The Bar Towel

Having a post-wedding BBQ next sunday (stop buy if you guys can find my house!!) and I picked up several cans of Crazy Canuck.

sprague11 wrote: Out of province: Stone IPA and Dale's Pale Ale

Stone IPA from Premier Gourmet ($10)were a lot fresher than those from Consumers Sheridan ($13) - makes a huge difference in the aroma, even though the beer holds up well.

I will also cast in a vote for Great Lakes Burning River as well. Outstanding APA, ($9) and easy to find in Buffalo.

Not my preferred style, but I think Mill St Tankhouse is first rate. The toasted malts round out the fairly assertive U.S. hopping and, well, it's just a a great formula.

Gary

I'm in with the majority on this one it seems; Smashbomb, Mad Tom, Hop Head and Canuck. They're all solid beers.

G.M. Gillman wrote:Not my preferred style, but I think Mill St Tankhouse is first rate. The toasted malts round out the fairly assertive U.S. hopping and, well, it's just a a great formula.

Gary

tank house is an ontario pale ale

matt7215 wrote:

G.M. Gillman wrote:Not my preferred style, but I think Mill St Tankhouse is first rate. The toasted malts round out the fairly assertive U.S. hopping and, well, it's just a a great formula.

Gary

tank house is an ontario pale ale

...or an american amber ale.

Oh for goodness sakes, forgive me, but that is just silly semantics. If we are discussing favourite hop-forward pale ales or India pale ales available in Ontario, surely Tankhouse qualifies, and in fact deserves some respect (though it's not my personal favourite) for being one of Ontario's pioneers.

My personal favourite at the moment is Grand River Pugnacious. It has those quirky tropical flavours going on. Very drinkable.

midlife crisis wrote:Oh for goodness sakes, forgive me, but that is just silly semantics. If we are discussing favourite hop-forward pale ales or India pale ales available in Ontario, surely Tankhouse qualifies, and in fact deserves some respect (though it's not my personal favourite) for being one of Ontario's pioneers.

My personal favourite at the moment is Grand River Pugnacious. It has those quirky tropical flavours going on. Very drinkable.

Tankhouse is a fine beer, but its not an APA or an IPA. american amber is still the neatest way to describe this beer stylistically. it was easily my fav ontario brew for along time before the rest of the ontario brewers stepped up their game.

also when are they gonna start canning Tankhouse, id still buy it occasionally if availible in singles

Gotta agree with matt1234567 that the toasty caramel malts in Tankhouse and #9 place those beers their own (respectable) class. What about Devils Pale, or what are other similar Ontario Pales?

No complaints that the main thrust of this tread is USA- or West Coast-style, we've needed that here for a long time.

midlife crisis wrote:Oh for goodness sakes, forgive me, but that is just silly semantics. If we are discussing favourite hop-forward pale ales or India pale ales available in Ontario, surely Tankhouse qualifies, and in fact deserves some respect (though it's not my personal favourite) for being one of Ontario's pioneers.

+1

And for those who don't find beer semantics silly, Tankhouse is classified as an APA on both RB and BA, it meets the BJCP style guidelines for an APA and there is no recognized beer category called 'Ontario pale ale'.

midlife crisis wrote:My personal favourite at the moment is Grand River Pugnacious. It has those quirky tropical flavours going on. Very drinkable.

pugnacious is a cambridge pale ale

midlife crisis wrote:
My personal favourite at the moment is Grand River Pugnacious. It has those quirky tropical flavours going on. Very drinkable.

I wish I could find those tropical fruit flavours that a couple of people have mentioned. I get nothing but floral flavours from the hops and find this to be a below average pale ale.

cannondale wrote:

midlife crisis wrote:My personal favourite at the moment is Grand River Pugnacious. It has those quirky tropical flavours going on. Very drinkable.

pugnacious is a cambridge pale ale

thats galt pale ale to you

also to quote one of the best posts ever on ratebeer

all beers are pale ales:

"Anyone at GBBF this year will know that I think all beers are pale ales, but done slightly differently. Stout is a pale ale made with some dark malts, lager is a pale ale made with a lager yeast, lambic is a pale ale that has been allowed to go off/become infected, sahti is a pale ale that has been messed up really badly etc (there is a certain amount of me being facetious here, but only to highlight a point)"

^harrisoni^

cannondale wrote: And for those who don't find beer semantics silly, Tankhouse is classified as an APA on both RB and BA, it meets the BJCP style guidelines for an APA and there is no recognized beer category called 'Ontario pale ale'.

What, so we can't talk about a specific regional style of Pale Ale in Ontario? Who needs the officialdom? (I know you're just pointing out what's official & I guess within that our tiny beer scene doesn't even blip on the radar. )

Because I think there's been a clear dividing line laid down in this province between the old and the new - namely, the Tankhouse kind of beers that for years seemed like the cautious avoidance of USA West Coast style and - more recently - the sudden embracing of USA West Coast by our brewers and (thankfully) even the LCBO.

I mean the game is on - there's a place for Tankhouse, and a very different place for Mad Tom and Smashbomb. There's been a change here. We have finally crossed over.

Feel free to disagree (I won't try to win anyone's vote) but it seems amazingly obvious.