Salanis to the red phone please

Wannabe beer snob here.

Just picked up a growler of Long Trail Triple Bag and kablammo! Holy strong.

They did say malty and it most definitely is. Oy! Reminds me of Guinness without the chocotastic-ness. The more I drink it the better.

I also bought a 6 of Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye based on an office mates recommendation. Haven't tucked into that yet.

I want to ease into more hoppy stuff, but being Canadian, I need something with training wheels. Our beer is decidedly not hoppy. Even Sam Adam's Boston Lager is super hoppy for a Canuck

Thoughts?

Thanks :)

If you can get German beers where you are, Jever definitely hops...

Where are you exactly? I know several excellent microbrews operating in the Windsor-Toronto corridor. You can get them all over southern Ontario, not so much elsewhere... Mill St. Tankhouse Ale is one of my favourites which I think sees some national distribution, it's not tooo hoppy but has a very distinctive blend of hops meaning you really get a unique flavour without as much bite. Give it a try if you see it.

More hoppy? Dry hopped IPA or APA would be a good start. I LOOOOVE dry hopped IPA. My brand is Schlafly, but its a local brew. You can really taste the hops.

This thread makes me feel inadequate after buying a case of black label last night

I split time between Niagara Falls and Sudbury right now. Currently in NF and do some work on the US side. I got my stuff today from Consumer Beverages on Niagara Falls Blvd. They have a row of taps and switch stuff out regularly from what I understand. A growler is a 64oz glass bottle which they'll fill with anything they have on tap.

To HITempguy - I have a 15 of Molson Canadian in the fridge too

It's been a while since I've had one of these, but I guess it's still around. One thing's for sure, it's HOPPY!

http://www.tuppersbeers.com/TuppersBeer/The%20Ale.html

N Sperlo wrote: More hoppy? Dry hopped IPA or APA would be a good start. I LOOOOVE dry hopped IPA. My brand is Schlafly, but its a local brew. You can really taste the hops.

WE have friends here in Tulsa who make a run to Missouri a few times a year, specifically to grab 15-20 cases of Schlafly.

Excellent brewery.

akamcfly wrote: I split time between Niagara Falls and Sudbury right now. Currently in NF and do some work on the US side. I got my stuff today from Consumer Beverages on Niagara Falls Blvd. They have a row of taps and switch stuff out regularly from what I understand. A growler is a 64oz glass bottle which they'll fill with anything they have on tap. To HITempguy - I have a 15 of Molson Canadian in the fridge too

Oh cool, you've got some good choices then. Give Railway City Brewery a try if you can find their stuff, they're based out of St. Thomas. I like their Iron Spike copper & amber ales, you can find the copper in some LCBOs (not "The Beer Stores") and draught in a few places - if you phone the brewery they'd be happy to tell you where. It's more sour than bitter, with quite a pronounced taste progression if you're paying attention. Really defined start, finish & aftertaste. Their Dead Elephant IPA is more like a hoppy west coast style, and the Double Dead Elephant is essentially that, concentrate. It's good but not for the feint hearted. ("Dead Elephant" ~ it's a St. Thomas thing, if you know the town you'll get it.)

Another good one is Grand River Plowman's Ale, from Cambridge. I've also seen these at the LCBO. Very authentic rural English style pub ale (despite their heinous misspelling of the word "ploughman"). Not really anything like a North American IPA, but it's arguably the progenitor of the style. I like it.

If you want something really different, Mill St. also make a ginger beer (i.e. a real beer with ginger, not a spicy Caribbean pop), which is a really nice example of the style. I've only ever been able to get it as one part of a six assorted-beer sampler pack from the LCBO though. Hell, pick up the sampler pack anyway if you see it, they're all pretty good (I'm not too nuts about the lemon one you get in it but it has its purpose.)

Stay out of "The Beer Store", they're a government-sponsored monopoly run by the "big three" (Molson, Labatt's and Sleeman), all of whom are foreign owned, and they set their franchising & purchasing rules up specifically to keep the craft brewers out. They're pretty much evil. (The LCBO are evil too, but only in concept rather than operation, and they'll sell you better & more interesting beers.)

