The Bar Towel

The negative comments tend to centre around their tendency to have infections rather than the quality of the beer.

I tried the Red Coat Pale Ale tonight (purchased at Wilson & Dufferin LCBO). I had enjoyed the Triple Chin and didn't notice any problems. My bottle of this one, though, has an unmistakable strong chemical aspect - like the cleaning product Comet? - on the nose and in the flavour. What could that be? Anyone else notice this? Immediate drain pour, regrettably.

I picked up a bottle yesterday, also at Wilson LCBO. Overwhelming metallic almost medicinal taste, very pronounced. Should be pulled from the selfs ! Something like this has no business being consumed.

I don't care about gaining a rating or two unless I were to share one of these Glenora products with 3-4 people. Waste of time.

I was at the cottage on the weekend and stopped at the Barley Room pub nearby. They had both the Red Coat Pale and the Triple Chin Dark on tap so I tried one of each. Both were fresh tasting and in good form, especially the Red Coat. As it turns out, the owners of the Waring House restaurant and the Barley Room Pub in Picton are taking over the brewery and are planning to move the brewery onto the complex where the restaurant and adjoining pub are located. I think with this change in ownership they are going to turn things around. I decided to stop by the brewery Sunday afternoon and met the friendly assistant brewer who gave us a few samples and clarified what I had heard at the pub a few days earlier. I bought some of the Red Coat Pale and it is quite quaffable. He said they have changed the recipe from a few years ago and it now has a more yeasty quality and a nice bitterness in the finish. I asked him about previous bad batches and he said they had a yeast problem a while back but that beer had not been sold to the public. The only conclusion I can draw from this is this beer is good when fresh but must have a short shelf life before going off. Based on my negative previous encounter with Glenora when I visited the brewery, this experience was very positive.

RyanWright wrote:I asked him about previous bad batches and he said they had a yeast problem a while back but that beer had not been sold to the public. The only conclusion I can draw from this is this beer is good when fresh but must have a short shelf life before going off. Based on my negative previous encounter with Glenora when I visited the brewery, this experience was very positive.

I'd say a half hour drive home from the brewery is a VERY short shelf life.

Regardless, I do encourage them to make any possible changes. Yeast problem, recipe, whatever - they do have to stop manufacturing drain cleaning products (although effective ones.)

Doug Pengelly of St. André is consulting with them. If anyone can figure out what the problem is, Doug can.

Greg had favourable things to say the other day, not sure if it was posted here or in person, but if they can clean up the infection issues that will be a good start to putting out some decent beers.

Yeah, I tried their Pale Ale at last week's OCB media event, and they've definately solved the infection issues. The rep mentioned the fact that they'd brought Doug in to help them out, and it seems to have done the trick. I'll be trying their other beers at some point to confirm, but hopefully they've got it solved across the board.

I tried both the Red Coat and the Triple Chin at the C'est What? event Friday and both were vastly better than I've had before.

Jon Walker wrote:I tried both the Red Coat and the Triple Chin at the C'est What? event Friday and both were vastly better than I've had before.

Me as well, there was a bit of buttery/caramel that might be diacytl (Spelling?) but it might be intentional considering the styles. Both were quaffable on tap, but not mindblowing.

I really liked the Triple Chin. I'm going to hunt me down some of that.