Biffopolis

Mill Street Barley Wine

The second beer Ben and I are tasting as part of our LCBO tour (read more here) is a strong one.   The Mill Street Barley Wine is not your typical beer – it’s an 11% alcohol unfiltered beer.  Usually Ben and I have trepidations about drinking a beer of this stature because they usually sacrifice taste for alcohol content.  We were really looking forward to a beer that can bring both drinkability and high alcohol content in the same bottle – perfect for those times where you want to get the party started quickly.

Sadly, this was not the beer we were hoping for. It starts with a strong smell (We could smell the alcohol in it), leaving your nose satisfied and your mouth watering hopefully. Keep it watering – your saliva tastes better than this beer. It’s been a tough battle to find a strong beer we can actually enjoy, and we really wanted to like this one.  It tasted ok taking small sips, but it takes much longer to slog through this beer so we decided simply drink it for the sake of drinking beer.  There is a strong aftertaste which leaves your mouth feeling rotten.

All is not lost with this beer, because it comes in a very stylish ceramic bottle. This bottle is much better for smashing over the head of others because it won’t break – their head will.

Price : $11.95 – 500ml

Ben: “Bad taste, bad aftertaste, reminds me of throwing up after (or during) a party”  2/10

Jeremy: “The bottle says ‘Drink in good company’ but I wouldn’t serve this to my company” 3/10

Innis & Gunn

This is the first beer we are tasting on this new section we are working on, the LCBO tour.  For those just joining the tour, this is where Ben and I attempt to rate beers on one simple point – drinkability.

Innis & Gunn Oak Aged Beer is Scottish beer made with a unique method.  The beer is brewed in Scotland and aged for 30 days in American oak  bottles used to hold Bourbon.

Almost everything about this beer is perfect.  It comes in a very nice bottle which gets you ready for the pure delight contained within.  Upon cracking open the bottle we were greeted with a delicious aroma with hints of honey and vanilla.

The beer itself is a medium strength and color and is described as “Luxurious malt and toffee giving way to mellow oak with vanilla overtones. Balanced by the orange peel citrus character.”

Ben commented the  beer as having ‘an old pub taste’ that made it very drinkable.  I found it tasted quite good, slightly malty, with a defined aftertase that wasn’t overpowering.  The beer was so unique, we could almost taste the barrel it was aged in.

Overall Impression: An excellent beer we can recommend to anyone – plus, until Jan 2, 2010, you get 3 bonus air miles.

Price: $6.95 – 750ml

Ben: 7/10

Jeremy: 7.5/10

So Ben and I have decided to start up a new section on the site after a visit to the local liquor store.  We were baffled by the large selection of imported and domestic beers and wondering which would taste like horse piss, and which would delight our taste buds.  The questions raged through our minds – Was this beer going to bring us back that first taste of duff that touched our lips, or would it turn sour in our mouth?  What if we drank it last week and hated it?

It was clear we needed to help ourselves and our fellow beer drinkers by finding out which beers were worth their malt, and which should stay on that shelf.  We will evaluate each beer we find mainly based on how easy it goes down the hatch.

The First Batch of Beer