Sleeman IPA

[lagerale]

They re-released the Porter this year along with the IPA. I think I read somewhere that they're making the Porter part of the regular line-up now, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Not a bad way to guage interest in a beer. Bring it out for a limited time and if it sells well, put it out as a mainstay. That being said, I can't see this happening to the IPA - to me it tastes too much like their cream ale, but with maybe a FEW extra hops. Hopefully their next forray into the John Sleeman series produces something with a unique character, though I wouldn't be surprised if they put out a "Belgian beer" courtesy of a Unibroue recipe!

[Belgian]

I wouldn't be surprised if they put out a "Belgian beer" courtesy of a Unibroue recipe!

...."from recipie book page 27 of some Frenchman who knew my great Grandma..."

[JWalter]

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, almost got a little misty for a second there... Ok, I'm better now... Not often a thread about Sleeman's brings a tear to my eye...

I can imagine it must be very frustrating to be the Sleeman's Brew Master, if what someone had mentioned is true... You're told from management that Sleeman's is coming out with a proper IPA, so you come up with something, and then they try it and go "Whoa!, not that proper!, ease up on the hops man, we can actually smell em, yecch!". Ugh...

[Andicus]

Ahh. Happy belated birthday, JW.

[pootz]

When I picked this up the other day, the store I got it from still had a dozen or so cases of Sleeman's porter.

They re-released the Porter this year along with the IPA. I think I read somewhere that they're making the Porter part of the regular line-up now, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

Guess it's best to read the date codes on the box before you buy

BTW the porter was re issued recently...at least this is what the Sleeman web site states, so it should be fresh.

[Belgian]

Guess it's best to read the date codes on the box before you buy.

TRUISM: (n.) a fact so commonly understood as to not require any mention (eg. 'it sure is raining' 'many of our imports are from other countries' 'you should always check beer date codes' .)

But... yes! Always check them!

[old faithful]

I thought all beer at the Beer Store is recalled after 3 months.

Gary

[old faithful]

This reminds me of a funny story I read in a beer book many years ago.

At a long-since closed regional Ontario brewery (this was pre-microbrewery days), beer was sometimes returned to the brewery because it had reached its sell-by date at Brewers Retail.

Upon receipt of the beer, staff would uncap it and pour it back into the holding tanks, for the next bottling.

Gary

[Rob Creighton]

This reminds me of a funny story I read in a beer book many years ago.

At a long-since closed regional Ontario brewery (this was pre-microbrewery days), beer was sometimes returned to the brewery because it had reached its sell-by date at Brewers Retail.

Upon receipt of the beer, staff would uncap it and pour it back into the holding tanks, for the next bottling.

Gary

Not so uncommon a practise as you may think. All dump beer (didn't matter which brands) in the '70's & early '80's at Labatt & Carling where I worked as a student was reclaimed and sent to a reclaim tank where it was blended in at <5% to whatever was running on the lines at the time.

[JWalter]

Not so uncommon a practise as you may think. All dump beer (didn't matter which brands) in the '70's & early '80's at Labatt & Carling where I worked as a student was reclaimed and sent to a reclaim tank where it was blended in at <5% to whatever was running on the lines at the time.

Yikes!


Any idea if this still goes on, that's kind of gross isn't it?? It makes a lot of assumptions about the condition of the beer that is being returned, because I can imagine that if it wasn't handled/stored properly it could be pretty yucky, but I guess when you're dealing with pretty crappy beer to being with, add <5% of something yucky, perhaps you'd never know??? Ugh, it's still seems gross....

[old faithful]

And some guys here get annoyed with ME for blending?!

Gary

[old faithful]

Rob, how did they adjust the ABV in the reclaimed beer or in the final blend being bottled on the line? Say a bunch of Extra Stock or other higher alcohol beer came back and the reclaim tank was at 6%, how did they get the final blend to 5% ? Did they add water a la heavy gravity brewing practice?

It is interesting indeed to know if any brewery does this today. I would think we are talking about past practice, I would be surprised if anyone still does this. On the other hand, being a blender (of fresh beers!) myself, the practice while amusing doesn't surprise me. Probably there was (and is) a standard all the bottled beers needed to meet and that standard could be met even if a bit of old beer was in there. Probably the addition of reclaim beer had no impact (none detectable anyway) since the amount of old stuff added must have been very small in relation to the amount of new beer being bottled.

For the historically minded only: in the 1800's beer that had been returned by publicans as literally sour and excess beer drained from vats and pipes in the brewery and other such oddments were combined in the brewery to form "stale ale" which later went by other names ("old ale", etc.) A portion of such old, acidulated beer was then sometimes added to new porter and sent out to the pubs: the combination was often 3:1 new beer to old. (This itself was an echo of the old three thirds personal blending in pubs). It may sound gross but a small amount of sourish beer added to new gave verve and zest, this was the basis of porter which originally and in later years was a blend of beers (in the interim the beer was "entire" - unblended using all the extract from the mash - but according to beer writer Roger Protz, that phase did not last long and the old habit of blending returned).

The later practice of reusing in Canada returns from Brewer's Retail probably had its roots in such ancient practices. I doubt though it is still being done in Ontario or elsewhere in Canada!

Gary

[Rob Creighton]

Rob, how did they adjust the ABV in the reclaimed beer or in the final blend being bottled on the line? Say a bunch of Extra Stock or other higher alcohol beer came back and the reclaim tank was at 6%, how did they get the final blend to 5% ? Did they add water a la heavy gravity brewing practice?

I doubt though it is still being done in Ontario or elsewhere in Canada!

Gary

As I recall, brand diversity was not an issue though I do remember dumping some dark beers along with regular product which would have been blended into the mix. Light beers were not even prevelent at the time but I doubt this would have registered in the final ratio anyways. This was as much a tax issue as anything. The on-site revenuer had to approve the blending tank level and when I cleaned it, it was called the 'tax reclaim' tank. I'm sure some basic QA was done at the time but I don't remember what.

[pootz]

As I recall, brand diversity was not an issue though I do remember dumping some dark beers along with regular product which would have been blended into the mix. Light beers were not even prevelent at the time but I doubt this would have registered in the final ratio anyways. This was as much a tax issue as anything. The on-site revenuer had to approve the blending tank level and when I cleaned it, it was called the 'tax reclaim' tank. I'm sure some basic QA was done at the time but I don't remember what.

Brrrrrhhhrrrr...gack!

Certainly explains the 130 brand sameness of the late 70s and early 80s but this kind of urban legend has been around in some form for years. The version I heard had it that the over dated beer was blended with green beer and sold as draft.