worst Ontario beer of 2015?

[darmokandjalad]

Dishonourable mention to Trafalgar's Fresh Hop Harvest, but really, it's my own damn fault for continuing to give those guys a chance. Been a few years since my last popcorn butter bomb.

They still keep trying and even posting on here about awards and stuff.

Their original Hop Nouveau wasn't bad a few times I had it years back.

I haven't had Hop Nouveau since around 2011, and also thought it was an ok pale ale at the time. That being said I am pretty sure Fresh Hop Harvest is basically the same beer with a new label/name... plus a lot of diacetyl. Still waiting on that award-winning Schwartzy.

[cirriform]

Indie Alehouse's Pumpkin Sour -- if you ever wanted to know what pumpkin cough syrup would taste like. Not to be confused with their Pumpkin Abbey of past years.

Blood Brothers' Inner IPA (? -- was brought to a party we held, I didn't see the tag but was told it was their IPA) -- tasted young, infected, or both. No one defended it, and at least two people dumped their fifths.

---

Honourable out-of-province mention to the two Berliner Weisses from Dunham that Volo had on tap for the Dunham takeover back in July. Both were vile, although the Mango mostly hid the vileness behind sweet fruit. The Huell Melon hopped version had no such luck.

[Coronaeus]

Practically Irish Gateway IPA. This was a gateway to a place I never want to re-visit.

I'm not sure the brewery is still producing beer, so probably don't have to decide if i want to give them another chance. I had this at Canada Day celebrations in Pickering. When asked by a friend i was with what it tasted like, my thoughts went immediately to those times in my youth when i had accidentally taken a sip from from a half full bottle, left out on the picnic table from the previous night's festivities. Tepid, flat, flavouless. To call it amateurish is to do a disservice to even the worst of amateurs.

[TheSevenDuffs]

Blood Brothers' Inner IPA (? -- was brought to a party we held, I didn't see the tag but was told it was their IPA) -- tasted young, infected, or both. No one defended it, and at least two people dumped their fifths.

I would second this. I read that it was a brett IPA, which might explain why you got some "infected" off flavours. It was pretty rough for me. Their Shumei IPA was just as bad, if not worse for me.

I will give these guys another chance at some point as they are new and I'm sure they are tweaking, but quality needs to improve significantly.

[PeenSteen]

There was one spectacularly bad beer at zwanze but I can't remember what it was. Liam or Pino could probably fill in the blank.

Amsterdam Sweet Nothing....Jesus that was terrible! That would get my vote for worst Ontario beer of 2015, honourable mentions go to Blood Brothers Shumei.

[cratez]

A badly infected sample of Bayside Honey Cream Ale at the 2015 Forest City Beer Fest

[MatttthewGeorge]

A badly infected sample of Bayside Honey Cream Ale at the 2015 Forest City Beer Fest

I've never, ever, had a non-infected beer from this brewery. I know I shouldn't be saying this because I'm in the industry, but it's the truth. I retried their lager in November after a 6 month hiatus and it was still terrible. Fix the problems or close your doors, but 2 years later and your beer still tastes like this? You're doing this industry a disservice.

Sadly the Bayside lager wasn't the worst Ontario beer I had last year however the (two) worst I had was from a brand new brewery so they're spared my rath due to my self-imposed industry code.

[groulxsome]

Sadly the Bayside lager wasn't the worst Ontario beer I had last year however the (two) worst I had was from a brand new brewery so they're spared my rath due to my self-imposed industry code.

Gulps again, nervously.

[MatttthewGeorge]

Sadly the Bayside lager wasn't the worst Ontario beer I had last year however the (two) worst I had was from a brand new brewery so they're spared my rath due to my self-imposed industry code.

Gulps again, nervously.

Oh please, you guys are the best new brewery in Ontario, IMO

[mgmoney]

I have to give it Halliburton highlands Belgian or 5 paddles home sweet home or something like that

[portwood]

Curmudgeon IPA, Grand River Brewing
yeah, I know, eh! me being a curmudgeon and all

[atomeyes]

Still waiting on that award-winning Schwartzy.

i've had it.
not horrible.
drinkable,
not award worthy

Practically Irish Gateway IPA. This was a gateway to a place I never want to re-visit.
To call it amateurish is to do a disservice to even the worst of amateurs.

to be fair, the brewers were 2 homebrewers. not sure if they really knew what they were doing. doesn't mean they should be excused for making shitty beer (and I had the IPA. i remember it being unremarkable, which is a few notches above your rating)
a year ago, they were looking to hire a brewer (in addition to the 2 they already had??)

I have to give it Halliburton highlands Belgian or 5 paddles home sweet home or something like that

i've had some very rough 5 Paddles beer. none have body. but they ain't Pitsch Perfect Pilsner. no one came close to that bottle.

[Coronaeus]

to be fair, the brewers were 2 homebrewers. not sure if they really knew what they were doing. doesn't mean they should be excused for making shitty beer (and I had the IPA. i remember it being unremarkable, which is a few notches above your rating)
a year ago, they were looking to hire a brewer (in addition to the 2 they already had??)

I don't doubt that a great majority of the reason the beer was so bad when I had it, was as a result of effects from the setting. They had a small keg pretty much out in the sun, sitting in a bucket of ice water (ice melted), and the girl serving had a hell of time working it. The result was stale tasting, warm beer with no body and little flavour. I'm sure it would have been just another unremarkable IPA had the setting been a little different.

About a year ago, a friend in Pickering Rotary spoke highly of one of the guys in charge who was also a Rotarian If they are still around, I hope they start to improve as it would be nice to have a decent brewery around the corner from the in-laws.

[cratez]

I've never, ever, had a non-infected beer from this brewery. I know I shouldn't be saying this because I'm in the industry, but it's the truth. I retried their lager in November after a 6 month hiatus and it was still terrible...2 years later and your beer still tastes like this?

Good to know. I didn't plan on revisiting their beers anytime soon but I'll be avoiding them indefinitely now.

[Kish84]

i know he posts here, but honest feedback's better than lying

oh god oh god... phew.

Anyway!

For me it was a little beer called "The Wall" by Block 3. I've had some good beers from Block 3 (King Street Saison, for example) but The Wall should not have been released. "If Cheetos made a blue cheese flavour, it would taste like this. No sour, all the wrong funk. " Isovaleric/butyric acids. Just gross. The kind of thing that should never have been released. If you make a beer that bad either have the resolve and resources to either dump it or age it somehow (bottle it with brett and hope?). At some point the worst beer isn't about the most bland/uninspired/poorly executed but not tragically flawed beer (I did drink all those Trafalger beers!), but rather about the worst decision making about releasing a beer at all.

It has a 2.2 on untappd. That's crazy: https://untappd.com//b/block-three-brew ... all/955497

That's the worst I had last year.

I was given warnings that this beer was not good, so I didn't ever try it. I've talked to one of the guys at Block 3 about this beer. Apparently it was great from the brite tank, but something went bad afterwards. I don't recall what I was told (I think something about the brett completely changing it), but he did say he wish it never made it out of the brewery. I believe they did dump a bunch of it in the end.

As for my worst beer of 2015, the one that sticks out is Innocente Put That In Your Pineapple And Smoke It! It was like hot ham water with some pineapple. I mean, I'd eat that, but as a beer, it was bad, really bad.