Trafalgar Hop Nouveau

GregClow · Post by **GregClow** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:44 pm

[It'll be several weeks before anyone can review it, but consider this thread a placeholder...]

Trafalgar is doing a "fresh hop" ale, and will be the first brewery in Ontario to sell one through the LCBO.

The beer, to be called Hop Nouveau, will be brewed this coming weekend using hops picked the same day. It will be available at select LCBO outlets on or around September 23rd.

kwjd · Post by **kwjd** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:56 pm

This sounds like it could be exciting. We have a serious lack of APA/IPA's available here. (I'm assuming this will be from one of these styles)

SteelbackGuy · Post by **SteelbackGuy** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:57 pm

Sounds great to me!

Wheatsheaf · Post by **Wheatsheaf** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:10 pm

Try this beer, but beware it carries a terrible curse!

Ooh, that's bad.

But it's made with fresh hops.

That's good!

It's brewed by Trafalgar.

That's bad.

It will go on sale quickly.

That's good!

But there may be wild yeasts and bacteria at work.

[puzzled]

That's bad.

What, too soon?

JesseM · Post by **JesseM** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:25 pm

Love the classical Simpsons reference

.

I personally am looking forward to experiencing malt vinegar in an entirely new way! (ie. with hops)

SteelbackGuy · Post by **SteelbackGuy** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:34 pm

I won't judge until I've tried it, but I've just learned not to expect great things.......and if it is great, then I will be pleasantly surprised.

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:57 pm

AWESOME!

I know it's a current fad, but I wonder if they've been poking around here?
http://www.bartowel.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=4440

By the way, Spinnakers produces malt vinegar from their Barley Wine, IPA and Scotch Ale regularly (and seem to do a few other interesting one-offs). The hops are very subtle & somewhat interesting, but I think it's more of a novelty. IMHO the scotch ale was by far the best (I just picked up 2 more bottles a few weeks ago).

A · Post by A » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:18 pm

Yikes - I'd rather Trafalgar stuck with well preserved, easy to handle ingredients....

viggo · Post by **viggo** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 3:37 pm

A wrote:Yikes - I'd rather Trafalgar stuck with well preserved, easy to handle ingredients....

Hasn't helped them thus far. I'm interested to see where they go with this

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:50 pm

SteelbackGuy wrote:I won't judge until I've tried it, but I've just learned not to expect great things.......and if it is great, then I will be pleasantly surprised.

If they can make a convincing Flemish Sour out of what is supposed to be an Irish Ale, well then who knows the magic this brewery can create with fresh hops?

Anyway. I've had a few bottles of Trafalgar products that were actually OK, so I hope the placement of any new 'hop oriented' product is good for IPAs and Pales etc. in Ontario. (At least for the first week or so...?)

JerCraigs · Post by **JerCraigs** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 9:56 pm

I'm hopeful, and I am going to make a point of trying to get to it while its fresh. That said, the frogurt is also cursed.

notdan · Post by **notdan** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:47 am

The only Trafalgar beer I've tried is the Elora Special Bitter, which I thought was quite tasty, so I was kinda confused why people always rip on them. Checked the BA page for them though and it looks like they have a harsh history. Hopefully they're changing for the better, cause this one sounds pretty interesting.

...I definitely have to go find that Halloween episode now.

Belgian · Post by **Belgian** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:56 pm

notdan wrote:The only Trafalgar beer I've tried is the Elora Special Bitter, which I thought was quite tasty, so I was kinda confused why people always rip on them. Checked the BA page for them though and it looks like they have a harsh history. Hopefully they're changing for the better, cause this one sounds pretty interesting.

I agree, it sounds excellent in concept.

I recommend that anybody with an iota of patience for Ontario brewing buy ALL their beers, because only by returning faulty product on "complaint" is the LCBO (and hopefully the brewey) made aware of frequent bottle infections. Up till now the LCBO seems unaware or else ignorant of the problem - even though they seem quite eager to log any 'return complaints' accurately in the store.

Maybe it's even possible Trafalgar can pull up their socks because a number of their many interesting beer styles ARE tasty when very fresh. Still. Any micro-brewer that puts consumers OFF unusual styles with really bad samples of 'single-batch' non-Macro beers may be inflicting lasting damage on the public perception of all these small breweries and adventuresome beer styles. IMO this may be a giant step back for the other brewers trying to break in.

So - just my 2¢ here on these beers - buy 'em ALL and return 'em, if you can!!!

Derek · Post by **Derek** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:25 pm

They brew some interesting stuff (and have more diversity than most ontario breweries), but shelf life has been a problem. They are labelled "Unpasteurized, please keep refrigerated", but that isn't really an excuse.

Since most of these comments pertain to the brewery & not the upcoming brew, I propose that we move this thread into random talk.

pootz · Post by **pootz** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 6:35 pm

A 15 day ale?

The 'curse' looms