Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Spearhead Brewery Hawaiian Style Pale Ale & Cheshire Valley IPA

When Kate and I were at the Wooly for Father’s Day, I saw posters around the bar announcing that Spearhead Brewery would have their Hawaiian Style Pale Ale available on tap at the Wooly starting June 23. I had heard rumours about Spearhead on the Bar Towel forums - at the time, all that was definite was that it was a new brewery opening. I made it a point to make it to the Wooly on the 23rd to see what this beer was all about.

Hawaiian Style Pale Ale is a west coast pale ale with the addition of pineapple juice. It’s naturally carbonated, unfiltered and unpasteurized. It’s relatively strong at 6.5% ABV and has a bitterness of 60 IBUs - not the booziest or bitterest IPA out there, but not a slouch either.

The beer was served in a tulip glass and had a thick, rocky white head. It was a beautiful hazy apricot colour. It was nice to get the beer served in an appropriate glass - the tulip glass really concentrates the aromas of the beer. I wish I had a proper tulip glass at home; it’s amazing how different a beer can taste from different glassware. My one complaint about the serving was that it was served too cold. It was excruciating to wait for the beer to warm up.

As I mentioned, the glassware helped appreciate the beer’s nose: nice pine and grapefruit with a hint of sweetness. The initial flavour was honey and caramel; the middle was a nice bitter zest taste; and the finish was decidedly bitter with grapefruit rind. I looked for the “tropical finish” the brewer mentioned but I couldn’t find the pineapple. It might be just too subtle for me. Although after drinking the pint, it seems pretty light on the tongue.

It is a very nice addition to the Ontario market.



The second beer, the Cheshire Valley IPA, was a total surprise find - I had no idea it was going to be on tap. I’ve had a couple of beers from Cheshire Valley - all beers are contract brewed at Black Oak Brewery - and every one I’ve had so far has been good.

The bubbles on the head of the CV IPA are much finer than on the head from the Spearhead. The head isn’t as thick but there’s a good amount of lacing and it sticks around until the end of the pint.

The Cheshire Valley was at a disadvantage in aroma due to the glass - it was a nonic pint glass. Plus, I had nachos in between which definitely affected my palate. I did get a subtle citrus aroma. The taste starts with a good amount of caramel malt flavour. That’s balanced out by a decent amount of bitterness and spiciness from the hops. The spiciness lingers after you’ve swallowed - I’m pretty sure that was the beer and not the nachos. Another solid beer from Cheshire Valley.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Yellow Belly Brewery's St. John's Stout

A friend of ours brought Jeff back a 1L swing-top bottle of Yellow Belly Brewery’s St. John’s Stout. Jeff was pretty excited about this one - here’s what he had to say.

My friend, who is from Newfoundland, knew I was a fan of trying new beers and figured I hadn’t had this one before. He was right, I hadn’t even heard of this brewery before.

The beer pours a deep brown, almost black, in colour. What little head there is quickly vanishes and leaves no trace. The beer has very little carbonation - almost flat. I know some people don’t like under-carbonated beer but for me, with some styles, I like it. I’m not sure if this was meant be a real ale - there’s very little information on the brew pub’s website - but I’m going to give the brewmaster the benefit of the doubt that it was intentional. The low carbonation makes it very drinkable.

The aroma is pretty straight forward - a nice roastiness with some vanilla. The taste is strong on coffee. There’s some dark chocolate in there as well to round it out as well. The finish is quite bitter, which I like with my stouts - it makes you want to take another sip to get that initial sweetness. As the beer warmed up, the coffee bitterness decreased somewhat and revealed some nuttiness. Be sure not to drink this beer straight from the fridge; let it warm up a bit.

If I have one complaint, it’s that the beer felt a little thin. I wish there had been just a bit more body to it.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Muskoka Brewery's Mad Tom IPA

Jeff was excited to try Muskoka Brewery’s Mad Tom IPA after really enjoying their Harvest Ale last fall. Here’s his review.

After enjoying the Harvest Ale, I was anticipating they’d do another great beer with this one and raise the bar again.

The beer pours a nice golden colour with about a finger or so of head. The head retention isn’t bad and when it dissipates it leaves a nice amount of lacing.

The description on the back of the bottle says: “this IPA has a vibrant aroma, depth of flavour and crisp citrusy undertow like no other.” I was a little disappointed with the aroma. I get some spicy floral on the nose but to me “vibrant” means it should be unmistakable. Instead, I found myself searching for it.

