Great Lakes Canuck Pale

Name: Canuck Pale Ale
Style: Pale ale
ABV: 5.2%
Serving: 650ml bottle
Brewery: Great Lakes Brewery
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
Weblink: Great Lakes beer

Well now, this is more like it. A good big bottle, shared with Pyropette, nice and cold on a muggy, hot summer day. Ok, so the bottle has a touque and a pair of skis on it, so perhaps I'm a bit behind the season, but it seems to sit just as well at 25°C as -25°C. Anyways up, to the beer!

The beer pour (or was poured for me, if I'm honest!) a good, rich copper-amber colour, with a thick head of fine, off-white bubbles sitting atop. The aromas are a pleasantly subtle hoppy, floral bouquet, with a warm hint of white sugar and grapefruit lingering behind. In the mouth the flavours are dominated by strong, toasted caramel, orange and spun sugar. This slowly fades back to reveal the aromatic hop notes (with a more herbal character than was evident on the nose) riding on top of a backbone of mixed metaphors and wholemeal bread toast malt. Toward the back of the mouth the flavours dry up nicely, leaving just a yeasty-toasty-hoppy flavour and, again, that white sugar quality.

Much much more to my taste than the Stone IPA. While the Stone beat you over the head with its hop-and-nothing-else approach, this beer balances the powerful hop bitterness with a very well-judged caramel and malt structure. This surprise me somewhat, as recently I haven't had a good run of luck with Great Lakes beers. Anyway, if I can get hold of this one again in the future, I'll definitely buy a couple.

Stone IPA

Name: India Pale Ale
Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.9%
Serving: 22oz bottle
Brewery: Stone Brewing Co.
Location: Escondido, CA, USA
Weblink: Stone IPA

So, an imported beer smuggled across the USA-Canada border by Pyropette from her recent trip to deepest, darkest Tennessee... Ok, I gather she did actually declare that she had a few beers on her when she came through customs, although I don't think she told them that the bottles were quite this big!

Anyway, the beer pours a pale yellow-amber colour, moderately cloudy, with a thin head of loose, large bubbles, just what you'd expect from an IPA. Also befitting an ale there is only a gentle effervescence, so I don't quite know where the shots on their website were taken, with their gargantuan heads of fine white bubbles sitting atop the glass. Anyway, once in the glass this beer is anything but gentle. The aromas rip into your nose right from the start, dominated by an astringent, pine-tar and coriander pallete, backed by a touch of grapefruit and yeast. The flavours are similarly hoppy; perhaps more of the dry-hopped spiceyness coming through, with hints of clove oil and orange peel. Backing it all is a toasty, yeasty strength, that helps to carry along the exceedingly dry and somewhat thin beer. The beer finishes with a final flourish of resinous citrus, and fades to a gentle, bread-dough yeasty scent that lingers.

Overall a very pleasant beer, although I'll admit that the American uber-hopped IPA isn't my favourite style. They seem to have become something more akin to a religion down there lately, with many believing that if it doesn't know your head off with hop flavours then somehow it would be a failed IPA. If I'm honest I find that attitude a bit juvenile. If you were to believe the RateBeer site this should be one of the top 1% of beers in the World... Hmm... For me it lacks balance. All that hop flavour isn't really supported by any significant malt, and after a few minutes it just gets to the point where the beer begins to taste slightly artificial. A good beer to drink cold on a hot day, not sip gently.

St-Ambroise Abricot

Name: St-Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale
Style: Fruit wheat ale
ABV: 5.0%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: McAuslan Brewing Inc.
Location: Montreal, QC, Canada
Weblink: St-Ambroise Apricot

Well why didn't I write about this one before? It isn't as though I can claim that it is a new beer to me. I have known about this one for about two years now, pretty much since my first tentative trips over the border. Anyway, it's summer, so time to break a few more open!

The beer pours an appropriately apricotty orange colour, deep and rich, with a thin head of fine white bubbles that disappears fairly fast. The aromas released are dominated by thick, syrupy apricot and floral scents, oozing slowly and oilily (is that a word, who cares...). The same flavours hit your tongue very very hard when you first take a sip, and for an instant you expect the beer to be super sweet, almost anticipating a sugary fruit juice. However, this is not to be! The apricot scents are maintained throughout, but are wrapped in an intensely dry hoppy cloak. These are all backed by a tellingly wheaten, cerealy (a day for hitting the y-key often, it seems) flavour that carries the apricot rolling along toward the back of your mouth. The aftertaste lingers for a while, dominated by the more sour tang of the apricot's flesh next to the stone.

What impresses me most about this beer, each and every time I have a glass, is just how well integrated the flavours are. This isn't a beer that has just had apricot thrown in at the last minute, the fruit is an integral part of the beer's complex palette. It is a beautiful, soft, inviting beer, that you simply can't have just one of. Served cold on a hot day, I can't think of anything better.

L'Accommodante

Name: L'Accommodante
Style: Ale Rousse Multiculturelle (Belgian red...)
ABV: 5.4%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: Brasseurs et Frères
Location: Dunham, QC, Canada
Weblink: Brasseurs & Frères - Les Bières

A quickie this time I think, just polishing off a few more from the cross border excursion of a few weeks past. Readying the beer store for a top up with another incursion into La Belle Province this weekend...