Railway City's website: www.railwaycitybrewing.com
Grand River's: www.grandriverbrewing.com
Mill St.'s: www.millstreetbrewery.com

You may also want to check out Flying Monkeys from Barrie, a sort of artsy California-wannabe brewery. I've had their "Hoptical Illusion" pale ale (very hoppy - duh) and Netherworld Cascadian Black Ale (which I personally like better), but not very much of either. I did notice their beers seem to vary in flavour between batches quite a lot.

Ranger IPA is a New Belgium product that may be available to you. This is a very hoppy, and very good, reasonably-priced brew. A good one to see whether you're going to like your hops.

I envy you trying the Ruthless rye. That and SN Pale in cans were both released pretty much right after I left for here.

If Sam Adams Lager is hoppy for you, I recommend not jumping strait in to IPA. Your best bet for learning to appreciate hops is something that has been dry hopped, but is fairly low bitter. You want hop aroma. Hops boiled longer gives you bitterness. Hops added later give you aromatic oils.

If you can find it on bottles look for beers that have an IBU or BU (International Bittering Units) around 40, or with something to provide extra body to balance the bitterness. American Pale Ales and Amber Ales or something that is a twist on an IPA (Belgian IPA, Wheat IPA, etc.) are probably the way to go. I'm not sure what you get out there, but I'll make some guesses based on larger brands that I know:

New Belgium:
Dig Pale Ale (OMFG, they hop it with Nelson Suavin! That is my favorite hop and I'm shocked any large brewery can get enough to do a major release using it)
Belgo IPA

Sierra Nevada Pale

Lagunitas Little Sumpin' Sumpin' - Highly hopped, but there is so much other body that this is a very well rounded beer.

Flying Dog Raging Bitch - Another Belgian style IPA

Brooklyn Beer company has a very nice lager that I just tried for the first time last night.

Arrogant Bastard - again, very strong and bitter, but there is enough good roasted malt to balance it.

Mendocino Brewing Red Tail Ale

Schneider Weisse - Tap 5 "Meine Hopfenweisse". Best hoppy German beer I've found. Supposed to be distributed oversees too.

Ignore the earlier suggestion of Jever, it has more bitterness than hop aroma, and even that has been slowly dialed back over the years in an effort to save money and widen appeal.

What I find odd is one of my favorite beers is Alexander Keith's IPA. I just think cdn beers - even our IPAs are just not hoppy.

Or, quite possibly, I don't know hoppy from a hole in the ground.

Or, I equate hoppy with bitter, and that's definitely ignorance on my part.

If you can get Dieu du Ciel (Montreal, QC) where you are, EVERYTHING they make is excellent. Everything. I've been to their pub, only place in Montreal I liked. Especially try to find Peche Mortel, it's an imperial oatmeal stout, possibly the best one in the world. Also one of the good ones is Helium, their German-style pilsner. Again, heavenly.

akamcfly wrote: What I find odd is one of my favorite beers is Alexander Keith's IPA. I just think cdn beers - even our IPAs are just not hoppy. Or, quite possibly, I don't know hoppy from a hole in the ground. Or, I equate hoppy with bitter, and that's definitely ignorance on my part.

Keith's "India pale ale" is a mass-market lager these days. It has basically nothing to do with traditional or modern craft brewery IPAs. Also, they're owned by InBev so they suck now.

Seriously, go grab the Mill St. sampler pack I mentioned. It's like an introductory tutorial to good beer.

akamcfly wrote: What I find odd is one of my favorite beers is Alexander Keith's IPA. I just think cdn beers - even our IPAs are just not hoppy.

Didn't know this one, had to look it up. It isn't hoppy. Only 20 IBU (half as bitter as a Sierra Nevada). Probably also done using English hops as opposed to American (very different aroma profiles). Gets really low scores on Beer Advocate.

Or, I equate hoppy with bitter, and that's definitely ignorance on my part.

Yes and no. Usually that is what people mean when they talk about a hoppy beer. Hops can provide bitterness and aroma, depending on how they are used. Different compounds in hops provide those different characteristics. Most craft breweries bump up both aspects at the same time. You can have a very bitter beer without much aroma hops. You can also have lots of aroma without a lot of bitterness. I had an excellent IPA from a German brewery last night that was fairly low bitterness (about like SN Pale), but with lots of wonderful dry hop aroma.