The taste has a good biscuity malt backbone to balance the hops - the bitterness starts with pine and leads into citrus. Each sip begins with a little sweetness that’s dragged back in - I think the use of “undertow” on the packaging was a good call. And as the beer warms up, I get more of an orange peel. Drinking it, I wouldn’t expect it to be 6.4% ABV. The alcohol content is integrated well into the beer.

As good as this beer is, I think I was expecting more. This beer’s a victim of its brewer’s past successes. It’s certainly a great addition to the Ontario IPA market - being one of only a few - and it’s better than several American craft brewed IPAs, but I think Muskoka could have reached a little further on this one. I would have liked to have seen this one unfiltered and unpasteurized. Maybe next time.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Father's Day at the Wooly

The Blackened IPA in an OCB glass.

Father’s Day we went to the Wooly to celebrate. 

Normally the Wooly puts on a beer festival. This year, though, it was going to be a beer pairing dinner. Unfortunately the dinner and beer pairing menu didn’t happen - but there was still some special beers available. 

The Blackened IPA
The Strawberry Blonde
Wellington brought their Ce’da Bitter Blue, which was on cask. F&M brought their Strawberry Blonde - I (Jeff) tried this for the first time last summer at the Wooly’s Ale Trail. Plus Wellington and F&M collaborated on the 777 Blackened IPA, also on cask.

Ce’da Bitter Blue was also available in cans at the Wellington Brewery earlier on Sunday. Kate and I picked up a few cans. We’ll put more up about it later. We didn’t have any at the dinner.

Kate had the Strawberry Blonde. The first time I had this was at the Wooly’s Ale Trail last Father’s Day. F&M took their light lager and added fresh strawberries. I’m not normally a fan of their light lager but the strawberries are a nice addition. The strawberry flavour isn’t over-powering and it isn’t too sweet. Strawberry Blonde is a nice summer patio sipper.

I tried replicating the Strawberry Blonde at home last summer. I took a package of frozen strawberries, wrapped them in cheese cloth and put that in a pitcher. I then poured some Stonehammer Light into the pitcher and let it steep. It wasn’t as good as F&M’s but it wasn’t bad - and seeing as F&M isn’t bottling it, it’s the best you can do when you can’t find it on tap.

I had the 777 Blackened IPA. I was impressed with the last black IPA I had that F&M was involved with. The 777, to me, had much stronger stout qualities than other black IPAs I’ve had: the coffee and roastiness flavour were undeniable. There is a ton of bitterness in the aftertaste - but there isn’t any citrus flavours imparted by the hops. I liked it but it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting - then again, I’ve only had 3 or 4 other black IPAs previously (Kate really liked it).

On a completely unrelated note, I saw on Facebook that Flying Monkeys released Alpha-fornication - the bitterest beer in the world. It clocks in at a ridiculous 2500 IBUs - I think the most bitter beer I’ve had up to this point was in the 90 IBU neighborhood. I wished I’d had a chance to try it.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Waterloo Brewing Co. Radlermass

I (Jeff) was in the LCBO yesterday and found this beer: Waterloo’s Radlermass. I had no idea what it was but it was labeled as a “lemonade lager.


WTF?!?! I had never heard of a beer mixed with lemonade. I thought maybe this was Waterloo Brewing Co.’s (made by Brick Brewery) answer to Bud Light Lime (to me, that beer just tastes like lime cordial). 

Luckily, the back of the can had something more to say:


Known as the Cyclists’ Thirst Quencher: After World War I, bicycle riding became popular in Germany. A local innkeeper opened his own watering hole and arranged for a bike trail through a forest from Munich to his alpine meadow, only to find some 13,000 cyclists had descended upon his establishment and almost depleted his fine beer. Quick thinking led him to mix a stock of lemon soda with his remaining beer and he called it Radlermass (Radler means cyclist in German, Mass means a litre of beer), which became a wonderful refreshing summer drink.

Yep. There’s a reason they said “summer drink” instead of “summer beer”. I can taste the lemon and sweetness from the lemonade but there’s nothing here to make me think it’s beer. No maltiness, no hoppiness. It ends up tasting like watered down lemonade. Part of me thinks this might have worked - but the beer flavours can’t be overrun by the lemonade into non-existence.

This was definitely an offering to the Bud Light Lime fans. Maybe they’ll like it - it’s not my thing though.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Why aren't I drunk on Father's Day?