The beer pours an odd, cloudy, brownish brick red, with a thin head of fine, light tan bubbles. The head disappears fairly quickly, leaving a fine white ring. The aromas seem slightly flat, with just a slightly syrupy sweet smell making it out of the glass, perhaps with a hint of Christmassy spice? The flavours follow the same sort of profile, with slightly more complexity to the malty tones, taking on a maple and toffee tone. In addition to these, behind the malt is the uasual Belgian yeast bready/toasty must. There is very little effervescence, so the beer slips down nicely, with a rich thick feel in your mouth. The aftertaste is dominated by a slightly smokey, almost burnt wholewheat toast flavour, with just a hint of green vegetable.

All in all a fairly nice, easy drinking beer for cooler days.

3 Monts

Name: 3 Monts
Style: Bière de Garde
ABV: 8.5%
Serving: 750ml bottle
Brewery: Brasserie de Saint Sylvestre
Location: Saint-Sylvestre, Cappel, France
Weblink: Brasserie de St-Sylvestre

Ok, so it has been a while. Sorry to all my loyal readers for the long silence. There are some of you out there, aren't there? Hello? Hello?? Oh well, I always did like talking to myself I guess. So, another product of a quick trip over the border into Quebec. I really should have thought harder about opening a bottle of beer that is the same size and strength as a bottle of traditional German reisling, especially when I'm drinking alone. You'll just have to have a glass too, won't you? Right, all together then...

The beer pours with a clear, pale straw-yellow body, riven by a dense cloud of champagne-like bubbles that produce a thick, dense head that lasts for ages. The aromas the work their way up through the head are dominated by a slightly vegetal, almost celery-like musty note, overlying a sweet silage (from a proper clamp mind, none of this plastic-sheeting-and-old-tyres nonsense here) and yeasty background. In the mouth this disappears into a honeyed sweetness with a refined, crisply dry hoppy backbone. Surprisingly pilsner-like for a Flemish strong ale... Unfortunately this is not a beer that wears its alcohol content lightly, with most of the later flavours and all of the aftertaste being formed of distinctly vodka-like ethanol character, possibly with a slightly rye-bread sourness.

I'm left feeling that I probably drank this beer too soon. Bière de Garde means "beer to save", after all, so I suspect that had I given it another year on the shelf it may have developed a bit more complexity. As it stands it just tastes a little raw, with the alcohol still too high in the flavour mix. I can taste that there is more to come; already there is a pleasantly Belgian-style malt and yeast sweetness there, but it seems very subdued. As I type I am only a few centimetres into my first glass (750ml bottle!) so perhaps as the evening wears on it will open out some. I'll let you know if it does.

Kichesippi Natural Blonde

Name: Natural Blonde
Style: Blonde ale
ABV: 4.9%
Serving: 20oz pint
Where: Pub Italia, Ottawa
Brewery: Kichesippi Beer Co. (whoever they are...)
Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
Weblink: Kichesippi Beer Co.

Bit of a mystery this one. It just appeared in the "Beer Bible" at Pub Italia recently, and there isn't much info out there. It is listed as being brewed "less than 5km from Pub Italia" but I can't find anything else out about the elusive Kichesippi Beer Co. And yes, they do appear to spell Kichesippi with only one "s" and an "e"; it appeared as such in both the bible and printed on the pint glass. Whether this is a beer brewed by Heritage/Scotch Irish or The Clocktower (possibly specially for the pub) or whether this is a completely new brewery isn't clear. Anyway, I'll update this when I get more details... probably tomorrow!

The beer arrived with a dense white head of small bubbles perched on top of a deep yellow-amber body, supported by almost lager-like effervescence. The aromas were mostly fruity, with a hint of hoppy florals behind it, dominated by an orange and grapefruit palette. In the mouth there is a surprising amount of body for a blonde ale, with plenty of malty goodness to be had, but cut with a fresh citrusy zing. The aftertaste was all yeast and malt, and lingered for a good long time.

All in a very impressive summer beer. Definitely on the right end of the alcohol scale for volume consumption during the summer and one I can see me enjoying on and off for many months to come. I'll be very surprised if this turns out to be a Hertiage beer as it seems like quite a departure from their usual offerings, but in the same breath it just doesn't strike me as a Clocktower brew either. Expect an update tomorrow!

Update 20/05/10: As promised, enquiries were made... Turns out I had the spelling wrong (it is even more odd than I had originally remembered) and when corrected it means that they do have a website! A completely new operation brewing using the Heritage facilities just off Carling Avenue, apparently.

Don de Dieu

Name: Don de Dieu
Style: Belgian ale
ABV: 9.0%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: Unibroue
Location: Chambly, QC, Canada
Weblink: Don de Dieu

"Gift of God", eh? Well now, if that isn't a statement of intent then I don't know what would be. Ok, so the excuse for such a bombastic name is that it was what Samuel de Champlain called his ship when he sailed for the New World in 1608. This initial trip resulted in the founding of Quebec City, so he is a pretty popular chap in Quebec as a whole, but he eventually found his way all the way up to Lake Nipissing in 1613, dropping his astrolabe up river from where I live in Ottawa. There it rested for 254 years until a boy found it in 1867, at the now appropriately-named Astrolabe Lake. Poor little mite never received a penny for it though. Anyway, enough history lesson, I'm sure you can go and find out all about that if you want. To the beer!

