Premium Lager - Pump House (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton)

Premium Lager - Pump House (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 5.0%

A russet gold colour in a glass. This premium lager is pleasantly nutty with hints of roast. The aroma is slightly floral and barely appley, with faint wooden tones and hops. Very drinkable yet with an interesting makeup. Certainly worthy of the appellation premium.

The newfangled case design is very refrigerator friendly but there's something vaguely vampiric about the label design, spooky building in the background, Gothic lettering... Am I the only one seeing this?

A Beer From Ontario & One From Norway

Creemore Springs Premium Lager (Canada - Ontario - Creemore) 5.0%

This lager is malty and sweet, a little bit skunky, and is amber in a glass.

A very smooth pleasant taste with a bit of bitterness.

Frydenlung Bayerol (Norway) 4.5%

A brownish red in a glass, this beer is smoky and malty. And fairly bitter. It's a nice mix and darker tasting than I had expected. Hints of black licorice and oak.

Boris Bold (France) 8.6%

Not surprisingly, this high alcohol beer has a high alcohol burn. Though expected this makes the rest of the flavours a little difficult to access. It is quite malty and a little hoppy. Like many strong beers the malt and the alcohol taste mix to form something a little sticky but it certainly tastes better than most.

On the darker side of full gold, nearly a brass sort of colour in glass.

This beer is kind of neat, its alcohol burn is more like that of a strong mixed drink but the typical beer flavours of malt (mostly malt) and a hops touch are there too. An interesting beer to try and certainly and interesting option for those who like strong beers (and 8.6% is really strong); however, if you don't like tasting your alcohol give this one a pass.

Happy Octoberfest!

Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier (Germany) 6.0%

The most notable thing about this beer is its awesome format. The glass, the 1 litre can of beer and the cardboard flaps holding the two together cost somewhere in the realm of $13.00 at liquor stores in New Brunswick and is well worth it; the glass alone is worth nearly that much to me.

The beer itself pours clear and golden. The aroma is malty and sweet but also hoppy, and the taste is much the same. Very pleasant but mild tasting, a combination that would make it very easy to drink lots of this beer (I think that's the idea).

I highly recommend this purchase, the glass is fantastic, the beer is good and traditional, and the can itself is sturdy and has a great label (piggy bank perhaps?).

Happy Oktoberfest!

Propeller Hefeweizen (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Propeller Hefeweizen (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 5.3%

Full gold in a glass, this Hefeweizen from Propeller hits on all cylinders. A yeasty bread aroma with hints of the flavours to come: cloves, dried banana chips, sweetness and spice. These flavours dance across the palate along with flashes of pumpkin, earthy nuttiness, as well as floral spiciness. A mouth wateringly nutty and earthy aftertaste, with echos of the cloves explosion, means the drinker will be reaching for a second shortly after finishing the first. Propeller really nailed this one, delectable and true to the style. Just a fantastic beer.

Pokal Lys Pilsner (Norway) 4.7%

Pokal Lys Pilsner (Norway) 4.7%

A very ordinary international lager with a slightly hoppy taste. Altogether average and very drinkable. Gold in a glass and with a MILDLY bitter aftertaste. It is well on the cheap side of the beer options in Norway and as a result could be a staple during a Norwegian vacation: it is better than Borg Pilsner and almost exactly the same price. The only snag is that the flavour isn't worth going out of your way to find and it is only sold in Coop grocery stores which are not quite as common as the other grocery store chains in Oslo.

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.

A Pair of Very Different Dark Beers

Gosser Dark Beer (Austria) 4.5%

Dark brown in a glass. A creamy malty flavour of dark chocolate and yet not very bitter. Velvety foam. A very nice beer in all.



Guinness Draught canned (Ireland) 4.2%

This is a watery offering with coffee and malt flavours and bitter but without any hints of dark chocolate that might be expected from a black beer like Guinness. All in all, the canned version just isn't Guinness Draught even if it says so on the label and even though it is black in a glass with the cascading silky smooth foam that it is known for.

And what is this "beer - serve extra cold" business at the bottom of the label? That seems more suitable to flavourless American style lagers rather than a pint with this much history.

