The Bar Towel

here my RB review:

500 ml bottle from the brewery. bottled Feb 9th 2009. enjoyed Feb 11th 2009. now thats some fresh IPA. pours beautiful bright orange with a full white head that lingers and laces. wonderful earthly hop aroma with big pale malt backbone. the aroma is big and full just like you would expect from this brewer. the flavours is similar with hops up front leading to a caramel body and a fuggeled out finish. this is a great example of an IPA made without huge american style hops. the brew is hoppy and bitter but so much more palatable and complex then some west coast IPAs. i great brew that i will enjoy more then my fair share of. i cant wait to find it on tap.

Reviews like that make me thirsty! I can't wait until this arrives in Toronto. Bartowellers - let me know if you see it when your out on the town!

When I picked up my case yesterday, I noticed in the fridge that all the bottles had new streamlined labels. All very similar to each other. Got word from Bob that the new look labels are in preparation for the LCBO. He still does not know which will be accepted. I much prefer the old school look of the old labels as the new ones are very boring and uninviting. Best not to judge a book by its cover I guess.

As for the IPA, very bitter and dry....great!

Enjoying this right now, and WOW is it ever good! One of my favourite OCB brews already!

What I really love about it is the multiple layers of flavours here, and how well integrated everything is. For what it is it's almost perfect in my view, though I'm no expert on IPA's. But it is quite spectacular by my palate!

The guy on the bottle label is Len who owns the Golden Kiwi pub that is so closely tied with GRB. He's a cool guy but I guess they're just poking fun at him as the 'Curmudgeon' .

I thought that guy on the label looked familiar.. I just couldn't place him!

I picked some up today as well. Exceedingly fresh taste. Very different from the US west coast IPAs, as has been pointed out. More of an earthy flavour (not unlike Plowmans) that reminds me a bit of DDC Corne de Diable perhaps.

midlife crisis wrote:...reminds me a bit of DDC Corne de Diable perhaps.

This is a very, very good thing to hear.

This GRB offering is a good solid rendition of a Brit style IPA, mild by comparison to executioner's but full bodied, citrusy-piney and well balanced...very approachable.

Finally stopped in to Volo and had a pint last night. Very good...though I'd certainly beg to differ on the Corne du Diable comparison. I'd love to get some of this in bottled form but I don't expect I'll be out the way of the brewery for some time.

Funny you should say that, because I had a draught (keg) pint at Volo the other day too, and it did strike me quite differently than the bottles I picked up previously -- much more citrusy and less earthy. Don't know if they made more than one batch, or if my palate was taking a holiday.

As someone local to the brewery who's had a lot of both, I've always found GR's stuff differs considerably on tap versus bottled. And to be honest, I've always liked the bottled stuff more, it always just seems more robust to me, call me crazy. I would recommend trying their stuff bottled before making any final judgements on it, though that's not to say it's all bad on tap necessarily, I just think their beers are better bottled for whatever reason.

Granted, it's not like everyone can just hop on down to the brewery, and I understand that, hopefully if and when they get stuff through all the LCBO hoops you'll know what I mean. But that's another thing, I'm so worried about that happening and then seeing their stuff sit unrefridgerated on warm shelves for months at a time going horribly bad .

Bob tells me that this is the first cask of what I'm told, and reading, is a truly great IPA. It's just gone on stillage and I expect that I'll be tapping it towards the end of the week (maybe Thursday 26th Feb?) or possibly a little earlier if the cask of Welly County moves quickly. So this is kind of a heads-up rather than a review!

King Edward wrote:Bob tells me that this is the first cask of what I'm told, and reading, is a truly great IPA. It's just gone on stillage and I expect that I'll be tapping it towards the end of the week (maybe Thursday 26th Feb?) or possibly a little earlier if the cask of Welly County moves quickly. So this is kind of a heads-up rather than a review!

Looks like I'll be seeing you soon Rich!

King Edward wrote:Bob tells me that this is the first cask of what I'm told, and reading, is a truly great IPA. It's just gone on stillage and I expect that I'll be tapping it towards the end of the week (maybe Thursday 26th Feb?) or possibly a little earlier if the cask of Welly County moves quickly. So this is kind of a heads-up rather than a review!

Keep us posted!

I work at the brewery but have yet to try one of our beers on cask. I'm back and forth to London weekly and have stopped in at the King Edward once for a pint and would happily make the trip this weekend to try the IPA on cask.

I'll definitely be following this thread for more info.

I had this at Volo last night. I had a lot of anticipation because I've really enjoyed the 10 other Grand Rivers offerings I've drank, but this one left me a little disappointed. While it was still a very decent beer, the aroma and the flavours weren't as assertive as I hoped. It seemed very close in character to a lot of the bitters I used to drink when I was back in England - sessionable, but not exceptional.

I'll try it again because Grand River are perhaps the finest brewer in Ontario, but if this was anyone else I'd probably give it a miss.