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.

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).

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.

We haven't forgotten about the blog

Patio season at the Wooly.

We've just been busy these days.

It is, after all, patio season.

Jeff recently had the beer pictured - Church-Key Barley Legal. He said it was pretty good.

We also went to Wellington Brewery for their monthly open house where they featured a new strawberry vanilla wheat ale. I was psyched and expected to really love it. Unfortunately, I didn't really love it - although I'd probably order a pint of it if it was on tap. Jeff liked it, but would have preferred more hops.

In other Wellington news, they've got Arkell Best Bitter in cans now. Great for cottage season (cans float).

We are also looking forward to Ontario Craft Beer Week. It looks like the Woolwich Arms will be doing another Ale Trail on Father's Day. This is awesome because it makes getting Jeff's dad something very easy - he loves the ale trail and I think he likes going with us (although I did enjoy a few too many last year and ended up sleeping through dinner).

Ontario Craft Beer Week is June 19 - 25!

Nickel Brook Gluten Free Alcoholic Beverage

Jeff's sister has recently become gluten intolerant. Neither of us can imagine living life like that. No beer? That’s just wrong. 

She’s been trying out all kinds of gluten free alternatives to things. Some have been pretty good: her gluten free pizza is actually good. Other things have been pretty horrible. 

Here's Jeff's take on a gluten-free beer:  

She’s been trying to convince me to try Nickel Brook’s Gluten Free. She says it’s great and that I’d probably like it too. I’ve been resisting because a) the track record for gluten free products has been mediocre at best; and b) her taste in alcoholic beverages is not my cup of tea (Bacardi Breezers and that kind of thing).

Today when I was in the LCBO, I saw Nickel Brook’s Gluten Free in cooler and I thought, “What the hell, why not?” I finally gave in to trying it.

Nickel Brook doesn’t call their product beer. I’m guessing that’s because there’s no barley in it. But they do advertise on the back of the can that it has a taste that will satisfy any beer lover. That’s dodgey right there since I’ve yet to find a beer that everybody loves. 

So I’m assuming they’ve gone with the “medium bodied ale with moderate hoppiness” approach - a beer that appeals to no one in particular (but isn’t offensive to anyone either) and is immediately forgettable. But they are working without the advantages of gluten so I’ll cut them some slack.

The beer pours the colour of apple juice. It fizzes up to a big bubbly head - and then almost instantly disappears. I know gluten is key in trapping gases to make bread rise, I’m assuming some of the same mechanics carry over to head retention. I could be way off though. There’s also zero lacing. After sitting for 5 minutes, it looks like you have a glass of carbonated apple juice.

It smells a bit like pears and apples. It has the same kind of taste. Mild cidery taste of apples and pears. Thankfully it’s not sickeningly sweet although there’s no hops in either the aroma or taste (I guess “any beer lover” can live without that). Ya... this doesn’t taste like beer at all. It doesn’t even taste like bad beer.

I love beer. If I ever became gluten intolerant I have no idea what I would do. But I do know this: I would not drink Nickel Brook’s Gluten Free. Never.

Grand River Brewery Curmudgeon IPA

I'm at work, so what does Jeff do? He goes out to get a new beer to review. Nice, sweetheart. No, it's OK. I didn't want any.

What Jeff has to say:

Here is another beer in the Liquor Control Board of Ontario's (LCBO) spring specialty beer release - Grand River Brewing’s Curmudgeon IPA.

What I really like about Grand River’s packaging is that the bottling date is very obvious. Of course, in my infinite wisdom, I didn’t capture that in the photo. You can just barely make it out the start of it in the picture on the top left of the label. (Also, the new labeling style - especially for Curmudgeon - is a huge improvement aesthetically).

The beer pours a crystal clear burnt orange colour and you can see the carbonation bubbles racing up to the surface - although there aren’t many of them after letting the beer sit for a couple of minutes. The head is a nice creamy colour and decently thick. The aroma has a lot of floral hops along with caramel and biscuit from the malt.

The taste first hits you with bitter floral hops. The middle brings in a nice malt backbone of caramel/toffee.The finish returns right back to bitterness. Again more floral and piney than citrusy. There’s a pleasant earthiness to it. The beer does a good job of hiding the additional alcohol - it’s 6.5% abv.

The value on this bottle is very good. I got my 500mL bottles at $3.00 each. That was a mistake by the cashier as it’s supposed to sell for $3.60. But even at $3.60 this is a great value. Heck, it’s a good beer at $5. I guess that’s the advantage of getting beer from a local, talented craft brewer as opposed to trucking in some craft beer from the States (Why are the Southern Tier beers always close to $9/bottle???).