Boxer Lager (USA - Wisconsin) 5.0%

Boxer Lager (USA - Wisconsin) 5.0%

Very little taste to this beer: a little bit of bananas, some malt and a little skunky. An unremarkable lager that has a somewhat scummy mouthfeel.

Needless to say I don't exactly recommend this beer.

Bigtide Brewing Company - Sampler (Canada - New Brunswick - Saint John)

Bigtide Brewing Company - Sampler (Canada - New Brunswick - Saint John)

A delightful brewpub located in historic Saint John with good beer and great food. I enjoyed one of their sample trays of four of their five beers that they currently had available all for the low, low price of $8.00 (and that's including tax!). All their beer is brewed on site although not all the types mentioned on their website are available at all times of the year. I was also allowed into the brewroom, just off the bar area, for a few photos.


Rounding out the experience the service was great too; for whatever reason one of the glasses of beer was flat and our server, Breanne, brought us a new one without complaint. I recommend this place to anyone dining in Saint John.

(From right to left: Hemp, Bitter, Wheat, Brown)

Fogbound Hemp Pale Ale

This very good beer had an unusual but pleasant bitter taste, as well as floral tones and it was also almost a little soapy, probably from the natural oils of the hemp seed. A very interesting beer and tasty; ordered a pint of this one, also took a pint of the bitter.

Benedict Arnold Extra Special Bitter

Caramel taste and bitter. Wooden tones and a sprucy hops taste. A good mix and a very good beer.

Wild Wheat Summer Ale

The least flavourful beer in the tray, a little bitter and not bad but missing the interesting characteristics (usually floral flavours) I expect from a wheat beer.

Stone Circle Brown

Being a brown ale it was not thick like a stout or a porter. An enjoyable beer, the main flavour is a musty cross between coffee and chocolate with a certain woodiness.

A special Beer Maven thank you to Breanne G.

Anchor Steam Beer (USA - San Fransisco) 4.8%

Anchor Steam Beer (USA - San Fransisco) 4.8%

Very bitter but pleasantly so. The mellow malty and sweet taste and the bitterness is consistent throughout making for a balanced tasty and interesting beer. The colour is alternatively amber or a brownish red depending on the angle.

Great bottle and bottle cap.

Borg Beer

Borg Pilsner (Norway) 4.7%

A typical international lager base with a thicker feel on the tongue. On the yellow side of gold in a glass. It has a sort of nutty aftertaste that is rather nice at first. More bitter than some of the other pilsners/lagers out there. As you drink on, the aftertaste lingers and becomes a little more bitter. One of the cheaper beers in Norway (retailing for 9.70 NOK which is about $1.70 CAD for a 330 ml bottle) it tends to leave a somewhat scummy feeling in the back of the throat after several beers and a hangover is guaranteed after three bottles.

Be sure to grab this one if drinking beer bought from a grocery store (it's worth the price savings) but I wouldn't drink it at a a bar when it is bound to be as marked up as anything else or not served at all.


Borg Lettol (Norway) 2.5%

A lighter version of the Borg Pilsner: lighter in flavour, lower in alcohol and a little bit cheaper.

However the best of the Norwegian Lettols (their light beers) is Lettol Grans.


Borg Sommer Pilsner (Norway) 4.5%

A light but engaging malty flavour. A little bitter in the immediate aftertaste which settles into a nice almost smoky lingering aftertaste. Very appetizing beer.

Two from Sam Adams

Samuel Adams Noble Pils (USA) 4.8%

Brewed with "all 5 Noble hops from the world's oldest growing regions" according to the blurb on the label. This beer has a great hops taste with tones of cucumber and bitter citrus.

Malty enough to somewhat balance the hops but this is definitely a hop-lovers beer.


Samuel Adams Winter Lager (USA) 5.5%

This beer tastes malty and ever so slightly hoppy with also smoky caramel, spicy and bitter flavours (so much so that certain sips almost taste slightly sour).

Overall it is a very nice winter ale and another great beer from Sam Adams.

Moose Light Ginger (Canada) 4.0%

Moose Light Ginger (Canada) 4.0%

This beer is gingery as promised, it tastes like real ginger and is spicy and sweet but manages to not be too spicy or sweet making it possible to drink more than one. A very nice summer beer.

