What're you drinking right now?

[Provost Drunk]

During a memorable (and yet fuzzy at times...) weekend in Ottawa/Hull at Brothers Beer Bistro, Tooth and Nail, Hintonburg Public House, Gainsbourg and Brasseurs du Temps:

Stone City Windward (Belgian wit)
Hacker-Pschorr Maibock
New Holland The Poet (oatmeal stout)
Tooth and Nail Valor (saison)
Tooth and Nail Horn Banger (bock)
Tooth and Nail Fortitude (stout)
Perth Bonfire Black Lager
Ashton Brewing Company Maple Ale
Gainsbourg Blanche de Chelsea (Belgian wit)
Gainsbourg Fable (blonde)
Gainsbourg Triple Belge
Gainsbourg Couleur Café (robust porter)
Gainsbourg Scotch Ale
Gainsbourg Barley Wine
BDT Le Bouillon de Chaudier (weizen)
BDT L'allumante (red ale)
BDT Kapput Mauer (dunkel weizen)
BDT ESB 1821
BDT La Framboyante (pale ale w/ raspberries)
BDT Et la Lumiere Fut (pale ale)
BDT Au Pied du Courant (IPA)
BDT La Messe de Minuit (Christmas ale)
BDT La Corne et La Muse (Scotch ale)
BDT La Nuit des Temps (stout)
BDT Obscur Desir (imperial stout)
BDT La Belle Empoissonneuse (spiced imperial stout)
BDT Quelques Arpents de Neige (double blanche)
BDT La Saison Basse
BDT Deux Gros Debiles ("inspired" saison)
BDT Porter Fume au Café (smoked porter)

In the interest of full disclosure, most of these were 3-6 oz. pours.

[darmokandjalad]

Over the last week-plus:
-Great Lakes Octopus Wants to Fight IPA - Very nice. Good mix of citrus, tropical fruit and pine/resiny flavours. Not as good as some of the other Tank 10 IPAs, but still a quality American IPA.
-Stone Hammer Premium Pale Ale - Can from the brewery. Malt-forward with earthy, leafy hops. The brewery calls this an APA but it's more like an English pale in my estimation.
-Mad Jack Hard Root Beer - Tastes like A&W. Too sweet to be something I'd want to drink en masse.
-Nickel Brook Immodest IIPA - Outstanding
-Carling Black Label - Haven't seen this stuff since I lived out west. It's terrible; makes Old Milwaukee look good by comparison
-Mill Street Don Valley Bench - Kind of bland. The oak doesn't add much of anything.
-Refined Fool My Cousin Knows the Drummer - 5%. A decent hefeweizen. The mouthfeel of Erdinger with the flavour of Paulaner.
-Refined Fool Mid-Life Spices - 13%. A mead braggot brewed with cardamom, long pepper and grains of paradise. The cardamom is a bit much, but the alcohol is well-integrated. Decent for a first attempt.

[CoolB]

Made my first cross border trip in over a decade yesterday. I made a stop at Tops in Lewiston NY and it's amazing the selection even at a small town grocery store. It made the LBCO and Beer stores look embarrassing by contrast. That said I must admit I got caught like a kid in a candy shop. My eyes grew and I grabbed a bunch of American IPA's I've heard so much about but have never seen north of the border before. I got home all excited to try them and that's when I looked at the canning dates. I should know better. The freshest one was canned Feb 1st and 2 of them weren't even from this year. All in all considering ho faded the hops were I still enjoyed them all.

Bells Two Hearted Ale - There is a reason this has been voted #1 on some lists as America's best beer. Bottled in Dec 2015 this beer was still very good. It had a great mouthfeel and nice malt backbone. I'll be keeping an eye open on future trips for this one again but fresher.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Tropical IPA - another bottled in Dec 2015. Still nice but very faded and very plain tasting.

Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin - Having a grapefruit flavor added saved this one. Not much hops left but a nice grapefruit tang.

Tröegs Nugget Nectar - canned 02/01 and still tasty. Definitely a diminished hop presence but the intensity was still there but it's also a very smooth almost creamy beer to drink. I'll try this again if I can find it fresher as well.

and the only non IPA

Dogfish Head Piercing Pils - bought this for my wife but I'd drink it again myself. It's not a very sweet fruit pils. Far dryer then I expected. It has pear juice and pear tea added after the boil that impart a pleasant flavor through the saaz hops.

[CoolB]

Last night on tap at Kully Sports Bar in St Catharines

Nickel Brook - New World Brux - Belgian Pale Ale aged in Chardonnay Barrels with Brux.
This beer had a wonderful citrus nose that smelled like it was going to be very sweet but it turned out to be much drier than I was expecting. Pleasant beer.

Black Oak Dubbel Entendre - Belgian dubble with candied sugar.
Quite simply delicious. Black Oak nailed this dubbel. I even had a few miller lite sipping friends try this one and they all agreed it was great. It pours a nice mahogany colour and boasts notes of plum, fig, cherry, candied banana and clove.

Last night at home

Nickel Brook Immodest IIPA
What can I say that hasn't been said about how good this beer is. Even my wife who isn't a hop head at all liked it.

