Saturday, February 26, 2011

Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) Infinium


When the LCBO announced they were going to be selling Sam Adams's Utopias this year through a lottery system, it had me intrigued. A bottle of beer (granted 710mL) selling for $115 - and they needed a lottery system to handle demand? I thought about entering the lottery but never acted before the deadline so I missed out on Utopias.

Then I found out about another premium Sam Adams beer the LCBO was bringing in: Infinium. At $15/bottle this was a steal by comparison. It was also going to be in limited supply but Guelph was lucky enough to have it stocked in two of its LCBO locations.

When I walked in to the local LCBO, Infinium didn't appear to be as rare as I first thought it'd be. There were boxes of it throughout the store and in different departments. Maybe the LCBO got more cases at the last minute? Or maybe other buyers knew something I didn't at the time - maybe it's not worth $15? No, that can't be ...

Placing Infinium in both the beer and wine aisles makes sense. This beer is a lot like a champagne: Very fruity, though not as sweet, and highly carbonated. The beer is even packaged in a champagne bottle with a cork and cage. The beer has an apple cider colour and has an enormous, big bubble head that quickly dissipates to leave just a ring at the edge of the glass. When I drink champagne, I normally drink it cold so I figured I'd start there for tasting the beer. It smells of dried fruit and tastes of it too. Its kind of like a Belgian tripel mixed with champagne - I definitely get that alcohol taste I find in champagne's aftertaste. Letting the beer warm-up did not make things better in my opinion - I found it introduced a strange aftertaste. 


Maybe it’s because I'm not a big champagne drinker - or maybe it’s because I'm not a huge tripel fan - but I was not a fan of this beer. Even if this beer was more reasonably priced between $5-$10, I still would not but it again.

Not every beer you try is going to be one you like.
Kate's note: It was too sweet and I was not a fan. I had two sips and thought the smell reminded me of icewine (which I don't mind on occasion, but didn't expect that taste in a beer).


ETA: Jeff and I were in the LCBO in Guelph on March 6 and they still had quite a few bottles in there.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Neustadt 10W30

I love that Jeff likes Neustadt Springs' beer. I'm a fan, if only because I grew up in Hanover (about 15 minutes from Neustadt - if even) and so I feel connected to this brewery in a way.

We usually stop in any time we're heading up to see my family and the best part about this brewery (after the beer) is the staff - they are super friendly, always willing to talk and they're interesting to talk to.

Apparently this beer also takes Jeff back to his high school part-time job, too.

But enough about that.

Jeff's review:

Neustadt's 10W30 has a bold name and bold packaging to go with it.

You can't help but think "motor oil" when you read the name and see the hot rod on pictured on the can. If that has you worried, don't be; it doesn't pour like goopy molasses and it doesn't blot out the sun.

It pours a nice cola colour with minimal beige head that doesn't leave behind any lacing once its dissipated. This english brown ale has light carbonation and medium body. I get some nuttiness in the flavour and what reminds me of the rye bread they used to make at the bakery I worked at in high school.

There's definitely a sweetness to this beer; it's malty. And make sure to drink this at a warmer temperature to taste all the flavour in the beer.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Montreal - where it kind of began

OK, Montreal isn't where Jeff started drinking craft beers. He was drinking them long before a trip we took between Christmas and New Year's 2008.

Maybe, Montreal is the beginning for me.

We decided to visit the city when it seemed to be covered in ice. We went down to Old Montreal, but it was hard to get around. So we took refuge in a pub — Les Trois Brasseurs.

We stayed there for at least three hours.

It was here I really was introduced to the joy of trying different beers and Jeff really encouraged me to taste the beer - not just take a sip to placate him. We had several beers and yes, we got a little drunk (which made it hard to navigate the ice when we left the bar).

An empty glass at Brutopia
We also went to a place called Brutopia, which had several different beers on tap, all made specifically for the bar.


A photo of an otter - just because otters are awesome. Taken at the Biodome.
And, as we left the city at the end of our trip, we stopped at McAuslan Brewery, where Jeff got a couple of beers and some mustard (really good mustard).

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Muskoka Cottage Brewery - Muskoka Harvest Ale

I (Jeff) discovered the Muskoka Harvest Ale last fall and have enjoyed several bottles of it.

From what I understand, the Harvest Ale is brewed using only ingredients from Ontario. It comes in a 750mL swingtop bottle - a nice presentation that makes it suitable for a host/hostess gift instead of the usual bottle of wine. 


I bought this bottle back in November/December. It was coming up on its best before date and wanted to make sure I drank it before it lost too much of its flavour. 


The beer looks fantastic: A great copper liquid with tiny carbonation bubbles rising to a thick and creamy head. The hops in this English pale ale are more floral/grassy than citrusy. The beer's also got a decent malt backbone - a nice caramel - to compliment the bitterness of the hops. 


