+1

I assume then the liquor store situation there is somewhat grim. I'm fortunate to have so many choices by me, the grocery store (Marianos) does a mixed 6 for 8.99. Interesting thing is while they have a good mix there are a lot of very expensive beers in there, Founders Breakfast stout is usually $10 or more for a 4 pack, yet I can toss 6 of those in a container and get them for $9.

Grocery stores are not allowed to sell alcohol here. "Liquor stores" as such do not exist.

You've got the Beer Store and the LCBO. Any establishment that wants to serve or sell alcohol must be licensed by the LCBO.

GOVERNMENT REGULATION WHYYY

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/pol ... le5956633/

This would be nice.

If people were lined up that early then they are fucking insane. I can garauntee no beer is that good that it is worth that. Fuck. Just look at beer ratings overall. Ratebeer has:


Westvleteren 12 rated at 4.46.
Founders CBS (Canadian Breakfast Stout) - 4.29 (pretty easy to get in the states)
Stone Imperial Russian Stout - 4.20 (easy to get. I have a bottle aging right now)
Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout - 4.16 (bought one in the states, drank it, it was great. Easy to get)


And one that ALL of us can get here... Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel rated at 4.15. These are all in the top 50, and stouts are preferable for me to Trappist beer anyways.


The retarded line-ups are only because of the rediculous limitation to this, not it's quality of beer. And it's also due to the fact our LCBO has a horrible selection compared to the US. Fuck this beer, and fuck the LCBO. Drive to the states and stock up on a bunch. Not just a 6 pack.

I'm driving by the LCBO tomorrow after i drop my girlfriend off at work, and if i can get it, i'll get it. But i may also change my mind and come to my senses that 75 bones for a 6 pack and two chalices is pretty insane. Maybe one day I'll go to Belgium.

Thanks!

We went for low-gluten because I have celiac disease, which is my body rejecting gluten like a boss. It's not pretty.

The lower the gluten, the better!



I don't know the exact science behind it (I was helping my friend make "our" first batch of beer when we did it), but between evaporation and the yeast absorption. . . we're now left with a much high alcohol content than we originally expected.

It will happen eventually. I think there is too much pressure that it is bound to happen. We still won't have the quality selection you have in Buffalo though. Not enough awesome microbreweries here, due do population concentration imagine.

Oh, and you get your license from the LLBO, not LCBO.

Hmm, how odd. I didn't have any evaporation. What type of yeast did you use? Also what did you ferment in?

Stop waving the fact that you have private liquor stores under our noses!

Who says we won't have the same selection as Buffalo? Wouldn't it ideally be the same system and the individual stores can order in whatever they'd like?

Every now and then I do a big beer haul to last me for a while, and yesterday was that day. I got the following for about $100:















So far I've only had the Pothole Filler, and it was pretty good. I actually passed up quite a few others I wanted to try, believe it or not, like Sam Adams Winter Lager, Brooklyn Oktoberfest, Flying Monkeys BNL, and the other Nogne O releases they had. If I had another 100, I would've been golden!

This was an incredible Beer Year( ) for me. I landed many highly sought after beers, old favorites and new favorites as well.

Russian River Brewing Company - Pliny the Elder (DIPA) - Jason (M_K) surprised me with 4 bottles of this early in the year. Met and exceeded my expectations. Exceptional IPA.

Brasserie Cantillon- Gueuze 100% Lambic (Gueuze ) - Was able to enjoy this alongside Lynne, Anhur and Nate before the Paradise Lost/Katatonia/Devy show.

Brouwerij Westvleteren - Trappist Westvleteren 12 - (Quad) - Actually finished my first one a little while ago. Ruled.

The Alchemist - Heady Topper (DIPA) - For my money, the best IPA in the world.

Jack's Abby - Hoponius Union - Up and coming local brewery. Only make lagers, but, sometimes with a twist. This one is hoppy as hell. One of the best beers in Ma.

Jack's Abby - Kiwi Rising - Slightly better than Hopnius.

Founders - Harvest Ale (IPA) - Finally got to try this one. Great Stuff.
Founders - KBS (Imperial Stout) - Barrel aged greatness.
Founders - Backwoods Bastard (Scotch Ale) More Barrel aged greatness.

Boulevard Brewing Co. - Love Child No. 2 (American Wild Ale ) - Sour as all hell. Loved it.

Goose Island Beer Co. - Bourbon County Brand Stout (Imperial Stout) - Amazing as always.

Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project - Meadowlark (IPA) - Outstanding Ma. Brewery, could list all of their beers.

