The Bar Towel

At Toboggan Brewing:
Toboggan Climate Change Belgian Wheat (draft)
Toboggan Lunatic Fridge IPA (draft)

Over the week at home:
Jolly Pumpkin Oro De Calabaza
Great Lakes THRUST! An IPA
Great Lakes Project Red X
Bellwoods Runes - Simcoe & Mosaic

Hearthstone Cool Hand Cuke Sour Ale

I haven't had too many sours, so I can't make a comparison, but I really like this. A good summer beer.

darmokandjalad wrote:

sofakingdrunk wrote:I've had a decent amount of the new limburg blond....it's not a style I generally go for, but this is a really nice beer.
I picked up their Wit on the weekend(also a style I'm not huge on) and like it a lot. Less sweet than most wit beers, actually quite dry with a. Nice minerality to it. Reminded me a little bit of st Bernardus wit. Solid solid stuff

Indeed... I was impressed with the Blond. Other than Unibroue, not a lot of Canadian breweries (at the LCBO) consistently compete with the Belgian competition. I hope to pick up some of that Wit the next time I am in London (probably within a week or two), since I haven't seen it 'round these parts. St Bernardus Wit is my favourite witbier overall so that is a very favourable comparison in my eyes

seangm wrote:I really enjoyed [Sling Shot California Common], thought it was a nice example of the style and fares well against Anchor (though Anchor still wins in my books). Your notes about the Mill Street pack are discouraging though, just picked up the summer sampler for myself lol. Oh well, gotta try everything once.

I am also really digging that Sling Shot, and have picked up a few more cans since that original post. It's an underrepresented style and I want to enjoy it while it's fresh and available.

As for the Mill Street pack, hopefully you've had a better experience than I did. The Honest Bucker was pretty good, and I don't mind their West Coast IPA. The rest of it was pretty underwhelming, though.

Well a month and a half later I finally got through the entire Mill Street pack. I've gotta say I was pleasantly surprised by Honest Bucker, probably the best thing they've done in as long as I can remember and I think it'd make a good candidate as a core offering. The rest of the pack was very meh as you'd suggested, and I think I'm being generous. Jigger's Delight, Stone Mason and Walker's Blueberry were so safe and uninspiring that I don't even know why they bothered. People generally expect they'll take a chance with mixed packs, so why not push the boundaries at least a little bit? I guess Mill Street is past the point of needing to impress since they've got the recognition and a large core of buyers who just buy their products because it's Mill Street.

Anyway, some other beers over the past couple weeks...

Passionfruit Day Game Session IPA - Left Field Brewery: Not bad, but I felt that they used too many hop varieties that drowned out the passionfruit addition. Seemed a bit muddled, whereas sticking to one complementary hop variety might've come together better. Session IPAs often lack balance in my eyes anyway though, but I feel I might enjoy the regular Game Day a bit better since there are still some good things going on here.

Left of the Divide IPA - Central City collab w/ Four Winds Brewing: I really enjoyed this one. It might be because the trend of NE/juicy IPAs is so dominant now, and this reminded me of the "classic" west coast IPAs that really got me into craft beer. Fairly assertive bitterness with those classic citrus and dank hop notes, but with a nice tropical hit from the Idaho 7 hops.

Chuao Porter - Amsterdam Brewery: This one was hiding in plain sight, took me a while to get to it. Gotta say I was impressed, very rich porter with lots of chocolate. Didn't rely solely on additions though, good notes of coffee, dark fruit and even a bit of smokiness. Veered into stout territory, very tasty.

Elvis Juice - Brewdog: Reminded me a bit of Mad Tom with a grapefruit/citrus forward flavour. Not bad but at the end of the day there are so many good fresh, local IPAs that there's not much point buying something several months old that's been shipped across an ocean.

impressed with the Blond. Other than Unibroue, not a lot of Canadian breweries (at the LCBO) consistently compete with the Belgian competition.

I'm actually noticing more of them do! Black Bellows, Bench, Rouge River... I never expect to really like a new Ontario Saison or Witbier so there have definitely been some surprise wow moments the past year.

sofakingdrunk wrote:I missed out on the 2014,But I've got a '15 and '16 sitting in the fridge that I'll make a point to drinking before they're past their best.

'15 might be past its best as it was a sour red ale. I last had it about 14 months ago and it had lost a lot of the sour character that it started with, though it was still delicious.

Having a 2012 Van de Keizer Blauw - this is coming along nicely developing some finer texture of deep sweet black fruit and licorice and spice. Still has plenty of baby fat, I may age the remaining few bottles for 5-8 years. It's actually a wee bit like La Terrible.

No rush if you're holding these, the carbonation is vibrant and overall condition of the beer is impressive. This would be a great beer to see back at the LC & add an armful to the cellar space, it should pay dividends for the long haul.

I was having a tipple of Oloroso and had a craving for Keizer Blauw, and I have to say it hit the spot.