The beer pours a surprisingly bright orange-yellow, with only a faint yeast haze. (Unless you provoke the bottle!) The head is a thick layer of fine bubbles that fades gracefully to a thin film. On the nose the beer is surprisingly flat, with only a faint orangy and bready tone. In the mouth and, hello... where did the champagne come from? That's right, the first flavour is almost identical to the first rush of a good bottle of Reims' finest. It has the same toasty and sharp quality that a good blanc de noirs brings. The mouth feel is also surprisingly Champagne-like, with a soft mousse effervescence and the tingle of alcohol. This slides seamlessly into an orange and coriander combination, underlain by Greek honey. As the beer slips down your throat the toasted bread and yeast notes return. These fade after 20-30 seconds, leaving the honey to savour.

So... gift of God? Well, not bad, certainly. A very classy beer. It almost feels like you should be sipping it from a flute, not quaffing from a tulip. It has some of the qualities of a Trappist tripel, but with added zing. If this was how brewers 400 years from now choose to commemorate me then I'd be head over heels.

Blonde d'Achouffe

Name: Blonde d'Achouffe
Style: Belgian ale
ABV: 8.0%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: Les Brasseurs RJ
Location: Montréal, QC, Canada
Weblink: Blonde et Brun d'Achouffe

So... another of the booty snaffled on the weekend dans La Belle Province. Just to confuse things a little, this is a Belgian beer, brewed under licence in Montreal, with a Walloon dialect name. As if Quebequoise didn't have enough linguistic oddities of its own now they are importing les mots Belgique. Alors! (3-0 !!) I did have a couple of these the other night but wasn't really concentrating (something about being inundated with undergraduates...), although now I come to try it sober it is indeed a miracle that I woke up without a hangover the next morning... (4-0 !!) Just in case your Walloon isn't as polished as mine (I did once stop at a service station in Belgium, so I'm practically a native) the mascot is a pun on the town of Achouffe (where Brasserie d'Achouffe is based), as "une chouffe" is a gnome.

The beer pours a vibrant and surprisingly bright orange-yellow colour, with quite a cloudy body. Its head is initially voluminous and fluffy, with big open bubbles, but it fades away very quickly. Almost before I manage to put the glass down in fact. Considering the alcohol content this isn't really a surprise. (4-1... hmm) The aromas are dominated by a rich, honey-like scent, underlain by a classically Belgian banana-and-orange fruitiness and a subtle hint of spice. As the smells die away you are left with a slight tingling inside your nostrils... reckon there's some alcohol in there! Trying it cold the other night it didn't seem much special, but warmed up a touch it really opens out. In the mouth the spiciness really kicks in, with a strident clove and coriander seed bouquet warmed by the alcohol's black pepper notes. This is supported by banana and toffee flavours, which evolve into a rich butterscotch as the beer slips toward the back of your mouth. This lingers for 30 seconds or so after you swallow, but is unfortunately rapidly replaced by a harsh, hard liquor-like, alcohol residue. This is a shame as the beer really doesn't deserve it. Still, as long as you keep sipping you'll never notice...

All in all a very nice, mouth-filling beer of distinctly Belgian heritage. The notes I have found online seem to suggest that this offering isn't up to the standard of the European-brewed original, but if that is the case then I really need to get a hold of one of those as La Chouffe should be amazing. (4-2... better stop writing before the Penguins claw all four goals back!)

Update: 5-2 !!

B&F Délivrance

Name: Délivrance
Style: Scotch ale
ABV: 7.4%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: Brasseurs et Frères
Location: Dunham, QC, Canada
Weblink: Brasseurs & Frères - Les Bières

This could be the first of many posts... the product of a hasty trip over to the Eastern Townships this weekend. Well that's what you get for travelling with a car chronically under laden. Besides, dog number one appreciated the sterling job that the boxes performed in supporting her bed on the way home! So, as we were in the Townships let's start with a beer from the Townships, brewed only 25km by road (or 16km as the crow flies) from the gorgeous little chalet that was my home for a wonderful 48 hours. One small confession though: I bought the beer itself in the Sutton IGA supermarket... if only Ontarian supermarkets sold beer.

The Délivrance pours a rich, deep, mahogany red colour, with a thin head of small, tan bubbles. This head dies back to a persistent ring fairly quickly, with only very subtle effervescence to support it. The aromas released as it does might initially lead you to believe that it is in fact liquid mahogany in your glass. There is a dense, woody, smokey quality, a rich tobacco essence. This is cut by a slightly sweet burnt caramel note, and the whole washes up into your nose with a final wisp of something that is almost soapy. In the mouth it is the tobacco and caramel that assault your tongue, with distinctly more sweetness than was apparent in the scent. Layered behind these flavours are a traditionally Scottish peaty texture, with a side helping of damp roggenbrot. The sweetness contnues to the back of the mouth and evolves into a more toffee-rich palette, with the smokey tobacco notes lingering in your mouth afterwards. A little like you had chewed a partly smoked cigarette, I'd imagine, perhaps.

