The Bar Towel

I haven't done any reviews in the last couple weeks, busy getting the yard ready and summer stuff out of storage.

Here is a review of the Octopus wants to fight from great Lakes Brewery.

Fyi this is a seasonal release like most of GLB IPAs . Suggest you stock up if you like it but honestly IMHO GLB has better IPAs such as lake effect, Thrust! But welcome to the better class of IPAs in Ontario.

Fyi this is a seasonal release like most of GLB IPAs . Suggest you stock up if you like it but honestly IMHO GLB has better IPAs such as lake effect, Thrust! But welcome to the better class of IPAs in Ontario.

As soon i see a lake effect i will purchase it, thanks for letting me know

The really, really, rough rule of thumb has three Great Lakes IPAs at the top of the pyramid. Karma Citra - which was the first great Ontario IPA in the mold of US West coast IPAs, then Thrust! and Lake Effect, which both came a few years later but are of similar quality. People have different preferences and there's certainly lots of variation from batch to batch, but those three are the top of the pyramid for Great Lakes, and probably still Ontario, IPAs. They'd done lots of other stuff since, including things like My Bitter Wife, Octopus Wants to Fight, Hopshot and most recently Meanwhile Down in Moxie (which is the only one listed so far I haven't tried) but those three still seem to reign supreme.

Personally, the best IPA I've had made in Ontario was one of the early versions of Lake Effect. But in more recent years I've preferred Thrust and I actually really like this current version of Octopus on draft. Opinions vary.

Craig wrote:The really, really, rough rule of thumb has three Great Lakes IPAs at the top of the pyramid. Karma Citra - which was the first great Ontario IPA in the mold of US West coast IPAs, then Thrust! and Lake Effect, which both came a few years later but are of similar quality. People have different preferences and there's certainly lots of variation from batch to batch, but those three are the top of the pyramid for Great Lakes, and probably still Ontario, IPAs. They'd done lots of other stuff since, including things like My Bitter Wife, Octopus Wants to Fight, Hopshot and most recently Meanwhile Down in Moxie (which is the only one listed so far I haven't tried) but those three still seem to reign supreme.

Personally, the best IPA I've had made in Ontario was one of the early versions of Lake Effect. But in more recent years I've preferred Thrust and I actually really like this current version of Octopus on draft. Opinions vary.

Can't disagree with anything here. GLB is the best IPA brewer in Ontario, and Karma Citra, Thrust! and Lake Effect are the jewels in their crown. Octopus and My Bitter Wife are good too, but not quite as good as the aforementioned trio. Robohop is definitely worth a look, too.

To the OP: you might want to hold off on the Lake Effect for a while. There are still plenty of cans floating around at various LCBOs, but they are from canning runs about 4-5 months ago, which is getting a little old for an IPA. Not that it will necessarily be bad, but it definitely won't be at its best.

If the past is any indication, fresh Lake Effect will show up in December '17 or January '18. Fresh Karma Citra will show up a few months before that, but I have no idea when we'll see Thrust! again.

Agreed that those are the upper
Of Ontario IPA. Also agree that the earlier
Version of lake effect was the best(I'm thinking 2014 if I remember right), and until very recently the best Ontario IPA i had drank. Until passed by barncats's pulp. Octopus is tasty, but not on par with lake effect, thrust
Or karma. Although I'd also put Ransack the universe up with the top Great Lakes stuff

I find Octopus to be right up there with Lake Effect, Thrust and Karma. I'd go as far as saying this batch of Octopus is actually better then the last batch of Karma Citra.

CoolB wrote: I'd go as far as saying this batch of Octopus is actually better then the last batch of Karma Citra.

I'd ditto this. And of the last batch of Lake Effect for me too. For whatever reason the last batches of Karma Citra / Lake Effect were (quite) underwhelming, they just felt flat.

No issues with this release of Robohop though

sofakingdrunk wrote:Agreed that those are the upper
Of Ontario IPA. Also agree that the earlier
Version of lake effect was the best(I'm thinking 2014 if I remember right), and until very recently the best Ontario IPA i had drank. Until passed by barncats's pulp. Octopus is tasty, but not on par with lake effect, thrust
Or karma. Although I'd also put Ransack the universe up with the top Great Lakes stuff

For my tastes, Ransack tops all those GLB beers, and it's not seasonal. Win win for me!

Re: Pulp, yup, there was the "before pulp" barometer and now there's the "after pulp" barometer. I hope we see it again (ah who am I kidding, we'll see it again, Matt and Jeremy would be silly not to )

There is something about Ransack that turns me off. I've never been a huge fan of it however their new IPA Project #2 is fantastic. Maybe it's the waimea hops?

Agree that Ransack has never hit the "spot" for me...but project #2 was damn tasty and hope it's a permanent release.