[cratez]

At Great Lakes Brewery:
GLB Currant Affair Black Currant Dubbel (sample)
GLB Chocolate Covered Cherry Things Quadrupel (sample)

At The Monk's Kettle:
Beau's Kissmeyer Nordic Pale Ale (cask)
Silversmith Black Lager (draft)

Right now:
Ayinger Weizen-Bock

[Coronaeus]

Over the past few days at BarHop2 and at home:

Trou du Diable Esteban Orange Cacao Porter (meh! Unpleasantly thin and the orange is bit medicinal in character)
Sawdust City Golden Beach Pale Wheat (Surprising good. Surprising only because I wasn't expecting much, but this could be a go to summer at the cottage kinda beer).
Night Shift The 87 IIPA (Good stuff!)
Auval Super A IIPA (Ditto!)

[cratez]

At Goodlake:
2 x Black Oak Love Fuzz (draft)

At home:
Robinsons Trooper 666
Collective Arts Stranger Than Fiction Porter
Driftwood Fat Tug IPA

[Provost Drunk]

Over the weekend at home:

Thornbridge Beadeca's Well Smoked Porter
Stone Smoked Porter

Both were actually pretty understated in their smokiness (compared to say, Beavertown Smog Rocket or even BDT's Porter Fumé au Café that I tried recently). I enjoyed Beadeca's Well more as I tend to prefer English-style porters over their American cousins.

[darmokandjalad]

Over the last week:
-"Belgian Moon" Belgian White - Indistinguishable from Rickard's White, for obvious reasons. Reeks of a weak attempt to eat up some shelf space.
-Forked River Red Coat Canadian Red Ale - 6.2%. Fine for a tipple, but not interesting. The hops don't pop and are overshadowed by the malts. Dirty bitterness on the back end that reminds me of Trafalgar ESB
-Thornbury Dark Horse Lager - The old King Dark Lager re-branded. The dark was my least-favourite of the three King lagers and I think I still feel that way.
-Whitewater Class V IPA - 5.5%, picked up at TBS. OK, but pedestrian by current Ontario IPA standards. Piney, earthy and citrusy.
-Cool Beer - Shockingly I've never had this one before. About what I expected for $6/4 pack
-Creemore Springs Kölsch Style Ale - Not bad at all. Very crisp, clean and refreshing. Worth a look if you have any interest in this style.

[Coronaeus]

Over the past week:

Ma Brasserie Tribale IIPA (an odd earwax thing going on here)
Le Castor Catherine (hot but nice)
NEBCO Sea Hag
Tree House Julius (great stuff!)
Tree House Lights On
Night Shift Morph (Great)
Les 2 Freres Hickson IPA (Had never heard of this. Not bad at all)
Trillium Sleeper Street

[cratez]

At Burdock:
Burdock American Pale Ale - Citra & Simcoe (draft)
Burdock Cranberry Berliner (draft)
Burdock IPA IV (draft)

These guys are the real deal, and I will definitely be back.

[MeltedOzark]

Over the past week:

Ma Brasserie Tribale IIPA (an odd earwax thing going on here)
Le Castor Catherine (hot but nice)
NEBCO Sea Hag
Tree House Julius (great stuff!)
Tree House Lights On
Night Shift Morph (Great)
Les 2 Freres Hickson IPA (Had never heard of this. Not bad at all)
Trillium Sleeper Street

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your hands on the Tree House and Trillium?

[Coronaeus]

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your hands on the Tree House and Trillium?

An IP trade in Toronto from a very generous guy on Beer Advocate from New England. it was a big trade, at least for me (about 20 bottles and cans changing hands). My end was primarily Bellwoods (all the BA stuff over the past year or so) with some Great Lakes stuff and a few other things for a bunch of Tree House, Trillium, Night Shift, Jack's Abby and NEBCO with a few other things like KBS, SMS and some other interesting stuff.

[MeltedOzark]

If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your hands on the Tree House and Trillium?

An IP trade in Toronto from a very generous guy on Beer Advocate from New England. it was a big trade, at least for me (about 20 bottles and cans changing hands). My end was primarily Bellwoods (all the BA stuff over the past year or so) with some Great Lakes stuff and a few other things for a bunch of Tree House, Trillium, Night Shift, Jack's Abby and NEBCO with a few other things like KBS, SMS and some other interesting stuff.

Nice, great trade. Sounds like I should get involved with BA trading if this kind of thing is going on.

[cratez]

At Milos' Craft Beer Emporium:
Neustadt Springs 456 Marzen (draft)
Great Lakes Octopus Wants to Fight IPA (draft)
Beer Lab London Citra/Galaxy/Jarrylo Session Ale (sample)
Flying Monkeys Invictus Solera Aged Russian Imperial Stout (sample)
Bellwoods Farmageddon (sample)

At Half Hours On Earth Brewery:
Half Hours On Earth White Dwarf (sample)
Half Hours On Earth Razzy Star (sample)
Half Hours On Earth Control Bored (sample)
Plus a couple of blends and an unfinished sour ale brewed with cherries

The Control Bored (farmhouse ale brewed with chamomile) and Razzy Star (funky wheat ale brewed w/ raspberries & orange peel) are ridiculously good and the White Dwarf (farmhouse witbier w/ chamomile & orange peel) is also very tasty. Kyle has a bright future ahead of him if he keeps making beers of this calibre.

Then at Mercer Hall:
Muskoka Moonlight Kettle Series #4: Mosaic Single Hop (draft)