All in all this is a superb beer. Definitly one to be sipped in moderation (7.4%, remember...) if only so that you can remain conscious long enough to be able to put away two or three in a night. It is just a shame that my nearest source is a three hour drive away. Ah well, Pyropette is still there, perhaps she could be persuaded to tuck another couple of bottles into her travelling garter? Hmm...

Blanche de Chambly

Name: Blanche de Chambly
Style: Belgian white ale
ABV: 5.0%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: Unibroue
Location: Chambly, QC, Canada
Weblink: Blanche de Chambly

Right, end of April already. Crikey. Last day of the month so let's do something different. Let's head... east. Over the border into the adjoining nation of Quebec. While Unibroue might not be the best brewery in the small town of Chambly (that honour goes, in my estimation, to the superb Bedondaine & Bedons Ronds) it certainly is a very close runner up. Of two. Still, this was definitely my beer of the summer of 2008 and brings back many happy memories every time I crack open a bottle. Bottle conditioned, too, which is something the brewers of Ontario really need to take heed of. Now.

The beer pours very promisingly, with a beautiful pale amber-orange tone to the softly cloudy body, topped by a strident, thick head of large white bubbles. The aroma of the beer is dominated by a slightly cardboardy, yeast, citrus-and-corriander-seed florality (new word?). Unfortunately the first thing that strikes you when you put the beer to your lips is the aggressively carbonated nature of the brew. This is probably why I don't drink it so much these days, although looking forward to the summer I'll still probably be found on a terrace somewhere in Montreal with a glass in hand. Unibroue actually claim that this makes it similar to champagne... but I don't drink champagne in pint glasses. The flavours are instantly yeasty, with quite an urgent, slightly astringent note. This is swiftly followed by the banana and orange flavours you'd expect from a Belgian-style beer, underlain by the same sort of herbal and resinous notes that the nose provided. The beer finishes with little drama, and with only a lingering yeasty fruityness.

Flying Monkeys Hoptical Illusion

Name: Hoptical Illusion Almost Pale Ale
Style: Pale ale
ABV: 5.0%
Serving: 355ml bottle
Brewery: Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery
Location: Barrie, ON, Canada
Weblink: Coming soon... apparently.

So... normal service resumes after my patriotic digression (stands, hums GSTQ, salutes smartly, suppresses belch) and it's back to Ontario we go. A fairly new offering from a fairly new brewery. The Flying Monkeys outfit was formerly known as the rather more sober Robert Simpson Brewery, only changing name a couple of years ago. They are pioneering a range of experimental and very tasty beers, this one being possibly their best know. So, let's hop to it.

Hoptical Illusion pours a beautiful golden amber colour, as you'd expect from the full name it is a bit darker than your average pale ale, almost into proper amber territory. The head is a fizzy amalgam of large bubbles, but this subsides fairly quickly to the default ale light slick of fine froth. The aroma of the beer is solidly hoppy, with the distinctive medicinal resinous floral citrus mix that you'd expect from something with a name like this. There is something else there as well, but I can't quite hold on to it. Every time I get close it slips away again... I'll let you know if I ever track it down. In the mouth the first hit you get is of a refreshing lemonyness with a side order of gentle malty toffee. Then through come the flowers, and that resinous scent as well. A hint of black pine in the sun, with cool mountain air blowing through the boughs. Finally, as the beer slips past your tonsils, the hop notes slide sideways into a malty, yeasty rush that diffuses up into your nose.

Somewhere soon on here (I hope) you'll get a review of Beau's new I.P.Eh? beer. That one is a hop monster, and I think the name of this beer might lull people into thinking you'd be in for more of the same. However, that's all part of the illusion. If all you could do was smell the beer then you might be expecting a mouth puckering IPA, but what you end up with is a very nicely balanced, drinkable ale. Well done Monkeys, I hope they are paying you enough peanuts.

Old Speckled Hen

Name: Old Speckled Hen
Style: Bitter ale
ABV: 5.2%
Serving: 355ml bottle
Brewery: Morland Brewing
Location: Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Weblink: Old Speckled Hen

So, St. George's Day. Well, I couldn't really review another Ontarian beer on Shakespere's birthday now, could I? So here we go with a beer that I have enjoyed for many years. Although it is better on draught in its original, lower alcohol form, this version seems to have been brewed with North American tastes in mind. Oh, and their expectations about how strong a beer should be. Also, it is the one and only British beer that is available within walking distance of my apartment. Yup, just Hen. There are three (count them, three!) Thai beers at the beer store, but just one British one. Very odd, although it does go a long way to illustrate the tastes of the average Joe on the Canadian streets. Well, at least it was this one and not ****ing Boddingtons.

