What're you drinking right now?

[cratez]

At some Easter gatherings:
Bellwoods Runes – Citra & Mosaic

Saturday and Monday at Milos' Craft Beer Emporium:
Cameron's 12 Mile India Pale Lager (draft)
Shacklands Biere De Table (draft)
Burdock Té – Cashmere/Citra/Vic Secret (draft)
Halo Magic Missile (draft)
Sawdust City Long, Dark Voyage To Uranus (sample)

[S. St. Jeb]

Barnstormer Accelerated Stall IIPA
—LCBO#: 498469 | 473 mL can
8.4% abv, 80+ IBU $3.25

Not a fan of flight delay and after the first sip of this I didn't think I'd like it either but it grew on me. Not bad.

I'm finding a lot of the new hop-heavy beers I've tried over the last few months are very grapefruit oriented. Don't mind that, but I only like it so much. Tried Barnstormer Accelerated Stall IIPA tonight, and I found it to be nicely bitter without much citrus flavour. Suits me just fine. Like CoolB, I found I liked it more and more as I drank it.

[munrets]

Drinking an OG 2013 Bring Out Your Dead. Last one. All carbonation gone. A smooth, cognac milkshake.

[seangm]

So it seems that everyone has an IIPA at the LCBO right now, I was pleasantly surprised by the selection. Decided I'd spend some time drinking my way through Ontario's IIPAs.

Collective Arts Radio the Mothership: Not bad, at 8.5% it's on the less aggressive end of the IIPA spectrum. Some juicy citrus, melon, mango and tropical fruitiness. A touch dank with some pine, but caramel sweetness at malts are quite present too. Finishes nicely, not my favourite but smooth and well balanced.

Nickel Brook Immodest: Probably my favourite of Ontario's big IPAs. I just found this one to be so juicy, aromatic and flavourful- all hop aromatics, but a mild bitterness and very well rounded finish. Bright and tropical.

Great Lakes Robohop: I find this one is the more piney and dank offering of the imperials, although it still packs a nice hit of citrusy and tropical fruits as well. Crackery malts come through too, well balanced malt to hop profile.

Flying Monkeys Super Collider 2.0: Luckily wasn't as terrible as I heard 1.0 was (didn't try it personally, but heard bad things here). Much more malt forward than most IIPAs, came off a bit muddled with a lot of disparate elements shouting for attention. That said I picked up a decent hit of orange that combined with the malt sweetness gave it an almost marmalade-like jammy quality. A bit of alcohol warmth, overall it was ok but I wouldn't buy it again.

Muskoka Brewery Twice as Mad Tom: An Ontario classic, nice to have it in cans as opposed to committing to a 6-pack. Amped up Mad Tom flavours, grapefruit citrus and pine, although this one has a tropical fruitiness not found in Mad Tom (tropical fruits seem to be the rage right now). Starts off unassuming but I find the alcohol comes through more as it warms and seems to sneak up on you.

Only one I haven't tried seems to be the Accelerated Stall IIPA from Barnstormer, and I didn't bother picking up any Fracture since I was never as keen on it. Drank these over the long weekend and this week for the most part.

[CoolB]

Had the Super Collider 2.0 last night. Did not like at all. Thought it was a mess but I'm going to check the date later when I get back home. Tasted old.

[Hoppy's Tavern]

Just finished drinking a Great Lakes Brewery - Octopus wants to Fight.
Probably by far the best IPA I've had.
i did a video review, unfortunately the video turned out pretty bad, going to have to re-do it.

[GtownRandy]

Just finished drinking a Great Lakes Brewery - Octopus wants to Fight.
Probably by far the best IPA I've had.
i did a video review, unfortunately the video turned out pretty bad, going to have to re-do it.

Good call hoppy! My wife and I each had a couple of octopi tonight also. The ones I bought yesterday were canned on April 18!

I said to wife we are lucky to have access to all these super great Lakes ipas year round, karma citra, lake effect, octopus etc

[CoolB]

Had the collective arts ipa project #2 and gotta admit I was blown away. Very good beer. Not sure yet where I'd put it on my personal tier list but it's definitely one I'd go back to get more of.

[cratez]

At a hotel bar:
Kensington Baldwin FishEYE-PA (draft)

At the Antler Room while watching the Leafs and Caps game:
Bellwoods Jelly King (draft)
High Road Bronan IPA (draft)

At C'est What?:
Durham Hop Noggin' (cask)
Forked River Alpha Test: Loral (draft)

At home:
St-Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale

[seangm]

Had the Super Collider 2.0 last night. Did not like at all. Thought it was a mess but I'm going to check the date later when I get back home. Tasted old.

Ultimately I wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless they insisted on trying every new beer release, especially right now with all the other superior IIPAs at the LCBO.

