Beau’s brings back “Haters Gonna Hate” for cross-Canada release

Beau’s Brewing Co. is releasing “Haters Gonna Hate,” an Imperial Kölsch, across Canada this spring. The limited-edition release will go national in stages, with the first bottles available in Ontario LCBO stores as of April 20. The draft version of the release will flow in Ontario, Québec and the rest of the provinces in mid-May, and Québec, B.C. and Alberta will see bottles of Haters Gonna Hate on shelves at that time as well.

Haters Gonna Hate is essentially a stronger and hoppier version of Beau’s award-winning flagship ale, Lug Tread – but there are noticeable differences that go beyond ABV and IBUs. Unlike the brilliant golden Lug Tread, Haters Gonna Hate has a warm golden-orange hue. Brewers chose Nelson-Sauvin hops to add a mild muskiness, as well as tropical aromas suggesting mango and papaya. The clean malt presence typical of a Kölsch allows for full display of the hop-driven fruit flavours, and the beer is balanced with moderately high bitterness.

Though first brewed in 2015, the history of Haters Gonna Hate actually goes way back to 2006 and the very first batch of Lug Tread, Beau’s flagship lagered ale (a.k.a. Kölsch). Due to some faulty beer-making equipment, it ended up “imperialized” – that is, brewed to higher strength and intensity than intended. With the release of Haters Gonna Hate, Beau’s has opted to recreate this happy accident on purpose. In fact, the name of the beer is a bit of a cheeky tribute to those events as well.

“We had this super-strong, intensely flavoured beer that was not at all what we had said Lug Tread would be like, but it tasted too good not to share. Plus everyone was waiting to taste our first batch!” explains Beau’s co-founder Steve Beauchesne. “We received some criticism in online beer forums for releasing it, but we firmly believed that despite the “haters hating,” it was still a great beer. We brought our very last keg of it to the Golden Taps awards in Toronto that August, and guess what – it won Best Beer of the Fest that night.”

In addition to the release details noted above, Haters Gonna Hate can be sampled at and purchased from the Beau’s Brewing Tap Room in Vankleek Hill as of April 20, as well as for home delivery in the City of Ottawa via the BYBO service (www.bybo.ca). A limited amount will also be sold in New York State.