The Bar Towel

^^^Midlife, though my post followed yours, i wasn't specifically crapping on your list. I also had denison's and hellwoods on my list of four before i got stuck.

One problem with the sixer is, do we fill it with a variety of styles just for the sake of style variety or do we fill it with the best six even if they were all pumpkin beers?

^ no problem! I didn't take it personally. What I was trying to convey, perhaps poorly, is that I don't think the beers (you and) I listed are merely good but average, when measured against beers of the same style. Sure, maybe King, Denisons, etc is fairly run of the mill in a store full of well made APAs and IPAs, but the brief was to exclude all of those. I feel like King, Denisons, Russian Gun (and Lug Tread, for that matter) are quite good when judged against others of like style.

matt7215 wrote:
if you had to send someone in the states a mixed 6 pack to highlight ontarios best beer, but couldnt include IPAs or APAs, what would you send?

(Not all general LCBO listing, but...)

Harry Porter
Toss up b/w Hellwoods and Tempest (never can decide)
Pompous Ass
GR Mill Race Mild
Bellwoods Farmhouse Saison
Cameron's Lager*


*This lager doesn't get enough love - when it's fresh, I think it beats King, and I love King.

I'm sure there's a message board somewhere where people from Michigan are saying "man, our beer is so boring. Whay can't we be like California" and vice versa.

Beer is just beer. Everywhere. The only thing that changes are the optics.

Cass wrote:I just think this is a great opportunity for Beau's and Ontario craft in general.

Unibroue paved the way (IMO) for all the Quebec craft beers that are quite prominent in the US nowadays. Nice to see Beau's doing so and I hope more Ontario craft brewers follow suit.

I hope so, I hope we can emulate Unibroue's affinity for American sales with our own brewers.

Unibroue does (or once did) offer a very distinctive thing in their product line with very recognizable packaging to gain acceptance. I remember seeing it in Manhattan in the 1990's (two girls buying La Fin Du Monde, one says 'it tastes like sh-t but it has a lot of alcohol!!' Ahh young people...)

I hope Beau's uses their American experience & market feedback to become as good as Unibroue can be. With lots of alcohol, obviously.

boney wrote:I'm sure there's a message board somewhere where people from Michigan are saying "man, our beer is so boring. Whay can't we be like California" and vice versa.

Nope.

FEUO wrote:Nope.

Yep. A good chunk of every BA regional forum consists of out-of-state wish lists and distribution news.

Bytowner wrote:

FEUO wrote:Nope.

Yep. A good chunk of every BA regional forum consists of out-of-state wish lists and distribution news.

Sure, but I was responding to the notion that MI folks say the MI beer is boring and wish to be in Cali.

It was a fictitious example to illustrate apathy towards local resources, which is a psychologically universal phenomenon.

boney wrote:It was a fictitious example to illustrate apathy towards local resources, which is a psychologically universal phenomenon.

except in Toronto, where we're pumping up many sub-par beer and our lack of adventurous styles.

and probably california.

boney wrote:It was a fictitious example to illustrate apathy towards local resources, which is a psychologically universal hipster phenomenon.

FTFY

^ LOLZ

And I think some of us hype or suppress locals, there are homers and disdainers. Some SMART experienced local beer disdainers who I think should know better! (no homer.)

I try to be pretty rigid in my standards whether beers are local or from the most hard-to-get sources. You can also never trust your first rating of any Nickel Brook because they're still fixing it - and it usually gets better.

FEUO wrote:

boney wrote:It was a fictitious example to illustrate apathy towards local resources, which is a psychologically universal hipster phenomenon.

FTFY

Haha. Yeah, some truth to that.

Belgian's got it right, it flows both ways.

While I personally find some of Beau's stuff less assertive than I usually go for anything in the Beau's product line is easily better than at least 50% of the stuff on the shelves in NY.

People like to focus on the best limited availability stuff in the US, but there is a ton of average and mediocre stuff too.

JerCraigs wrote:While I personally find some of Beau's stuff less assertive than I usually go for anything in the Beau's product line is easily better than at least 50% of the stuff on the shelves in NY.

People like to focus on the best stuff available in the US, but there is a ton of average and mediocre stuff too.

Surprisingly very true, if not setting the bar for Beau's particularly high. Not expecting to see UFO Hefeweizen coming up here any time soon, either so the weaklings are maybe less well-known up here for a reason.