It still has a slightly bitter finish - which I find to be ideal when drinking with food. 


I remember enjoying a bottle of this with Thanksgiving dinner - I thought it'd be nice since this beer is supposed to celebrate the harvest as well. I'm no pairing expert - normally I just drink what I like with food - but it was great with that turkey. 


The sad thing is, Harvest Ale is done for the year. Now you'll have to wait until September for 2011's offering.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Saturday notes



Wellington's Winter Cask Day

Today (Saturday) from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. there's an event at the Wellington Brewery in Guelph. It's going to feature several beers as cask-conditioned ales, as well as limited edition beer. It's just $5 a person and on a windy, wintery day like today, some good beer will make it all seem better.

Mill Street Vanilla Porter

We went to the Wooly last night - as we do most Friday nights - and this is the beer I had. In fact, I had two. I really enjoy this beer. I love the vanilla smell and taste - and it's pretty easy to drink (which is why I had two. I didn't realize I had downed the first until Pam asked if I wanted another).

Jeff told me before I had it that the Mill Street vanilla porter tastes like a milkshake. While I'm not 100% on board with that, I do get what he means. I love the creaminess of the head of this beer (please, no jokes about a woman loving head), although maybe due to this milkshake idea, I expect the beer to have more body or something. But I still like it and now that it appears it is a regular on the Wooly beer line-up, I'll likely have more of it in the future.  (Visit the Mill Street pub website)

Although, if it was put up against F&M's Oatmeal Coffee Stout, which uses Planet Bean coffee, it would likely lose out. I really like F&M's stout (and Planet Bean's coffee).

Grand River Galt Knife Old Style Lager

Earlier this week, Jeff enjoyed a Galt Knife to the mouth - the beer, of course. Here are his thoughts.


The Galt Knife is another beer from Grand River brewery that I didn't care for too much the first time I had it. I'm not sure why that is. It's now my "go to" beer when I'm at our local pub (The Wooly). I like to start off with the feature tap to try something new but for the second pint - or if I know the feature tap isn't so great - I'll get the Galt Knife pretty much every time. It is a great beer on tap that drinks well by itself and goes with lots of pub food.

But this time I'm having it in the bottle that I picked up from the LCBO. It pours a nice, light caramel colour and has a decent amount of carbonation - more than I seem to remember it having on tap. The beer has some nice biscuity flavour followed by some bitterness from the hops - nothing over powering but definitely there. I'll be honest, I think the flavour was better on tap. Maybe I drank the beer too cold. 



I'll try to be a little more patient next time.

One of the things I really like about this beer is that while its 4.4% abv - what a lot of people would consider a lighter beer - it still has flavour and doesn't taste watered down. Grand River has quite a few quality beers that are lower in alcohol but not in flavour. It's nice to see someone brewing flavourful sessionable beers. I've read quite a few beer reviews where people will say a 6-7% abv beer is sessionable but I'm sorry, you can't have 3 or 4 (or more) of those bigger beers and not be feeling some effects.

One thing I'm not sure of is why the Knife is called a pre-prohibition style lager. I'm sure there's a reason for it - it'd be nice to find out.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

F&M and Great Lakes Blackened I.P.A. and Devil's Pale Ale Blend

Jeff went to an event tonight without me - but he said it was a blast. Here are his notes:

Earlier this week the Wooly tweeted that they were going to have a special joint venture beer from Guelph's F&M and Great Lakes in Toronto. There was only going to be a 20L keg so it wasn't going to last long. If I wanted to get a taste of this mystery beer, I was going to have be there on time.

When I got there, the tiny keg was tucked away in the corner and the bar manager Ben was pouring pints of the one off cask ale. He told me it was a blend of F&M's Blackened I.P.A. and Great Lakes' Devil's Pale Ale. I later found out it was also dry hopped.

The beer had little carbonation - as you'd expect from a cask ale. In contrast to Flying Monkeys' Netherworld, this was significantly hoppier. That was likely due to the fact that it was a black I.P.A. that was blended with an already reasonably hoppy pale ale. The hop taste from this was also different. The citra hops left a distinct taste in the back of my mouth. It was good when it was first poured - although a little unbalanced. 



As the glass warmed up in my hand though, the coffee flavours from the the black I.P.A. became more pronounced - the beer went from a good beer to a great beer.

George, the brewer from F&M, also showed up. It was fun speaking with him about this beer and others he's working on. He had some good ideas that I hope he has a chance to follow up on.

There was also talk about turning this pin keg event into a monthly thing. I really hope that happens. I know Grand River has a beer club and Great Lakes has Project X - but those are a little hard to get to sometimes. I'm excited to see something equivalent happen locally. These kinds of events let you meet like minded beer lovers over interesting new brews.



