The Bar Towel

The Publican's House wrote:A few years ago - probably unchanged - Creemore went something like this:
North American two-row
Carastan malt
1% black malt

Sazz and two other continental hops- perhaps tettnanger and styrian goldings.

Spring water and copious amounts of phosporic acid to remove the temporary hardness. Hmmm, is it still spring water?

Lager yeast - rumour has it that the original culture came from Stroh's; not sure if they are still using it.

They have the so called ingredients on display at the brewery and I;ve been there several times and asked various people about the malts hops and yeast but you get different answers...and, hey, who's gonna really tell you eh?

I did manage to corner one of the brewers one time and he was confident enough to tell me your malt mix is correct and it used to be imported German malt but is now domestic...same proportions and styles though. I l can confirm there are more than just saaz hops in the mix ( their hop board shows them as pellet form) ...as for the yeast??? They seem to be guarded about it and there is a separate yeast quality control lab and elaborate yeast recovery and cleaning quality processes...so the yeast figures big in the formula. I can't say much about the water conditioning but I do know it is still trucked into the plant from the source.

All I know is all these eclectic ingredients work and make a good uniue lager that defies style stereotyping.

I like all styles but especially when they are batting 1000, e.g., last night I drank an Imperial Stout from Wellington County and thought it was really good, I'll save some for a taste-off with Perry's Tsarina stout. I like ales but only some of them, generally the fruity/estery kind are my favourite and I incline to the English hop taste. E.g. I was by Pepperwood's recently and tried their dry-hopped ale - it was good but the Cascade hop taste (or that type) was quite evident - actually it went well in the hot weather served cold but I find it hard to drink those beers at a cellar temperature. Hockley's Dark is a current favourite, so is Oakville Brewing's Portside Amber Ale. All these are English "soft fruit" in orientation. (I like Black Oak's pale ale though and that has some U.S. hops, ditto Ste. Ambroise, ditto Griffon Blonde). I like a good gueuze (any type as long as not too sweet). I enjoy doppelbocks, lagers dark and light (e.g., Denison's Dunkel, Cameron's Lager for a blonde style, Creemore). The only beer type I don't like is a smoked beer where the smoky taste is too strong - Raftman gets it right for me because the smoke taste is moderated, ditto that very good German wheat beer which is lightly smoked from Bamberg, I forget the name.

Basically I like any beer style that is true to its type and very fresh and not oxidised or otherwise faulty. The current Beer Magazine has a good article on light-struck beers and other faults and the writer has it exactly right that too often (he was thinking of imports) we pay the most money for beers that, due to overage or mishandling, have the most faults. Micro beers are less susceptible by being locally made but on the other hand since most are not pasturised it is important to drink them when very fresh (unless they are intended to age or benefit in any case thereby: some of the stronger styles benefit by storage for a time, e.g., Niagara Falls' eisbock and Wellington's Imperial Stout can go for a quite a while, I don't worry about expiry dates with those, but they are the exception).

Gary

Back to "new at the Beer Store" - anyone had Maclays Traditional Pale Ale?

midlife crisis wrote:Back to "new at the Beer Store" - anyone had Maclays Traditional Pale Ale?

I picked up a 6-pack while visiting my folks in PEI this past week. It's not that great - much closer to a Keith's style "Pale Ale" than anything truly traditional.

It is, however, one of the best beers available at the liquor stores in PEI.