What're you drinking right now?

[El Pinguino]

I'm only drinking NA beers for 100 days, lol.
Had Chester from Bazaar recently, an NA Berliner weisse with black currants. It was quite good!
Grabbed the new Swoon stout from Burdock, and picked up Nickel Brooks NA beer to try soon.

Bazaar is pretty great. Gimmicky dessert beers are the future of N/A, in my opinion. Where did you grab it from? (And the Swoon, for that matter?)

Hey Shintriad!
I order from upsidedrinks.ca for any Quebec stuff. They always have a wide selection of Bazaar and other stuff.
Will also do pickup orders from Broue Haha in Gatineau if I am in the area, but not sure if they have many Bazaar brews right now.

Edited as I forgot to mention Swoon.
I picked Swoon up direct from Burdock. It didn't seem to last long...I did see it in one of the online NA shops recently...just can't recall which one, lol.

[sofakingdrunk]

Recently a good amount of Royal City Station Stout.
A nitro stout, no widget. Sticker on the can advising to shake before opening, and pour aggressively.
Nice creamy body with a beautiful cascade on the aggressive pour. Milk chocolate and mocha flavours for the most part. I think I’d prefer it a touch drier though.
I’ve definitely sprayed my ceiling on more than one occasion when opening after the shake. After some trail and error I’ve found letting it sit 10-15 second after the shake mellows the spray for the most part.
A very tasty low abv local nitro stout option, but I’m not sold on the shake/open situation.


3moon All My Buds a collab with All My Friends.
Tastes like liquid weed to me, with that classic 3moon body. Tasty enough beer, but the 4 pack is more than enough for me.

Nickelbrook Paloma RTD cocktail. Fucking awful. Tastes like it’s full of aspartame, but none is listed. Got about 1/6
Of the way through the can before it went down the drain.

Still drinking lots of Timothy Taylor Landlord, although almost taking it for granted now. Damn near perfection.

Octopus wants to fight variety 4pack. I’ve been impressed by this. The “session” one drinks far bigger than it is. Regular octo
Never disappoints. The NE Version was delicious, with enough bitterness on the backend to keep the sweetness in check. Havnt had the double octo yet.

[Tapsucker]

GLB Mayflowers. I'm really digging this. Nicely balanced and clean. Pretty dry, which I prefer. Sadly, I'm going to guess this was a one off, since I don't see it on their site anymore. It could have even been a happy accident as the character reminds me a bit of something that might have been caused by dry hop flash, which is pretty hard to control.

Oh well. Enjoying while I can.

[Craig]

I had a Willibald Vesterbro the other night and it was incredible. They're still in stock online, I highly recommend.

[distr0]

I had a Willibald Vesterbro the other night and it was incredible. They're still in stock online, I highly recommend.

It's closer to a coldbrew coffee than a barleywine but fuck is it delicious.

[sofakingdrunk]

Sparrow’s Sir Richard’s Wobbly pop Pilsner. On the higher end of abv for a pils(5.9) and more bitter than most. I really enjoy the ramped up bitterness. I had this when they first opened(pandemic times…mid 2020) and I seem to think I enjoyed it a lot more, not sure if it’s changed or it’s just me. Still a very tasty beer.

Fairweather California King west coast ipa- I love Fairweather generally and I love westies, but something about this beer just doesn’t jive with me. This is the third different batch I’ve had over the last year and a half, and each time I don’t enjoy it like I think I should. I find it overly sweet and not bitter enough. I think I’m in the minority as I’ve pretty much only heard good things from other folks about this beer.

Fairweather Donna-always a stunner.

Lots of Royal City Regal lager- I love this beer. Crispy clean and floral. I wish it was a year round offering.

Anderson lager mix six- I think Anderson does everything exactly as described on the can. Always super solid, I’ve long been a fan of their ipa(the double ipa was fantastic) the former “summer Pilsner” beer and “autumn” beer.
The pack contains 6 different lagers.
Gold,New zealand lager,Vienna lager,Czech pils,cerveza,premium lager. So far I’ve drank the Vienna lager(excellent) the Gold and premium(both tasty beer-y tasting beers, but a bit boring)

[S. St. Jeb]

Sparrow’s Sir Richard’s Wobbly pop Pilsner. On the higher end of abv for a pils(5.9) and more bitter than most. I really enjoy the ramped up bitterness. I had this when they first opened(pandemic times…mid 2020) and I seem to think I enjoyed it a lot more, not sure if it’s changed or it’s just me. Still a very tasty beer.

You started a thread for these guys last winter.

viewtopic.php?t=11266&hilit=sparrow

Still very much an "under the radar" brewery - there are lots of those! This post reminds me I want to try again to stop by there sometime.

[S. St. Jeb]

I went to Caledon last night to see the Sam Roberts Band - free concert at "Caledon Day".