I am personally a much bigger fan of hop aroma than of bitterness.

I keep talking about IBUs. Here's a quick primer:

10 - Hefeweizen
20 - Crisp Lager / English Ale
30 - Good Pilsener / English ESB
40 - US Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada)
60 - IPA
80 - Double IPA
100 - Pliny the Elder
>100 - Can't tell flavor difference

Salanis wrote: I had an excellent IPA from a German brewery last night that was fairly low bitterness (about like SN Pale), but with lots of wonderful dry hop aroma.

Who makes that, out of curiosity? Do they sell it in bottles anywhere?

Jay wrote:

Salanis wrote: I had an excellent IPA from a German brewery last night that was fairly low bitterness (about like SN Pale), but with lots of wonderful dry hop aroma.

Who makes that, out of curiosity? Do they sell it in bottles anywhere?

Braufaktum. They're only a few years old, and they're expensive. I just had the opportunity to sample it as part of a beer tasting.

Mr. Costas here has taken to mixing the triplebag 1/2 and 1/2 with Molson Canadian to get it down.

It's nice this way, but I feel like I chickened out.

Turns out Triple Bag is considered a "barley wine". To me it's like beer concentrate - almost syrupy, and very strongly flavored.

Mouth feel like Guinness. Bitter, bitter, bitter. Admittedly, there's a lot going on flavor-wise, but the bitterness hits me like a cast iron frying pan. I want to like this stuff, it's so pleasing otherwise. Loving the "bouquet" and mouth feel - classy E36 M3. Then WHAM with the bitterness.

I attribute my opinion to an unsophisticated palette. I grew up on mass market swill.

Barley wines are definitely strong. I didn't like the first couple I tried but they have grown on me.

A lot of folks are saying DFH Immort Ale shares the characteristics of a Brandywine. I dunno. What I do know is that is one of the most complex THINGS (not just beer) I have tasted in my entire life. If you haven't tried it, please do. If you don't like it, drink that E36 M3 anyway. It's hard to find.

Personally, I've gotten on a kick where I can't really enjoy anything but Imperial Stouts. Specifically, I was drinking Old Raspy every night (had some of the barrell aged E36 M3 a few weeks ago - can't remember which iteration. ZOMG,) but now OB Ten Fidy is all that feeds the monkey. I'm enjoying one right now!!!

akamcfly wrote: Mouth feel like Guinness. Bitter, bitter, bitter. Admittedly, there's a lot going on flavor-wise, but the bitterness hits me like a cast iron frying pan. I want to like this stuff, it's so pleasing otherwise. Loving the "bouquet" and mouth feel - classy E36 M3. Then WHAM with the bitterness. I attribute my opinion to an unsophisticated palette. I grew up on mass market swill.

How old is it? Pretty much all Barleywines are meant to be aged. I generally can not stand fresh barleywine. Like what happened to you, they are super-high hopped to preserve them and it just comes on too hard. Over time the bitterness decreases substantially (another reason they're so hopped at first) and all of the flavors mature and blend together.

When I buy a barleywine, I put it away in a closet and let it age for at least a year. I have a bottle of 2003 barleywine waiting for me to get back home.

When I was in Buffalo a couple years back I had a Saber IPA at Pearl River Brewery that was pretty good, but the rest of their ilk wasn't that great. Of course, my fave IPA is Stone Brewery's Ruination. It's like a kick in the teeth. The hops are strong enough that it actually smells flowery when you put it in a glass. Dogfish Head's 90 minute IPA is also great with a little more carmalized sweetness.

If you're just getting into hops, a Sierra Nevada pale ale is a good mass-market start. From there the Sierra Nevada Submariner is a good next step. It's a good hop hit that's light enough to be a nice summer beer.

Hey Salanis - where's the Stone Ruination rank on IBU's?

ultraclyde wrote: Hey Salanis - where's the Stone Ruination rank on IBU's?

I don't have IBU's memorized for most individual beers. I guessed about 75, but had to look it up. Turns out I guessed really close.

77 IBU.