The Bar Towel

beerstodiscover wrote:Fullers Imperial IPA — Really nice beast of an ale. Firm Euro hops and massive malt. Fruity, bready, herbal, sweet and bitter.

In its latest effort at over-packaging an ultra premium beer, Fullers triumphs with the darkest amber ale you've ever seen. Densely flavorful, exudes richness and a hop oil quality that outshines some of their vintage ales, with the supporting fruit bringing in dried apricots, raisins and fruit cake sweetness. Some lemony and gently peppery qualities. Great even for 8 bucks will probably age like the English barley wine it truly appears to be.

How did I overlook this so far. One of the best things at the LC right now IMHO.

Belgian wrote:

beerstodiscover wrote:Fullers Imperial IPA — Really nice beast of an ale. Firm Euro hops and massive malt. Fruity, bready, herbal, sweet and bitter.

In its latest effort at over-packaging an ultra premium beer, Fullers triumphs with the darkest amber ale you've ever seen. Densely flavorful, exudes richness and a hop oil quality that outshines some of their vintage ales, with the supporting fruit bringing in dried apricots, raisins and fruit cake sweetness. Some lemony and gently peppery qualities. Great even for 8 bucks will probably age like the English barley wine it truly appears to be.

How did I overlook this so far. One of the best things at the LC right now IMHO.

Drank one of these tonight and was blown away. On first impression it’s more of a barleywine....but in the finish the hops kick in reminding your it’s an ipa. Great English hop flavours, rich malty body and great mouthfeel. This, THIS should have been their Vintage ale this year, as it far outshines that bottle(of which I’m usually a huge fan). BB date of 2028 or something along those lines. I’m sure after a year or so, she’ll definately be very much more of a barleywine than an ipa.....and I’m perfectly ok with that. I initially bought two bottles and even at the 8$ Price point, if I see more then I’ll snatch them up. Stunning beer, truly showcasing some of the very best of British style brewing.

Glad I'm not the only one. I actually drank the one bottle over two days, using a champagne stopper to preserve the CO2... still quite something, it's very stunning in as you say a British way, it's a powerful beer and one it's worth buying again and cellaring some to develop for a few to several years. Bottle conditioning preordains this little experiment.



Followed this with a Beyond The Pale Aromatherapy, this can poured almost totally clear with zero haze despite some shaking. Has a good refined herbal hop bitterness, some lemon and some boozy sharpness. For me it's always shown its best on tap here in Ontario, but I'm a fan of Yummy! NEPA all day long as a top five pick.

Belgian wrote:Glad I'm not the only one. I actually drank the one bottle over two days, using a champagne stopper to preserve the CO2... still quite something, it's very stunning in as you say a British way, it's a powerful beer and one it's worth buying again and cellaring some to develop for a few to several years. Bottle conditioning preordains this little experiment.



Followed this with a Beyond The Pale Aromatherapy, this can poured almost totally clear with zero haze despite some shaking. Has a good refined herbal hop bitterness, some lemon and some boozy sharpness. For me it's always shown its best on tap here in Ontario, but I'm a fan of Yummy! NEPA all day long as a top five pick.

It pisses me off royally that the Fuller's is not available in my city or for online delivery to either home or store.

BeerIsGood wrote:

Belgian wrote:Glad I'm not the only one. I actually drank the one bottle over two days, using a champagne stopper to preserve the CO2... still quite something, it's very stunning in as you say a British way, it's a powerful beer and one it's worth buying again and cellaring some to develop for a few to several years. Bottle conditioning preordains this little experiment.



Followed this with a Beyond The Pale Aromatherapy, this can poured almost totally clear with zero haze despite some shaking. Has a good refined herbal hop bitterness, some lemon and some boozy sharpness. For me it's always shown its best on tap here in Ontario, but I'm a fan of Yummy! NEPA all day long as a top five pick.

It pisses me off royally that the Fuller's is not available in my city or for online delivery to either home or store.

go to the store, ask them to bring you in a case of the beer you are after, return the portion of the case you dont want once the product comes in

BeerIsGood wrote:

Belgian wrote:Glad I'm not the only one. I actually drank the one bottle over two days, using a champagne stopper to preserve the CO2... still quite something, it's very stunning in as you say a British way, it's a powerful beer and one it's worth buying again and cellaring some to develop for a few to several years. Bottle conditioning preordains this little experiment.



Followed this with a Beyond The Pale Aromatherapy, this can poured almost totally clear with zero haze despite some shaking. Has a good refined herbal hop bitterness, some lemon and some boozy sharpness. For me it's always shown its best on tap here in Ontario, but I'm a fan of Yummy! NEPA all day long as a top five pick.

It pisses me off royally that the Fuller's is not available in my city or for online delivery to either home or store.

I really find that these Fullers special releases have such sporadic distribution. They had none at any of the 5 stores here in the city. I just happened to be in a store out of town and saw it, so snatched a couple. Same thing has happened in the past with the Imperial Stout.

