Nickel Brook Brewing

[S. St. Jeb]

Noticed a new can in the LCBO today for Nickel Brook Equilibrium. It has previously been billed as an Extra Special Bitter. It's now called an English-Style Ale. I don't know if there is any change to the beer itself; I'm guessing not. Their website has not been updated with this change.

[Belgian]

Noticed a new can in the LCBO today for Nickel Brook Equilibrium. It has previously been billed as an Extra Special Bitter. It's now called an English-Style Ale. I don't know if there is any change to the beer itself; I'm guessing not. Their website has not been updated with this change.

English-Style Ale doesn't tell you if it's a Brown or a Pale or whatever, so it's not a real classification when used as a name, not on RateBeer. Equilibrium is still an ESB which is just one type of English-Style Ale.

I bet it's just for easier marketing to Regular Store Buyers who might be scared of the word 'Bitter' even though it's not literally true. Same with calling an ale Brown Ale, some people might be terrified of colour and assume a mild brown session ale is overwhelming in taste.

To give Nickel Brook a tiny pass here I would just expect anything simply called 'English-Style Ale' to be in the range of more approachable session ales in terms of ABV strength and character. Fairly quaffable. Which I certainly think an ESB can be (you can have Bitter or Ordinary Bitter, Special Bitter, ESB and then we're broaching Pale Ale on the English Ale continuum though I might be less inclined to include Pales or certainly IPAs.)

Any English pub drinkers care to clarify? Would you order a 'Pint of Best" for ESB and 'Pint of Ale' for Ordinary Bitter?

[MatttthewGeorge]

Noticed a new can in the LCBO today for Nickel Brook Equilibrium. It has previously been billed as an Extra Special Bitter. It's now called an English-Style Ale. I don't know if there is any change to the beer itself; I'm guessing not. Their website has not been updated with this change.

Don't work there anymore but this was in the works when I left. No change in recipe, it's exactly what Belgian said: people don't like the word "bitter" and you can't stand in every store educating the customer.

[ErkLR]

No change in recipe, it's exactly what Belgian said: people don't like the word "bitter" and you [can't] stand in every store educating the customer.

No "bitter" for me, I'm going to grab this IPA...

[mgmoney]

Was there last Saturday and the funk house line up was amazing. Had a flight and no charge for the flight since I ended up buying a bunch of sours. I’m a happy man but wish they would put out more than just the raspberry Uber at lickbos

[Coronaeus]

Do I remember correctly reading somewhere that Kentucky Bastard, Winey Bastard, etc. are going to be released in smaller packages next year? I think I remember reading that somewhere but a cursory search has revealed nothing. Thanks.

[S. St. Jeb]

Nickelbrook will be releasing a "Mystery Pack" with four different beers labelled A, B, C, and D. Purchaser's will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite, which will be released with full branding next spring.

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2017/11 ... o-release/

Labatt's did something like this back in 1995. They introduced "Copper X" and "Copper Y". I don't recall which won; also don't recall Labatt Copper being around for too long after that.

http://strategyonline.ca/1995/01/09/9977-19950109/

Also, took a quick look and I don't think it's been mentioned on here that Nickelbrook will be moving to St. Catharines.

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2017/09 ... w-brewery/
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2017 ... ok-brewing

[sofakingdrunk]

Nickelbrook will be releasing a "Mystery Pack" with four different beers labelled A, B, C, and D. Purchaser's will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite, which will be released with full branding next spring.

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2017/11 ... o-release/

Labatt's did something like this back in 1995. They introduced "Copper X" and "Copper Y". I don't recall which won; also don't recall Labatt Copper being around for too long after that.

http://strategyonline.ca/1995/01/09/9977-19950109/

Also, took a quick look and I don't think it's been mentioned on here that Nickelbrook will be moving to St. Catharines.

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2017/09 ... w-brewery/
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2017 ... ok-brewing

Re:the mystery pack, great idea. I love it from a marketing standpoint and a consumer standpoint.

[S. St. Jeb]

Nickelbrook will be releasing a "Mystery Pack" with four different beers labelled A, B, C, and D. Purchaser's will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite, which will be released with full branding next spring.

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2017/11 ... o-release/

The announcement on Canadian Beer News said the mystery pack "will offer minimal information about the beers it contains". Well.....not too minimal. I picked it up today. The four beers are Stout, NE Session IPA, New England Style IPA, and Dry-Hopped Sour.

[sofakingdrunk]

Nickelbrook will be releasing a "Mystery Pack" with four different beers labelled A, B, C, and D. Purchaser's will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite, which will be released with full branding next spring.

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2017/11 ... o-release/

The announcement on Canadian Beer News said the mystery pack "will offer minimal information about the beers it contains". Well.....not too minimal. I picked it up today. The four beers are Stout, NE Session IPA, New England Style IPA, and Dry-Hopped Sour.

How are the beers?

[beerstodiscover]

Interesting, I was expecting: lager, hoppy lager, amber, wheat.

Does it list the styles on the packaging?

If not, it would be rather brave to include a sour. Imagine your average lager drinker opening that mystery can! I'll have to pick it up.

[Napalm Frog]

Looks like the beers are labelled A, B, C, D and the styles are on the box.

[Blasphomet]

If the price of the Kentucky Bastard is really what the Food&Dink mag said, I won't be picking this up either out of spite.

[S. St. Jeb]

Nickelbrook will be releasing a "Mystery Pack" with four different beers labelled A, B, C, and D. Purchaser's will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite, which will be released with full branding next spring.

http://www.canadianbeernews.com/2017/11 ... o-release/

The announcement on Canadian Beer News said the mystery pack "will offer minimal information about the beers it contains". Well.....not too minimal. I picked it up today. The four beers are Stout, NE Session IPA, New England Style IPA, and Dry-Hopped Sour.

How are the beers?

Didn't get into them last night and will be away for a couple of days, so probably won't try them until the weekend.

[S. St. Jeb]

Interesting, I was expecting: lager, hoppy lager, amber, wheat.

Does it list the styles on the packaging?

If not, it would be rather brave to include a sour. Imagine your average lager drinker opening that mystery can! I'll have to pick it up.

Looks like the beers are labelled A, B, C, D and the styles are on the box.

Styles are listed on the box. Alcohol content is listed with the style description, and on the can. There is one redundancy, but I'm pretty sure they are listed in order. At the very least you can guarantee knowing two of them before opening.

Yes, having an average lager drinker unexpectedly try a sour would be something to see.