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Post by Torontoblue »

Dora Keogh on Danforth has Fuller's London Porter on a handpull set-up, Drawn directly from the keg and no added fizz. It's also served at cellar temperature, which is an added bonus. Probably the best pint of London Porter in Toronto. And I'm pretty sure they also serve Durham beers with the same process.

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Post by GregClow »

Torontoblue wrote:Dora Keogh on Danforth has Fuller's London Porter on a handpull set-up, Drawn directly from the keg and no added fizz. It's also served at cellar temperature, which is an added bonus. Probably the best pint of London Porter in Toronto. And I'm pretty sure they also serve Durham beers with the same process.
Ah, OK. So it's a handpump, but not a cask. Sort of pseudo-real ale, I guess.

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Post by Duct Tape »

GregClow wrote:
Torontoblue wrote:Dora Keogh on Danforth has Fuller's London Porter on a handpull set-up, Drawn directly from the keg and no added fizz. It's also served at cellar temperature, which is an added bonus. Probably the best pint of London Porter in Toronto. And I'm pretty sure they also serve Durham beers with the same process.
Ah, OK. So it's a handpump, but not a cask. Sort of pseudo-real ale, I guess.
They look nice, but are not providing the real deal Cask Ale.

One of my more interesting beer experiences is that on the Fullers Brewery Tour in London they have London Pride on Cask and on Pasturized CO2 so you can see and taste the difference between what they sell in the UK and what they do for export to North America and other markets. Drastic Difference. Both good, but the Cask blows what we get out of the water.
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Post by Torontoblue »

It would be a bit difficult serving any Fullers on cask over here!! At least they are serving the beers at the correct temperatures at Dora's, which is a good start and there is no carbonation in the 2 pull-handle brews. My local brewer, Cains, also has the same set up with keg & cask side by side. It's a really good idea and the majority always prefer the cask.

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Post by Bobbyok »

GregClow wrote:
JWalter wrote:they do have Fullers London Pride on a handpump!
I could be wrong, but I don't think there is any Fullers available anywhere in Toronto on handpump. I seem to recall a thread about this a year or so back when someone mentioned seeing it on what they thought was a handpump at some other bar, but it just ended up being a regular tap made to look like a handpump.
Here is the thread that you were thinking of Greg:

Pubs with Cask Beer
From Perry's post in that thread, sounds like it's the "cheat pump" that is being used in this case. So if I understand correctly, the beer itself isn't gassed, but it is dispensed using CO2 or Nitro pressure.

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Post by Torontoblue »

The don't just pull the handpump back once in Dora's, there does seem to be a bit of effort and about 4 or 5 pulls to get a good pint. There is certainly no nitro taste like similar establishments in Toronto and as I've said before. no carbonation.
Last edited by Torontoblue on Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by midlife crisis »

There is a place in downtown Windsor which has London Pride served in this manner as well (the name escapes me at the moment). It is definitely a real handpump (i.e. not a fake that you "pull" just once); it takes four of five actual pulls to fill a pint, as Torontoblue says.

Presumably the beer you are getting is filtered, so not true real ale. But it raises an interesting question -- what is more important to the true "cask" experience, a beer with live yeast or a method of dispense that does not add any unecessary gas to the end product? I have to agree with Torontoblue - that pint of "pseudo cask" London Pride was very good.

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Post by old faithful »

Just to add my thoughts to this older discussion, and also in the light of recent actual cask Fuller tastings in Toronto: both elements are vital, i.e., the lessened carbonation and the residual yeast flavor that gives the unmistakeable "live" taste to real ale.

If I can only have one, I'll take the unfiltered aspect. A fizzy pint is relatively easy to "de-gas" (let it sit longer or re-pour into a second glass, I do this often with conventional micro beer). But stripped of its yeast (and usually pasteurised if an import), the beer just isn't in the same league as real cask beer. Keg beer is essentially like a fresher bottled beer, that is really what English keg beer is in my view.

If you compare English keg to the North American micro norm, beer that is filtered but unpasteurised, the latter offers another variation on the draft beer experience; ditto for the bottled beer sold by most microbrewers. But again it will not really resemble cask ale, in most instances. The absence of live yeast (or very much of it) and the high carbonation levels tend to alter the palate and produce a different kind of beer.

While I don't mind cask ale with a light veil, if it is too cloudy the yeast dominates the flavour and you don't get the real experience of real beer. It needs to be filtered naturally, by dropping bright on it own or by use of finings to precipitate out the yeast, but in either case the maturation must finish in the same container the beer is dispensed from. When the yeast forms a layer on the bottom of the container and the beer finishes maturation in this way, the yeast still has a definite influence on the palate, and assists I think in giving the beer its final light bubble, but the effect is more subtle than if the beer is too cloudy. In the end you get a better balance of the elements in the beer.

I have seen some veiled pints served at fests (CAMRA) in England and I realise there is a certain tolerance for this factor amongst the real ale crowd, and that's fine, but in my experience, real ale as retailed commercially in England almost never is cloudy. If it is, the rapid-fire jokes in the pub about "pond life" and such in the beer will usually set the situation right!. And this is not because of aesthetics or presumed illogical consumer hostility, it is because long experience has shown the palate best expresses itself when the beer is allowed to clarify before sale.

I know in London and other cities niche markets have developed for imported and some domestic wheat beers, but that is different. Wheat beers should be veiled or turbid, it is part of their style and they don't taste as good if too clear: the situation is reversed in other words in this case!

All these types of beer are valid and have their roles (depending too on the turnover of the bar, its cellar capabilities for real ale, etc.), but real ale when mastered by the pub is an unbeatable experience. In terms of pubs which regularly offer real ale in Toronto, I have found it usually in excellent condition at Feathers (most often it is Wellington County). I mean to try Victory's real ale soon, I have heard the real beer there is very good too, and I am sure there are other places that offer a naturally conditioned but clear pint.

Gary

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