If you have a chance to make it to an event near you, I highly recommend it.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Flying Monkeys - Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale

So, as you'll recall, Jeff and I did the pre-Valentine's Day dinner at the Wooly - and he had this beer on tap. 


He just cracked open a new bottle of this one tonight, so here are his notes:


Flying Monkeys Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale

Flying Monkeys is a brewery based out of Barrie and used to be known as the Robert Simpson Brewing Company. I remember trying their Confederation Ale years ago. I don't so much remember the beer as the bottle - which had a colour changing strip to let you know when the beer was cold - its likely not a great sign that I remember the packaging over the product. 



Since then the brewery rebranded themselves as Flying Monkeys. The first beer I had from them was Hoptical Illusion. That beer is a fridge favourite of mine. I normally always have at least a 6-pack of that in the house. But I'm not going to be talking about Hoptical Illusion today. Instead I'll be talking about Flying Monkeys' Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale.

To start off, this is I think only the second beer in this style that I've had - the other one being Garrison's Black I.P.A. The simplest description I'd say is that it combines the roastiness of a dark beer like a stout with the hoppiness profile of an I.P.A. In this case, the hoppiness of a West coast I.P.A. (so lots of grapefruit). 



When I first heard about this style of beer it didn't really make any sense to me. All I could think of was "coffee meets grapefruit" - and that didn't seem too promising. But hey, I'll try any beer at least once.

The Netherworld pours a dark burnt orange (?) with a nice bubbly head that leaves behind some nice lacing. To me, it smells like an amalgam of coffee and grapefruit. Tasting it, I first taste the coffee/roasted malt flavours that lead into - guess what - the citrusy hop flavour. And yet - it works?!?! Its an interesting beer for sure. I'm not about to start adding fresh grapefruit to my morning coffee but I will be drinking this beer again. In fact the other night I had it on tap (feature tap) at the Wooly with prime rib and it was fantastic. (Wifey edit: For the record, he had two pints and he was giddy at the prospect of having it that night).

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Valentine's Day Eve

Jeff and I aren't big Valentine's Day people. He did buy me roses this year (and two buttertarts - my favourite), but we opted for a casual dinner out tonight (with a nicer one planned for next weekend).

There's a front patio and back patio - great for drinking beer in the summer.
We went to our favourite restaurant, the Woolwich Arrow - although to us (and those who know and love it) it's just the Wooly.

Jeff was pleased to see the Wooly had the Netherworld Cascadian Dark Ale from Flying Monkeys brewery. He enjoyed two pints of this ale. My sip of it surprised me - I wasn't expecting the hops. When I see a dark beer like that, I think of a more malty taste. I liked it, but I'm not sure I liked it nearly as much as Jeff.

I had the Harvest Ale from F&M Brewery here in Guelph. I'll be honest, this is my go-to beer. While Jeff will almost always have whatever is on the feature tap at the Wooly, if the feature doesn't appeal to me, I go with the Harvest Ale. I enjoy the taste - which does change slightly depending on the time of year - and it goes well with just about everything.

Anyone who is in Guelph should go to the Wooly for lunch/dinner/just to have a beer. We love the staff - can't say enough good things about them - and while the food is always good, perhaps more importantly, they've always got good brews on tap.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Garrison - Martello Stout


Jeff is back again today - he had a long day at work and came home to enjoy the Martello Stout from Garrison brewery in Halifax. (What better way to cap off a long day, right?)

When I got to try it, I found it had a "fruitier" or sweeter taste than other stouts I've had.

Here's what Jeff had to say:

Another stout - this time though its not Imperial. The Martello Stout from Garrison weighs in at 4.8% abv. I first tried a Garrison beer when they offered their Imperial IPA at the LCBO this past fall. They must not have ordered much - or it was in huge demand. When I ordered a case of 12 through the LCBO, they told me I could only have 8 bottles because that's all that store could get their hands on. Shortly after that I heard of a private order being organized by the guys at The Bar Towel and I ordered a case of the Black IPA and Brewmaster's Mixer - two bottles of the Martello came in that one.

Not surprisingly this stout also looks intensely dark in colour. I dunno, I'm not a colour master - how many of shades of dark brown-black are there?  The lacing is superior to the Russian Gun, I think. There's more chocolate and toffee in this stout's smell - and that carries over into the taste as well. The finish is less dry than the Russian Gun as well which might make it more accessible. The mouthfeel is a little lighter than I'd like for a stout if I was drinking it on its own. But I bet this would be awesome with a nice steak or cheese - who needs wine?

Now, Jeff also wanted to offer a correction to the blog.

And just to clarify, I don't favour Ontario beers. I prefer craft beers, and being in Ontario means that most of the craft beers available to me are brewed in Ontario. I really wish there was more availability of different Canadian craft beers, American craft beers and any other craft beers in the LCBO and TBS - competition can only up everyone's game.

