the bad and the ugly - my reviews from the spring LCBO

[nuggett]

1st> Summer Lightning.

Pours with a decent head. Aroma leaves much to be desired. Taste is bitter and uninspriring.

2nd>St Peters summer ale.

Should be renamed St. Sunoco - for it's gasoline aftertaste. This looked nice out of the bottle- yet it was a darker colored ale than advertised. I actually poured this one down the drain after 3/4 - out of disgust.


On the bright side, I had a nice glass of Hardy's wine - which for $9 a bottle is a great bang for the buck.

[Jon Walker]

Hey Nuggett, there's a job waiting for you at Eye! (see related post)

Seriously, I must say that I found this years St.Peter's Summer Ale vastly inferior to last years but I certainly failed to detect the "gasoline aftertaste". Last year's batch had a deeper and more complex flavor and aged really well (I had my last one from summer 2003 back in March of this year). I impulsively bought two cases of it this year and have yet to have one that compared to the 2003 batch.

As for the hopback...I hope it isn't as dissappointing as you make it out to be. I have an order in for some at Summerhill right now.

[borderline_alcoholic]

FWIW, I am enjoying the Hopback Summer Lightning immensely.

[borderline_alcoholic]

2nd>St Peters summer ale.

Should be renamed St. Sunoco - for it's gasoline aftertaste. This looked nice out of the bottle- yet it was a darker colored ale than advertised.

What was it advertised as, just out of interest?

[nuggett]

Advertised as:

Rich in Flavour - yet light in colour.


As for the 'eye' comment...


In all truthfullness - it seriously tasted like someone spiked my beer with petrol.


Hopefully I am not as disappointed with the rest of the spring collection.

[Mississauga Matt]

FWIW, I am enjoying the Hopback Summer Lightning immensely.

I'm with you on that one.

[borderline_alcoholic]

Advertised as:

Rich in Flavour - yet light in colour.

Which could mean pretty much anything. While there are plenty of lighter coloured beers than St Pete's Summer, it still is a light-coloured beer, so this is an accurate statement, just not a helpful one.

I'm not trying to be an LCBO apologist BTW. That particular description is fairly useless - no description of the flavour (other than there is a lot of it) and not much description of the colour either, although I couldn't really care less what colour a beer is as long as it is sort of beer-coloured...

I am actually pretty delighted with this release's English selection. Hopback Summer Lightning is one of my three favourite English ales for session-drinking (the other two are Crouch Vale Brewer's Gold and Woodforde's Wherry BTW), Haymaker and St Peter's Summer Ale are both extremely enjoyable beers too, though I have not opened any of the Summer Ales so far this Summer, so cannot really compare it to last year's effort yet. I am disappointed to see Fuller's London Pride wasting a release spot, as it is IMHO the worst beer which that brewery produces and I do not tend to have much time for Fuller's at the best of times. However, some people seem to like it and there are enough beers which meet my own interests, so I am not going to complain too much. I will just cheerfully ignore it and hope it goes away.

The only real criticism I have of this release is that I think that Belgium is once again miserably under-represented.

[mustang3]

I second the woeful under representation of Belgians in the release, but I also had a St. Peter's summer ale from this release and hated it. It found incredibly bitter in an unpleasant way. Maybe I got a bad bottle, but it just didn't taste very good.

[borderline_alcoholic]

The St Peter's Summer Ale is an incredibly assertive full-flavoured bitter English ale. Therefore, you will probably either really like it or really dislike it - it leaves very little middle ground. IMHO, this is actually quite a desirable thing in a beer, and there is no reason why everyone should like every decent ale. It is to be hoped that there should be a good enough selection of ales such that there are enough that you like, so you can just disregard the others.

I happen to like it and I actually know one or two people here who tried it for the first time last year, for whom it is now their favourite beer of all. I do not fall into that category, but I do enjoy it and am pleased to see its return.

[tupalev]

I'm looking forward to trying some of the Summer Lightning, it is the only one I've missed so far.

I too enjoyed the Haymaker, and I like the London Pride, so no complaints here. Didn't care for the St. Peter's though, although it grew on me after a while (I actually found it quite smoky as it warmed - not gasoline smoky though, that might cause a fire .

And just in case my 2 cents are particularly riveting, I almost coughed up the Ninkeberry. I might have thought it was a cooler (it tasted so syrupy and artificial, yet the bottle made no mention of artificial flavours). I wasn't terribly excited about the Van Diest Fruli or the Belhaven either, although I'm always happy to try new beers. I found the Mahrs Brau Weisse to be very refreshing (especially in yesterday's heat), much like the Edelweiss Hefetrub Weissbier. Not world beaters, but certainly enjoyable in the summer. And which one have I missed - The Brussels White was pretty average in every sense and didn't leave much of an impression - I was pretty let down by the bland taste after a rather promising aroma.

Just my opinion of course. I'd have to say overall, I've enjoyed the release (batting about .500) and am glad to have had a few new experiences. I just wish I didn't have to wait so long in between new lcbo beers, but I won't get in to that .

Interested to hear what others have to say.

[nuggett]

I must have had a bad bottle as well. St Peters.


perhaps I'm just spoiled with all of the beauty belgians I have been drinking as of late.

[Jon Walker]

It could have been a bad bottle. Last year I found that by my estimate 1 in 6 seemed to be skunky, some even had an odd metallic taste. I was willing to endure that however as the good ones were REALLY good. As I said in an earlier reply it might just be that the whole 2004 batch the LCBO got aren't as good as last years which is what I've experienced so far with the dozen or so I've had in the past month. I haven't had one this year taste as obviously skunky as some did last year but to my palette they just aren't as good. Did they change something at the brewery? Did they spoil in transit? Or is it just my wonky taste buds?

[borderline_alcoholic]

I must have had a bad bottle as well. St Peters.

Perhaps, but it does have an assertive flavour which won't be to everyone's taste, so perhaps not.

Just out of interest, which English ales have you tried that you do like?

[borderline_alcoholic]

Did they change something at the brewery? Did they spoil in transit? Or is it just my wonky taste buds?

I dug out the last of my 2003 bottles and then drank the first of my 2004 bottles in succession. I could not tell any obvious difference in flavour between them. It could be that I happened across the only decent 2004 bottle in Ontario or that my 2003 bottle was in sub-optimal condition, but both struck me as being good.

Still, after your warning I will keep a close eye on this year's Summer Ales.

[nuggett]

Can't honestly say I've tried much outside of Double Diamond, bass and boddingtons....


If there are any recommendations you have, I'll be willing to give any a try.