New Arrivals at LCBO & TBS

midlife crisis · Post by **midlife crisis** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 10:14 am

cfrancis wrote:Had a couple of pints of Honkers last night watching the game. Not too bad.

Yeah, it's been my "any port in a storm" beer on a couple of occasions lately, and has worked quite nicely. Seems to be popping up at macro-oriented places that would otherwise have a rather dreary lineup of taps. For instance, had it last week at that little pub in the basement of the Royal York Hotel.

cfrancis · Post by **cfrancis** » Thu Apr 23, 2015 10:46 am

Exactly the same. I was at the Royal Oak here in Ottawa which is the usual Kilkenney, Boddintons, Guinness, etc.

Then I see Honkers and Fullers on tap. I rotated back and forth.

spinrsx · Post by **spinrsx** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 9:28 am

new to the LCBO

ALPINE LAGER
Canada | Moosehead Breweries Limited
LCBO 422485 | 473 mL | $ 2.30

sprague11 · Post by **sprague11** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 9:57 am

spinrsx wrote:new to the LCBO

ALPINE LAGER
Canada | Moosehead Breweries Limited
LCBO 422485 | 473 mL | $ 2.30

Everything after the word "Alpine" left me sad.

northyorksammy · Post by **northyorksammy** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:04 am

sprague11 wrote:
spinrsx wrote:
Everything after the word "Alpine" left me sad.

but Switzerland is the happiest country

Philip1 · Post by **Philip1** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:48 am

cfrancis wrote:Exactly the same. I was at the Royal Oak here in Ottawa which is the usual Kilkenney, Boddintons, Guinness, etc.

Then I see Honkers and Fullers on tap. I rotated back and forth.

They also had Honkers (I think, I guess it could've been IPA) at Connor's on Bank Street when I was there a couple of weeks ago. A pint was something like $7.35. I was surprised to see it in what to me, a first time visitor to Ottawa, seemed like a neighbourhood type pub. The name Goose Island (presumably Honkers or IPA) was also on the board at D'Arcy McGee's which I believe is part of that Irish pub chain that owns Fion MacCools.

rejtable · Post by **rejtable** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 1:23 pm

spinrsx wrote:new to the LCBO

ALPINE LAGER
Canada | Moosehead Breweries Limited
LCBO 422485 | 473 mL | $ 2.30

Whohoo, get to relive my underage beer drinking days!

rejtable · Post by **rejtable** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 1:25 pm

Royal Oak have had Fullers at their spots for years now. I've seen GI Honkers at a bunch of places over the last what, 6-12 months? Darcy McGees for sure, even in Orleans. Last time I was in my local, the Blackburn Arms, they even had some!!

spinrsx · Post by **spinrsx** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 3:35 pm

if americans viewed this site they would have some laughs at our expense. Ontario is very excited to have honkers and sierra nevada pale ale! (I'm not kidding either - I'm excited about these)

sprague11 · Post by **sprague11** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:01 pm

Ditto - If I were American I'd be laughing at how much more we are paying for Honkers, et al. .....while drinking my 7 dollar bottle of peche mortel.

cratez · Post by **cratez** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:15 pm

No need to bother with the Goose IPA folks. I tried one last night and it was worse than I expected. Thin-bodied, almost watery mouthfeel with a one-dimensional bitter hop flavour that borders on acrid, some light honey notes, and very little complexity overall. The label says that it's brewed at one of the Canadian Labatt plants, so no surprise that this is a highly bastardized version of a once-great beer.

It's too bad that things have come to this, as the original Goose Island IPA - brewed in Chicago - was a fantastic beer. I recall it being intensely fruity and floral with bright citrus aromas and flavours, a medium body, and a long zesty-bitter finish. It was one of the beers that put me onto IPAs, so I'm sad to learn that it's now a shadow of its former self.

On the bright side, Thrust! is coming to the LCBO soon and we have no shortage of good local IPAs on the shelves, so it's not like we're starving for hoppy beers.

cratez · Post by **cratez** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:25 pm

I should also add that I'm still a bit confused as to where the kegged version of Goose IPA is being brewed, as the pint that I had at Bier Markt didn't bear any resemblance to this bottled version. It was much brighter and fresher tasting, with a bold hop flavour and balanced bitterness, close to the original incarnation. And I drank it in between pints of SNPA and Stone IPA, so I don't think I was being indiscriminate.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 4:29 pm

cratez wrote:I should also add that I'm still a bit confused as to where the kegged version of Goose IPA is being brewed, as the pint that I had at Bier Markt didn't bear any resemblance to this bottled version. It was much brighter and fresher tasting, with a bold hop flavour and balanced bitterness, close to the original incarnation. And I drank it in between pints of SNPA and Stone IPA, so I don't think I was being indiscriminate.

I was going to say, what you described did not at all match the 3 or 4 pints I had at a Jays game last week, which was downright tasty. Maybe the 'Bo just murdered another shipments of bottles?

spinrsx · Post by **spinrsx** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 5:19 pm

They might have to pay more for peche, but at least they have the choice

sprague11 wrote:Ditto - If I were American I'd be laughing at how much more we are paying for Honkers, et al. .....while drinking my 7 dollar bottle of peche mortel.

El Pinguino · Post by **El Pinguino** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:06 pm

Craig wrote:
cratez wrote:I should also add that I'm still a bit confused as to where the kegged version of Goose IPA is being brewed, as the pint that I had at Bier Markt didn't bear any resemblance to this bottled version. It was much brighter and fresher tasting, with a bold hop flavour and balanced bitterness, close to the original incarnation. And I drank it in between pints of SNPA and Stone IPA, so I don't think I was being indiscriminate.
I was going to say, what you described did not at all match the 3 or 4 pints I had at a Jays game last week, which was downright tasty. Maybe the 'Bo just murdered another shipments of bottles?

Goose Island has 2 IPAs. "Goose IPA" and their "India Pale Ale". Cratez is describing a beer that would be their India Pale Ale...that is highly rated...and not available to us. It's an American IPA.

The beer we have is the Goose IPA...English IPA. If you look it up, it's in no way meant to be overly hoppy.

When you put it in perspective it's nice...when you think you're getting a hoppy, American IPA, it sucks.