The Bar Towel

Summer Ligthning from the Hop Back Brewery in Wiltshire England
has been spotted at the LCBO and is full of flavor. Check it out.
Applewood plaza LCBO just west of Dixie on the North Service Rd.
has some. It has won numerous CAMRA awards. My Apologies if this
is old news.

Have you tried any yet? I had a couple from the Summerhill LCBO, and I was pretty underwhelmed. It tasted bland and underhopped to me. I know I've had better in the past, so I'm not sure what's happened with this batch.

Also, I believe the label claims that Summer Lightning is bottle conditioned, but I couldn't see any evidence of sediment, and the bottom of the bottle was clean as a whistle.

I tried a couple of bottles and had the same experience as antirealist. I was expecting something more unique with a better hop profile. It wasn't awful, but it certainly didn't knock my socks off.

If it won CAMRA awards wouldn't that be for a cask version? I saw no evidence of bottle conditioning. I agree it was solid, but nothing really exciting.

I've actually enjoyed it quite a bit. The sediment is most certainly in the bottles I've had so far. As for the availability gongu, there's still a lot of it around at various stores but thanks for the update anyway.

I also tried this one. There was quite a bit of yeast in the bottom but the LCBO I purchased it from had not bothered to store it correctly. It had been sitting under the lights and at room temperature. So not very suprisingly it was sour. I was MUCH more impressed with the Haymaker. It was fresh and a great session ale (IMHO).

Having now purchased Summer Lightning from a couple of LCBOs there does seem to be some variation. The first 3 cases I bought from Summerhill. All of those had (quite a bit of) sediment and were in excellent condition, so I will be returning there for future ones. (The only one I had that exhibited any problems was one which gushed when I opened it and that seemed to be an isolated probably wild yeast infection, I guess).

I have also bought quite a few from the Manulife centre and from Davisville. Davisville's seemed fine too, but the Manulifre batch seemed to be sediment free - though I do not really see how the LCBO can be at fault there - and seemed slightly off (which I probably can fault them for).

I have also bought a couple from a few other LCBOs - though not in quantities big enough to make any sort of general statement. But again, I have found ones which were not in good condition and ones with and without sediement.

I am not sure why there are some bottles without sediment. That is odd.

And yes, it is the cask Summer Lightning which won the CAMRA awards. It is noticably hoppier in its cask incarnation, though the bottled version (when good) is still by far my favourite of the current promotion.