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Innis & Gunn Edinburgh Ale 6.6%

Contribute your own beer reviews and ratings of beers that are made or available in Ontario.

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tupalev
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Post by tupalev »

broccoli over asparagus
Wow.

I can't believe I am reading that as a comparison to Young's Double Chocolate and Rogue Chocolate (unblended of course, am I allowed to talk about it in this thread Peter?). You have an interesting palate there Lister, as I have gathered from previous discussions. I wish you all the best in finding terrific beer that suits it. I only post on this subject because I find the 2 beers you have mentioned to be 2 of the most decadent drinking experiences I have ever had. I hope the Rogue sells well enough that we'll see it again (is there any chance of a rogue product getting on the regular list?). Until then, it looks like I need another case...

Jeff

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lister
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Post by lister »

Belgian wrote:I bet stouts just aren't your thing. Just as killer IPA's aren't something I can tolerate for very long, something in the hops I guess.
Nope, they don't appear to be. Ah well. I still will try the odd interesting stout now and then. I'd like to try that Black Forest cherry one from Black Oak (I think) sometime.
Ever tried any Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier from Bamberg? I'd love to see the reaction to that one. They say 'you have to drink a few to get the taste.' That seems to apply to many beers for me.
No I haven't. Based on what I've read it's worth a try. I'll pick up a bottle when I get some more Innis & Gunn soon.
lister

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lister
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Post by lister »

tupalev wrote:I can't believe I am reading that as a comparison to Young's Double Chocolate and Rogue Chocolate ... You have an interesting palate there Lister, as I have gathered from previous discussions. I wish you all the best in finding terrific beer that suits it. I only post on this subject because I find the 2 beers you have mentioned to be 2 of the most decadent drinking experiences I have ever had.
I'm the first to admit my tastebuds are odd and inconsistent with textures playing an important role too. I tend to favour sweet while shunning bitter but there are some oddball exceptions to that which I won't bother to bore anyone with.

I've found plenty of terrific, in my opinion, beers that satisfies my palate. It's a pretty wide range too even with the exclusion of stouts, porters, most dark beers, hop killers and coriander wit beers.
I hope the Rogue sells well enough that we'll see it again (is there any chance of a rogue product getting on the regular list?).
I certainly hope their Kells Irish style lager shows up sometime. I really like it.
lister

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shintriad
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Post by shintriad »

Just tried this. I enjoyed it. Lots of buttery, smoky notes in a stable package. Maybe there are subtler beers in this vein, but this is unusual to me and therefore good.

As for the ever-controversial "beer cocktail" discussion, I'm all for it. I figure, once you've tried the beer in its intended, natural form, everything thereafter is fair game. I mean, there's a great big world of taste sensations out there and I want to try them all. You know who else would scoff at the idea of blending beer to make something new? Bud drinkers. Beer purists are boring as Everybody Loves Raymond reruns.

Over the weekend, based on what I read in this thread, I was ordering Hoegaarden with shots of Chambord in it. Like drinking fine French perfume, and almost as expensive. Great stuff!

old faithful
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Post by old faithful »

That sounds really good.

I recall reading a short history of biere blanche in the far north of France, in the region called Le Cambresis (chief town, Cambrai, a name many will recall from important history in WW 1).

The author, a former brewer in the region, M. Pierre-Andre Dubois, wrote that the beer was put in Champagne-style bottles and matured in the cellars of the bars around the town squares. He said each bar owner had his special way of selling and serving the beer. Some put Cognac in it or Genever Gin. Others added sugar or rice grains to encourage a good secondary fermentation. The Belgian white beer just over the border was part of the white beer tradition that stretched over a good part of the Flemish or former Flemish lands. Chambord and Hoegaarden sounds very much like something one of those cafetiers would have done as his particular specialty. I think M. Dubois said some of the beers used wheat but not all, some were made from pale barley malt only. He said in the 1800's in the Region there were 3 kinds of beer: red, white and black.

Speaking of Budweiser, I am not much of a fan because even when very fresh the beer seems pallid (unlike 30 years ago). However two weeks ago I had some Michelob (not the Light) from a 12 pack in the States and the package (which I bought) was dated August 22 as "production" date. However you read that, it was darn fresh and tasted really good. It was put by yours truly in a cooler with some other beers including some local micro ales for a group which included many beer fans. The Mich went first, almost in a flash.

It was very good, like I remembered it from many years ago with a signature taste that an early beer book called "scrambled eggs", a description that caused me to laugh when I first read it but actually is dead on.

We can't drink Michelob today, or hardly any American beers in Ontario, which I find annoying. I've got many choices amongst, say, East European lagers, but amongst quality American beers, there are, what, four or five ? Not right.

Just to turn the thread back a bit to its origin, I tried recently the new Belhaven Scotch Ale. This was excellent with a marked smoky taste, not unlike the Innis & Gunn beer but not quite as buttery/oaky. It reminded me a lot of the St. Andrews we used to get.

