The Bar Towel

Does anyone know if any of the Algonquin beers are still being produced? I assume not since none of them are listed as being available at The Beer Store, and there have been no new ratings for any of them at Ratebeer for a couple of years.

The Formosa is the only one still listed on The Beeer Store website.

I'm pretty sure Algonquin brands were all purchased by The Brick Brewing company a few years ago. They also purchased the Formosa brewery at the same time (Algonquin owned Formosa). The only brand that the Brick maintains is the Formosa brand I believe. Spent a pile of money upgrading the formosa brewery and now brews most the Brick stuff there.

Yeah, I knew about the Brick buyout. I was just wondering if they had killed off all of the brands except Formosa. I checked the Brick website, and they aren't listed there, so I guess they're gone.

Hey, do any of you guys remember the Country Lager? That less-filtered creation. I remember trying it and saying, 'now I KNOW this is the Real Sh-t."

Wonder how it would strike me today with my palate jaded

For those who collect press clippings, the Algonquin brands were purchased from Brick and are still currently owned by the Molson-Coors Brewing Corporation for $3 mil.

The reason they did it was that they (Molson-Coors) needed a non Molson brand (Algonquin Honey Brown) to put in their chain bars of the time (including Prime Restaurants at that point). It made it look like they hadn't bought all eight taps and actually had something interesting to offer. Interbrew was just beginning to roll out Keiths and Stella and Molson recognised that they were in trouble. It's interesting that they really haven't come up with a decent response yet other than buying Creemore which is only a regional player.

For those interested, the Algonquin Country Lager was created by Bruce White, the former asst. brewer at Upper Canada Brewery from '85 to '88. The flavour was considered too malty and radical by senior management and Bruce was fired and replaced by Jack Massey formerly of Carling O'Keefe where he had been instrumental in the development of OV.

Management was a group of marketing exec's that were part of the mainstream industry and wanted a beer that mimic'd your everyday lager. Therefore when Formosa Springs Draught came out it was a 70-30 malt/corn blend made in Formosa. The rest is hype.

The present Formosa product is I'm sure the exact same beer as a number of other 70-30 products they presently make. If your shocked by this, give your head a shake. That is the way all high gravity breweries operate.

I'm glad to hear that there are still some fans of the Algonquin Country Lager and I wiil mention this to Bruce if I chat with him again.

Rob Creighton wrote:I'm glad to hear that there are still some fans of the Algonquin Country Lager and I wiil mention this to Bruce if I chat with him again.

It is cool that this beer was such a black sheep because it knocked out everyone I shared it with at the time.

Was that the same outfit that made Hunt Club ale in the mid-90s, a low carbonation fruity sort of ale in a one litre plastic bottle? The label had a little fishing cabin wall scene. That was a favorite of mine.

Al the beerblogger wrote:Was that the same outfit that made Hunt Club ale in the mid-90s, a low carbonation fruity sort of ale in a one litre plastic bottle? The label had a little fishing cabin wall scene. That was a favorite of mine.

Yup, Hunt Club and the Formosa Bock are original brands from the old Formosa Brewery which closed in the early '70's. Algonquin purchased the rights to some of the original names from Molson when we reopened the Formosa plant in 1989. A few like 'Diamond Lager' and 'Club Ale' they wouldn't sell us.

The 1 Litre PET bottle was an experiment we did that I still see in Anheuser-Busch presentations about the future of PET in the beer industry to this day. It obviously had some impact on them.

Yes, Rob is indeed correct to say it was an experiment, as maintainance supervisor I rember spending many hours helping develop the 6 head in line bottling machine to produce it. The same machine would also convert to fill 3 of the 5L cans of Algonquin and Formosa produced around the same time. I still have a sample of both containers/ products in my collection which contains most of the product produced from the early days of Algonquin at Formosa up untill just before Brick bought it out and turned a small but tidy non pasturized bottling line into a pasturized mechanics nightmare.

but rural's not bitter...

I always wondered what happened here. Once a Brewers Retail employee just said to me " it's a conspiracy but I can't talk here" and hid under the counter and started wispering. It was the funniest thing I ever seen in a beer store.

Can anybody fill me in on what happened with the Connors brand? It seams to have had a similar fate as Algonquin.

I really liked thier imperial stout and the bitter got me through a lot of years of lousy choices in our market. The bitter is still not bad, but the competition has trampled them.

Tapsucker wrote:...
Can anybody fill me in on what happened with the Connors brand? It seams to have had a similar fate as Algonquin.....

Conner's went thru a pretty interesting history. Opened up as DonValley or Don Mills brewing (something like that) back in the 80's. Had a brewery over in the east end - probably around Don Mills - and a smaller one in Mississauga (the present Old Credit brewery). Sold beer in litre plastic bottles as I recall. Went in and out of business a couple of times I think before shutting down completely. A couple guys bought the company name and brands in the 90's and opened Conner's up again down in St. Catherines. Lasted a few years before selling off a number of their brands to Brick Brewing and closing their doors. Brick still brews Conner's Best I believe, but not much else.