The Bar Towel

skootles wrote:RIP my wallet. Looks like Bellwoods is coming out with a barrel-aged release the next 4 Fridays in a row.

Yep, it will be a pricey month!

And purportedly 2-4 special releases before year's end. Surely Bring Out Your Dead (my personal favourite from Bellwoods) is among them.

I haven't had the opportunity to try Lamda yet and am hoping to change that following the release later this month. For those who have had it, just curious how dominant are the effects of the brett? I tried Indie Alehouse's (Belgian dark strong w/ brett) at Bar Hop's greatest hits event a couple of weeks ago and while it was an interesting brew I found that the brett really dominated the flavour profile and overshadowed the usual traits of a BDSA.

Provost Drunk wrote:I haven't had the opportunity to try Lamda yet and am hoping to change that following the release later this month. For those who have had it, just curious how dominant are the effects of the brett? I tried Indie Alehouse's (Belgian dark strong w/ brett) at Bar Hop's greatest hits event a couple of weeks ago and while it was an interesting brew I found that the brett really dominated the flavour profile and overshadowed the usual traits of a BDSA.

Last year's (or was it the year before...?) was not my favourite Bellwoods beer. It tasted like a cheap red wine with a significant amount of out of place sweetness. Its not a sour, its not quite a Quad, its just a sweet mess. I brought it to my cousins house for a steak dinner, and nobody was impressed. It was a bit embarrassing to bring such a dud. Along the lines of Kastel Donker or something.

I loved the Lambda I had. Mostly just a quad, it wasn't too Bretty.

Provost Drunk wrote:And purportedly 2-4 special releases before year's end. Surely Bring Out Your Dead (my personal favourite from Bellwoods) is among them.

Barn Owl #3 is at Cask Days... I would imagine that is another that will be released this year.

I also loved the Lamda. It was quite sweet, but it suited the beer. I also found the sweetness a bit less after a few months of aging.

Craig wrote:I loved the Lambda I had. Mostly just a quad, it wasn't too Bretty.

Agreed, I thought it was fantastic. I'll be stocking up again when the new one comes out.

Still have an old one in the fridge, so it'll be interesting to do a side by side comparison.

skootles wrote:

Craig wrote:I loved the Lambda I had. Mostly just a quad, it wasn't too Bretty.

Agreed, I thought it was fantastic. I'll be stocking up again when the new one comes out.

Still have an old one in the fridge, so it'll be interesting to do a side by side comparison.

it's changed drastically

I had a Lambda last night. Gushed like hell when I opened the bottle (have heard this from others too). The beer was fantastic! That being said, it was a little sweeter than I expected and also had less brett character than I expected (and hoped). Reminded me a lot (but not quite as good) of the Motley Cru 2013 that I opened a couple of months back.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think I will make an effort to get out to Bellwoods next Friday and pick up some Lambda (workload permitting and assuming they don't sell out too fast). I'm not deterred by a little sweetness - it works fine with this style. Kasteel Donker is possibly the sweetest example of the style that I've had and I really enjoy it.

Anyone going down for today's release? Wondering if this stuff is flying off the shelf like Cherry Farmageddon was or if I should take a chance heading downtown after work tonight.

Considering the weather and they have 4000 bottles, you should be safe. Last release was probably around 600-800 bottles (cherry). Barn Owl 2 was around 2700-3000 and it lasted a week+, with a limit.

Good to hear!

Yeah I think you'll be fine. The bottle says 3585 bottles and it's not a big name release so I'd imagine it'll last a couple days. I was there around 11:15 picking up mine and there wasn't anyone else there getting bottles.