Happy Father's Day, Leader Bee. (Jeff's on the right, his sister, Alison, is on the left).
Today is Father's Day and unfortunately, the Woolwich Arrow is not having their usual Ale Trail. This is disappointing because today is usually when my father-in-law and I get trashed at the ale trail - while Jeff looks on and is disgusted his wife can't hold her liquor better (and shakes his head as his dad asks people embarrassing questions).

But, fear not - beer will be part of our day. It has to be - this is the beginning of Ontario Craft Beer Week!

For dinner, we're still going to the Wooly for their Father's Day Ale Trail Dinner. It's going to be a food/beer pairing meal with local food and beer from Wellington and F&M. Also available will be a sampling of a Black IPA that is a collaboration between the two breweries.

Before that, though, we'll be making a stop at Wellington for their open house. The one-off will be the Bitter Ce'da Blue (which actually drives me nuts - Ce'da is for Cedar ... so it should be Ceda' ...).

So, hopefully, I'll get a tad tipsy on Father's Day. I'm sure Jeff's dad - who seems to really enjoy having more than a few beers with his son and daughter-in-law - will appreciate the effort. And, the good news about having beer with dinner instead of the entire afternoon is I won't pass out during dinner this year (and yes, that happened last year).

Meanwhile, here's some photos from last year's ale trail.
The guys from Beau's.

I believe this was F&M's strawberry beer - it was my downfall. So tasty!

There were some great music.

The back parking lot (there were also people inside).

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Dogfish Head Alehouse

From the alehouse website.

A couple of weeks ago, I (Jeff) was in Gaithersburg, MD, for work. Luckily for me, right around the corner from the hotel I was staying at was a Dogfish Head Alehouse. I was able to go there a couple of times that week to try out some of their beers.

Shelter Pale Ale: This was my least favourite beer. Maybe it was because before this trip, I was used to offerings like the 60min and 90min IPA. This beer had pretty much no flavour. They describe it as their “most approachable beer”. I should have known better that the description was a gussied up version of “bland.”

60 Minute IPA: This is the Dogfish Head beer I’m most familiar with - I’ve even seen on occasion on the LCBO shelves. It’s a good IPA - not too hoppy for those looking to try a brew with more flavour.

90 Minute IPA: The 90 minute was Dogfish Head’s first “continuously hopped” IPA. Supposedly that means it gets a strong hop flavour without it being crushing. Ummm, okay? All I know is that it’s good. But at 9% ABV, you probably don’t want to have too many of these.

Raison D’Etre: I would say most people know Dogfish for their aggresively hopped beers - but they do offer maltier focused beers like this Belgian brown ale. After tasting the beer, you can tell that “raison” could easily be replaced with “raisin”. There is a lot of sweetness and raisin flavour to this beer.

Burton Baton: This is a blended beer made up from an imperial IPA and English style ale. The two beers are blended together in an oak tank. What you end up getting is great citrus from the IPA and this vanilla flavour from the wood. The whole flavour profile is ultra smooth - you would never know it’s 10% ABV. This was one of my top two finds I think.

Aprihop: I’ve had apricot flavoured beers before - like McAuslan’s Apricot Wheat Ale. I like McAuslan’s but you definitely have to be in the mood for apricots. In the Aprihop, Dogfish Head’s description pretty much fits the bill: it’s an IPA with just a hint of apricot. You still get lots of great citrus from the hops, and then you’re surprised with a subtle amount of apricot.

Squall IPA: The server told me this was essentially a 90 Minute IPA that was bottle conditioned and unfiltered. That was enough to pique my interest. This one blew me away. So much hop flavour. This beer makes the 90 Minute IPA taste like dirt - it seriously raises the bar that high. But then again it should: after ordering the beer (which only comes in 750mL bottles), I found out it was $24/bottle. Whoops. That’s okay though, it was worth it to try it once. I had this on a different date from the Burton Baton - this would be the other top beer of the trip.

While the Dogfish Head Alehouse doesn’t brew their beer on site, it’s shipped in (and in fact on one of the trips there they were out of both 60 Minute and 90 Minute IPA), it’s definitely worth a visit. Plus the food there is pretty good too. I remember liking the Border Burger and the crab dip was crazy good (and I don’t care for crab).

Southern Tier 2XIPA

I asked Jeff to write a review about the Southern Tier 2XIPA, and he said he couldn't remember everything for a proper review, but he knows he wants more. Lots more. Then he smiled and got a faraway look in his eyes.

Here's the description from the Lakewood, N.Y., brewery's website: Not quite an imperial, but certainly not a standard India pale ale. Our double IPA is a hop lover's dream. Citrusy and clean with an incredible finish.