Current ratebeer.com Ontario top 10

[Derek]

Interesting...

Extracted from the BA's current top Canada:
http://beeradvocate.com/lists/top-ca

Black Oak Ten Bitter Years Anniversary Ale
Flying Monkeys Smash Bomb Atomic IPA
Denison's Weissbier
Wellington Russian Imperial Stout
Muskoka Summer Weiss
Denison's Dunkel
Creemore Springs Kellerbier
Black Oak Nutcracker Porter
Black Oak Summer Saison
Muskoka Mad Tom IPA

[sprague11]

Nothing like a dead day at work to bump a thread older than dirt to see how far we've come in 5 or so years. Top 10 via RB as follows (cider excluded):

1. Bellwoods Skeleton Key 99/94
2. Bellwoods 3 Minutes to Midnight 99/93
3. Great Lakes Karma Citra 99/100
4. Great Lakes Thurst! 99/100
5. Amsterdam Barrel Aged Double Tempest 99/91
6. Flying Monkeys BNL 99/91
7. Bellwoods Bring Out Y0ur Dead 99/91
8. Bellwoods Witchshark 99/97
9. Nickel Brook Kentucky Bastard - Bourbon Barrel Aged 99/87
10. Great Lakes Robohop 99/97

Culled from the Beeradvocate Top 100 in Canada List (with the caveat there's a few beer with not enough ratings to show up on the list)

1. Great Lakes Thrust! 4.15
2. Bellwoods Bring Out Your Dead 4.13
3. Black Oak 10 Bitter Years 4.11
4. Great Lakes Karma Citra 4.1
5. Bellwoods Skeleton Key 4.08
6. Collective Arts Ransack the Universe 4.07
7. Flying Monkeys Acadian Groove 4.06
8. Great Lakes Lake Effect 4.05
9. Bellwoods Hellwoods 4.04
10. Camerons Rye P A /Flying Monkeys Chocolate Manifesto 4.03 each

[jrenihan]

It's amazing that 10 Bitter Years still sits where it does on that list. I have had it very rarely over the last few years, but I have been disappointed on each of those occasions. There was a time when it was my favourite Ontario beer. Some of the change is definitely an improved Ontario beer landscape, but I find it hard to believe that some of the change is not the beer itself. Has anybody seriously enjoyed this beer in the last while?
Ren

[Belgian]

Nice representation!

Ren no I haven't seen or tried 10BY lately, and it certainly was an 'innovator' in Ontario happening well before Twice as Mad Tom, Immodest, Robohop and Witchshark.

Ontario has gone from a beer culture once amazingly reluctant to produce OR import IPAs AT ALL to one that is full tilt and now all styles seems to be easily accepted (Brett pale ales, Berliner Weisse Sours and Farmhouse, Leipziger Gose, barrel-aged Imperial Stouts aged with fruit and in either or wine or booze barrels etc, bring it on you mothers.) Ciders have even arrived at the very top level of the game.

I mean do some of you even remember the massive initial buyer rush on DFH 60 Minute IPA that was in the NEWS - and we were actually placing orders for Great Divide Titan IPA / Oaked Yeti just so we could ACCESS certain style of beer? Yes different times even ten years ago.

[Coronaeus]

Beer Advocate lists are very slow moving. So few users actually review beers. Simply rating a beer is worth so much less in the overall score. For example, Barn Owl 3 just joined the Canada top 100 about a week ago.

[sprague11]

The tick feature hurts ba ratings, agreed.

Edit:. Had 10 bitter recently and it'sa shell of its former self. As an aside Black Oak left a lot of money on the table not brewing it regularly back in the day. I remember one black oak rep doing samples at my Lcbo telling me he wished black oak never brewed it as "only 5 or 6 beer nerds will ever buy it and that capacity could be used for something normal people want to buy". (Direct quote btw)

Interesting (though probably not too surprising) 5 years later how many of the top 10 on either list are either Bellwood's or Great Lakes and how many are an IPA or a stout.

Fwiw the ransack in my local lcbo appears to have been canned 3 days ago!

[Belgian]

Had 10 bitter recently and it's a shell of its former self. As an aside Black Oak left a lot of money on the table not brewing it regularly back in the day. I remember one black oak rep doing samples at my LCBO telling me he wished black oak never brewed it as "only 5 or 6 beer nerds will ever buy it and that capacity could be used for something normal people want to buy". (Direct quote btw)

Well that's interesting. They don't leap to mind as terribly innovative.

Of course I've had Black Oak Pale a few times the last year, it varies from good to only moderately OK, and the 'normal' beer drinker may find that a little boring let alone the 'nerds' of every age and demographic that now cram Toronto tap houses & line up at the LCBO.

[sprague11]

Black Oak sold out that first batch extremely quick then we did not see it again for another year or so (My timeline might be off if someone wants to correct me). Within a couple years Smashbomb was the "In" beer for Ontario hopheads looking for a local fix and a (this part is my opinion only) scaled down version of 10BY hit the LCBO a few years too late. I believe that Black Oak could have cornered the hophead market, at least for a short time, had they struck while the iron was hot.

Funny thought - both top 10 lists today are dominated by Stouts and IPA while the lists from years ago ran a gauntlet of styles.