The beer pours its usual fluid, deep coppery amber colour, with a fine, loose head of tan bubbles that dissipate within a couple of minutes of getting it into the glass. So far just what you'd expect from an English bitter. The scents that rise from those bubbles are very heavily dominated by butterscotch and citrus, a little like you'd expect a glass of orange juice with half a pack of Werthers Originals dissolved into it to smell. Behind that there is a yeasty freshness that reminds you yes, it was a beer you just poured. The flavours are, thankfully, quite a bit more complex though. There is still the citrus and toffee spine, but layered onto that are a fine bouquet of floral, hoppy notes, not unlike a herbaceous border on a warm summer's evening. Yes, definitely a hint of violets there. As the beer moves back in your mouth there is a crisp, clean dryness that develops. Not the astringent, medicinal dryness that seem to be popular right now, but a soft, bready dryness. The brewery ascribe this to their ancient strains of yeast, which I can believe.

However, this beer has been better. Since the Green King buyout in 1999 they seem to have developed this brand as their easy drinking bitter, masquerading as a quality craft product. It has softened off a lot, with much less of the yeasty character that it used to have, and more of the hoppy florals, balanced by an increase in the sweet tones in the flavour palette. This was a pioneer in getting good beers into the supermarket mainstream and for that every beer drinker should be grateful. But also be grateful that so many others have ridden on its coat tails and pushed what is possible and acceptable into the interesting realms that we now enjoy. Happy St. George's Day, cheers!

Heritage Blackcurrant Rye

Name: Blackcurrant Rye
Style: Dark lager with fruit
ABV: 4.5%
Serving: 650ml bottle
Brewery: Heritage Brewing Limited
Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada
Weblink: Heritage Brewing seasonal beer

Yet another of the winter leftovers, but this time we're bringin' it on home! Pyropette and myself bought a couple of bottles of this directly from the brewery right here in Ottawa. Well, it is only a bus ride from work and a bus ride from home. We've had a few glasses of their regular Premium Lager and, on tap, it is very pleasant. Their dark lager however... well, not so keen. A bit sour and with a very odd set of overly subdued flavours. Perhaps I'll review that at some point in the future, but let's stick with the blackcurrant for now, brewed in November using local blackcurrants.

The beer pours very thin, and even with a fair amount of abuse produces no head to speak of, just a few fine bubbles at the periphery. The beer has almost no effervescence, just a slight pétillance at the edges of the tongue. This is a common failing of Heritage's bottled beers, I find, and might be related to the softness of Ottawa's water supply. The nose is quite sour, with a slightly unpleasant sulphurous and burnt toast hint. However, underlying this is a solidly dense blackcurranty fruityness. The first sips follow the same pattern, with most initial taste dominated by the sour rye malts, slightly over-toasted I feel, with blackcurrant only coming through very late. Gradually, as you drink through a glassful, however, these sour grain flavours disappear and all you are left with is a slightly tart but very richly blackcurranty and refreshing beer. There is still some lingering sour mash flavour, but it doesn't detract too much. The aftertaste, unfortunately, reverts to the slightly vegetal sour scents, with a hint of toasted grains. All in, when it was fresh this beer was a pleasant, if unimpressive, fruity dark lager. It is let down by the sour notes which don't help it, and it hasn't aged gracefully over the last five months. This suggests that it should be drunk young, but it feels like it would be a much better summer beer. However, I suppose when you are brewing with fresh local ingredients you have to take them when they are in season.

Amsterdam Big Wheel

Name: Big Wheel Deluxe Amber
Style: Amber ale
ABV: 5.0%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: Amsterdam Brewing Co. Limited
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
Weblink: Amsterdam Beer

Just spotted this in the delightful confines of the Beer Store. Not always a propitious location for an ad hoc beer purchase (for non-Ontarians, this place is one of only two major chains that sell beer here, and tends to major in bulk purchases of cheap swill) but I've been meaning to pick up an Amsterdam beer for a while, and their newest offering seemed like a reasonable start. Besides, I had, ooh, at least four bucks burning a hole in my pocket from bottle returns.

Oop... opening the boxed six pack reveals pale green glass bottles and a distinctly funky, summer and yoof orientated branding. Light green glass, such as you might find for a white wine bottle, is not something I'm accustomed to see outside of the lager shelves. Not that I'm complaining, you understand, in fact I'm a cyclist so anything with a bike on gets my vote. However, it does point toward this being Amsterdam's attempt at a populist beer. Continuing with visual impressions, the beer pours quite nicely, with a dense, thick, off-white head sitting on top of a crisply clear, deep copper-orange body. The head lingers for a fair old while too, taking at least half the glass to disappear.

In terms of flavour, well yes, this is definitely the beer that Amsterdam is hoping will turn a few of the lager-drinking summer terasse/patio crowd on to something darker. There isn't much of anything going on; some bitterness, but not a lot, some maltiness, but not a lot, and some floral hoppy character, but not a lot. Underlying all this is a lingering, softening sweetness, with a backnote hint of wheaty caramel. I think the correct damning-with-faint-praise oneophile term is "approachable". Not that this is always a bad thing, just make sure that it is what you are looking for in your beer. This would indeed be a great beer to consume in quantity (although, as so often unfortunately, the strength of this beer militates against that somewhat) say on a terasse with friends on a long, balmy summer's evening.

Barley Days Cherry Porter

Name: Yuletide Cherry Porter
Style: Porter
ABV: 5.5%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: Barley Days Brewery
Location: Prince Edward County, ON, Canada
Weblink: Barley Days

So, a few leftovers from Christmas indulgence. Got to get these drunk before we stock up on the summer brews! So Sunday afternoon, Pyropette concocting her delicious ribs and working up to superb, cheesy cornbread. Ah... what could be nicer with that than sipping at some more of Ontario's craft brewers' fine product?

