The Bar Towel

Sampled this today and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

First I have an aversion to synthetic flavorings and...

second; blueberry extract is being used in this beer and my previous adventure with this extract in the Belhaven ale had me prepared for the worst.

Now the good news: the judicious use of the bluberry extract in this Pump House brew does not produce an over powering synthetic fruit taste.....it is attenuated enough that it actually mixes well with the (Cascade) hopping to give a great balancing taste (like juniper berry) to the ample malts in the ale.

Well done...I'll buy more.

If this is any indication of the craftmanship in the pumphouse brews , I say bring 'em on and continue to open the taps from other non Ontario Canadian micros to the LCBO.

Wow, brothels musn't be making much money anymore if they're branching out into beer making...

lister wrote:Wow, brothels musn't be making much money anymore if they're branching out into beer making...

Perhaps the 5%ABV is a typo as well

Typo..sorry...PImp house..Pump House..common mistake...hmmm maybe my Freudian slip is showing

Picked up two sixes and having a bottle right now.

Hmmm... It smells nice and while I think it's better than Belhaven, there's this pepper taste that is really prominent up front that slowly goes away leaving a slight blueberry taste. I can't say I find this all that tasty. It definitely doesn't have that WOW blueberry taste that the Lion brew has. Next Montreal trip I'm tracking down a couple of Lion cases. Damn that stuff is good. Hopefully they don't pull a Schoune and alter the brew (Maple.)

I find the pepper taste to be very similar to a room temperature Colio Late Harvest wine. The pepper taste is no where near Dieu du Ciel's pepper beer that I had at Mondial.

Picked up a six on the weekend at Wilson LCBO. I agree it is well balanced and definitely worth a try, "2 thumbs up".

Enjoyed a 6-pack of this camping, both my wife and I thought it was great... Not over-the-top fruity, a nice beer, excellent fresh blueberry aroma... Wish I'd bought 12...

Where is that one available? LCBOs in Toronto area only, or is also outside the GTA? I'd like to give a try. I went all over to Ottawa area looking for the Belhaven Blueberry with no luck.

Cagiva650 wrote:Where is that one available? LCBOs in Toronto area only, or is also outside the GTA? I'd like to give a try. I went all over to Ottawa area looking for the Belhaven Blueberry with no luck.

The Pump House is a very limited release that is available at most of the same stores that get in the seasonal beer releases. Best way of finding out where it's available is to do an inventory search at www.lcbo.com - it's not always 100% accurate, but it's start.

The LCBO search that Greg has mentioned is a good start, but please keep in mind that it is up to 48 hours delayed. Please call ahead before fully relying on these search results.

I'm in Halifax right now and there is an explosion of blueberry ales here.....strangely enough the best tasting one is a raspberry wheat ale by Garrison and a honey wheat by Propeller.

pootz wrote:I'm in Halifax right now and there is an explosion of blueberry ales here.....strangely enough the best tasting one is a raspberry wheat ale by Garrison and a honey wheat by Propeller.

The best tasting blueberry beer is a Raspberry Wheat?!? You mean Fruit beers, right?

That said, Garrison does have a blueberry wheat besides the raspberry. Only done during NS wild blueberry season in late August - early September.

Bobbyok wrote: The best tasting blueberry beer is a Raspberry Wheat?!? You mean Fruit beers, right?

That said, Garrison does have a blueberry wheat besides the raspberry. Only done during NS wild blueberry season in late August - early September.

Yes fruit beers , ahem

Made a trip to the Dartmouth Sleeman plant and they had a blueberry lager on tap for growler off sales but I didn't bite when I got the sales guy to level with me that it was Old Milwakee with Blueberry "essence" in it.

The Garison fruit wheat ales were a pleasant surprise..well done with reduced fruit tastes and a nice biscuit finish.

I also got to taste the entire array of Pump House ales at Maxwell's Plumb ...all in all great brewing down here but it's hard for a lager drinker to find a good drink so I raided Premier wines for the Baron dunkels they had in sotck

I just returned from a summer trip out east and was lucky enough to stop by the Pumphouse itself for lunch on the way out to PEI. While we were there, my wife and I tried:

Muddy River Stout: a nice stout. Great dry roast flavours and a subtle hop bite at the end. We both enjoyed this, especially my wife.
SOB: a GREAT [edit]Bitter. Big malt and citrus hop flavours, but nicely balanced.
Scotch Ale: Could be a regular sipper for me. Good malt flavour with a hint of smoke. It reminded us of a lighter version Church Key Holy Smoke: not as much smoke or alcohol, but still lots of great flavour. I picked up 12 to take home and compare with the Holy Smoke.
Cadian Cream Ale: unremarkable. Seems to be a yellow fizzy beer.

Of the beers they offer, only Cadian Cream Ale, Scotch Ale and Blueberry Ale are offered in the bottle, the rest in kegs. I'd love to see some SOB or Muddy River Stout in Ontario in kegs...

Before we left the waiter found out we were visiting from Toronto and mentioned the Blueberry shipment to the LCBO. I asked about other beers being shipped to Ontario and he implied that they hoped all the bottled ones would be, but he wasn't 100% sure. It'd be nice to get the Scotch Ale out here.[/code]

flip wrote:I
SOB: a GREAT IPA. Big malt and citrus hop flavours, but nicely balanced.

A great bitter... not an IPA.

I have now sampled the majority of the Pump House ales on tap...very tastey and decent malt back bone....personal fave was the peat-smokey Scotch ale for its "rauchbier"-like character...second runner up ( surprisingly) was the Cadian blond ale for it's malting and drinkability ( this is important to a lager drinker when sailing the ale waters).

All in all good solid Canadian brew-pub ales, if the bottled versions they ship to LCBO are as fresh and tastey (unpasturized?) I think they will do well in this market....as would Propeller IMHO but there is no plan there to export. The owner told me he had a bad experience in the few times he did export and is not anxious to revisit the export business.
(BTW propeller is making a honey wheat ale that is very quaffable)

Perhaps Garrison will entertain the idea of export to Ont. if Pump House is successful.