The Bar Towel

I had a couple of pints recently at Volo and was impressed. It struck me as a kind of cross between Newcastle Brown Ale and Gritstone or Wellington County Ale and is very drinkable, full and smooth yet with a definite tang. Later I read the brewery's website and saw that the owner had worked at Thwaites, Border Breweries and Wrexham in the U.K. It shows. I have tried the Scotch Ale in bottles and some of the lagers. All are good but this 10W30 is the best in my book. This would be great cask conditioned. Many of our micros make excellent dark ales but most tend (in my view) to be American micro-styled with a detectable Cascade or Chinook flavour or similar to that profile. That can be fine, but British mild or strong brown ale tends to be quite different in my experience. Some of our beers are in that U.K. mold like the mild ale at C'est What (which is excellent), Granite's Peculiar, Wellington County Ale, Gritstone to a degree, and there are others. Certainly Neustadt gets it just right for a medium-strong dark ale, it really is reminiscent of the best Northern English brown ale or the best Wales beers of that type. The only thing that could make it even better would be to serve it cask-conditioned.

Gary

old faithful wrote:The only thing that could make it even better would be to serve it cask-conditioned.

It has been served cask-conditioned at Caffe Volo previously. And yes, it was very good.

I had a pint last night at Volo. I can't say I was as impressed as the others. The inevitable chill and gassiness of keg-served beer really diminishes the enjoyment of subtle beers like this, I think. I'm sure it would be lovely from the cask, but I found it pretty bland served keg-style. Do they bottle it, even at the brewery?

I drink it on tap when I find it and have always had a few bottles in the cellar....10W30 is a good all natural micro mild brown ale with an earthy citrus notes to it...verry drinkable and good for sessions on tap.

I started drinking this when it was not yet widely available and I can say that there have been some subtle improvements. This is NOT a nut brown or an overly sweet brown.

Hockley is the way to go if you want the sweet nutty malty browns.

midlife crisis wrote: [ Do they bottle it, even at the brewery?]

Yes midlife crisis, they do bottle it. It's available at some of the larger LCBO stores.

Happy Hunting, Cheers, Doug

It's available at some of the larger LCBO stores.

I saw it at Summerhill and Queen's Quay last weekend.

They also have it in 6 packs at the Dundurn LCBO in Hamilton.