OCB Discovery Pack = pathetic

[Derek]

I'm not sure about the "Discovery" label. It's certainly an "introduction" to craft, and they may seem quite different for the average drinker, but it's hardly a discovery. There's so many different styles for the newbie to "discover".

The Brickman Pils was decent when it came out, but it seems to have went really downhill. A friend of mine that's a macro drinker (and has probably never read a beer review) actually said it tasted like buttery popcorn and ass. I was impressed with his buttery-popcorn analogy... I didn't question the 'ass'.

[Belgian]

The Brickman Pils was decent when it came out, but it seems to have went really downhill. A friend of mine that's a macro drinker (and has probably never read a beer review) actually said it tasted like buttery popcorn and ass. I was impressed with his buttery-popcorn analogy... I didn't question the 'ass'.

Wow, I thought it was aimed at macro drinkers when I tried a six of it last summer. Put me off Brick products a little bit. I hope they pull out of it.

[A]

Hi,

Got to agree with Pootz on his point.

If you are on this site and in this forum, this "tasting pack" is a been there-done that 6-pack. But for people who still haven't clued in that better beer is available, but they don't want to shell out $12 for 6 of something they may not like, it's a pretty good introduction (though I personally really disagree with the Brickman being in there)

Cheers

Sorry, you're missing the point.

A 6-pack of extreme beers would undoubtedly also be a failure. But there's no reason why there cant be one or two more interesting beers in a pack like this. Its the only way to expand the market, IMO.

Here's another question: Who decided which 6 OCB brewers got to be in the pack? And how do the remaining 20-something breweries feel about that?

[SteelbackGuy]

... I didn't question the 'ass'.

C'mon now Derek, no need to be shy. We're all friends here!

[pootz]

The Brickman Pils was decent when it came out, but it seems to have went really downhill.

YUP!...batch to batch consistency issues....motivation issues too.

[GregClow]

Here's another question: Who decided which 6 OCB brewers got to be in the pack? And how do the remaining 20-something breweries feel about that?

Well, the owner of Muskoka is the chair of the OCB. So that explains at least one of the selections.

Seriously, though - this is intended to be the first in a series of Discovery Packs, with the next slated to be released next spring or early summer. I guess they intend to have everyone get a kick at the can eventually.

[Belgian]

...how do the remaining 20-something breweries feel...?

...I guess they intend to have everyone get a kick at the can eventually.

Or a kick at the bottle. Yeah, it must be hard for these poor brewers to understand why they can't fit 20-something beers in a six pack (he grinned mischievously.)

I look forward to King and Black Oak and Neustadt finding their way into curious people's beer coolers.

[Asst. Grain Shoveller]

I'm really pissed that we don't get any support by the local beer drinking community.
It seems so easy just to sit on your ass and criticize all the work it took to bring about something which is supposed to introduce more people to the beer we brew locally.
It took a huge amount of effort, time and money, not to mention work with the provincial government, AGCO and the LCBO, to make this craft pack happen.
The few people who post and regularly visit these forums aren't the whole Ontario beer drinking market. Therefore not all of us local brewers have developed one bottle of some estoteric high hop crap that most of us would go out of business for making it, because the local market is too immature and too small. We're trying to get more awareness of how good our local beers are. And before its out of the gate you start slamming us for trying.
My suggestion to you is to try the following:
Start your own beer festival
Have your own professional independent beer judging
Or even try to open a brewery and find out how truly difficult things really are, and how many people will step up and tell you how to do things.

The purpose of the OCB is to try to get more people drinking our local beer. When you shit on our ideas before there even available to the public it really makes me shake my head in disbelief.
With your support we can grow otherwise you'll just be drinking large macro brews and getting craft beer from foriegn countries.

[Ale's What Cures Ya]

With your support we can grow

The breweries in this province get our support when they do something we like. Would it have been really so hard to include something even remotely interesting in the pack? Four lagers? Not one of which is even above average? Putting the vile Organic Lager in the pack over Tankhouse is just ridiculous. At least there would have been one interesting beer in the pack.