The beer pours very dark, with only a hint of oaky brown at the edges, topped with a dense head of fine creamy-beige bubbles. The aroma is a pleasant, if slightly odd, combination of toasty, marmitey malt and maraschino cherry. The over-toasted malt bitterness (not a hop bitterness) carries through into the first sip, but rapidly gives way to a more coffee-tobacco feel. After this the cherry starts to make its presence felt, with a sharply sour red cherry taste coming through as the beer hits the back of your mouth. After swallowing the cherry slowly dissipates and is replaces by a wet oak and musty leather aftertaste. Now that, that I could live without. Up until this point I had been enjoying this beer. The sour fruit notes I'd usually associate with a lambic transplanted into a dark bitter, curious and very tasty. But that lingering hint of water-damaged library that finishes the drink isn't so pleasant. The solution? Keep sipping!

UPDATE: Feb. 6, 2011. Ok, so I know it has been a while since I wrote this, but I have finally managed to try this beer on tap... and what a revelation. Much, much, much better than the bottled variety, and it really does make me wonder about the abilities of the LCBO where it comes to beer sales. The beer was full-flavoured and sprightly. It still has the toasted malt tones, but these hedge more to the tobacco end of the scale. The cherry comes through smooth and powerful, with a mouth-filling sweet and sour cascade of red cherry goodness. And the finish? Pure cherry with a hint of coffee, no bookishness to be had anywhere...

Southern Tier Oat

Name: Blackwater Series Oat
Style: Imperial stout
ABV: 11.0%
Serving: 650ml bottle
Where: Pub Italia, Ottawa
Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company
Location: Lakewood, NY, USA
Weblink: Southern Tier beers

Just to round out Friday night, before I get too far behind, here's the other mighty Imperial stout on offer at Pub Italia from Southern Tier. Just for research purposes, you understand. This beer forms an interesting counterpoint to the Young's Double Chocolate stout below.

The beer pours very dark, pretty much jet black with only hints of brown, and fairly treacly, with only a very thin deep brown head. The flavour palette is dominated by strident burnt toast and bootstrap molasses tastes, with a slightly spicy and caramel toffee backnote. These morph gradually into a very similar tobacco and dark chocolate flavours to that of the Chokolat stout from the same brewery. In contrast to their Chokolat, however, you can definitely taste much of the 11% alcohol that resides here.Their shared parentage is very clearly shown here. The aftertaste is predominantly a similarly spicy and toasty flavour to those of the main palette, but that linger for a very long time indeed.

Young's Double Chocolate Stout

Name: Luxury Double Chocolate Stout
Style: Stout
ABV: 5.2%
Serving: 500ml bottle
Where: Pub Italia, Ottawa
Brewery: Wells & Young's Brewing Company
Location: Bedford, Beds., UK
Weblink: Wells & Young's

Well this one was mostly intended as a blast from the past, to reacquaint myself with a beer that used to rank up in my top five. Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, I used to live less than half a mile from the Young's brewery in Wandsworth, London. Walking to work on those mornings when they were mashing was always a treat, as my route took me straight past the brewery walls and the whole town was infused with rich, malty smells. Sadly that is all gone now, with brewing operations moved out to the Charles Wells brewery site in Bedforshire, following the merger of brewing operations by the two companies. I have nothing at all against Wells, in fact their Bombardier and Banana Bread beers are two that I have enjoyed on many, many occasions, but I can't help feeling that that DCS seems to have become a touch more "Wellsy" over the last couple of years, which seems a shame. mind you, you have to bear in mind that leading up to this beer I had indulged in another of Southern Tier's enormous Blackwater Series stouts, including the Choklat mentioned below.

So, the beer pours fairly thin (again, this is probably relative, but my frame of reference was skewed!) with a dark black-brown colour and a frothy tan-coloured head. Looking good so far. As with many beers in North America, this one was served a touch on the cold side, so the aromas took a while to ease out. I get that the majority of Americans drink piss water that needs to be chilled to within an inch of freezing to make it bearable, but what is the excuse for Canadians? Seriously folks, ease up a bit on the temperatures. Ales should be served at cellar temperatures, that means 8-12°C, not completely frigid. Anyway, I digress; once it had warmed a little the scents of sharp malts (mostly the pale ale and crystal I'm guessing) and a bitter cocoa note dominated the aromas. In the mouth, the first thing I noticed was that this beer seems almost artificially carbonated in comparison to the Southern Tier. The sort of aggressive, fizzy effervescence that you normally associate with lagers. This seems to impart a slightly metallic tang to the front of your mouth. After this more typical beery flavours wash through, led by a nicely toasty, dark malt and again the bitter note of cocoa. There is also a certain amount of yeastiness coming through which I didn't remember, but seems to be a fairly transient thing. In the middle of your mouth things start turning bad, with an unpleasant, burnt rubber acridness coming to the fore. Fortunately this is fairly swiftly superceded by the chocolate finally making its presence felt, with a lingeringly off-sweet dark chocolate taste dominating your senses as the beer swills down your throat.

