The Bar Towel

Collective Arts Toronto small batch brew: Luminous Sound an NE IPA collab with Town brewery. Nice hop flavour. They also have three other IPAs brewed in Toronto, two of which I picked up. I have not tried those two yet.

Holiday drinking:
Bellwoods Brettal Head - Foeder Aged Pale Ale
Bellwoods White Picket Fence - Nectarine
Rainhard Classic - Munich Style Lager
Rainhard Satanic Panic Imperial Stout
Rainhard Pure. West. WC IPA
Rainhard Hop Cone Syndrome - West Coast Double IPA

Also took a stab at the Northern Buck concoction I mentioned before. Ended up using Fever-Tree Ginger Ale instead of the recommended ginger beer as the best available ginger beer I could find was too sugary for my tastes (18 grams per serving vs. 7 grams for the ginger ale). Also used fresh lime juice in place of the store bought stuff. It turned out pretty well, and will probably become a go-to for me when I'm in the mood for a whisky cocktail.

Right now:
Brouwerij The Musketeers Troubadour Imperial Stout

What am I drinking right now? Orval, of course. It's so nice to have this back, what a wonderful beer. Bottled Sept. 25, 2020 so it's relatively fresh; or at least fresher than I've ever drank it. Right now the hops are very present at the fore with herbal, grassy, and citrusy notes up front. Of course that wonderful but restrained funk comes through along with fruit, spice and bready malt notes. I grabbed 12 so I'm looking forward to seeing how this one evolves over the months and years.

beerstodiscover wrote:Harviestoun Ola Dubh 12yr old Whisky Aged — Very well balanced stout with nicely integrated wood and whisky character. Relatively dry and easy drinking.

Having the 18yr now. Very similar to the 12 (as expected). It would have been worthwhile to do a side-by-side. Great balance, subtle caramel/chocolate/barrel/fruit notes, and a nice astringency that subsides as your palate acclimatizes. At 8% ABV, it seems bit pricey at $8.40/330 ml. A limited and unique product, nice to try, and I'm happy to support imports from Harviestoun. And now I could use a refill...

Orval — Since its return I've opened by my 7.5, 6, and 4.5 year old bottles. I found them all rather consistent and tasting quite similar to the fresh stuff we have now — which is to say delicious. The oldest bottle was a slow gusher and went flat in the glass rather quickly. All were cellared in a basement and opened at about 10°C. A true side-by-side session would have been ideal, but I wasn't up for it.

The new batch is definitely more hoppy with more of the cirtrus/lime character I like in Orval.

Highlights from a recent splurge on Volo beer boxes:
Sonnen Hill Zigler Pils
Burdock Cherry B - Saison w/ Cherries
Sonnen Hill Mosaic - Hoppy Pale Ale
Willibald Southern Pine
Godspeed Sklepnik - Old Pilsen Style Lager
Stillwell Dry - Dry Hopped Baby Saison
Rouge River Two Finger Snap - Double IPA w/ Citra
Tooth And Nail Vim & Vigor Pilsner
Sonnen Hill Extra Hell
Oxbow Barrel-Aged Farmhouse Pale Ale
Barncat Cats In Space Double IPA
Stillwell Stilly Pils Pilsner-Style Lager

cratez wrote:Ommegang Game of Thrones: For the Throne
Ommegang Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended

I've kind of ignored this series as many of Ommegang's beers, while good seem a bit same-y. Watch Has Ended definitely had a very typical 'house' character, a bit mineral and umami like veal stock.

For The Throne is blowing me away right a this moment. I wish I had snagged one of the Imperial Stout and tried the others! Good stuff you Ommegangbangers.

Belgian wrote:

cratez wrote:Ommegang Game of Thrones: For the Throne
Ommegang Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended

I've kind of ignored this series as many of Ommegang's beers, while good seem a bit same-y. Watch Has Ended definitely had a very typical 'house' character, a bit mineral and umami like veal stock.

For The Throne is blowing me away right a this moment. I wish I had snagged one of the Imperial Stout and tried the others! Good stuff you Ommegangbangers.

I reached a similar conclusion, though didn't pick up any veal stock in the Watch. Your palate is more refined than mine. I thought it was fun to try once, but probably wouldn't revisit.

For the Throne, by contrast, was a real winner. These were my tasting notes. Cheers!

cratez wrote: I reached a similar conclusion, though didn't pick up any veal stock in the Watch...

For the Throne, by contrast, was a real winner. These were my tasting notes. Cheers!

I've noticed that umami meat-stock note in a few of their other beers (maybe Mars, Abbey, 3 Phils?) It's not bad, maybe it's a common yeast strain. I described Ommegang as 'polite Belgians' ie. they do a lot of things correctly but it's often so understated that sometimes nothing much stands out. This shoots for the same 2 markets that Unibroue covers - 80% are quite agreeable to the masses / every day, the other few (like the amazing Chocolate Indulgence) are more of a geek fest / special occasion.

Nice notes on Throne, and it's a really fair deal on clearout right now.

Aventinus Eisbock (2018) - All this frigidity had me reaching for one of these that I picked up on clearance a while back. Very much enjoying it. Gladly so because I found the current LCBO batch (small bottles) very unpalatable, harshly boozy. Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood or the cellaring mellowed this 2018 out. But I'd never had problem with the fresh stuff before.

Rodenbach Grand Cru Flanders Red Ale Aged in Oak Foeders

Have to say I did not like this at all. I found the "sour" very unpleasant. Must be just me; I took a quick peek on BeerAdvocate and it gets good ratings.

Collective Arts Matter Of Fact

Some of you will sneer at the comparative lightness of body of this decently dry-hopped Blonde but it's pretty nice as a moderate session ale close to an Ordinary Bitter in style. If it were a little lower in ABV that would be great too (4.9%)

Belgian wrote:Collective Arts Matter Of Fact

Some of you will sneer at the comparative lightness of body of this decently dry-hopped Blonde but it's pretty nice as a moderate session ale close to an Ordinary Bitter in style. If it were a little lower in ABV that would be great too (4.9%)

Instead, I choose to sneer at you for not sharing any personally experienced tasting notes.

Muddy York Diving Horse Pale Ale

I just received a delivery from them about half an hour ago, and cracked one of these open. It's excellent. I generally don't worry as much as a lot of you about how old a beer is, but I'm not saying it isn't important. This is only 7 days old!!

It's nice to be working from home today.

Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor — I didn’t even know this hit shelves! Great stuff. I’m on a real kick for golden bitter Belgians, when I can find them.