Caledon Hills, Goodlot, and Sonnen Hill all had booths, two each actually with one one each side of the area which was convenient. What I found interesting is that Caledon Hills and Goodlot had line-ups, but Sonnen Hill did not.

I had Sonnen Hills pilsner, IPA, and an English Ale - enjoyed them all.

[anthony9]

I've been thinking about Sonnen Hill's direction, recently. The eliminated their charitable donation on their bottles, which I am in favour of (rather pick my own charities and don't like this kind of marketing). They changed their discount from 6 bottles/a case to particular order number.

To why they may not have been busy, my guess is that there are people that like to buy cases or who buy more on price than what Sonnen Hills offers. The other two also sell tall cans, unlike Sonnen Hills' standards.

If they were bigger, I think that they'd do well with hip Toronto taproom. Though I think their quite respected, given their strong international availability.

[sofakingdrunk]

Goodlot-Top of the morning stout. Really quite underwhelming. Generally what I’ve had from Goodlot is very middle of the road, so not really surprised. After drinking, I checked the canning date, November ‘23

Merit-Young Rival ipa. I havn’t had this in probably 7 years or so, I was surprised to see it at the lcbo. More malty than I remember, some fuzzy peach sort of sweetness going on, slightly bitter finish.

Royal CityXGuelph.beer-Midwest ipa. Just not a great beer. Not sure what a “Midwest ipa” is. Leaning hard on that old school west coast vibe, has a strange acrid bitterness on the finish.

Bellwoods-Ultra premium lager. A great offering in the 4% range. Crisp clean and refreshing.

BellwoodsXRoyal City-Belgian ale with raspberries. Really good stuff. Beautiful colour on it, heavy raspberry presence. Surprising amount of tannins and bitterness. Quite light bodied and very refreshing. Drinks a bit bigger than the 3.9%. I Will be buying quite a few more of these.

[S. St. Jeb]

Goodlot-Top of the morning stout..... canning date, November ‘23

Do you (or others) feel 'freshness' matters so much with a stout? I know it can make a difference with hoppy beers, but I've never thought there was much concern with other styles.

[BartOwl]

I'll say this. Stouts should be hoppy. I know not all of them are, but the ones I seem to like are usually hoppy. For example, yeti, ten fiddy and even Fuller's has some hop presence. I can taste the hops in Guinness too. Having said that I am not as picky for freshness as others, even for hoppy beers.

[sofakingdrunk]

Goodlot-Top of the morning stout..... canning date, November ‘23

Do you (or others) feel 'freshness' matters so much with a stout? I know it can make a difference with hoppy beers, but I've never thought there was much concern with other styles.

I don’t feel “freshness” is such a big deal with stouts, no. Especially bigger abv stouts. I’ve got many(admittedly mostly BA impy stouts) hanging out in my cellar.
This one in particular is a low abv. I was just a little taken back that an on site location still had 8 month old stock in its fridge. Surprisingly low turnover it seems.

[lagerale]

Enjoying a Shacklands 668-NEIGHBOUR OF THE BEAST. It's an homage to GLB Devils Pale Ale and it's tasting great.

[cratez]

In Denver so far:

At Bierstadt Lagerhaus:
Bierstadt Slow Pour Pils (draft)
Bierstadt Vienna Lager 2024 (draft)

At Oskar Blues Grill & Brew:
Oskar Blues Oskar's Lager (draft)
Bootstrap MEDAL AF Mosaic IPA (draft)

At Bull & Bush Brewery:
Bull & Bush The Tower ESB (draft)
Bull & Bush Sumo Mandarin IPA (draft)

At Great Divide Brewing:
Great Divide Colette Farmhouse Ale (draft)
Great Divide Mexican Lager (flight sample)
Great Divide Velvet Yeti Nitro (flight sample)
Great Divide Denver Pale Ale (flight sample)
Great Divide Peanut Butter Yeti (flight sample)

At Work & Class:
Work & Class Old Fashioned Cocktail (draft)
Diebolt Electric Cowboy West Coast IPA (can)

At Oblio's Pizzeria Park Hill:
Westbound & Down Westbound Italian Pils (draft)
Station 26 Juicy Banger IPA (draft)

At Wynkoop Brewing:
Wynkoop Common Loot California Common (draft)
Snake River Pale Ale (draft)
Wynkoop Banner 18 Cashmere IPA (draft)

In the hotel room right now:
A fresh can of the re-worked Odell IPA, which is drinking fantastic

Still on the agenda are Raices Brewing, Hops & Pie, and Leevers Locavore, before we head to Vail and Fort Collins later in the week. The Kitchen American Bistro did not work out (aggressively anti-kid), so we defaulted to the better-than-expected Wynkoop. Besides the former misstep, everywhere else has been good to great for craft beer, food, and family friendliness. I would like to hit Crooked Stave and Hogshead Brewery if we have time, but without food options, it's a question mark on whether we'll get to them.