This isn't a "Discovery Pack". It's a "Hey look, we can make bland beer too!" Pack.

getting craft beer from foriegn countries.

I really don't see the problem with this. That "foreign country" is only 3 hours away from where I sit right now and I'd take a Stone or Southern Tier over anything made in this country in a heartbeat.

[tuqueboy]

The purpose of the OCB is to try to get more people drinking our local beer. When you shit on our ideas before there even available to the public it really makes me shake my head in disbelief.

Ken, I understand how much hard work probably went into this, and that this 6-pack probably wasn't aimed at the folks on this forum, but...if you look at what people are saying, it's not that it was a bad idea. it's just that it needed maybe a couple of different styles tossed in there. perhaps you can shed some light on what the future packs may contain?

[Bobbyok]

With your support we can grow otherwise you'll just be drinking large macro brews and getting craft beer from foriegn countries.

I'm tempted to just say thanks for the FU and leave it at that. But I greatly appreciate that you appreciate the support we do give brewers by buying the beers you make that are actually interesting.

And I have to comment specifically on what you said above - what difference does it make if I drink large macro brews or beers from a smaller brewery that taste exactly the same? Because that's most of what's in this 6 pack.

[Belgian]

...not all of us local brewers have developed one bottle of some estoteric high hop crap that most of us would go out of business for making it, because the local market is too immature and too small...

Ken,

While I have immense respect for your brews, I must pick on the above remark. For reference:

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA sold out in about 55 minutes. The "immature and too small" local market was grabbing this stuff up. It was in the manstream media, and this "esoteric high hop crap" briefly became a household name that summer. It would still be selling but for the LCBO screwing things up. Obviously DFH 60 was an instant success.

So what's really going on? Where the heck are the more citrus-peely, pine-sappy American-style IPAs in Ontario, now that you mention it?

Because you guys make an awesome Pale, it happens to be my favorite and if anyone could do the IPA thing I bet you could... yet the attitude from you guys 'ahh it'll never happen' just puts the final friggin nail in the coffin for me of anything viably interesting ever developing here. I'm sorry to be so blunt but if YOU guys think that way, way up at the top of the brewing pyramid then the scene is toast and we're all dreaming.

So to be more constructive now, is there ever a chance we'd see a seasonal draught-only, really aromatic IPA from Black Oak, or does small capacity make that too difficult? No big deal just a question. I'll be buying and promoting Black Oak beers either way, for my miniscule part.

[Bobsy]

We're trying to get more awareness of how good our local beers are. And before its out of the gate you start slamming us for trying.

I'm siding with Ken on this one. We have to remember that breweries have to make money to sustain themselves, and that the aim of the discovery packs is to promote local products and bring more revenue in for the local industry. I won't be buying this discovery pack because I've already discovered these breweries and moved on to some of their other products (I have a Mill St growler, and some Great Lakes pumpkin and winter ale at home right now). I expect most people posting here would say the same, so why is it so hard to understand that this pack is not aimed at us, but at people who are currently drinking macro lagers, and not consuming OCB products? Palates need to develop, and some people need familiar styles to get them started - that means the standard pale ales, cream ales, pilsners and lagers. Some of these beers may not be to our tastes, but to standard drinker they represent their idea of what beer is. If we can convince a Labatt drinker to buy a case of beer from an OCB brewer because they thought the discovery pack wasn't so bad, then what is wrong about that? Who knows, maybe this time next year they'll be drinking nutcracker and complaining about a lack of Ontario-made double IPAs.

[GregClow]

So to be more constructive now, is there ever a chance we'd see a seasonal draught-only, really aromatic IPA from Black Oak

Uhhhh... Hop Bomb?

[Bobsy]

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA sold out in about 55 minutes. The "immature and too small" local market was grabbing this stuff up.

Belgian, I wonder how much of the 60 Minute IPA was bought up by a relatively small amount of people because of its reputation and how much of it was bought up by the customers the OCB is trying to attract with this pack?