Rickard's Shandy - MolsonCoors (Canada) 4.5%

Rickard's Shandy - MolsonCoors (Canada) 4.5%

Pale gold in a glass with a quick fading white head. Lemonade aroma (plain lemonade not pink lemonade), sweet but sour. The taste is lemonade first and foremost but some malty lager flavours come out in the finish and particularly in the aftertaste. I had only ever had a shandy made by mixing beer with ginger ale but the lemonade version is okay too. Summery and refreshing, Rickard's Shandy is highly quaffable and as long as you think of it as a beertail (a cocktail made with beer) rather than a beer it's pretty nice. It doesn't taste artificial to me it just tastes like a blend of lemonade and a lager.

I'm a little curious as to what beer they are blending with lemonade since the only Rickard's beer that uses a lager yeast is their pilsner, Rickard's Blonde. Based on the underlying beer flavours that could indeed be the beer they are using.

Rickard's Cardigan Autumn Spiced Lager (Canada)

Rickard's Cardigan Autumn Spiced Lager (Canada) 5.5%

First off, the name, label and even the bottle cap are awesomely hilarious. And it's fitting (har, har. Get it? It's a sweater!) too: the spice mix really does make this comfort food in the form of beer.

An orange hued gold in a glass. The aroma is of cinnamon, all-spice and cloves with just a touch of malt in there also. Some of the underlying sweetness is likely due to the added brown sugar but I didn't get any more sweetness than could be credited to the malt.

The taste is very spicy with lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, some brown sugar and cloves. A bitter finish reminds me that this is in fact a beer as well as a collection of flavours reminiscent of pumpkin pie and that reminds me of everything nice about Autumn. And it's a beer that I enjoy very much at that; I can feel the leaves turning with every sip. You absolutely must serve Rickard's Cardigan Autumn Spiced Lager quite a bit warmer than typical refrigerator temperature otherwise the spices are understated and the bitterness comes out much too clearly.

The food pairings suggested on the box are quite apt and I think they would work quite well: braised ribs, sweet potato fries or turkey. Overall a nicely spiced lager perfect for this time of year, so unless you hate pumpkin pie or flavoured beers in general you should give Rickard's Cardigan Autumn Spiced Lager a try.

Rickard's Blonde (Canada) 5.0%

Rickard's Blonde (Canada) 5.0%

As regular readers know, I've already reviewed Rickard's trio of beers. I enjoyed each of them (some bitterness towards Rickard's Dark regarding its replacement of my personal fave Rickards Honey Brown notwithstanding) so I was pleased when Rickard's came out with a new beer about two months ago: Rickard's Blonde.

This German style pilsner is a lovely deep gold colour - exactly the same colour of the can, the matching of the colours is a minor note but done with care taken is a sign of good things to come.

The aroma is malty, floral (a little bit of apple blossoms) and a little hoppy. The taste has a rich malt flavour with a mild sweetness as well as a fairly bitter blend of hops that reminds me of Czech pilsners. The rich maltiness and the pallet cleaning taste of hops make this a great beer to pair with all sorts of food: from gourmet cuisine to pub fare. The hops really come out well as the beer warms, the recommended serving temperature is between 4 & 5 degrees Celsius which is about 5 degrees cooler than the serving temperature of their other beers.

This isn't the most exotic tasting beer but it is a solid addition to the slew of pilsners out there and a good addition to Rickard's existing line of products.

Rickard's Red, White & Dark

Rickard's Red (Canada) 5.2%

Creamy and springy on the tongue , has a faint smell of plum mixed with the expected malty beer scent. Tastes malty and sweet with a mildly bitter finish and a hint of rosemary. Quite a pleasant beer: a red made drinkable for the lay person and beer enthusiasts alike.

Rickard's White (Canada) 5.4%

This wheat beer is a cloudy bronzed gold colour in a glass. It smells sweetly spicy and a little of apricots even though it is brewed with orange peel. Most often it is served with a slice of citrus (orange or lemon) but I tend to eschew garnishes with beer. It tastes just like it smells: sweet and fruity with hints of spice and it is very smooth and creamy. Quite a good beer ... especially for a Molson product.

Rickard's Dark (Canada) 4.8%

Roasted malt, not much bitterness and a slightly sweet taste. For a beer that claims to be a porter (or at least porter brewed) the coffee or dark chocolate tones I associate with porters are completely absent. I should point out that not all porters have to taste that way but, in my experience, they usually do - at least to some extent. And though dark in a glass it is translucent and not black, more like a dark brown. Additionally the carbonation is standard not the smooth small bubbles giving it quite a different mouth feel from most porters.

All in all, not bad for a dark beer but as a porter this beer is a bust though not at all bad tasting. It certainly isn't "a punch in the mouth of flavour" like the advertizing likes to claim. It's more like a darker version of Rickard's Red and a damn shame that they stopped making their delicious Rickard's Honey Brown, especially for This.