The Bar Towel

Interesting series of interviews with the Bellwoods guys and Albino Rhino:

Just finished off a bottle of Bring Out Your Dead. That's about 10 different Bellwoods bottles for me so far (with Hellwoods and the Barrel Aged Saison waiting to be drank), and that's enough to crown them my favourite brewery in Ontario. Incredible stuff they're putting out.

Now, bring Monogamy Nelson Sauvin back!

Kekumba wrote:Now, bring Monogamy Nelson Sauvin back!

Funny, those Single-Hop APAs they put out are just the most awesome session beers. I keep waiting for a Saison on tap or maybe Berliner, but the Monogamy series seriously kicks it for everyday quenching + real flavor.

I agree completely on the Monogamy series.

I would love to see a Monogamy Citra or Mosaic.

Regarding BOYD: I'm getting a ton of "barrel" in this, perhaps a bit too much for me. A lot of vanilla sweetness, and a smoky note (which I like). But just too much vanilla at the moment, for my taste anyway. Perhaps I will age (or gift) my other bottle.

midlife crisis wrote:Regarding BOYD: I'm getting a ton of "barrel" in this, perhaps a bit too much for me.

Only sampled it but yeah it's strong! If it's too much you can always Garyblend the BA BOYD with any good non-BA imperial stout (Hellwoods or Tempest) to restore some balance. Trust me, Bellwoods themselves are not above trying a few blending experiments! (Some crazy cuvées are coming.)

No bottled on info for the new roman candles or hellwoods. Safe to assume they've abandoned freshness lableing. That sucks.

midlife crisis wrote:Yes. Or even closer is the Corks wine bar in the Longos in that very plaza. It has 4-5 craft taps. Maybe she likes wood oven pizza? I think the Against the Grain in that plaza may now be open too.

Thanks for the recommendation. We went to the Longo's for lunch after I did the Amsterdam tour. I didn't drink since I was driving and I had alreaddy had a bunch of Amsterdam samples. But the Italian sandwich I had at Longo was amazing. And the beers selection they had was better than a lot of Ottawa restaurants.

I also stopped in at Bellwoods and picked up a few bottles (Roman Candle, Whichshark and Wizard Wolf). Unfortunately I caught a cold over the weekend so those bottles along with a growler of Granite Best Bitter are sitting in my fridge waiting for me to be healthy enough to drink them.

heebes wrote:No bottled on info for the new roman candles or hellwoods. Safe to assume they've abandoned freshness lableing. That sucks.

I asked Bellwoods about this via Twitter this afternoon. They're going to be putting the bottling dates up on the board at the store shortly, and you're encouraged to ask when you buy. Just means we're going to have to remember (or leave a note with the bottles ourselves) if we're putting one down for a while.

That's a curious, odd decision.

midlife crisis wrote:That's a curious, odd decision.

How so? It's probably a lot more work do add the date labels. Personally I think they would do well to keep dating the bottles, but there are lots of reasons why they'd stop.

Yep I'd say for efficient automation. Plus it is implied the bottles sold at Bellwoods are fresh and besides they aren't keeping the info a mystery (for we 5% who care.)

Get used to carrying a pen and you can jot the details on the label, or the receipt. I often do that with wine I want to remember the approx value and the 'best maturity / drink by' dates of - eg. on a 2009 Chateau Blebleh Cahors, I'll pencil in small on the back label: (18-, 2017-2022+). = 18 bucks, may start to drink best after 2017 and then mature nicely for at least five additional years.

How so? It's probably a lot more work do add the date labels. Personally I think they would do well to keep dating the bottles, but there are lots of reasons why they'd stop.

Well, they've been doing it for almost a year, thereby building customer expectations. But more importantly, some sort of date code is just the hallmark of a good craft brewery IMO. Grand River does it best, with a clear, usually easy to read date stamp, but there are many other examples.

nickw wrote:

heebes wrote:No bottled on info for the new roman candles or hellwoods. Safe to assume they've abandoned freshness lableing. That sucks.

I asked Bellwoods about this via Twitter this afternoon. They're going to be putting the bottling dates up on the board at the store shortly, and you're encouraged to ask when you buy. Just means we're going to have to remember (or leave a note with the bottles ourselves) if we're putting one down for a while.

Most of their stuff is less than a month old. Often only a week or two so this doesnt really bother me, and when it's something like an imp stout that I plan to cellar for a bit I'll just note the month/year on cellarhq as usual.

It's less of an issue for them because their stuff is so fresh. Just having it written on the wall when you buy is enough for me, though having it on the bottles was obviously great.

It's a bigger deal for stuff in the LCBO. It would be nice to know if the IPA you're buying was brewed in the last 6 months.