[darmokandjalad]

New brews sampled within the last week:

-Beau's Buenos Dias - LCBO bottle. How is this a gruit? It has hops (and sea salt) in it, and no botanicals other than the orange/lime peel. Why not just call it a gose, which is closer to reality (and also a much more trendy style atm)? Style gripes aside, this was drinkable, but very mundane - the gritty, wheaty pale malt backbone was the most noticeable aspect, followed by the sea salt, but the citrus was barely even a factor. Oily texture. Disappointing.
-Lake of Bays Broken Axe APA - LCBO tallboy. Past experience with this brewery has caused me to lower my expectations, so maybe it's not a surprise that I enjoyed this brew more than I expected to. Lots of pithy pink grapefruit, with notes of lemon, sour peach and resin. Refreshing and sessionable; nothing to get too excited about, but still better than the rest of their year-round stuff, at least IMO.
-Sleeping Giant Northern Logger - LCBO tallboy. Pale, grainy malts and grassy hay; a tad vegetal. Not something I'd return to, but passable fare for campfires, or after playing a hockey/baseball game or whatever.
-Shock Top Citrus Radler - TBS tallboy. Shockingly decent, considering the source; nothing here but slightly sweet grapefruit juice flavour. It's no Stiegl Radler, but I wouldn't be opposed to drinking more over the summer.
-Mad & Noisy Lagered Ale - LCBO tallboy. Pretty sure this is the same as that Creemore Kölsch that came out last spring, except they've re-labelled it (and shifted it to their M&N brand). Boring, but quite good for what it's supposed to be - very clean, refreshing, and highly quaffable.
-Okanagan Springs Big White White IPA - Bottle from a mixed 12 pack picked up at TBS. I don't know what it is about this sub-style - I am not super-picky about IPAs in general, but these so-called "white" ones never seem to do it for me. Tastes like a mediocre witbier crossed with a Belgian IPA.

And some revisits:

-Railway City's The Witty Traveller - LCBO tallboy (very fresh; about 2 weeks old). I have never been a big fan of witbiers, but this is one that I always seek out in the spring when fresh flats come into the store: the white pepper flavours really shine through when it's young. Forget about buying old stock; this one goes downhill big time after a month or two on a warm shelf, so either try it fresh or don't even bother.
-Okanagan Springs Brewmaster's Black Lager - From the same TBS mixed 12-pack. This was the first schwarz-like beer I ever tried, years back. Not as good as I remember, but still an acceptable dark lager, and arguably the best thing in this sampler.
-Refined Fool - The Glistenator - Bomber from the brewery; described as a Vienna Lager, but lacking the crisp, clean flavours and appearance of the style. Drinks more like an amber lager; seen through that lens it's not bad at all.
-Wellington County Dark Ale - LCBO tallboy. An old classic, yet still one of the better brown ales available year-round in this province.

[cratez]

At Milos' Craft Beer Emporium:
Arch Flip Flop Porter (draft)
Burdock Pale Ale - Azacca & Ekuanot (draft)
Wellington Cuckoo For Cocoa Husks (cask)
Sawdust City Hygge (draft)

Over the week at home:
Bellwoods Ghost Orchid IPA
Bellwoods Blackberry Jelly King
Bellwoods Roman Candle IPA

[darmokandjalad]

New stuff over the last week or so:

-Sawdust City Little Norway Pale Lager - TBS tallboy. Clean, grainy malts and grassy, spicy hops, with touches of biscuit sweetness and lemon. A reasonably good stab at a Euro-style lager; I felt it was closest to a German pilsener.
-Trou du Diable Saison du Tracteur - LCBO bottle. Quite enjoyable, with wheaty, bready malts underneath layers of fruity esters. Apples and pears, stone fruits, banana, and orange/lemon citrus. Finishes spicy, with hints of white pepper and coriander. Nothing especially novel for a saison, but I'd buy it again.
-Waterloo Citrus Radler - TBS tallboy, flavoured with lemon and lime juice. Apple juice was used as a sweetener, and it does have a noticeable "apple juice" flavour to it towards the finish. Like 7-Up or Sprite, though with the sweetness toned down a tad. OK, but not something I'd deliberately seek out again.
-Trailer Park Boys Freedom 35 - LCBO tallboy. A decent all-malt lager, but at the end of the day it's still just a gimmick beer. Clean, refreshing and very sessionable; I'd probably take this over Muskoka's Craft Lager.
-Lake of Bays Oxtongue IPA - LCBO tallboy. So I guess Lake of Bays is revamping their main lineup? Quite citrusy, and a little floral, with decent caramelized malt backing. Not bad, and definitely better than 10 Point, but still well behind the top tier stuff from GLB or Collective Arts.
-Bud Light Radler - TBS tallboy. This one kind of left me stunned. Don't get me wrong - it just tastes like grapefruit juice, with a nice, pithy bitterness - but the fact that they didn't totally fuck this one up still surprised me. Honestly the best new radler I've tried so far this year, but YMMV if you don't like grapefruit juice as much as I do.
-Clifford Porter - LCBO tallboy. A fantastic robust porter. Too bad that it isn't sold in Sarnia, but at this point I'm used to being shafted by this province's distribution system.

[kevinlater]

hit up bellwoods hafis today:

runes w/ galaxy & enigma - super dank and pineapple juicy. a hit
monogamy amarillo - orange juicy. mild and balanced. good
blackberry jelly king - phenomenal stuff. the blackberry comes through nicely, backed by the leafy herbal hop flavours. i could actually drink this all day

currently sipping on the united stars mukuzani wine. it's aight

[sofakingdrunk]

I had the Norway about a year ago, and it was one of the worst beers I'd had in a long time. You could have told me it was Stella or heineken and I wouldn't have second guessed it