The Bar Towel

Had this for the first time in several years. It is on sale currently at The Beer Store, which is not necessarily a good omen for freshness, etc. In any event, I find it to be OK but not nearly as good as I recall it to be prior to the Amsterdam buy out. Does anyone know where it is made now? The packaging says "Kawartha Lakes Brewing Company, Peterborough, Ontario", and makes no mention of Amsterdam. But I thought the Peterborough brewery was closed?

The brewery is closed. The packaging may be left over from its P'borough days though.

"This has been a beer... from the Twilight Zone."

doo-dee-doo-doo doo-dee-doo-doo doo-dee-doo-doo...

That was a "pale ale" I was hardly a fan of. I liked the raspberry wheat a bit.

WADR the Kawartha Raspberry used to be a fair beer but it evolved into a ghasty medicinal awfulness.

For comparison, please try the Amsterdam Framboise and report back, I bet you'll find it a lot more real tasting (made w/whole berries not extract.)

All of these beers started out so good (KLB Pale Ale, Raspberry Wheat, Nut Brown).

The Pale Ale used to have an incredibly bold, spicy tone to it. Now its weak and bland.

The Raspberry was always a very lightly-flavored beer, but now I agree it has a mediciny flavor. I still enjoy it occasionally in the summer.

The Nut Brown used to be very nutty and roasty, now it too is watered down.

A wrote:The Pale Ale used to have an incredibly bold, spicy tone to it. Now its weak and bland.

Anyone remember batch #10 of the pale ale? They miscalculated the hopping rate and put in about twice as much as they wanted to. A little precursor to Hop Bomb or Corporal Punishment - it sure was tasty!

Yes, somewherer in Kawartha a brewer is wringing his hands.

A wrote:The Raspberry was always a very lightly-flavored beer, but now I agree it has a mediciny flavor. I still enjoy it occasionally in the summer.

KLB RW was once my favorite Draught at The Only Café with the excellent Belgian Waffles.

I'm not kidding when I say Amsterdam Framboise is a bloody fine brunch beer, you may not bother with Frenchy-ass champagne ever again. It's an expensive six-pack at the brewery (almost $15 I think?) but it is great for that tart, berry flavor.

http://www.amsterdambeer.com/framp.html

Yeah, but its a different kind of beer entirely. You would never want to drink a 6 of it in one go, for example

KLB beers have been brewed by Amsterdam for some time. Since the move, their beers seem to have suffered...even the Dutch Amber Vienna (which I liked) has a nasty dirty yeast "off" taste....I assume they are making the KLB from this new Bathurst location.

How nice that people remember good beer ten years after it was brewed ( to the day).

KLB Pale Ale #10 was and always will be one of my favourite beer memories. I was enjoying a pint at St. Veronus the other evening reminiscing with a fan about #10. The boiler failed and the FG was too high. Hence the boil had to continue and the flavour and aroma hops became bittering hops. Of course another full dose of flavouring and aroma hops were required once the FG was in line. Alas Ontario's first IPA in decades was born. Most found it to be too bitter; the boys at KBC loved it and wanted more.

Thanks for the memory,

JC

Oh yeah I remember this thread. Looking back on my last post I now realize that what I said is rather confusing and factually incorrect.

FG (final gravity) usually refers to the end point of fermentation. In this case I was speaking to the concentration of the wort in the kettle after the boil. The FG of the boil so to speak.

The FG was in fact too low in the kettle at the end of the boil.
The erratic boil had not concentrated the wort. The finishing hops went in and the boil continued. Opps.

Jon

I bought a case of this last night when I returned my bottles to TBS. They took the liberty to "cellar" this for me. I couldnt find a bottling or best before date on the packaging or the bottles but the case was really dusty and the staff told me that this was their last case and it had been there for "awhile". I can tell that this was well past its prime but its actually held up quite well. The first bottle I tried was pretty oxidized but still drinkable. The second I tried was really nice and reminded my of an american barley wine. Im looking forward to the rest of the case but Id still love to try this fresh at some point.