Gary

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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

The Bellhaven 'Wee Heavy' is pretty good, it definitely pushes my comfort envelope with its assertive smoky, peaty notes. Most beers don't make me go 'I'm not sure I can deal with this!' But I did. The Okocim porter was like that too, just a bit overpoweringly strange and unusual to my taste buds.
In Beerum Veritas

old faithful
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Post by old faithful »

The Okocim is welcome simply because it is one of the few if not the only dark East European beers available here. It is good with a true porter taste and the brown colour is closer probably to that of 1700's porters than many porters today. However, it has a marked sweetness that seemed off-putting. Maybe the traditional porters were as sweet as this, I don't know. Maybe the Okocim uses a non-highly-attenuating yeast and then pasteurises for stability, locking in the residual extract. Anyway it is good but a "big" glass of beer. I could see this being mixed 50/50 with a good dry pale lager. By the way to respond to an earlier comment, I for one would not buy a beer merely to use it for a blend. I always buy intending to drink it down as such. But if I find a beer might benefit by being blended that is when I initiate a plan.

I tried recently a beer I hadn't had in about 10 years, Grolsch, in the can in this instance. It is lighter than I remember it but was very fresh (2 months past brewing date, not bad for an import). Grolsch used to have a characteristic grassy or hay-like taste. I could never figure out if that was intentional or the result of travel time on the beer. (The one time I visited Amsterdam I didn't find it on draft and didn't try it in the bottle, there were too many others to try). Anyway this canned version was very good. It had a light underlying bitterness and malt character and a cleaner taste than I recall, that grassy/hay like taste was gone. I don't know if this is the result of changed processes or fast importation. I intend to try the bottled version to see if it is similar. A very quaffable product with a nice fluffy character. Goes well with bourbon and genever gin, two of my favourite hard drinks.

Gary
Last edited by old faithful on Tue Sep 27, 2005 1:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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GregClow
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Post by GregClow »

old faithful wrote: We can't drink Michelob today, or hardly any American beers in Ontario, which I find annoying. I've got many choices amongst, say, East European lagers, but amongst quality American beers, there are, what, four or five ?
By my count - three (not taking into account the seasonal offerings from Rogue, Dogfish Head, etc.):

Anchor Liberty Ale
Anchor Steam Beer
Sam Adams Lager

To have only three decent US beers available for retail sale in Ontario on a year-round basis is absolutely pathetic. It is probably my biggest complaint about the LCBO.

esprit
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Post by esprit »

The last call we received from the LCBO for U.S. beer was for cheap beer in a can so there is no interest in growing the U.S. micro category at the LCBO. I suppose it's somewhat political...just like 1% Canadian wine.

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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

old faithful wrote:The Okocim is welcome simply because it is one of the few if not the only dark East European beers available here. It is good with a true porter taste and the brown colour is closer probably to that of 1700's porters than many porters today.
I believe it is a Baltic Porter, which is a different thing than British style ones. for all I know.

As far as dar East Euro beers, was not Gambrinus a dark beer - that would be great to see here but I think it's Czech only release. Can't have everything.
In Beerum Veritas

old faithful
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Post by old faithful »

Porters reached East and Baltic Europe through an old trade with Britain, famously the Imperial Russian Stout style, but evidently any porter in mittel-Europa or east was of U.K. inspiration originally. True, probably most of those porters today are bottom-fermented but the ones I have had including Okocim's still bear an evident relationship to London Porter. There are a number of dark beers in East Europe including the Czech "garnet" beers, various porters and various Munich styles. Yet almost every East European beer I have seen at LCBO is a light lager and most are not that distinctive in my opinion. As for the U.S. market being disregarded apart from price beers, the few seasonal releases and 3 regular list beers, that really is pretty lame. Maybe (I don't know) the thinking is to promote Ontario beers and I am all for that but I don't think Ontario beers would lose by having, say, 20 more beers available here from the U.S. micro sector. I think all good beer reinforces the other. This will never change though as long as we have state control of the process. However I see no prospect of change, currently.

Gary

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Belgian
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Post by Belgian »

Innis & Gunn Edinburgh Ale - very nice, has a tiny bit of a barley wine feel in the long, round body of it. And the cask finishing gives it an unusual whiff of a scotch-like finish. Yum, me like. Good cold weather bevvy.
In Beerum Veritas

Esprit3
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Post by Esprit3 »

Bottom Line:
Should have been a better beer, all the ducks were lined up for that one, tsk tsk.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this "boilermaker" if I smoked cigars...

I drank half at the cottage...My Pug enjoyed the rest; but then again she's not very picky.


Hats off to Ken from Black Oak for his lovely bourbon laced brew on Friday at Fork York; and thanks to Claude who brought me a glass.

Gunny
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Post by Gunny »

Esprit3 wrote:Bottom Line:
Should have been a better beer, all the ducks were lined up for that one, tsk tsk.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this "boilermaker" if I smoked cigars...

I drank half at the cottage...My Pug enjoyed the rest; but then again she's not very picky.


Hats off to Ken from Black Oak for his lovely bourbon laced brew on Friday at Fork York; and thanks to Claude who brought me a glass.
Ms. Rabbit? :o

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Colin @ Canada
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Post by Colin @ Canada »

All i'm gonna say about Innis and Gunn is that I cannot keep this stuff in stock. It's being consumed quicker than our tap water.

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