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Anyone else had a chance to try the Picaroon's Harvest Ale? I've heard conflicting opinions (like most Picaroons, I guess). I rather like the one I'm currently drinking. Apparently, it's from batch 2042, and the bulk of the hops coming from Southan&Co.

http://picaroons.ca/myharvest/

What variety of hops? I had the Cascade and it was a horrible buttery mess, but I had a bottle of Nugget and it was excellent.

I remember you saying that Jeff, which is why I only bought 1 bottle. Now I wish I had bought more. I'm not getting the diacy, diacit....butter. But I also don't have your more experienced pallet.

Here's the description:

I agree with Jeff on the Cascade bottle I had (aka "I Can't Believe it's Not Butter"), but his thoughts on the Nugget version intrigued me, so I picked up a bottle today. Looking forward to comparing...

I had a Nugget when I was in town last week (and why I brought the bottle to JS), I thought it was pretty good, no significant diacetyl. Might have been some caramel in there, slightly different.

A buddy of mine dropped over two bottles of this to me today. One is from batch no 2036/2037 and the other is from 2042. I'll probably taste them later on tonight.

jeffsmith wrote:What variety of hops? I had the Cascade and it was a horrible buttery mess, but I had a bottle of Nugget and it was excellent.

Jeff, I'm currently drinking a bottle of the 2042 batch and couldn't agree with you more. Holy butterscotch batman!

Holy shit, this 2042 batch is borderline undrinkable!

Yeah, it was pretty bad.

I'm onto the 2036/2037 batch and it's significantly better. No present diacetyl that I can taste, unlike the horrible 2042 batch. This is a very enjoyable beer with slight hints of caramel. For anyone wanting to pick up a bottle of this make sure you look and see what batch number it is......they are night and day different.

I had some when i was up hunting last weekend. Not sure what batch number, but it had some guys on stilts on the label. Pretty good. Nice hop aroma and very malty, but i expect that from picaroons. Is there anychance what i had was the wet hopped one they did?

That would be my guess. Was it a reddish label or brown?

Of the two bottles that I had last night, both labels look identical (brownish). The only way to tell this difference is the batch number and hop used is printed vertically on the side.

It's weird to me that multiple folks here are consistent with tasting the butterscotch and finding the 2042 batch undrinkable. After Jeff's warning I cracked the bottle purposefully looking for that taste because I wanted to know what to look for in future beers, but didn't detect it. It makes me wonder: (A) I don't know what diacetyl/butter/butterscotch in beer tastes like; or B. My pallet can't? pick out that taste amongst the rest of the flavours. But I certainly wouldn't have the called the one I drank "undrinkable", far from it. Option (C): I am retarded?

I may have to see if the Sackville NBLC has any more and do a side by side with another beer. You know, for science.

PS- as a benchmark, would anyone who has had the Picaroon's Yipee IPA describe it as buttery?

A lot of Picaroon's is hit and miss. Asking about one beer is a waste of time IMHO. It's different month to month.

dean2k wrote:It's weird to me that multiple folks here are consistent with tasting the butterscotch and finding the 2042 batch undrinkable. After Jeff's warning I cracked the bottle purposefully looking for that taste because I wanted to know what to look for in future beers, but didn't detect it. It makes me wonder: (A) I don't know what diacetyl/butter/butterscotch in beer tastes like; or B. My pallet can't? pick out that taste amongst the rest of the flavours. But I certainly wouldn't have the called the one I drank "undrinkable", far from it. Option (C): I am retarded?

I may have to see if the Sackville NBLC has any more and do a side by side with another beer. You know, for science.

PS- as a benchmark, would anyone who has had the Picaroon's Yipee IPA describe it as buttery?

Dean, if it tastes like a bottle of movie theater popcorn then that's diacetyl. I find the picaroons on tap and most of the bottles I have had around here are good. Only had one butter bomb from a picaroons bottle. So odds are that your just getting lucky like me. Maybe they only ship the good stuff to Sackville .

Graham... just don't between me and science.

dean2k wrote:It's weird to me that multiple folks here are consistent with tasting the butterscotch and finding the 2042 batch undrinkable. After Jeff's warning I cracked the bottle purposefully looking for that taste because I wanted to know what to look for in future beers, but didn't detect it. It makes me wonder: (A) I don't know what diacetyl/butter/butterscotch in beer tastes like; or B. My pallet can't? pick out that taste amongst the rest of the flavours. But I certainly wouldn't have the called the one I drank "undrinkable", far from it. Option (C): I am retarded?

I may have to see if the Sackville NBLC has any more and do a side by side with another beer. You know, for science.

PS- as a benchmark, would anyone who has had the Picaroon's Yipee IPA describe it as buttery?

The Harvest Ale Batch 2042 that I had last night was actually the first bottle I've had where I detected any diacetyl. Perhaps I've been lucky, but all of the ones that I've had have been quite consistent. The one last night though was unbelievably butterscotchy (if that's even a word). I think your palette would recognize it in a minute if you had it.

Well, through rigorous scientific testing, I took on the onerous burden of testing all these Harvest Ale editions. All of them quite tasty in my opinion, but I never did hit the butter bomb. Not yet anyway. It was kinda weird looking for this reverse Cracker Jack prize of a bad bottle that never came... so even though I lost I still won?

I got to try the cascade and nugget and both were very good.

I found the Ghan Iron Horse brown (available here) to have a slight diacetyl presence. It wasn't unpleasant, butterscotchy more then butter. I think I have a sample of some homebrew that I have been meaning to throw out if you want to try it. It was really buttery.

Well, with an offer like that....

I had some that Iron Horse Brown on tap over the summer at the GH restaurant. I don't think it left much of an impression either way. Also, I read that Ringwood can develop butterscotch flavours, and it's not necessarily undesired.

dean2k wrote:Well, with an offer like that....

I had some that Iron Horse Brown on tap over the summer at the GH restaurant. I don't think it left much of an impression either way. Also, I read that Ringwood can develop butterscotch flavours, and it's not necessarily undesired.

Absolutely. Ringwood pretty much guarantees that you'll get that. And if you're making beers for which the recipe calls for Ringwood, that's not a problem. Diacetyl, itself, is not a fault. Picaroon's problem has been that every single bottle I've had, no matter what it tries to be, tastes like an English Bitter (I'm told by people who drink it on tap, that it's different, but I've never managed that).

derek wrote:Absolutely. Ringwood pretty much guarantees that you'll get that. And if you're making beers for which the recipe calls for Ringwood, that's not a problem. Diacetyl, itself, is not a fault. Picaroon's problem has been that every single bottle I've had, no matter what it tries to be, tastes like an English Bitter (I'm told by people who drink it on tap, that it's different, but I've never managed that).

Well, to be fair, diacetyl IS a fault in a lot of beer styles.