Tonight’s beer haul. I have had the Union Jack many times, am dinking one now in fact, it rules. I am going to try a Founders imperial next, and than probably just hit old fridge beers for the rest of the night. I didn’t pay over 20 bucks for that 16th anniversary ale to drink it half cocked, but there is always tomorrow.

Picked up a few things with some gift cards:

6x St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout
4x Muskoka Twice As Mad Tom 2IPA
4x Dieu Du Ciel! Peche Mortel
1x Chimay Premiere (Red)
1x Nickelbrook Cuvee
1x Gulden Draak
1x Nostradamus
1x Duvel
1x Propeller Revolution
1x Lava
1x Sam Smith Organic Raspberry
1x Anchor Steam (from the singles bin)
1x Steamwhistle

Oh, I would love this! I had something similar about 7-8 years ago, can't remember what it was called.

Ugh, waiting patiently for both breweries to come to Canada. Founder's soon though!

GREAT haul!

The Founders Imperial Stout was unlike any beer that I had ever had. It pours like motor oil, but goes down like liquid silk. It’s a perfectly balanced stout flavor wise, and the only thing close to bad that I can say about it is that I probably couldn’t drink more than two in one sitting. I highly recommend this one to anybody that can get a hold of it.

Ugh, sounds too good. We're getting the Centennial IPA for sure within the next month or so, and hopefully if it sells well (which I'm almost positive it will), it'll lead to a brewery feature like Nogne and Shipyard got.

The Centennial is about as solid a “core line” IPA as you will find. It’s got both the hop punch and the balance that I like in a straight up IPA, and it’s something that you can drink a six pack of without feeling gross. You guys are going to love it. I still have some in my fridge, and might crack into one soon. Have a couple of friends coming by for beer, metal and NFL playoffs in a little big. Should be a good day.

This 16th anniversary Firestone was worth every penny. I highly recommend it to anybody that can get a bottle.

Nothing beats Czech beer!

Thanks!

My folks also have a cottage 5 minutes from Church Key Brewery, so they stop in quite frequently. Got them to pick me up a bomber of The Grains of Wrath Double IPA this weekend.

I had the Propeller Revolution recently. I gave it a pretty decent review on here, but I've had it since and I'm not sure if I share the same opinion as before. Tasted kind lake-water'ish. Let me know if you find the same thing. .. please?

Sounds fuckin sexy.

Finally got to crack this open from the mix-pack (4).

Funny actually. I poured the first glass. Did an entire review on the whole glass. There was zero bitterness, which had a hugei mpact on what I had to say about it in the review. I turn off the camera, pour the rest of the bottle into the glass and BAAAAM! I got hit with all of that 9.9% abv and the ridonculous bitterness that I didn't find in the first glass. Too bad. I mean, I just moved and I didn't have a glass big enough as of yet. . . darn. Was great though!

Picked up a few things

Howe Sound pothole filler
2 Cans of Cobblestone Stout
Orkney Skull Splitter

Almost bought the Pothole Filler the other day. But I haven't heard very glowing things about it and at that price, well, it's Canada fucking us in the ass with beer brewed in own country yet again.

I'm quite curious how beer like the Gouden Carolus Cuvee Van De Keizer Blauw at 11% ABV from Belgium, a truly world class beer, is 3 dollars less that something like Unibroue Le Terrible, and 5 dollars less than the fucking Pothole Filler. Everything here is so fucking backwards.

I can understand the price of the BNL chocolate stout, sort of, because it's limited and the presentation is great, and it's a solid, solid fucking interesting beer, but some of these others from Canada are so overpriced it's sickening.

The Nickel Brook Cuvee is worth it's $10 though.

In further regards to the Pothole Filler... how can you justify the price tag of $12 for 1000ml compared to yet another world class beer, the Brooklyn Black Chocolate Imperial Stout, at $2.65 for 341ml? Do the math. Brooklyn = great deal form a superb brew. Pothole = assraping for no better than average. I will not be buying the pothole filler.

Well one thing I can reuse the 1L bottles for my homebrew, which is awesome. So for me $12 is worth it for the bottle alone plus beer that comes with it.

Yeah the bottles are cool, but I still think it's retarded to jack prices because they chose to package/bottle something a certain way. That's why I usually don't buy the Muskoka seasonals anymore. The beer isn't worth it/good enough, and I don't re-use bottles.

I actually picked up my first Muskoka seasonal this year. Picked up three of them. One to drink right away, and two to drink over the next couple Christmas's. How are they after aging?

I've never really bothered, because I've always been sort of underwhlemed by them. The Winter Beard is okay, but in regards to aging, i think it may be right on that line of 'is it strong enough'? I think it's 8% so i think that's a little low for aging myself. Others who may know more may have differing opinions. It's also not a 'live' beer as far as I know, which hurts the aging for weaker beers, basically the beer will go bad. Chimay Red is a bottle conditioned 'live yeast' beer at 7% and can age for years.

If it were me, i wouldn't age the Winter Beard for all that long, but i would think it should be fine for a year if it's cool enough.

The Nickel Brook Cuvee and the Gouden Carolus Cuvee Van De Keizer Blauw are both my top two favorite beers for 2012.

I agree with you on prices. They have been fucking us for a long time and they will continue to do so. Especially with having in mind that there's a high demand for craft brews now. 4 years ago they wouldn't even sell it.

There's a brand new 14% brew out there on the shelves at the moment. I forgot the name, but it's there! lol

It was pretty intense. I wouldn't session that beer, that's for sure. I don't think I would age it either just because of how strong the taste is, but I'm most-likely completely wrong and it probably should be aged.

The Winter Beard says up to 2 years. I'll try one of them after a year and see how it is. That'll affect my decision on how long to keep the second bottle.

I have one at home. It's an Eggenberg. I didn't like the one they released here last year very much, but i had to buy this one at 14% for a dopplebock. At least the Mikeller Frelser (which i still haven't opened yet) from last year had the decency to call itself a 'triplebock'. I'd say you can age it for sure at that strength. I've aged the Mikeller, and will probably open it in a month or two so it will have been aged a year.