The freefall of Scotch Irish IPA

[JesseM]

. . . It's a front for his heroine trafficking business . . .

Wow. I'd sure love to get a heroine. I wonder if Joan of Arc is still available. I hear she was really hot!

Oh ha-ha . Well at least I spelled the incorrect word right .

[Bobbyok]

http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=3732&highlight=


i'm sorry I am not great with posting links etc but I read on Bar Towel on the C'est What festival of small breweries thread that he will be heading up the 'Howling Wolf Brewery' before long. I hope it works out well as we can all use more good brewers trying to make the world a better place.

yeah, i saw that thread too, and just assumed that it was kinda tongue in cheek. but who knows.

I didn't think this part seemed all that tongue in cheek:

Hopping Wolf is in the advance planning stages now. It will be in the Ottawa area, even though I realise that most of my sales will be in the GTA, Hamilton, Kitchener and export.
Two core brands are planned, a hoppy and bitter PacWest IPA (duh!) and a porter of some kind. The rest of the line-up will consist of "beers of the month", or 12 different beers per year available for one month at a time only. All beers will be available on draught, cask, and in bottles. The core brands will be submitted to the LCBO and some of the Beers Of The Month will be submitted for the various LCBO programs as well. Our retail outlet will of course have everything we sell available for home consumption.
We are setting up the financing, which is complicated and expensive, as we speak.
I will keep you all posted on the progress, which is painfully slow, as things come up.
In the meantime, keep supporting great beers and beer styles. Variety will only exist if we refuse to celebrate mediocrity.
Perry

[lagerale]

I've always found the Heritage brewery has a very distinct "house" flavour in all their beers that doesn't agree with me and ever since the SI IPA was being brewed by them, it has been in "decline" in that the house flavour is taking over. I've never truly enjoyed anything they have brewed before aquiring SI, even though I wanted to, and since aquiring SI, will be more hesitant with any SI brands they continue to put out (I did enjoy the Colonel By).

[Bobsy]

I had a similar experience with the Corporal Punishment at Volo a few months back. Everything seemed to be dialed back, and even had a plastic finish. Hopefully, its just a temporary issue.

[lagerale]

Hopefully, its just a temporary issue.

I won't hold my breath

[co]

This was the beer that made me realize I like hop-heavy beers. I used to make special trips to pick this one up. Unfortunately, I agree with the rest of the folk punching away on this forum that the beer has been severely dialed back, even to the point that I have no intention of buying another sextet. On the plus side, this news of Perry's is reason to be optimistic.

[Belgian]

As far as the sliding style issue goes, I guess that's a judgement call. Playing devil's advocate, is it possible your tastebuds are changing and what once seemed boldly-hoppy now seems only meh?

Well...if I were a newbie to the style there might be more creedence to that. However I lived on the West Coast for nearly a decade before coming here.

The SI website talks about SI beers being SO renowned for their extreme hoppiness in Ontario (when, in about 2005?)

Not only is this statement a broad over-generalization of the whole Scotch Irish range of beers, it is nowadays pretty far off in regards to the IPA it is mainly referring to.

I'm not holding my breath waiting for Sgt. Majors IPA to prickle my nostrils again anytime soon either. Them hops is left the station. Like Jon says, you used to just uncap a bottle and it immediately made your nosehairs tingle with funky pine & grapefruit peel aromas.

With American IPAs now arriving upon a scene of eager consumers, a less than convincing one from our own region seems quite obselete. (Ahh, hopefully somebody else here will get around to it if the market proves itself.)

[boney]

I bought my first 6 pack of SI IPA about 2 months ago, drinking hallf of them then and half of them tonight. Having only one recent 6 pack ever I'm still kind of surprised at the response to this on the Bar Towel. It's definitely not a standard IPA. I get a lot more cantaloupe off the aroma than grapefuit and pine, with an odd kind of tart melon in the flavour. The bitterness is definitely there in the flinish. It's not an outstanding IPA, but if this is bad then I'd love to have a good SI IPA.