Belgian wrote:

impressed with the Blond. Other than Unibroue, not a lot of Canadian breweries (at the LCBO) consistently compete with the Belgian competition.

I'm actually noticing more of them do ... Rouge River...

which RR offerings would you say compete with Belgian offerings?

portwood wrote:which RR offerings would you say compete with Belgian offerings?

I mixed them up with somebody. Subject would make a good alternate thread.

Belgian wrote:

portwood wrote:which RR offerings would you say compete with Belgian offerings?

I mixed them up with somebody. Subject would make a good alternate thread.

Thought so. TO date, other than a few sours that could be considered Belgian style(?), they have only done pale ales and IPA's.

Belgian wrote:Having a 2012 Van de Keizer Blauw - this is coming along nicely developing some finer texture of deep sweet black fruit and licorice and spice. Still has plenty of baby fat, I may age the remaining few bottles for 5-8 years. It's actually a wee bit like La Terrible.

No rush if you're holding these, the carbonation is vibrant and overall condition of the beer is impressive. This would be a great beer to see back at the LC & add an armful to the cellar space, it should pay dividends for the long haul.

I was having a tipple of Oloroso and had a craving for Keizer Blauw, and I have to say it hit the spot.

Good to hear.

Over the weekend at Goose Island Brewhouse, King Taps, and Bar Hop:
Goose Island Kaiser Geyser (flight sample)
Goose Island ’59 Brown (flight sample)
Goose Island Off-Season Lager (flight sample)
Goose Island Midnight Oil (flight sample)
Muskoka & King Taps West Coast Pale Ale (draft)
Bench Cellar Biere De Garde (sample)
Tooth And Nail Lucidity (draft)

Over the week at home:
Bellwoods Psidiumism
Bellwoods Monogamy: Double Dry Hop El Dorado Hop Hash
Bellwoods Witchshark
Oast House Sweet'n Sow'r Biere De Mars
Rainhard Daywalker Vermont Session IPA
Rainhard Revolution Series #4 - Hop Hash Centennial

Picked up a single can of FM juicy ass IPA(fucking horrible name).
I was quite impressed by it, big juicy hop flavours, well balanced and really drinkable. Lots of orange/tangerine/passionfruit going on. It actually reminds me a bit of Ransack. Probably the best flying monkeys beer I've had in years

Reaching for:

Godspeed Pitch & Pray series: Dortmunder
Original Ritterguts Gose
2014 Orval
2012 Saison Dupont 750ml

Crap the Orval is basically gone from the LCs. This has been an Orval-a-day time for me lately.

And this Saison Dupont is an absolutely beautiful beer. The epitome of bottle-conditioned ales that cellar very well, probably for the longest in the corked and caged 750mls but I'm sure the capped 330s are good for 3 or so years.

At Forte the Restaurant in Jamestown, NY:
Ommegang & Liefmans Pale Sour Ale (bottle)
Southern Tier Porter (draft)
Southern Tier 3 Citrus Peel Out (draft)

At Brazil Craft Beer & Wine Lounge:
Peak Organic The Juice (draft)
Lervig & Stillwater Nordic Lean (sample)
Southern Tier Nu Skool IPA (draft)

At Southern Tier Brewing:
Southern Tier Lemon Drop Sun (draft)
2017 Southern Tier Harvest Ale (sample)
Southern Tier 2XSMASH (draft)

At Cloud 9 Wine Bar in Erie, PA:
Boulevard Hibiscus Gose (draft)
Deschutes Passionfruit IPA (draft)
Founders Oatmeal Stout (nitro)

At Lavery Brewing:
Lavery Dulachan IPA (can)
Lavery Dark Warrior Black Lager (draft)
Lavery Madra Alta IPA (draft)
Lavery Imperial French Ale (sample)

At Voodoo Brewery Erie:
Voodoo KillaPilz (draft)
Voodoo White Magick Of The Sun (sample)
Voodoo Hoodoo IPA (draft)

At U Pick Tap House:
Southern Tier Live (draft)
North Coast Old No. 38 Stout (draft)
Atwater Stoney Lodge (sample)
Founders reDANKulous Imperial Red IPA (draft)

At Mad Mex Erie:
Green Flash Blonde (draft)
Fat Head's Head Hunter IPA (draft)

sofakingdrunk wrote:Picked up a single can of FM juicy ass IPA(fucking horrible name).
I was quite impressed by it, big juicy hop flavours, well balanced and really drinkable. Lots of orange/tangerine/passionfruit going on. It actually reminds me a bit of Ransack. Probably the best flying monkeys beer I've had in years

Haha! I had very similar thoughts about this one, right down to the stupid-ass name (actually, now that I think about it, Stupid Ass IPA would be preferable). I can sort of forgive them because it's the best IPA they've put out in quite a long time... but seriously, that name sucks. And I don't mean in the "offensive to people with large asses" sense - it's just dumb and unoriginal.