The Bar Towel

TWB Wobbly Wheel

The new Molson 1908. This is excellent, it's certainly bitter enough, 45 IBUs according to a Manitoba listing I saw, and you taste it especially the first few sips if beer is not too cold.

Nice orangey pale ale colour, good yeast character, medium malts, more English than anything else. Pale ale traditionally was not a rich, heavy beer, it was fermented out to be medium dry and sometimes very dry. This is an excellent product and shows that beers "way back" in Canada were effectively craft in nature.

I'd assume it is all-malt except maybe for some priming in the bottle, and, it's unfiltered both by taste and appearance.

Gary

Googled the beer, I liked your picture!

Over the last week or so:

- Okanagan Spring Chili Porter - I actually didn't mind this one. Nice smoky/ashiness on the back end with restrained peppery heat.
- Samuel Smith's Imperial Porter - I hadn't had this one in a few years. Outstanding stuff and a gold standard, traditional example of this style.
- DDC Aphrodite - It was pretty good, but I still felt underwhelmed. I'm not big on vanilla, so my opinion is biased to begin with.
- Sir Isaac's Premium Peach Cider - I like peaches, but I didn't like this very much. Smells like rubber. Preferred the perry, and I didn't like the perry all that much.
- Refined Fool Mexican Romance - An apricot habanero IPA, and I liked it more than I thought I would. The pepper heat sneaks up in the aftertaste, but doesn't really linger or build. It complements the Simcoe/Amarillo hops nicely, and the apricot gives it a much-needed juicy-sweet dimension.

darmokandjalad wrote:Over the last week or so:

- Refined Fool Mexican Romance - An apricot habanero IPA, and I liked it more than I thought I would. The pepper heat sneaks up in the aftertaste, but doesn't really linger or build. It complements the Simcoe/Amarillo hops nicely, and the apricot gives it a much-needed juicy-sweet dimension.

Just thinking after reading this, someone should do an Amarillo chilli/Amarillo hopped IPA. The fruitiness of that chilli would work really well, and the heat level is not off the charts

Belgian wrote:Googled the beer, I liked your picture!

Thanks and it comes in quarts too, the old 22 oz (I think 625 ml). It's very good, really.

Gary

Over the course of the long weekend while hunkering down indoors:

Gulden Draak
Westvleteren 12
New Limburg Black Sheep Milk Stout
Stone Coffee Milk Stout
Skeleton Key

sofakingdrunk wrote:Just thinking after reading this, someone should do an Amarillo chilli/Amarillo hopped IPA. The fruitiness of that chilli would work really well, and the heat level is not off the charts

Sounds good to me. When reasonable restraint is exercised, chile peppers apparently work very nicely in the context of an IPA - particularly if fruity hops are employed. The problem I've had with most chile beers is that they forget about the 'reasonable restraint' part.

Over the weekend:

- Viven Porter - I enjoyed this one. The smokiness and char/burnt astringency work nicely in conjunction with one another.
- Depth-Charged Double Bastard - The coffee was a contributor, but not the focus. Very nice, with no sign of the 11%.
- Dragon's Milk (Bourbon Barrel Stout) - Excellent value, especially at its LCBO price tag. Definitely worth a look if you enjoy BBA beers. The bourbon/oak/vanilla flavours run rampant over everything else.

Over the last little while:
Spirit tree dry hopped cider-excellent, has almost a Marlborough Sauvignon blanc fruitiness to it, I love it and I'm not really a huge fan of spirit tree draught cider

Ransack the universe-still loving this

Ddc-aphrodisiac(from Montreal this summer) bottled last February and still drinking great. So don't let the July??bottling of the lcbo stock scare you away

Stranger than fiction Porter-I thought this was great,nice to have a good local Porter readily available.

London Pride-always have some in my fridge

Tank 7 farmhouse-my last one of these from last springs release. Sooo good. Hopefully lcbo brings it in again

I'll echo the sentiment on the Spirit Tree dry hop. I'm also not a huge fan of their regular lineup, because I find it too sweet iirc, but I really liked the dry hop.

Had some IPAs tonight....I was surprised just how crazy different the aromas and tastes were for these 4 beers...all good...all very different.

Bellwoods Witchshark
Bellwoods Roman candle
Great lakes Lakes Effect
Heady Topper

El Pinguino wrote:Had some IPAs tonight....I was surprised just how crazy different the aromas and tastes were for these 4 beers...all good...all very different.

Bellwoods Witchshark
Bellwoods Roman candle
Great lakes Lakes Effect
Heady Topper

How did they all stack up to one another?

Ayinger Celebrator
Erdinger Weissebier
Hacker-Pschorr Weiss
Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier 

loving those German beers!

sofakingdrunk wrote:

El Pinguino wrote:Had some IPAs tonight....I was surprised just how crazy different the aromas and tastes were for these 4 beers...all good...all very different.

Bellwoods Witchshark
Bellwoods Roman candle
Great lakes Lakes Effect
Heady Topper

How did they all stack up to one another?

Hey sofa king, I made some comments checking in on them on Untappd.
They were all very different, it was quite fun.
Witchshark was easily the roughest/most resiny and piney of the batch. I had it first - it was quite pungent, and fresh smelling, but not overly citrusy.
Roman Candle at first smelled almost skunky and odd. But quickly improved. Juicer than the shark, borderline sessionable...an IPA that is perfect for summer patios.
Lake Effect - this was a cool surprise as it smelled very earthy/floral. I've had it before but comapring to the Bellwoods, it had a soothing, inviting aroma and was more aromatic. Tasted sweeter too.
Heady Topper - even though it was my last can, more than a month old, it still smelled and tasted the best. Addictive stuff...

I wanted to see how some popular TO ipas stacked up and came away thinking Heady was still a good level above any of the others. (I had expected otherwise....so it was nice to be surprised)

Sounds like a fun evening