The Bar Towel

does not include retired beers or ciders/meads

1) Denisons Weissbier
2) Scotch Irish John By Imperial Stout
3) Black Oak Ten Bitter Years
4) Wellington Imperial Russian Stout
5) Durham Hop Head
6) Denisons Dunkel
7) Black Oak Hop Bomb
8 ) Black Oak Nutcracker
9) Mill Street Tankhouse Ale
10) Durham Hop Addict

discuss.....

We REALLY need some more Stouts... last bottle of Heritage Scotch Irish John By I cracked open was 'meh...'

Black Oak 10 Bitter Years is unusually American in the hopping. Impressive that such a small new release has hit #3 so quickly. See any correlation?

And the last few Denisons Weisse I had were almost unbelievably good. The take-home edition is awesome. I also can't believe the fairly obscure Dunkel is also doing fantastically well in the scoring.

Some great beers, but on the whole only three that I think could hold their own south of the border (weiss, dunkel and nutcracker), and that makes me sad. I don't want to slam Ontario, because we do make some pretty decent stuff, but there are very few beers that make you sit up and take notice. I would have hoped that a top 10 for our province would be full of exciting things, but I don't exactly drop my load when I have a Tankhouse or a John By.

I produced the same list on BA last year, and there was a lot of correlation, but I think it had Al's Cask Ale and Coffee Porter from C'est What and Creemore's Keller. I expect once his beers get more ratings we'll see a few Duggan creations up there

Both the John By and the Tankhouse are probably ranked higher than they should be based on old ratings... Still nice beers but I the Ten Bitter Years is probably the best one on that list by a large margin.

JerCraigs wrote:Both the John By and the Tankhouse are probably ranked higher than they should be based on old ratings... Still nice beers but the Ten Bitter Years is probably the best one on that list by a large margin.

Ten Bitter Years will most likely take over the #1 when the second batch comes out.

John By...well i just re-rated it down to a 3.4 from a 4.4

Tankhouse is still solid IMO

no wonder they make fun of us in Quebec, see the correlation?

If the Great Lakes Neutron Bomb DOuble IPA was widely available, I'd bet some good money that it would top that list.

northyorksammy wrote:no wonder they make fun of us in Quebec, see the correlation?

Not really, no.

Just like Ontario, Quebec has a few really solid breweries, and bunch of mediocre ones, and more than a few awful ones.

GregClow wrote:

northyorksammy wrote:no wonder they make fun of us in Quebec, see the correlation?

Not really, no.

Just like Ontario, Quebec has a few really solid breweries, and bunch of mediocre ones, and more than a few awful ones.

I agree. And yet disagree. The difference is that Quebec's top-notch breweries kick our top-notch breweries ten ways to Sunday (Charlevoix, DDC, TM) and have strong bottled offerings whereas in Ontario some of the better offerings are draft or cask only or sold only at the brewery; distribution is part of the problem.

It would be hard to argue, though, that Quebec's top tier don't solidly beat our top tier (by this list: Denisons, Black Oak, Durham)

I was noting that many of these better Ontario beers are so poorly-represented in our retail system, compared to great USA brews in their respective retail systems - eg. many of the ones you can find in any Consumers (or even Wegmans.) It's so unbalanced.

We seem to have this systemic inferiority that perpetuates mediocrity. Then, I'm amazed when despite this beers like DDC are an instant LCBO hit, and one realizes we already do have a public ready to buy great beer- even if this fact seems largely ignored by most of the "product selections" they arbitrate for us. It's stunning how ignorant the LCBO appears to be.

What other retailer would routinely avoid selling world-class products they could so easily obtain & sell profitably?

Belgian wrote:
What other retailer would routinely avoid selling world-class products they could so easily obtain & sell profitably?

No frills?

SteelbackGuy wrote:

Belgian wrote:
What other retailer would routinely avoid selling world-class products they could so easily obtain & sell profitably?

No frills?

The LCBO - No Frills quality in a boutique store

icemachine wrote:

SteelbackGuy wrote:

Belgian wrote:
What other retailer would routinely avoid selling world-class products they could so easily obtain & sell profitably?

No frills?

The LCBO - No Frills quality in a boutique store

ritzkiss wrote:

GregClow wrote:

northyorksammy wrote:no wonder they make fun of us in Quebec, see the correlation?

Not really, no.

Just like Ontario, Quebec has a few really solid breweries, and bunch of mediocre ones, and more than a few awful ones.

I agree. And yet disagree. The difference is that Quebec's top-notch breweries kick our top-notch breweries ten ways to Sunday (Charlevoix, DDC, TM) and have strong bottled offerings whereas in Ontario some of the better offerings are draft or cask only or sold only at the brewery; distribution is part of the problem.

It would be hard to argue, though, that Quebec's top tier don't solidly beat our top tier (by this list: Denisons, Black Oak, Durham)

Agreed - while I love our guys I know we don't have anyone the equivalent of Dieu du Ciel and the others mentioned above. I'd be happy to take the top 10 Quebec beers over the top 10 Ontario any day (even if the ratebeer list has a hard on for DDC):

1) Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel
2) Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel en Fût de Bourbon Américain
3) Dieu du Ciel Aphrodisiaque
4) Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Lupulus
5) Dieu du Ciel Grande Noirceur
6) Unibroue La Terrible
7) Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Hibernus
8 ) Bièropholie Impériale Stout
9) Dieu du Ciel Quintessence
10) À l’Abri de la Tempête Corne de Brume

Belgian wrote:We REALLY need some more Stouts... .

I was out at Beaus this past weekend, and in the retail shop was a sign stating that coming soon was not only the Beaver River IPA, but a Belgian Imperial Stout. According to the girl there at the store that day, aged with oak in the fermenters. Guess I'll be heading back out that way in a few weeks for some.