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Sours, Brett, Wild, and Saisons

Discuss beer or anything else that comes to mind in here.

Moderators: Craig, Cass

snorristurluson
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 1:59 pm

Post by snorristurluson »

BakaGaijin - thanks for the leads. I'll take a look when in Montreal next.

northyorksammy - West Ave Cider looks to be doing some interesting things with apples . Sort of along the lines of Citizen Cider in VT. Thanks for the info.

Ceecee - thanks for the offer, but I think I'll stock up in VT for now as there seems to be endless sour and brett options their currently. I'm in Kingston (moving to Toronto in July), and if you want anything in VT I'd be happy to pick it up, would just need to find a place to get it to you. Going to VT end of June.

FEUO - Does Black Swan have much distribution beyond Stratford?

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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

snorristurluson wrote:Belgian - thanks for the feedback. I noticed you've posted about Stone City a few times, they have a Brett/Farmhouse right now which is decent.
I got a sample glass of that beer just hours before you posted that. I'm in Kingston fairly often.

And West Avenue is a pretty brilliant cider maker, I would jump at anything funk/brett style they make. An interesting development.
In Beerum Veritas

snorristurluson
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Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 1:59 pm

Post by snorristurluson »

West Ave is predominately on tap, correct?

napoleon
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Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:37 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Post by napoleon »

It's too bad the market here for this stuff is so small. Bellwoods is of course the leader in Ontario for this. Amsterdam's one-off's can be truly outstanding; however, the beer that ends up on tap, even in their own brewpub, tends to get dumbed down like Belgian mentioned.

There are some great things going on in Quebec, plus they get a bit more international. TDD of course is good. Dieu du Ciel occasionally has something. Hill Farmstead in VT has some nice brett in its sours.

If you're going through Quebec, I'd suggest hitting up Le Saint Bock…they happened to have a bit of a sour beer festival last weekend. Some deliciously sour stuff on tap including Mikkeller.

BakaGaijin
Posts: 472
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:41 pm
Location: Burlington

Post by BakaGaijin »

Looks like The Exchange Brewery in Niagara is on course for a summer/fall launch. They will be sour/funky focused.

snorristurluson
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 1:59 pm

Post by snorristurluson »

I'll check out Le Saint Bock and follow developments with Exchange.

It was actually a few trips to Copenhagen and trips to Mikkeller bars that really got me into sours.

napoleon
Posts: 282
Joined: Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:37 pm
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Post by napoleon »

snorristurluson wrote: It was actually a few trips to Copenhagen and trips to Mikkeller bars that really got me into sours.
Mikkeller is fascinating...his beers for me are by and large home runs or total strikeouts...it's rare that I'm ambivalent about his beers. The only big sour events that happened in Ontario this past year was the Zwanze Day at Volo and a lovely barrel-aged tasting that Indie Ale House ran. Nice to see the scene is ramping up though.

snorristurluson
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 1:59 pm

Post by snorristurluson »

He is pretty prolific in his production, so of course it isn't all great, but a surprising amount is. That said, I've not been into the offerings at the LCBO, but they've also arrived old. Either way, great bars if you ever get a chance. There are 3 in Copenhagen and a 4th in the works which is a collaboration with Three Floyds. They also have bars in San Francisco and Taiwan.

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groulxsome
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Post by groulxsome »

If you give us some time, Habits Nanobrewery (@HabitsGastropub, Collage and Dovercort - yah, that's not far from Bellwoods!) is ONLY brewing saisons/brett/funky beers with some sours/wild/barrel aged (we've already got a pinot noir barrel aged saison in barrels) and more classic Belgian things in the future. We only have our saison on tap now, but we try our best to source any and all other saisons around (Sawdust City, Amsterdam, and Northwinds on right now). We're working on getting more beer out soon, but we're pretty small compared to most places being a nanobrewery and all. Growing though... slowly...

Oh, and we've got TDD, Jacobins, and Rodenbach bottles too. Should have our first brett saison (a collaboration with Indie Alehouse) done soon. We've got a more simple wheat saison with Galaxy hops (a collaboration with Stone Hammer) being released on tap @HabitsGastropub on Tuesday. (George will be there even!)

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jeremyg
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Joined: Wed May 06, 2015 4:57 pm

Post by jeremyg »

groulxsome wrote:If you give us some time, Habits Nanobrewery (@HabitsGastropub, Collage and Dovercort - yah, that's not far from Bellwoods!) is ONLY brewing saisons/brett/funky beers with some sours/wild/barrel aged (we've already got a pinot noir barrel aged saison in barrels) and more classic Belgian things in the future. We only have our saison on tap now, but we try our best to source any and all other saisons around (Sawdust City, Amsterdam, and Northwinds on right now). We're working on getting more beer out soon, but we're pretty small compared to most places being a nanobrewery and all. Growing though... slowly...

Oh, and we've got TDD, Jacobins, and Rodenbach bottles too. Should have our first brett saison (a collaboration with Indie Alehouse) done soon. We've got a more simple wheat saison with Galaxy hops (a collaboration with Stone Hammer) being released on tap @HabitsGastropub on Tuesday. (George will be there even!)
sounds awesome man. strictly on tap or are you going to be selling bottles?

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groulxsome
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Post by groulxsome »

jeremyg wrote:
groulxsome wrote:If you give us some time, Habits Nanobrewery (@HabitsGastropub, Collage and Dovercort - yah, that's not far from Bellwoods!) is ONLY brewing saisons/brett/funky beers with some sours/wild/barrel aged (we've already got a pinot noir barrel aged saison in barrels) and more classic Belgian things in the future. We only have our saison on tap now, but we try our best to source any and all other saisons around (Sawdust City, Amsterdam, and Northwinds on right now). We're working on getting more beer out soon, but we're pretty small compared to most places being a nanobrewery and all. Growing though... slowly...

Oh, and we've got TDD, Jacobins, and Rodenbach bottles too. Should have our first brett saison (a collaboration with Indie Alehouse) done soon. We've got a more simple wheat saison with Galaxy hops (a collaboration with Stone Hammer) being released on tap @HabitsGastropub on Tuesday. (George will be there even!)
sounds awesome man. strictly on tap or are you going to be selling bottles?
We're working in small steps at the moment. Hoping to have some of our stuff (like the pinot barrel saison) bottle conditioned for in house sales. Then maybe getting enough kegged to try to get it our to a few other bars. And then looking at a bottle shop if we have any additional capacity. Very much the size that Get Well used to be, so a lot depends on our volumes (and my creative use of barrels to get more!).

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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

I have to come by there Groulx! Thanks.
In Beerum Veritas

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