The Bar Towel

We've had time to reflect.
what was the worst Ontario beer you had in 2015?

For me it was Dinner Jacket O'Red IPA from Arch Brewing

Naughty Otter Lager. Maybe the can was off - it was only 2 months old, but I found it on an unrefrigerated shelf. I was left with the impression that I'd rather drink Molson Canadian. It tasted corny, vegetal, and just plain bad. Hopefully it was just a lousy batch or something.

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.

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.

The Arch dinner jacket is a pretty good choice.

i know he posts here, but honest feedback's better than lying.
i had a sample bottle of Pitschfork's Pitsch Perfect Pilsner.
i'd rather drink soup made from burning rubber and children's tears.
it tasted all sorts of wrong. couldn't finish the glass.

as a homebrewer, i honestly wish i could tell you what was wrong with that beer. but it was beyond description.

and there was an Amsterdam beer at Zwanze that was completely broken. think it was a shitty keg because i heard it was amazing at BarHop a few weeks earlier

I was thinking the same Amsterdam beer. That bad keg was lactese-falcon worthy.

Had a Red Falcon Ale last weekend at the Mod Club. It was horrible.

For me it was Burdock's Bloor Lite. I don't like to rag on local breweries, especially as TO is exponentially growing in options right now and I am supporting its growth wholeheartedly, but this drink was just vile. As if they took the familiarly named drink and made it worse as a parody.

had the high park off the leash ipa at the toronto winter brewfest which was a watery copper-flavoured mess to me

Skipping over some forced Molson Canadians and Mooseheads....

Phantom Limb from Bellwoods.
I didn't enjoy it the first time around....they changed it last year so I tried it again...it was still a poor tripel IMO.
Perhaps I need to buy a bottle and age it next time, but I'm pretty picky with any dubbel, tripel, quad offerings.

Quick look at Untappd tells me Covered Bridge Paddle Smash (truly awful) and basically everything from Square Timber.

darmokandjalad wrote: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.

to me both 5 boroughs and shapeshifter from amsterdam were two of the worst beers that i had last year. both were nice when they were fresh, but when I came back to them a month or two later were infected messes. I'm really glad I didn't load up on either of them and will likely stay away from amsterdam's BA offerings for a while. fortunately, double tempest hasn't met the same fate.

atomeyes wrote: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.

groulxsome wrote:

atomeyes wrote: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 had that one too - god it was terrible. According to my Untappd, I had it in 2014 as well, and quite liked it, so either they did something different or it was a very bad batch. Either way, should have been disposed of, like you say.

That's probably my biggest thing about all the one-offs at the minute - a good proportion feel like pilot batches that went wrong but the brewery(s) say "oh well, we'll sell it anyway - the tickers will buy anything".