The Bar Towel

Interesting article about the new brewing company that had been in the planning stages for awhile as well as what else is happening in Hamilton:

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/62659 ... s-brewery/

These guys are giving Blood Brothers some competition for worst brewery name in Ontario.

"We need more lagers brewed in Ontario".

- Said no one, ever.

I wish these guys luck.

BakaGaijin wrote:"We need more lagers brewed in Ontario".
- Said no one, ever.
I wish these guys luck.

It had better be truly spectacular Lager, and then attract an audience in a market that now likes Pale Ales. Rob's brews at Grand River were (or could be) extremely good, the kind of thing you'd like to find in Bavaria.

GR's business decisions of late were not always the greatest (Tailgate seems not very good) & I look forward to SEB's new stuff.

BakaGaijin wrote:"We need more lagers brewed in Ontario".

- Said no one, ever.

I wish these guys luck.

"We need more GOOD lagers brewed in Ontario" - boney, February 7, 2015.

What are there, like almost 20 different styles of largers, almost all of them now underrepresented in Ontario and pretty much everywhere else. The problems are multiple......they're not popular among most somewhat adventurous/informed beer drinkers, they take God damn forever to make (relatively) and most of what people do make are simply shitty examples.

Although it's only one style, if anyone in Ontario made a regularly produced unfiltered Bohemian Pils that was any good, they'd have my money and my loyalty.

To echo Belgian's thoughts, although they were never super popular and are now retired or a shadow of what they used to be, Grand River's Hannenberg, Galt Knife and Town Hall were all flavorful good lagered beers. With SHED hiring Rob Creighton, I'm really hoping for some excellent, underrepresented styles.

boney wrote:Grand River's Hannenberg, Galt Knife and Town Hall were all flavorful good lagered beers. With SHED hiring Rob Creighton, I'm really hoping for some excellent, underrepresented styles.

I see what you did there, nice!

I really did like those 3 Grand River lagers, when they were in good shape they were not BAL* at all.
(* Boring Ontario Lager.)

Flavorless swill in a can is perfectly nice, but you might as well order a Bud or Coors instead of bother with Craft

boney wrote:"We need more GOOD lagers brewed in Ontario" - boney, February 7, 2015.

I was waiting for someone to insert that qualifier. It's a perfectly valid statement once you add that one adjective.

The problems are multiple......they're not popular among most somewhat adventurous/informed beer drinkers, they take God damn forever to make (relatively) and most of what people do make are simply shitty examples.

Couldn't agree more. Craft brewers do not focus on lagers because a) most of their clientèle isn't interested, and b) lagers use up limited resources (space) for a longer period of time. And most consumers - beer geek or otherwise - are simply unwilling to pay a premium for a pale lager. Especially when the product itself isn't anything special, which is the case with 99% of the lagers made here.

An additional problem is that people who enjoy pale lagers (or ambers, or comparably "boring" styles of lager) tend to be non-adventurous and brand loyal. Most of the consumers who like "that type" of beer are satisfied with the taste and price tag of macro labels. Even the consumers who aren't satisfied with that slop (and are thus willing to pay a premium for lager) already have ubiquitous pseudo-craft brands like Steam Whistle, Mill Street and Creemore to rely upon.

So a newcomer to the lager-brewing game either has to compete aggressively for that small slice of the market's attention... or try something completely different (e.g. the route that Triple Bogey has taken, which is just one gimmick after another; or maybe follow in the footsteps of Minhas and just forget about quality entirely).

And if I may prolong the tangent started earlier - I, too, miss the GRB of days past. Tailgate is the epitome of mediocre Ontario pale lagers, and it's expensive to boot. They should have just re-branded the Galt Knife or Hannenberg recipes, because those were both better beers.

darmokandjalad wrote:
And if I may prolong the tangent started earlier - I, too, miss the GRB of days past. Tailgate is the epitome of mediocre Ontario pale lagers, and it's expensive to boot. They should have just re-branded the Galt Knife or Hannenberg recipes, because those were both better beers.