I just visited Shacklands, Rainhard, and Junction Breweries. Shacklands has a nice quad, and a very good Belgian double IIPA collab with Rainhard. Rainhard had an Armed and Sabro pale ale, which displayed the hop variety well. I also tried an Age and Beauty #2, which was a decent sour. At Junction, i got to try a 0IBU IPA on cask, which had a strong grapefruit taste, and I tried a SMX Belhoste Ale. This beer had a nice strawberry estery taste with some biscuit notes. Cheers.

St Bernardus Abt 12 — Pairs lovely with this snowstorm

At Milos' Craft Beer Emporium:
Neustadt Springs Texas Tea Stout (cask)
Sonnen Hill Jive Pale Ale (draft)
Left Field Reggie Bar Stout (draft)
Blood Brothers Cactus Head DDH IPA (draft)

At Pizzeria Madre:
Sonnen Hill Lager Beer (draft)

At Company Bar:
Collective Arts Wet Hop 2019 (draft)
Halo Chroma Key - Saskatoon Berry (draft)
Blood Brothers Devil’s Trill X: Trill Communication (draft)
Great Lakes Chocolate Covered Cherry Things (sample)

Over the week at home:
Bellwoods Monogamy - Sabro
Bellwoods Hellwoods 2020
Bellwoods Grandma

BartOwl wrote:I just visited Shacklands, Rainhard, and Junction Breweries. Shacklands has a nice quad, and a very good Belgian double IIPA collab with Rainhard. Rainhard had an Armed and Sabro pale ale, which displayed the hop variety well. I also tried an Age and Beauty #2, which was a decent sour. At Junction, i got to try a 0IBU IPA on cask, which had a strong grapefruit taste, and I tried a SMX Belhoste Ale. This beer had a nice strawberry estery taste with some biscuit notes. Cheers.

It's a nice trifecta for sure. I'm most partial to Rainhard and their focus on hoppy beers and sours, but Junction cranks out some good boilerplate takes on English, German, and US styles that often fly under the radar. Shacklands is decent to below average in my mind, and I don't love that so many of the Belgian-style beers they do are fruited (not to mention expensive), but it's a fun spot to hit if you're doing an Aleyards crawl. Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit.

cratez wrote:At Milos' Craft Beer Emporium:
Neustadt Springs Texas Tea Stout (cask)

Wow! Haven't had this in many, many years. Can't honestly remember what it was like, although I do remember liking it.

S. St. Jeb wrote:

cratez wrote:At Milos' Craft Beer Emporium:
Neustadt Springs Texas Tea Stout (cask)

Wow! Haven't had this in many, many years. Can't honestly remember what it was like, although I do remember liking it.

Solid roasty stout base with a balanced honey sweetness (it's flavoured with honey). Simple but enjoyable beer, and always nice to find on cask.

matt7215 wrote:

BeerIsGood wrote:

Belgian wrote:Glad I'm not the only one. I actually drank the one bottle over two days, using a champagne stopper to preserve the CO2... still quite something, it's very stunning in as you say a British way, it's a powerful beer and one it's worth buying again and cellaring some to develop for a few to several years. Bottle conditioning preordains this little experiment.



Followed this with a Beyond The Pale Aromatherapy, this can poured almost totally clear with zero haze despite some shaking. Has a good refined herbal hop bitterness, some lemon and some boozy sharpness. For me it's always shown its best on tap here in Ontario, but I'm a fan of Yummy! NEPA all day long as a top five pick.

It pisses me off royally that the Fuller's is not available in my city or for online delivery to either home or store.

go to the store, ask them to bring you in a case of the beer you are after, return the portion of the case you dont want once the product comes in

That worked. My local has put it in their order book for me and it should be here in a week or so. Thanks for the tip.

Death Valley Triple Hop Ale from Quebec. Quite a nice Belgian IPA, which is a style I’d like to see more of around these parts.

BeerIsGood wrote:

matt7215 wrote:... go to the store, ask them to bring you in a case of the beer you are after, return the portion of the case you dont want once the product comes in

That worked. My local has put it in their order book for me and it should be here in a week or so. Thanks for the tip.

Of course you may want to 'return' the extra bottles immediately in the store, right when you show up VS after you take them home.

You're allowed, according to the LC. And this way they can put the bottles out on a shelf for other lucky shoppers instead of doing a a Code 6 (destroying all the returned beer.)

Belgian wrote:

BeerIsGood wrote:

matt7215 wrote:... go to the store, ask them to bring you in a case of the beer you are after, return the portion of the case you dont want once the product comes in

That worked. My local has put it in their order book for me and it should be here in a week or so. Thanks for the tip.

Of course you may want to 'return' the extra bottles immediately in the store, right when you show up VS after you take them home.

You're allowed, according to the LC. And this way they can put the bottles out on a shelf for other lucky shoppers instead of doing a a Code 6 (destroying all the returned beer.)

Based on what I’ve read here from people who’ve tried it, I’m leaning heavily towards keeping the entire case. I’ll have 2-3 now and sit the rest for a while.