This kind of reminds me of he "subjectivity" positings brought up in other threads. I'd drink SI IPA over the Southern Tier any day.....I was extremely disapointed in the Southern Tier. However, the bitterness in my sixer of SI IPA was definitly real as I started drinking it after I polished of a Bells Two Hearted Ale....which is a truely brilliant IPA, maxed out with hops.

I'm going to have to grab another 6 pack to see if it really is as inconsistent as people say.

[Belgian]

I bought my first 6 pack of SI IPA about 2 months ago,...It's not an outstanding IPA, but if this is bad then I'd love to have a good SI IPA.

This kind of reminds me of he "subjectivity" positings brought up in other threads.

What isn't 'subjective' I think is that this beer as many knew it, pre-Heritage has essentially disappeared.

We are not all saying this isn't a drinkable beer loosely in the Pale or Bitter category, just that it doesn't fit a standard 'model' of what some of us in Ontario might consider an Imperial Pale Ale (with a nod to the West Coast.) That's valid too because there are lots of beers that clearly fall on the side of 'this is definitely an IPA or West Coast IPA" in the nose plus the overall hopping & balance.

Globalized culture seems to have standardized what we here consider a style, and has probably made people expect an example of "a style" to have at least some definite recognizable characteristics common to all examples. Right or wrong or indifferent.

[Jon Walker]

As I've said in previous posts this beer is no longer what it was. Doesn't mean it's not a decent beer...it's just not the standard bearer for IPA that it once was. For those who are trying it for the first time and liking it...more power to you. But you don't have the kind of history with the beer that I do and the awareness of the massive fluctations in taste, colour, aroma and general consistency. That's what prompted the thread in the first place.

[midlife crisis]

I took twelve Sgt Major (F048) and twelve fresh Durham Signature (bottled in June, forget the exact day) up north with me this week. The Durham was definitely superior. By comparison, this version of the Sgt Major was thin and had a kind of sour aspect, as Jesse identified. I recommend the Durham Signature if you can find a fresh batch.

[boney]

As I've said in previous posts this beer is no longer what it was. Doesn't mean it's not a decent beer...it's just not the standard bearer for IPA that it once was. For those who are trying it for the first time and liking it...more power to you. But you don't have the kind of history with the beer that I do and the awareness of the massive fluctations in taste, colour, aroma and general consistency. That's what prompted the thread in the first place.

Fair enough. I would have loved to have tried it in its heyday. I didn't mean to imply that any one who didn't think this was an OK offering was off the mark. My bad. Comparing it to your original posting in this thread I just found that the batch I drank had an abundance of aroma and that the hops were quite assertive, hense the subjectivity comment....it probably more appropriately represents the inconsistency you noted (lot B628)

In a bit of a coincidence, I actually did have a County Durham Signature Ale in my little session tonight. I do agree with midlife crisis that it is a far better beer.

[Belgian]

In a bit of a coincidence, I actually did have a County Durham Signature Ale in my little session tonight. I do agree with midlife crisis that it is a far better beer.

I keep hoping, wishing & trying current Sgt Majors IPA on half-pints, but I currently agree with this comparative assessment you guys seem to share - last night was my first County Durham as well. It is an elegant & well-structured ale with maybe a "Pale-to-slightly-IPA" attitude. The Durham Hop Addict IPA is also well worth searching out, on draught.

Before he lost his stripes, the "Sarge" used to have far more audacious hop aroma than any Ontario bottled beer. The USA micros are the only thing that would compete with it bacl then, so in the here & now my hop dollar's likely going to be spent on ST and DFH-60.

[Queef]

I remember asking somewhere about ontario IPA's before moving back to the province a couple years ago. This one was touted as being THE beer to have in the style in ontario.
My desert island beer being a Wild Rose IPA, if you've had that, you can imagine my disapointment upon trying this. I had one (SI) on tap last week and it doesn't hold a candle to the Church Key West Coast. Hopefully soon someone will make solid IPA in ontario for the inevitble time the lcbo stops carrying the ST IPA, or dead guy...

[MetalHead]

I'm no expert but the one I had yesterday seemed fine though not as hoppy as i remeber theough after several moths of havign the brutal bitter and now the southern tier my taste buds may have matured.