The Bar Towel

midlife crisis wrote:Did a little tasting:

1. Red Racer ISA
2. Cruiser
3. CA State of Mind

Not sure Cruiser even belongs in this category, really, at 4.9% abv. My personal cut off for a "session beer" would be 4.5 max.

I guess I have to try State of Mind.

Well...saint and circumstance and wizard wolf are 4.7/4.8% I think...so I guess your options are pretty limited. It's a tricky thing....at what point is something a "light" beer and at what point is something a "session" beer. To each their own I say....as everyone's tolerance is different.

Yeah, to me "light" beer is an American marketing term for macro beer that can be misleading if applied to non-yellow fizz, whereas "session" beer has a valid historic meaning derived from British session bitters, which often tend to be less than 4%. In that context even 4.5% would be high, I believe. But to each his own, yes.

I'm not sure whether anyone's keeping up with the Lake of Bays NHL Alumni Association series, but here's a review of the new one.

http://saintjohnswort.ca/review-lake-of ... -pale-ale/

Ayinger Weizen Bock, worth the five bucks and a very good value for Ontario!

Gregorius Trappistenbier, wow this is nice, big fat palate but creamy with a lot of complexity and balance, a true original. Beyond the grape/fig flavors and sweetness you might expect from a Belgian dubbel/quad, this one has some complexity and characteristics of the best Doppelbocks I ever had, including barnyardy aromas. * EDIT * one of the ingredients is honey, that makes sense now.
^^ Will this develop well for years I wonder?

Belgian wrote:Ayinger Weizen Bock, worth the five bucks and a very good value for Ontario!

Gregorius Trappistenbier, wow this is nice, big fat palate but creamy with a lot of complexity and balance, a true original. Beyond the grape/fig flavors and sweetness you might expect from a Belgian dubbel/quad, this one has some complexity and characteristics of the best Doppelbocks I ever had, including barnyardy aromas. * EDIT * one of the ingredients is honey, that makes sense now.
^^ Will this develop well for years I wonder?

I shall have to revisit the Gregorius. When I had it at the Media Tasting it was... underwhelming, although my notes don't specify exactly how. Perils of being late in the roster, I suspect.

Just had a roughly 1+ year old bottle of Bellwoods Monogamy Series, Sorachi Ace. I bought two bottles a while back and had one fresh. The fresh one was utterly undrinkable, all the worst flavours that sorachi hops can make were present…ended up being a drain pour. I just happened to discover the other bottle in the back of a cabinet last night, and tried it, and found it oddly drinkable. The sorachi ace hops had backed off enough that it had a nice peppery character, but it didn't overwhelm. Still definitely not my favorite Monogamy Series, but the aging seemed to really help….not the usual case for this style of beer.

It turns out that the new Bush Pilot offering is quite good. It's a little more focused than some of their bigger beers but the quality level is about the same.

http://saintjohnswort.ca/review-bush-pilot-pengo-pally/

napoleon wrote:Just had a roughly 1+ year old bottle of Bellwoods Monogamy Series, Sorachi Ace. I bought two bottles a while back and had one fresh. The fresh one was utterly undrinkable, all the worst flavours that sorachi hops can make were present…ended up being a drain pour. I just happened to discover the other bottle in the back of a cabinet last night, and tried it, and found it oddly drinkable. The sorachi ace hops had backed off enough that it had a nice peppery character, but it didn't overwhelm. Still definitely not my favorite Monogamy Series, but the aging seemed to really help….not the usual case for this style of beer.

haha. I had a monogamy (Citra? Centennial?) a year or two ago, thought it was pretty good and recommended it to a friend when I saw it on tap at The Only. I didn't know the concept of the monogamy hop experiment series at the time and this one turned out to be the Sorachi Ace version. My friend could barely get one gulp down before he returned it to the bartender who took it back no questions asked, apologized and said this happened quite often.

Bar Towellers (and Towelletes), I am looking for something malty this evening from the LCBO. A nice malt-forward local beer with some thickness and creaminess. Maybe something along the lines of Bell City's Eureka?

gordonpeterwiebe wrote: haha. I had a monogamy (Citra? Centennial?) a year or two ago, thought it was pretty good and recommended it to a friend when I saw it on tap at The Only. I didn't know the concept of the monogamy hop experiment series at the time and this one turned out to be the Sorachi Ace version. My friend could barely get one gulp down before he returned it to the bartender who took it back no questions asked, apologized and said this happened quite often.

I think even the brewers knew that. When I was buying it, the main brewer was in the bottle shop. He mentioned that he didn't quite get what he wanted. I should have let him talk me out of it. To be honest, as bad as it turned out initially, I think they should have just trashed this batch.

CA_in_VA wrote:Bar Towellers (and Towelletes), I am looking for something malty this evening from the LCBO. A nice malt-forward local beer with some thickness and creaminess. Maybe something along the lines of Bell City's Eureka?

I don't know about local options, I only really buy from Bellwoods when I want local beer. They are open till 11pm and have a session IPA, APA, IPA and DIPA available right now in their bottle shop. http://bellwoodsbrewery.com/product-cat ... ottleshop/


In Ontario Belgian beer is pretty cheap:

Here is a link to LCBO's belgian stock by store location: http://www.foodanddrink.ca/lcbo-ear/lcb ... erPage=100

I saw Rochefort 10 at the Summerhill/Yonge LCBO for less than $4 per bottle. There weren't too many. Westmalle Tripel has just hit shelves for $3.35 per bottle. They were bottled in February so they are super hoppy.

On Canada Day I walked over to East York for some Muddy York. This is that post:

http://saintjohnswort.ca/visit-muddy-yo ... g-company/

saints_gambit wrote:On Canada Day I walked over to East York for some Muddy York. This is that post:

http://saintjohnswort.ca/visit-muddy-yo ... g-company/

Woah. They are way smaller than I thought! Their fermenters are, like, 3.5 BBL? Doesn't make our little 2.5 BBL feel so small considering all the new, shiny 10 BBL spots popping up around us.

Now I really need to make the trip out there.

Finally tried that Forked River's citra wheat beer. it was good! i didn't really get any rhubarb whatsoever but i thought it was pretty interesting regardless. nice and refreshing.

Agreed, very little rhubarb taste. Pretty standard wheat beer.