Ontario brewing awards forever tainted

[Rob Creighton]

Hey Michael,

When you're delivering to the Castle drop by Grand River Brewing in Cambridge. We're coming up to opening (within the month) and I'll show you around.

-Rob-

[GregClow]

In today's Metro, Aonghus Kealy rates the four Steelback beers that won awards, and has Q&A interviews with new brewmaster Bob Shami (ex-Northern Breweries) and D'Angelo:

http://www.metronews.ca/column.aspx?id=41524

[robinvboyer]

oh my god, this is sick reading these reviews, and seeing all the people D'angelo has in his back pocket, i'll bet his knees are black and blue.

[GregClow]

oh my god, this is sick reading these reviews, and seeing all the people D'angelo has in his back pocket, i'll bet his knees are black and blue.

Are you suggesting that Kealy has been paid off by Steelback in some way to give their beers a positive review?

Or maybe you're talking about me, since I mentioned earlier in this thread that I tried both the Dark and Honey beers at the awards event, and found them to be much improved over the versions I tried a couple of years ago.

Regardless of what we all might think of D'Angelo as a person/huckster, why is it so hard for so many people here to believe that the beers have gotten better? Sure, they may not be world-class craft beers, and I doubt they'll become everyday beers for any of us. But they're drinkable and inoffensive, and actually exhibit some pleasant flavour characteristics.

So unless you've actually tried them recently and can back up your statements, I think it's pretty low to suggest that people are being coerced in some way by D'Angelo/Steelback to give the beers positive reviews.

[JerCraigs]

oh my god, this is sick reading these reviews, and seeing all the people D'angelo has in his back pocket, i'll bet his knees are black and blue.

They are newspapers... and the awards are news... Whether we agree with the results or not.

Edit: Went and read the article (I strongly suggest anyone posting on this thread do so).

Thoughts:
* Aonghus' beer reviews in the article seem to confirm my own thoughts and comments here that the *new* brands as a lot less bad than the original releases. That said, Mr. Kealy's previous recommendations make me question how closely his taste in beer matches my own. (Case in Point: Hearty recommendation of Budweiser for the Superbowl.)

* Addresses some of the comments about using fruit juice equipment for brewing. I agree with the statements about the fermenters, it should not matter. That said, the only mention of mash tuns and lauter tuns is in reference to the ones at Northern Breweries... Presumably an innocuous omission, but thats really what the more important criticism focused on no?

I don't know if our reputation was the best. There were some mistakes made (when the brewery first began three and a half years ago). There were some beers produced and sold that shouldn't have been out at the time. There was a lot of enthusiasm when the company was launched, and a lot of it was our beer didn't live up to people's expectations. It's tough to overcome first impressions. "

Especially when the first impression was REALLY bad.

Q: Have you spoken with your main sponsored spokesman, Phil Esposito, about the awards?
A: Phil was very happy. We have a long-term commitment with Phil. He was very pleased.

Ok that is one of the areas where Robinvboyer might have a valid critique that this is a bit of a promo piece... That question is either a nice softball pitch or space filler.

Q: Is there anything you'd like for beer geeks and naysayers to know about your beer?
A: I would challenge those guys to try our beers in a blind taste test. If you're talking about beers from three years ago, they're not the same as they are today.

You know what, in the spirit of objectivity - if they set it up, I would show up. In the spirit of "fool me once...", I'm not so eager to pony up my own money for the privilege. Maybe the "Steelback Challenge" could be a feature booth at the Toronto Festival of Beer this year?


Tangentially related comment: Do the Golden tap Awards do a press release? It would be cool if we could arrange with the winners and/or fundraise to get enough money to take out a nice ad in the papers promoting the winners next year.

[pootz]

Q: Is there anything you'd like for beer geeks and naysayers to know about your beer?
A: I would challenge those guys to try our beers in a blind taste test. If you're talking about beers from three years ago, they're not the same as they are today.

You know what, in the spirit of objectivity - if they set it up, I would show up. In the spirit of "fool me once...", I'm not so eager to pony up my own money for the privilege. Maybe the "Steelback Challenge" could be a feature booth at the Toronto Festival of Beer this year?

I agree Jer. I think I said as much in a previous post. In the spirit of objectivity and as an olive branch to a new brewer ( ex Northern) who appears to have some integrity, the new reformulated SB beers deserve a new review...and If Frank's buyin' I'll show ....I still don't feel justified in forking out my own dough to a brewery which misrepresnted its product for so long.

( as an aside I had sampled the gawd awful SB brands that had infected off tastes in the initial release about a year later and noticed the infected offensive tastes gone but there were some "off" tastes the result of poor temp control and conditioning/filtering and poor yeast attenuation in fermentation...this was apparent to me because I brew and these tastes are familiar in batches that I frig up) That said:

What remains to make the new "tasting" objective is what do we compare the "new" brews to? What class of beer? If we compare them to the crafted beers that lost to Frank, he will get freaky because I speculate Bar toweler's taste is more developed and experienced than that of the pedestrian/philistine judging staff at the OBA (who's taste will certainly be on judgment in this contest if we come at SB beer as "craft").

Do we rate it against the 500 brand macro mass consumption bland universe where I suspect these recently all malt beers rightfully belong? This will give Franks brews a better light ( comparing apples to apples) but he will probably freak because in marketing he has gone from hawking his sudz as "premium" to "craft" after the awards....if we compare them to the craft beers of similar style we have tasted I'm sure they won't do so well and we'll be branded the "seven little beer geeks" again by OBA marketing droids.

