The Bar Towel

Hello All:

Made my semi regular trip to mecca yesterday,
and picked up some good stuff...

I could not believe the amount of stouts this winter...

The stuff in bold are my faves that I've already tried,
the rest is all new to me...

Have any of you tried these, and if so, any comments ?

Cheers !

Dave

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St. Peters Cream Stout
Samuel Smith Oatmeal Stout
Samuel Smith Imperial Stout
Young's Oatmeal Stout
Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout
Victory Storm King Stout
Kiuchi Brewing Hitachino Sweet Lacto Stout ("Milk" Stout)
Rogue Mocha Porter
Harpoon Winter Warmer Ale
Anderson Valley Brewing Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale
Anderson Valley Brewing Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout
North Coast Brewing - Old Stock Ale 2003
La Binchoise Special Reserve Amber Ale

St. Peters Cream Stout and Victory Storm King Stout have both been in previous LCBO stout & porter releases. I didn't care for the St. Peter's when I first tried it, but I found a bottle stashed away about 9 months after I'd bought it, and found that it had actually improved a lot (to my taste, anyway). The Victory is fantastic, and also improves with age - I still have a couple of bottles from last winter.

The Brooklyn has never been available up here, but I've had some from the Premier, and it's another great one. Unlike the Rogue Chocolate, I think that the name comes from the use of chocolate malts rather than actual chocolate, and it has a very different character. Closer to an Imperial stout in some ways.

I assume that "Roger Mocha Porter" should be "Rogue Mocha Porter"? If so, it's nice as well. I got a bottle in the recent split consignment orders, and really enjoyed it.

Just out of curiousity did they have this years Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, or the new Hop Wallop from Victory?

A wrote:Just out of curiousity did they have this years Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, or the new Hop Wallop from Victory?

i saw the celebration, but not the wallop

I was at Premier last week. No Hop Wallop, just the new batches of Storm King and Moonglow Weizenbock. I saw some Celebration Ale, but didn't look at it, so it might have been from last year. They're also carrying Stone and Bear Republic now.

It was my first time there since they got a new beer manager. He seems capable enough, I guess. Some sparsely populated shelves in the domestic beer section, though.

Incidentally, I noticed that Premier Gourmet is using a Bar Towel quote in their ad in Ale Street News. That's pretty cool.

Stone, eh? Do they have a good selection? May be time for a trip...

A wrote:Stone, eh? Do they have a good selection? May be time for a trip...

I saw IPA, Ruination, Arrogant Bastard, Double Bastard, 8th Anniversary, and possibly one or two that I can't remember. If I hadn't looked in the cooler I wouldn't have seen them at all.

if anybody wants an approximate list of all they have in stock or on order, than beermail me with a regular e-mail address, its a 6 meg excel file

As far as I know Hop Wallop doesn't come in bottles. Nevertheless if you come across it on tap try it. So far it's the best IPA i've had.

Hop Wallop is in bottles but was out everywhere i went last week in the US. Its on order at BOW in Rochester.

northyorksammy wrote:if anybody wants an approximate list of all they have in stock or on order, than beermail me with a regular e-mail address, its a 6 meg excel file

Or the 200k condensed version of that that I compiled, and had IPFreely from Buffalo take a look at...

guinness_guy wrote:Stout
North Coast Brewing - Old Stock Ale 2003

I absolutely love this beer. One of the best barleywines I've had.

As for other questions
- The Celebration is this year's. I'm not a huge fan of it. The hops remind me too much of floor cleaner.
- Stone beers in stock: IPA, Ruination, Bastard, Double Bastard, Smoked Porter. They may have some 8th Anniversary left. I've heard that they have 3L bottles of Oak Aged Arrogant Bastard (around $70) but you'll probably have to ask for them to get it out of the back.
- No Hop Wallop.. I was really hoping that it would make it this far north.
- Southern Tier Old Man Winter is out but they seem to have a hard time keeping it in stock.
- Still waiting on the 2004 World Wide Stout. Plenty of 2003 left though!

-rudy

I just talked to the beer manager. The 3L bottles of Oaked Bastard are going to be $86. Yikes!

They don't have any in stock but he is expecting 4 tomorrow.

He is also expecting 4 3L double bastards - but I don't see the point of that as it'll be significantly more expensive by volume than plain old bombers..

-rudy

yikes 3L - you need a whole party to drink that! of course, it never goes flat so you can put it back in the fridge over a month's time.

northyorksammy wrote:if anybody wants an approximate list of all they have in stock or on order, than beermail me with a regular e-mail address, its a 6 meg excel file

The Premier web site has a "Beer List" of everything in stock (741 items - take that LCBO!). Not sure if it's as up-to-date as NYS' list.