The Bar Towel

Coronaeus wrote:I recently had a bottle of the brett peach and apricot Monogamy that I've been sitting on for about 6 or 7 months I think. I really liked the way it developed. While the hops have faded, the beer has developed some great earthy flavours and the fruit has held up. I wish I had held on to a few more, and hope they do this, or something like it again.

And, to keep this on topic, I think this one was great value!

Good to hear. I am sitting on a couple of bottles. I am curious about your comment regarding the hops though. What hop properties did you detect in the fresh version?

TheSevenDuffs wrote:

Coronaeus wrote:I recently had a bottle of the brett peach and apricot Monogamy that I've been sitting on for about 6 or 7 months I think. I really liked the way it developed. While the hops have faded, the beer has developed some great earthy flavours and the fruit has held up. I wish I had held on to a few more, and hope they do this, or something like it again.

And, to keep this on topic, I think this one was great value!

Good to hear. I am sitting on a couple of bottles. I am curious about your comment regarding the hops though. What hop properties did you detect in the fresh version?

The hops fading comment was based on my earlier notes from when i had this close to the bottled release. I have terrible flavour memory. My notes tell me that i noticed some fairly mild citrusy notes and even a little pepper when I had it close to its bottled release. I didn't get that this time at all. It was all stone fruit and brett funk this time.

Take that remark concerning the hops fading with a grain of salt. I'm no expert when it comes to detecting and describing flavours and the citrus may have come from something else, considering the beer had aged for a year in barrels before being blended with the stone fruit and bottled.

atomeyes wrote:

BakaGaijin wrote:I really don't get what comparing beer prices to the US proves....not even sure it's relevant to anything. Rochefort 10 is twice as expensive in the US...yeah! What does that even mean?!?

Roch 10 isn't barrel aged.
2 month turnaround time.
so i'm not sure what your point is.

The point is that distributor markups and retails markups have a significantly different impact on retail prices in the American market than the Ontario market.

50% of the price of that $19 bottle of BA Narwhal is distributor margin and retailer margin. These excessive margins for both distributor and retailer do not exist in the Ontario market, at least not to my knowledge. Hence, comparing the two is not really constructive IMO. That is the only point I've been trying to make.

Agreed on the comments regarding Monogamy aging well. I enjoyed the bottle I opened recently more than when first released.

Coronaeus wrote:

TheSevenDuffs wrote:

Coronaeus wrote:I recently had a bottle of the brett peach and apricot Monogamy that I've been sitting on for about 6 or 7 months I think. I really liked the way it developed. While the hops have faded, the beer has developed some great earthy flavours and the fruit has held up. I wish I had held on to a few more, and hope they do this, or something like it again.

And, to keep this on topic, I think this one was great value!

Good to hear. I am sitting on a couple of bottles. I am curious about your comment regarding the hops though. What hop properties did you detect in the fresh version?

The hops fading comment was based on my earlier notes from when i had this close to the bottled release. I have terrible flavour memory. My notes tell me that i noticed some fairly mild citrusy notes and even a little pepper when I had it close to its bottled release. I didn't get that this time at all. It was all stone fruit and brett funk this time.

Take that remark concerning the hops fading with a grain of salt. I'm no expert when it comes to detecting and describing flavours and the citrus may have come from something else, considering the beer had aged for a year in barrels before being blended with the stone fruit and bottled.

Thanks for the details. I will open one soon and report back on my thoughts.

skootles wrote: Looks like Bounty Hunter is also making a comeback later this month (date unknown) for $8/bottle, no limits per person. I'm really excited about this one actually, I love it.

Bounty Hunter set for release this Friday.

I had some at the brewery on the weekend and it was great to taste it fresh again. Last December I did a comparison of two bottles, one from their original batch (2014) and one from their second batch (2015) and the 2014's flavours were too faded for my liking. Even the 2015 was a bit mild compared to fresh. I won't be cellaring many of these this time around, or at least I won't be cellaring them as long.

3 Minutes To Midnight + Raspberry. Hmm… seems like a bit of a jumble of flavors struggling for harmony. The cherry is fighting to express itself past the tart/seedy raspberries which seem oddly-placed. But I do like the cherry dimension very much, it pairs well with the full body & warm alcohol and smooth deep roasty malt. I'm giving the second bottle a long sleep to help tone down the raspberry to see if it's less of a fruit salad.
Interesting, innovative effort as always BW! Thanks for including me in the adventure.

http://bellwoodsbrewery.com/a-dupont-up ... -on-hafis/

Very few of you know that in order to attempt to deal with the delays at Dupont we’re currently building a third brewery. No, we are not crazy, (or at least this is what we tell ourselves).

skootles wrote:http://bellwoodsbrewery.com/a-dupont-up ... -on-hafis/

Very few of you know that in order to attempt to deal with the delays at Dupont we’re currently building a third brewery. No, we are not crazy, (or at least this is what we tell ourselves).

Glad they officially shared. I let this news slip in a post quite a few months ago, but then wondered if I should.

cool news! my only fear is the quality goes a little south, but it's not because they seem like the type of brewery where that would happen, just that i love them so.

Yeah that's a small fear of mine as well but the post mentions that they're not expanding their distribution network so that does put me at ease a bit.

In somewhat related news, sounds like they're going to release Motley Cru a little later than usual this year (possibly some time in May according to the newsletter). Also Grandma's Boy is making a come back as a Farmhouse Ale as opposed to a Tripel as it was before.

skootles wrote:Yeah that's a small fear of mine as well but the post mentions that they're not expanding their distribution network so that does put me at ease a bit.

In somewhat related news, sounds like they're going to release Motley Cru a little later than usual this year (possibly some time in May according to the newsletter). Also Grandma's Boy is making a come back as a Farmhouse Ale as opposed to a Tripel as it was before.

I loved Grandma's Boy as a tripel, just thought the ABV was a little too high. This makes me sad.

I loved it as well, though no complaint about the ABV from me. I still have a bottle in the cellar because I couldn't bring myself to finish it off. I'm very curious to see how it tastes now. I'll probably end up having it once the new one comes out so I can try them side by side.

I'm hoping the new style will make it a bit more tart / sour.

TBH, tripel is not a style of beer that needs to be sour. I would prefer that Bellwoods refine their classic tripel as Phantom Limb is below average for me. Last year's Grandma's Boy was an intriguing beer, but I found it's categorization as a tripel misleading and disappointing.

I can't say any of the grandma boys I've tried have blown me away. Nothing close to traditional tripel flavours, and not quite as complete or rounded as many of the other soured/barreled brews from Bellwoods. Maybe those yellow plums don't do it for me....but I'll try the new version to see how it is.

weird, i'd say grandma's boy is one of my all time faves from bellwoods