Overall I was a touch disappointed with this beer. Maybe my tastes have changed, or maybe its this ineffable "Wellsyess" that I mentioned, but Double Chocolate Stout seems to be more heavily carbonated and sightly more processed in nature than I remember, so I probably won't be repeating this trial again for a while.

Dylan's Killer Red

Name: Dylan's Killer Red
Style: Irish ale
ABV: 5.0%
Serving: 20oz pint
Where: Pub Italia, Ottawa
Brewery: Church-Key Brewers
Location: Campbellford, ON, Canada
Weblink: Pub Italia

So, back once again to Pub Italia on a Friday afternoon. Well... it's just so close to work that going further afield for worse beer, just for a change of scene, seems like a waste of time. Besides, I like it there! So, this is the house ale at Pub Italia. It is brewed on their behalf by Church-Key down at Cambellford and Pub Italia claims exclusivity. However, the brewery also distributes the same beer to a couple of other pubs and restaurants in Ontario, albeit under different names.

The beer arrived at the table with a centimetre of open, frothy, yeasty foam riding on top of the obligatory deep red-brown ale. The beer is very much in the traditional Irish or northern England "best" bitter style, with a very caramel malt and bread yeast dominated aroma, perhaps with a slight hint of apple at the back. The head dies away fairly quickly, leaving a pint with only moderate effervescence. The flavours are again very much of the type. There is a still a very smooth malty palette, perhaps sweeter than most, overlain by unbaked bread flavours. To the middle of the mouth a slightly sour malt tone, with a return of a slightly green apple tang. The aftertaste returns once again to a lingering toasty biscuityness once the sour notes have faded. The mouth feel is fairly thin throughout, and the beer, when cold, has a pleasingly refreshing feel. However, when it warms it starts to be dominated by the sour tones. This is a beer to be drunk fast and in quantity. Therefore it is a shame that it rates up at 5% ABV. Were this beer a percentage point or two lower in alcohol it would make a very handy session ale for a warm summer evening. Unfortunately with 5% it is too strong for that, and if you are forced to sip then there are plenty of other, better, beers available that fill that niche.

Southern Tier Choklat Stout

Name: Blackwater Series Imperial Choklat Stout
Style: Imperial stout
ABV: 11.0% (9% quoted on the import label...)
Serving: 650ml bottle
Brewery: Southern Tier Brewing Company
Location: Lakewood, NY, USA
Weblink: Southern Tier Beers

Just to prove that I do drink beers from outside Ontari-airy-airy-oh, here's a monstrous offering from western New York's Southern Tier brewery. Bought from the specialist cabinet at, yes, Pub Italia in Ottawa, it was a bit of a treat at $20 for a single 650 ml bottle. But hey, sometimes you gotta push the boat out.

The beer pours thick and resinous, with an oily sheen and thin, dark brown head. The aromas that pour off the beer are, well, fairly un-beer-like. The first scent that you detect is a slightly milky sweetness, followed by burnt coffee notes and a thick, rich chocolate undertow. And that's pretty much how it tastes as well; as my drinking companion put it, "like alcoholic Nesquik!" There is obviously an awful lot of fine, dark chocolate and rich cocoa gone into each bottle of this mighty brew, and these have swamped out all but the most bombastic elements of the malt's own flavour profile. Gradually these do ease their way through from the back, however, with a pleasing tobacco and black coffee toastyness gradually filling your mouth as the chocolate fades away. The one thing you can't taste - surprisingly, given its high ABV - is alcohol, although you can feel its warming presence in your throat, and see its effects in the way that the room begins to shimmer after a while!

One of the nicest parts of this beer is the way that it feels in your mouth. There is a robust, voluminous richness, that is tempered and enhanced by a smooth, silky feel as the beer slides towards the back of your mouth. This beer is certainly an experience, but not one I can see myself indulging in too frequently. It does pretty much what it says on the bottle label, but there isn't much complexity here and after a while this means that the beer loses its attraction. The 650 ml bottle is probably enough for 2-3 people to share but one on your own is a bit much. So take a friend of two, crack open a bottle, sip it from a snifter, and let the chocolate wash over you.

Trafalgar Oak Aged Rye

Name: Oak Aged Rye Premium Ale
Style: Bitter ale (Roggenbier)
ABV: 5.0%
Serving: 650ml bottle
Brewery: Trafalgar Ales & Meads
Location: Oakville, ON, Canada
Weblink: Trafalgar Ales & Meads

An off-the-cuff LCBO purchase, this one. A hefty bottle with a distinctive green label. I'll admit that I hadn't heard of the brewery, let alone the beer, before I picked this one up, but always willing to try something new I stuffed one into an already heaving basket. So...

The beer is very low in effervescence, and pours with almost no head despite fairly brutal treatment. The colour is a very pleasing, burnished copper, with a very slight sediment haze. The beer's nose has a promising blend of appley-citrus notes and a subdued caramel backbone, overlain by a rye-sour tang. At this point I'm hopeful. But... (you could see the 'but' coming there, couldn't you?) where'd that all go in the mouth? Ok, so there is dry florality, but that disappears pretty darn fast, and a softly lingering toasty vanilla (the oak, I assume) is all you are left with. All in all this is pretty disappointing and thin. The brewery was apparently set up in 1993, so you'd think that they would know how to put together a cracking beer with the combination of interesting grains and expensive oak aging, but frankly I've had more interesting homebrew than this. Drat.