Thanks for making wifey look like she doesn't know what's talking about, love of my life.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Russian Gun Imperial Stout

So, it didn't take much convincing. Jeff is on board with the blog. In fact, he was eager to get his first review up here.

Here's what he said about the Russian Gun Imperial Stout from Grand River Brewing in Cambridge, Ont.
It's been awhile since I've had Russian Gun from Grand River Brewing - definitely before they did the re-packaging. The first time I had it (a couple of years ago?), I found it to be too watery. But since then I've become a big fan of their Galt Knife Lager so I figured I'd give this another go - maybe I had a bad bottle, or maybe it was a bad batch? The brewery is definitely capable of good brew.

Pours a deep black coffee colour - maybe it's a black hole, light doesn't seem to escape from it - with a creamy head that leaves nice lacing. A roasty and chocolately smell on the nose as I'd expect. This is definitely not the watery beer I remember - mouthfeel is where I'd want it to be for a stout: substantial. Nice roast and dark malt flavours with a finish that's not overly bitter. It's hard to believe this beer is 8.5% abv - very drinkable.
Now, I didn't get a taste of this one - Jeff was far too busy reviewing it, holding it up to our kitchen light and giving this first post from him lots of thought - but I believe I've had it before and like most stouts, I liked it.

The brewery itself is in the old Galt Knife Company building - which, of course, also lends the name to one of their beers. There is a retail store on site and they give tours.

I can't find my cold cellar


The above picture is our cold cellar.

There is very little food in it.

That poorly-crafted Ikea shelving unit does look like it's about to tip over - but it's been like that for a few years. If it ever were to crash, my husband would likely cry like a baby.

Yes, that photo shows mostly beer on that shelving unit. I might have some napkins on there, and a thing of Hamburger Helper (which we never eat, so I have no clue why I bought it).

Jeff's beer collection is what we'd both describe at a tad out of control. Along with this beer (including in the boxes on the floor because there is nowhere else to put it), he has a beer fridge, where he keeps special beers you can keep a while (barley wine, other beers that can age), as well as half of the bottom shelf in our fridge (I got a little upset when he started putting beer in the crisper before Christmas - so he's scaled it back a bit in there).

You will perhaps recognize a few bottles: Great Lakes Brewery's Project X bottles, Muskoka's double chocolate cranberry stout, the cans in the bag are from Neustadt brewery, some from Black Oak Brewery, as well as some he just got through a private order from Garrison in Halifax.

Perhaps this snapshot into our lives will give you a good idea of what Jeff will be drinking (and what I'll be trying) on this blog.

Cheers! And hello.

I am not, in fact, a beer widow. My husband did not die from too much beer. Although there are times when I believe I have lost him to the golden, amber or dark suds.

We'll be having a conversation and, if he has just cracked open a new beer to try, I know there's no point in trying to continue talking, as I've lost him while he tastes and smells the lager, ale or porter.

It is in that sense that I use the word widow - because he does sometimes leave me to be alone with his beer.

I use it the same way other women use the term when they say they are a golf widow, or a work widow.

My husband is considering taking up home brewing. I fear I won't see him nearly as much as I'd like once that happens.

Now, as for the url of this blog, why am I the Ontario Beer Widow? Well, there's three reasons, really:

1. The Beer Widow was already taken (by someone who hasn't blogged since Oct. 2010).

2. We live in Ontario.

3. My husband enjoys Ontario craft beers, mostly (although he will dabble in other areas).

I'm not 100% sure what I will write in this blog. I suspect a lot of it will be, "My husband has now tried this beer and likes/hates it, and here's why." I may write my own opinions, because every time he opens a new beer he has me try it as well, but seeing as I know nothing beyond "it's good/it's horrid" it's best to keep the commentary to someone who knows what he's talking about.

(Yes, a wife just admitted her husband knows what he's talking about).

While some wives might turn up their noses at such a hobby/interest, I think it's great. But while I've encouraged my husband to blog about his thoughts, he's more or less scoffed at the idea, saying he doesn't know nearly enough about beer to do so.

I don't know. I've seen an Ontario man with a video camera "reviewing" beers on YouTube and that guy knows nothing (including how to pour a beer), but people still watch it. Why wouldn't they read what he has to say?

So, I'll do it for him.

This blog will not be reviewing or looking at beers like Molson, Labatts, or other major breweries, mostly because Jeff, my husband, does not drink them. Sure, if he's playing flip cup then Brava is fine - but if he's enjoying a beer, he's trying something new and unique. We may sneak the odd Sleeman's product in there, if only because the brewery is five minutes away from our home.

In any case, welcome to our corner of the interwebs. Hopefully you enjoy your stay, and if there's a beer you think my husband should try, let us know by posting a comment - we always love to try new things.