La Tabachéra - Birra Amarcord (Italy)

 La Tabachéra - Birra Amarcord (Italy) 9.0%

A dark, scorched looking gold colour in a glass. A strongly malty aroma, some alcohol, banada and some faint fruit esters. Strong malty taste, some alcohol taste and a chest-warming sensation but a very nice mellow mix of fruit flavours: pear, white grape juice, and hints of apricot. Nectary, sweet; the faitest bit of green and some biscuit tones. Quite nicely and carefully crafted to have such a delicate balance while boasting an ABV of 9.0%.

A very nice Belgian style Pale Ale and a wonderful departure from the only other Italian beers I have tried.

Seaport Beerfest (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Seaport Beerfest 2012

A few general notes about my recent Seaport Beerfest experience in Halifax: it was awesome despite the rain. I got a number of reviews done and it was great to see such a vast selection.

Of the beers I tried, the ones that really stood out were: Rogue's Roost's Barley Wine, Garrison's Comet Double IPA, Flacatoune a Belgian Pale Ale from Microbrasserie Charlevoix and Hell Bay's English Ale which I thought I was a superb English Pale Ale. There were many more beers that I tried and enjoyed and many more that I didn't have time to try. Hell Bay's Smoked Rye also gets special mention for being such an interesting beer even though I couldn't finish my sample for fear that the intense smoke flavours would mess up my palate.

I also would have liked to be able to make it to some of the ciders since I don't usually drink those. In fact, one of things I enjoyed most was being able to try beers that I wasn't expecting to be all that remarkable without having to shell out the cash to buy a 12-pack just to confirm my suspicions.

I'm definitely going next year and wholeheartedly recommend it to all you beer enthusiasts out there.