The Bar Towel

Well these are surprising. Not the best, but it's the malt base that has the weird flavour here. Hops are nice and clean. Can't knock them for these efforts really.

I thought the hallertau was fine, but found the cascade to be pretty weak in hop character

Yes, agree. And not just weak, but somehow astringent and unpleasant.

Agreed, the Cascade was syrupy, and cloying. The Hellertau was pleasantly grassy, and not too bad. As mentionned though, can't knock them for the effort. I could see these being some gateway beers for future craft drinkers.

I bought the tall boy cans of each, and found there was enough flavour in there to warrant purchasing the 12-bottle split-pack offered at The Beer Store. It's kinda nice to taste them against each other, and I even bought some HopCity Big Mouth cans to have a sort of 'low-end' hop battle between the three.

I agree that the Hallertau is the better of the two. But RB folk tell me I'm wrong, dead wrong.

I can see how these could be gateway beers for some; approachable for sure.

Guybrush wrote:I agree that the Hallertau is the better of the two. But RB folk tell me I'm wrong, dead wrong.

I enjoyed the Hallertau more, but I'm a continental hops kinda guy, so no surprise there. I think people might have trouble approaching the Cascade without thinking "IPA", and if you have that in mind you're bound to be let down.

EDIT: Yeah, looking at the RB reviews, a couple guys are saying they're crappy IPAs, which makes sense because they aren't IPAs.

I'm somewhat curious to try these, but I imagine it's just their regular 'IPA' grist (corn syrup anyone?) with some different hops thrown in.

I continue to support good products like Granville & Creemore who have been bought out by a macro, but IMHO, this just stinks of "Hey, I want a piece of this craft market".

What's truly sad is that Alexander Keith's actually has some real history. If they brewed one of their early IPA recipes without any corn/syrup, I'd definitely try it!
http://barclayperkins.blogspot.ca/2009/ ... anada.html

http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic ... c&start=13

Derek wrote:I'm somewhat curious to try these, but I imagine it's just their regular 'IPA' grist (corn syrup anyone?) with some different hops thrown in.

According to the press material, and the Keith's rep I spoke to at the launch, these are all-grain, all-malt beers. And they taste like it as well.

GregClow wrote:

Derek wrote:I'm somewhat curious to try these, but I imagine it's just their regular 'IPA' grist (corn syrup anyone?) with some different hops thrown in.

According to the press material, and the Keith's rep I spoke to at the launch, these are all-grain, all-malt beers. And they taste like it as well.

agreed, these arent world beaters but they are average examples of APAs, much better then regular Keiths

matt7215 wrote:agreed, these arent world beaters but they are average examples of APAs, much better then regular Keiths

What would be a similar beer in terms of flavour and quality?

markaberrant wrote:

matt7215 wrote:agreed, these arent world beaters but they are average examples of APAs, much better then regular Keiths

What would be a similar beer in terms of flavour and quality?

Dogfish Head Shelter Pale Ale
Erie Brewing Mad Anthonys Pale Ale
Dieu du Ciel déCIBeL
Hop City Big Mouth Pale Ale
St. Ambroise Pale Ale

I just so happened to be at a pub last night where the best offering was Keith's Cascade.

Aroma was excellent.

First half of the pint was enjoyable.

Last half was a chore.

Did not finish it.

Still better than a lot of craft pale ales I have tried.

On a related note, the wife went with a Tankhouse (like I said, options were extremely limited). Good god, that beer tastes worse and worse every time I try it. Nothing but toasty biscuity sweet malt, and not in a pleasant way, with some rough bitter grapefruit bitterness. Such a shame what they did to that beer.

Glad to hear it's actually all-malt. If we get it in single cans, I'll probably give it try.

I've mentioned it before, but I was never a big fan of Tankhouse. I always thought it had too much crystal malt sweetness. The cascade hopping was originally great, but it certainly diminished when they moved production from the brewpub. Tighter filtering? I don't know. My old neighbour actually had a Brew on Premise with Duggan decades ago (I think it was on Laird). In those days they used extract and steeped grains and essentially developed what became Tankhouse. Duggan makes some great beer, and I was a huge fan of his brewpub, but I think this one still seems like an old school homebrewing effort. Of course he's no longer responsible for that one... and the #9 was better.

Derek wrote:I've mentioned it before, but I was never a big fan of Tankhouse. I always thought it had too much crystal malt sweetness. The cascade hopping was originally great, but it certainly diminished when they moved production from the brewpub. Tighter filtering? I don't know. My old neighbour actually had a Brew on Premise with Duggan decades ago (I think it was on Laird). In those days they used extract and steeped grains and essentially developed what became Tankhouse. Duggan makes some great beer, and I was a huge fan of his brewpub, but I think this one still seems like an old school homebrewing effort. Of course he's no longer responsible for that one... and the #9 was better.

Great info, and I like your comparison to old school homebrew, but I'd also add in old school canadian craft beer... not much difference really, but I am surprised by how many Canadian craft brewers are still putting out mostly pedestrian/out of touch products... obviously it is still selling for them, but it shows how Canada is still quite a ways behind the US.

Even a few years ago, I could smell cascade hop aroma in Tankhouse. Can't do it anymore. I would way rather drink a Creemore Springs Lager or Sam Adams Boston Lager.

markaberrant wrote: Great info, and I like your comparison to old school homebrew, but I'd also add in old school canadian craft beer... not much difference really, but I am surprised by how many Canadian craft brewers are still putting out mostly pedestrian/out of touch products... obviously it is still selling for them, but it shows how Canada is still quite a ways behind the US.

At its prime, I'd say Tankhouse was a bit like the North Coast Red Seal Ale. But that dates back to the 80's, whereas Mill Street opened in 2002. Yeah, we're behind... but people do seem to like those flavours.