Spent a day at GRB just after Tailgate came out. Was told by the brewer that Tailgate *IS* Hannenberg - the LCBO wanted the lager name and not pilsner.

boney wrote:

BakaGaijin wrote:"We need more lagers brewed in Ontario".

- Said no one, ever.

I wish these guys luck.

"We need more GOOD lagers brewed in Ontario" - boney, February 7, 2015.

you still writing 2015 on your cheques?

atomeyes wrote:

boney wrote:

BakaGaijin wrote:"We need more lagers brewed in Ontario".

- Said no one, ever.

I wish these guys luck.

"We need more GOOD lagers brewed in Ontario" - boney, February 7, 2015.

you still writing 2015 on your cheques?

Ahhhh, damn it.......yes.

Can't take credit for the "SHED" moniker, they've been referred as that from early in the planning process. I think it might have actually been an early branding attempt before they went with the S&E logo.

TheSevenDuffs wrote:These guys are giving Blood Brothers some competition for worst brewery name in Ontario.

HA!
I will give you the name of a few breweries in Windsor ALONE that are worse than SHED or Blood Brothers.

as someone above said, it's not that we have too many lagers. we have too many SHITTY lagers.
a really well executed hoppy lager or a very floral, yeast-forward Czech lager, or a barrel-fermented lager or, hell, doing what Jack's Abbey's doing? that's the shit i'd be all over.
and that's what we're missing.

as an aside, i re-visited the Steam Whistle unfiltered lager at the Only this past weekend. starts nice, finishes with corn. blech.

atomeyes wrote:as someone above said, it's not that we have too many lagers. we have too many SHITTY lagers.
a really well executed hoppy lager or a very floral, yeast-forward Czech lager, or a barrel-fermented lager or, hell, doing what Jack's Abbey's doing? that's the shit i'd be all over.
and that's what we're missing.

as an aside, i re-visited the Steam Whistle unfiltered lager at the Only this past weekend. starts nice, finishes with corn. blech.

Has anyone brewed a Jack's Abbey IPL in Ontario? Or even a good hoppy pilsner (like Firestone's Pivo or Victory Prima)? Odd that there are so many pilsners/lagers and not that many that have picked up the well made and balanced hop vibe from the states... heck, even something light like the Crisp from Sixpoint would be great rather than another branding-forward Cool/BigRig contract pale lager thing. Seem like all I drink when I'm in the States these days are pilsners... but I can't think of the last time I had a good Ontario brewed one (he says having quite enjoyed a Collingwood Pilsner just a week ago... and a Side Launch one that was tasty too... a week is a lot of beer ago I guess).

groulxsome wrote: Has anyone brewed a Jack's Abbey IPL in Ontario? Or even a good hoppy pilsner (like Firestone's Pivo or Victory Prima)?

The early batches of Burdock's West Coast Pilsner were quite good.

groulxsome wrote:

atomeyes wrote:as someone above said, it's not that we have too many lagers. we have too many SHITTY lagers.
a really well executed hoppy lager or a very floral, yeast-forward Czech lager, or a barrel-fermented lager or, hell, doing what Jack's Abbey's doing? that's the shit i'd be all over.
and that's what we're missing.

as an aside, i re-visited the Steam Whistle unfiltered lager at the Only this past weekend. starts nice, finishes with corn. blech.

Has anyone brewed a Jack's Abbey IPL in Ontario? Or even a good hoppy pilsner (like Firestone's Pivo or Victory Prima)? Odd that there are so many pilsners/lagers and not that many that have picked up the well made and balanced hop vibe from the states... heck, even something light like the Crisp from Sixpoint would be great rather than another branding-forward Cool/BigRig contract pale lager thing. Seem like all I drink when I'm in the States these days are pilsners... but I can't think of the last time I had a good Ontario brewed one (he says having quite enjoyed a Collingwood Pilsner just a week ago... and a Side Launch one that was tasty too... a week is a lot of beer ago I guess).

Pick up truck Pilsner from Thornbury is pretty decent.