The Bruery - Tart Of Darkness (American Wild Ale ) Sour Stout. Amazing.
The Bruery - Fruet (Old Ale) -Barrel Aged Old Ale. One of the best beers I';ve ever tried.

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. - XVI (American Strong Ale)
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. - Parabola (Russian Imperial Stout)
Firestone Walker Brewing Co. - Double Double Barrel Ale (American Strong Ale)

Lagunitas Brewing Company - Brown Shugga' (American Strong Ale) - Just love it!

Cascade Brewing - Sang Noir (American Wild Ale ) Another fantastic sour.

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery - Miles Davis' Bitches Brew (Imperial Stout ) - One of my favorite Beers and Albums.

Some beer I've had over the past week or so, including tonight...

Easily one of my favourites:


Same with this:


I enjoyed this a lot last year, and I liked it this year. Seemed a lot dryer, more cinnamon this year, which is fine, but still... Not as good as i remember:


This one, to differ from you guys here in Ontario, I found to be a fantastic imperial stout, and I'm not sure I've had one as nice from here in Ontario. I thought it was fantastic. I will be buying more to age. It can only get better.

What a year!

The radio announces how much money the government makes every year from the lcbo. It's STAGGERING! They basically out-do themselves every year, constantly breaking sales records. Unless marijuana becomes legalized and they can start making money off of that, they will never change how the liquor system is run in Canada. Do I want otherwise? Of course! We gotta stop the politicians from spending all our tax dollars on hookers and fancy dinners first.

We will not have the same selections as Buffalo. Probably never. The reason why their selection is far more vast than us is simply because of the differences in purity laws between Canada and the USA. There are a lot of beers that they can't legally sell here.

I'm actually really pleased with what you have decided to get. You would have been disappointed if you would have picked up the Sam Adams Winter Lager or Brooklyn Oktoberfest. Their not bad brews, but they just don't have that 'wow' factor that the other beers you bought had. You also had a nice balance of UK / IPA and STOUTS. If Sam Adams Winter Lager or Brooklyn Oktoberfest were picked up you would have just been evening things out a little bit better. Personally, I'll probably never buy them again. I also noticed that there were a couple beers there I haven't seen yet. I may be looking for them today. The only one on your list I was almost completely disappointed with was Rogue again. I'll write what I feel about that below...

Not a fan at all boys and girls. I was extremely disappointed in this. I went into this expecting a premium ipa here. What I didn't like about this beer is the extremely medicinal taste that it gives off. Kind of like, a mix between medicine and candycane. I hate candycane. Somehow, this beer pulls off those strange flavors while still maintaining it's ipa qualities. If I remember correctly, I also picked up on a unique grittiness that you don't normal pick up on in an ipa.

All and all, just a huge disappointment. I drank it all because after three beers the part of it I didn't like about it started to fade away as my drunkenness progressed.

That is all.

I just checked with my friend.

He definitely didn't measure the amount of water properly. [/discussion] Ugh.

I too believed that the Great Lakes - Winter Ale had either changed this year, or how my pallet has changed. The further I got to the ending of the bottle the more I wanted the experience to end. This used to be one of my prime favorites when i was quite the newb in the beer world. I have even gone out of my way to claim that it was my favorite release from Great Lakes. It probably still is, as I hate pretty much all their other releases. Great Lakes has kind of become my new Trafalgar Ales & Meads. I'll probably be staying away from their releases from now on. Orange, Green Tea, Winter Ale, etc. The Miami Weiss was a pleasant surprise to begin with, but by the third bottle I started to dislike it as much as I now dislike the Winter Ale.

Funny how things change with age, eh?

I guess if there is high enough flocculation you can loose some wort to the blow off but I've never lost more than 1/2 gallon in a carboy, plastic bucket you should loose even less. Then you're probably going to leave about 1/4 gallon of trub in the fermenter.

It sounds like they missed adding all the water to get it to a full 5G after the boil, but what the heck you end up with a stronger brew.

Any examples?

I haven't tried it yet (don't have room in the fridge yet! ) but I always like to try their brews, and it's an IPA, so I had to try it. It's rare these days when we get a new Rogue brew in.

I too have been a Rogue fan for about two years now. The Pumpkin and the Yellow Snow have killed their perfection for me though :P

Also, I didn't mean to set people up for failure with this one, but I am curious as to whether anybody picked up on a the medicinal/candycane taste. The after taste is mainly IPA, but the other taste still lingers.

Come to think of it, I may be getting purity laws mixed up with the fact that a lot of brewers decide to just stay the fuck out of Canada all together.