Hop City Barking Squirrel

Name: Barking Squirrel Lager
Style: Heller bock
ABV: 5.0%
Serving: 20oz shaker
Where: Pub Italia, Ottawa
Brewery: Hop City
Location: Brampton, ON, Canada
Weblink: Barking Squirrel Lager

So, another lager. How unlike me... is must be the time of year I guess. Anyway, this review is culled from a posting the I made at a beer rating site. Why am I repeating it here? Well, for completeness for one, but also as the other reviews I have read on said rating site seemed very skewed. I know that we all like to tell ourselves that we drink 'good' beer because we simply like it more, but there does seem to be a slightly classier than thou pretension in some quarters too. It seems that the harder a beer is to find and the smaller the brewery the more certain people seem to like the beer; the reverse is also true. So ok Hop City isn't really a microbrewer, being part of the considerably larger (and commercially-orientated) Moosehead concern, but I tend to take things as I find them. Moosehead also own 50% of Montreal's superb McAuslan Brewery, so they clearly know how to give their subsidiaries enough freedom to be distinctive. I've had plenty of crappy beer brewed by microbreweries and brewpubs, and some really classy offerings from big operations.

For a start, some have accused this beer of only pouring with a "thin, browny head"; that’s your barman’s fault. Go to a pub where they know how to pull pints and keep their lines clean. Every time I have been handed a pint of Barking Squirrel it has had 1-2cm of fine, light foam, sat jauntily atop a pleasingly deep orange/amber body, with moderate effervescence. While pretty hoppy for a dark lager, it isn’t a hop monster in the currently fashionable ilk. There is a burnt caramel/toffee sweetness here that is nicely balanced (balance being the keyword...) by a gently bittering, citrusy florality to the back of the mouth and in the aftertaste. However, this isn’t one of the trendy, mouth-puckeringly bitter, overhopped "macho" IPAs that are cropping up all over the place, and with a brewery name like this I think some people were expecting more. Hops are great. I’ve loved hops for many years, but just because that isn’t all you can taste doesn’t mean that it fails. In fact, its balance is a mark distinctly in its favour. Another dark mark seems to be that its appearance is goading people into believing that this is a bitter and are judging it in that context. Yes it is pretty approachable, possibly even commercial, for a (pseudo-)craft beer, and it may not be a world-beater, but levelling dull, repetitious, unthinking comments at it is far more "meh" than this perfectly good dark lager.

Creemore Springs Traditional Pilsner

Name: Traditional Pilsner
Style: Pilsner
ABV: 5.3%
Serving: 341ml bottle
Brewery: Creemore Springs
Location: Creemore, ON, Canada
Weblink: Creemore Springs Traditional Pilsner

Soo... how to get to grips with this beer (b)log? Do I want to make it cool and clinical, or a bit more chatty. It is only supposed to be an aide memoir so I guess the beer review will form a large chunk of it. Hmm, thinking out loud in text, is that healthy? Who knows...

Anyway, Creemore Pilsner. I have to admit that I haven't been overly impressed by the Creemore beers that I have tried in the past; they just seem a little lacking in class. The fact that they seem to have fallen for the current LCBO con that "great beers come in cans" might be something to do with it. Sadly, we in Ontario are being told, by people who should know better, that cans are a good way to package craft beers. I guess the LCBO's taste buds are so shot from years of drinking Coors that they can't taste the can taint any more. They are wrong. Easy to handle, easy to transport, and offering mix-and-match at the store seem to be their prime motivations, not preserving the beer's taste. Still, this has been sufficient to put me off Creemore before now. However, after trying a Creemore on draught (big shout to the increasing number of Ottawa pubs carrying craft beer on draught!) a couple of weeks back and being mildly impressed, I thought I'd invest in 12 bottles of their Traditional Pilsner, to see if they changed my mind.

So, the beer pours well, with a light, open head. It has a rich, amber colour and is vigorously effervescent. As far as it goes, this is a very straight pilsner. Disappointingly the aromas are a bit flat, with only a slightly hoppy bitterness being noticeable. However, I'd point out here that my usual tastes are for much darker beers than this, and so my viewpoint is slightly skewed! As far as flavour goes, the beer starts slightly - but only slightly - sweet, with a pale malt tone, but very rapidly switches to a robust, hoppy, almost metallic bitterness. The finish is biscuity, with some remianing malt and hop aromatics swirling up my nose. As it says on the label, this is a traditional, classy pilsner. I'm not really in a position to judge the absolute quality of this particular pilsner as, frankly, I don't drink that much of the stuff. But from what I have tasted so far, this is likely to be one of the better options for a cool summer sip. If I'm honest, I actually prefer the beer's aftertaste to its actual taste. It is definitely a beer that I could see myself nursing a pint of on a terrasse; just sipping every now and again to top up the lingering malty-yeasty aftertastes. Unfortunately, I can see that leading to a nasty, warm half-pint. We'll see. For now, one to enjoy on the hot days.