So, where to start in classifying these new refomulated SB beers into the proper category where they can be tasted and assessed for what they really are: Craft, super premium, Premium, buck-a-beer or animal house beer bong material? If we do not do this from the outset of the "re-tasting" we will be guilty of the same sin the OBA judges and promoters were of putting apples and oranges in the same judging class.

BTW: I'd like to coment on the Metro articles written by Kealy...I personally found them to be confused and uninformed in nature (displaying a casual knowledge of the subject of beer industry, styles and flavour) but then the magazine is focused at promotion of GTA entertainment and hospitality industry, it is not a beer industry publication....so WYSIWYG. In any event Kealy does not seem qualified to judge a beer tasting where commercial reputations and product sales are on the line...but he is perfect for a purely commercial promotional event. The last Metro article seems to be a dire attempt by Kealy to rescue some credibility after being involved in the judging staff that was "surprised they gave SB beers gold over Denison's".....a sort of desparate endeavor at justification by hyping SB's beer as being better than it probably is in order to gloss over the glaring Faux pas made by the OBA judges. IMHO

In all reality if the changes made to SB are true, it is probably now "tolerable" but bland ( no after taste????) but the "off" tastes are probably in control now....indistinguisable from so many other pedestrian macro lagers except in sugar content which seems to impress OBA judges as making beer "better tasting"....but certainly not worthy of gold medals.

Perhaps when we judge this beer for ourselves we should come at it from the perspective of "THIS" is what wins gold brewing medals in Ontraio but then that may put the entire OBA on "taste" trial....and obviously their opinion is not to be questioned by the lowly seven little beer geeks

[Rob Creighton]

What remains to make the new "tasting" objective is what do we compare the "new" brews to?

Obviously... Labatt Blue...you know, 'the good stuff'

[pootz]

What remains to make the new "tasting" objective is what do we compare the "new" brews to?

Obviously... Labatt Blue...you know, 'the good stuff'

Ahhhh yes beer that tastes "cold"

Against macro suds it may fair better than comparing it to the crafted beers that Frank wants us to think this beer is.

BTW Rob when's the GRB grand opening, I want to get some of that first tapped keg of "old fashoned" lager beer...it's about time we saw some of that stuff around K-W where Canadian lager was invented.

[shintriad]

The other day I had to break a twenty and found myself outside the Beer Store. Masochist that I am, I decided to grab one of those grossly oversized Steelback Tiverton Nuclear Mutated Bear things, as I noticed it has very few recent Ratebeer.com reviews.

Well, I can tell you it's true that they indeed cleaned up most of their brewing flaws...it doesn't quite taste like Disgusting™ anymore. But as for winning all those awards? Umm...I think it's a tad overrated. It's still fizzy, watery, bland and has pronounced metallic notes.

Still, it's better than some of the other godawful honey beers out there, like that Lakeport horseshit. I guess that's worth something. And now that you know, there's no reason to try it yourselves.

[pootz]

one of those grossly oversized Steelback Tiverton Nuclear Mutated Bear things

Do I detect bias going into that tasting...what ever will Frank think of beer geeks now? Oh my you guys are so opinionated, you'll never make decent OBA judges.

Still, it's better than some of the other godawful honey beers out there, like that Lakeport horseshit. I guess that's worth something. And now that you know, there's no reason to try it yourselves.

Well this was my impression when I tryed it a few years ago...except the "honey" left a distinct molasses taste to it I will try it again to see if that "Douglas Point nuclear mutated bear" has found some real honey or if he still has a nose for brown cane sugar or the molassas barrel

[pootz]

the medal promo BS has started:

http://www.steelbackbrewery.com/home.asp

[JerCraigs]

said Arnold. "If I wanted to brew something just for the beer nerds – all seven of them – I could do that. I've got a small pilot brewery where I could make stuff that's perfectly according to style, but I've got to sell my beer in the marketplace, too."

Contrasted with:

Brewing a wide variety of beer styles has become something of a trademark for Trafalgar. The 14-year-old brewery makes six meads and 12 ales as part of its normal range – a staggering number of products for a craft brewery. Keeping on top of such a big mix can be challenging, but Arnold says it makes good business sense.

"When we set up the brewery, we set it up to make as many styles as possible because you never know what people are going to be interested in drinking. Tastes change."

[GregClow]

Jer, are those Trafalgar quotes from the same article? If not, when where each of them published?

I recognize the seeming hypocrisy, but a bit more context would be nice.

[Uncle Bobby]

said Arnold. "If I wanted to brew something just for the beer nerds – all seven of them – I could do that. I've got a small pilot brewery where I could make stuff that's perfectly according to style, but I've got to sell my beer in the marketplace, too."

Excerpted from JR's article in the Toronto Star on 2 May 2007 entitled, "When did hell freeze over? Steelback's four 'wonderful' awards create buzz in the brewing world"

Contrasted with:

Brewing a wide variety of beer styles has become something of a trademark for Trafalgar. The 14-year-old brewery makes six meads and 12 ales as part of its normal range – a staggering number of products for a craft brewery. Keeping on top of such a big mix can be challenging, but Arnold says it makes good business sense.

"When we set up the brewery, we set it up to make as many styles as possible because you never know what people are going to be interested in drinking. Tastes change."

Excerpted from JR's article in the Toronto Star on 11 April 2007, entitled, "A sweet maple flavour".

[JerCraigs]

Thanks Uncle Bobby. I should have noted that but was in a rush.