I look forward to pairing it with different foods (stir-fry?).

Cheers!

[EDIT: Moose Light Ginger is, according to its label, a malt beverage - not actually a beer.]

Begbie Cream Ale - Mount Begbie Brewing Company (Canada - British Columbia - Revelstoke)

Begbie Cream Ale - Mount Begbie Brewing Company (Canada - British Columbia - Revelstoke) 4.7%

Very smooth and creamy. Nice malty smell. A little bitter at first but then it moves into smooth sweet toasted tastiness. It's very nice.

Came in a big bottle (650 ml) with an interesting label and a good story, too bad the bottle cap was so plain.

Sleeman Brewing (Canada)

I like variety packs and this one from Sleeman Brewing is a good one: the twelve pack includes three bottles of four of their different brews and each one has a distinct flavour and each is highly enjoyable.

Sleeman Cream Ale (Canada) 5.0%


A golden yellow beer, it has a slightly skunky smell and taste though more so in the smell than in the taste. A little bitter and tangy with a malty sweetness rounding out the taste. Not the creamiest of cream ales but it tastes good nonetheless.



Sleeman Honey Brown (Canada) 5.2%

A warm brown colour in a glass with a pleasantly frothy head. Smoothly sweet malt taste with a hops tanginess that is mild and mellowed with honey.


Sleeman Light (Canada) 4.0%

Very clear gold in a glass colour in a glass. Smells a little skunky and nutty. It tastes sweet, a little skunky and malty. Quite enjoyable and surprisingly flavourful for a light beer.

Sleeman Original Draught (Canada) 5.0%

Another good beer from Sleeman's. It is gold in a glass. Smells barely skunky, light and fresh. It tastes watery (but not in a bad way) and barely malty, skunky, sort of sweet and fruity which surprised me a little. A noticeably different beer from the light beer, certainly the Sleeman Light isn't based off of the Original Draught. I appreciate that the light beer is it's own brew rather than just a watered down version of a different beer.

Molson M - Molson-Coors Canada (Canada) 4.9%

Microcarbonated... okay whatever that means, the bubbles do seem smallish and the beer a little smoother than most. The beer is a light gold colour in a glass, a little malty and barely bitter. Overall fairly bland but refreshing. It seems like an upgraded version of a light beer: a slightly better kind of bland with slightly more alcohol.

Molson M is a good enough lager and when I think of just how bad some other international lagers are, I think Molson is justified in using the distinction (slogan?) of "premium lager".

Maple Cream Ale - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 5.0%

Maple Cream Ale - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 5.0%

This ale has a velvety head and is the colour of a dark genuine New Brunswick maple syrup. The aroma is a combination of wisps of smokiness and sweet, dark maple syrup reminds me of the campfires back in the sugar woods where syrup is best enjoyed poured over a scoop of freshly fallen snow.

The taste is sweet and distinctive: while there is a malty smokiness, sweet maple syrup is the dominant taste and smell too. Pick up this seasonal treat while it's here!

Alexander Keith's Tartan Ale (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Alexander Keith's Tartan Ale (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 6.1%

A delicious smoky, malty mix with sweetness and a refreshing carbonation. It doesn't taste like a beer with a high alcohol content but at 6.1% it certainly qualifies as a strong beer. A glowing brown, like a polished penny in a glass. Keith's Tartan Ale (a Scottish Ale) is a surprisingly complicated beer for a mega-brewery, it's a good beer and a hopeful sign that Keith's Brewery may have some interest in making some beers with more character than the typical bland international lager.

Since it is only out for a limited time: Go out and get this beer while it's available!

Berentsens Jule Avec (Norway) 9.0%

A velvety smooth pallet rich in dark chocolate and coffee with cream. I had to wait for it to warm up (suggested serving temperature was 10 Celsius) and had supper ready but put food on hold so I could savour this beer in its own right: it was worth the wait. Interestingly hoppy behind the malty chocolate and only mildly bitter for a beer this dark, strong and Yule-y. Pitch black in a glass.

(I can't believe I forgot this one - when doing my Yule beer specials 1, 2, and 3!)