11.05 Belgian Tripel - Sawdust City (Canada - Ontario - Gravenhurst) 11.1%

11.05 Belgian Tripel - Sawdust City (Canada - Ontario - Gravenhurst) 11.1%

I enjoyed this beer on tap at the new (and fabulous IMO) Bar Lupulus in Ottawa on October 25th, 2017. It was served in a stemmed glass that really brought out the strong red hue and showed off the big frothy cream coloured head. The aroma was of light blossom and a touch of white raisins. A bit of apple but not much alcohol to my surprise.

Very sweet, alcohol buzz on the tongue at the first instant then a light hops and a fruity sourness intercepts the building sweetness. Fruit flavours (a discreet white wine-esque mix of sweet apple, grape and melon) and peppery notes become clear on subsequent sips.  Beyond the first impressions, the sweetness is not a prominent feature. 11.05 drinks as a lightly tart, lively beer that hides its jacked-up ABV well (dangerously well when cool) and has an aftertaste that I think is best described as barley candy but bitter.

None of the flavours take a pronounced lead in this beer and the result is a subtle and finely balanced Belgian Tripel. The brewer notes that the cans have Brettanomyces Bruxellensis added to them which will change the beer over time which sounds like a fun reason to buy several of them.

Saturday Night - Stack Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Sudbury)

Saturday Night - Stack Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Sudbury) 5.3%

A yummy cream ale. There a few mild fruit esters and a bit of a bitter bite at first which fits with a British style Cream Ale, and then a creamy mouthfeel supplemented with a strong nutty malt flavour, a bit like sunflower seeds, that I find extremely appetizing. This beer is fairly light, refreshing but with a satisfying malty body. A good ale on a summer day: pairs easily with all kinds of foods, thirst quenching, tasty and lends itself to big gulps.

Dinner Jacket O'Red IPA - Arch Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Guelph)

Dinner Jacket O'Red IPA - Arch Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Guelph) 6.3%

A red hued gold in a glass with a big head of off-white foam. Cedar and resin aroma, with a scent of some sticky caramelized sugars you would expect from a Red Ale.

Very bitter, hops forward flavour at first and a very bitter aftertaste - a little metallic even. Honestly, Dinner Jacket seemed too bitter at first but I got accustomed to it quite quickly and more of the flavours came out rather than solely bitterness. Resin, cedar, pine and other faint wood tones form the hops character while crusty bread, and some nearly sticky candied fruit tones in the malty body. As promised on the label and by the use of oats, Dinner Jacket O'Red IPA does have a creamy mouthfeel.

In the end, the malt body of a Red Ale is what distinguishes this from other IPAs and a bit more of those Red Ale malt flavours as well as a bit less of the bitterness would make this beer a real standout.

Liefmans Cuvee Brut (Belgium)

Liefmans Cuvee Brut (Belgium) 6.0%
A strong, sweet, tart cherry aroma. A cloudy red colour in a glass that is so dark it is almost brown. A sugary, darkly malty taste and a little bit of chocolate as well as the anticipated tart cherry flavour: which when you put it together is a bit like a Black Forest Cake. This is a very interesting fruit beer, there is something about the cherry flavour that is very different from other cherry beers. It perhaps tastes the way it does because the cherry sugars have had a chance to ferment with the beer rather than being added to a finished beer. It is an intriguing variation and certainly worth trying as long as you don't hate fruit flavoured beers.

Bog Water - Beau's All Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill)

Bog Water - Beau's All Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill) 6.6%

A deep, cloudy brown colour in a glass with a thick head of meringue like foam. Yeasty aroma, nectar and herbs, but with a strong floral, no more like a fruity touch.

The yeast continues to lead in the flavour along with the strong fruit (tropical fruit?) flavour that comes on strong at some points but fades away just as quickly only to reappear with later sips. In addition to the herbal yeast flavours,  this Eastern Ontario Gruit has quite a darkly malty body with tastes of dark bread blending into roasted tones. A grain and roast aftertaste with traces of the herbal yeast tones. Overall, a very tasty and interesting beer.

Pink Fuzz - Beyond The Pale (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa)

Pink Fuzz - Beyond The Pale (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa) 6.0%

A sweet red ruby grapefruit aroma, cedar and resin hops as well. A bit of fresh, floral vegetable like really sweet, raw and fresh off the vine green bean.

A cloudy pale gold, more like yellow, in a glass with a slight pink hue that turns the colour of the beer to just like grapefruit peel. Cedar and pine flavours, grapefruit as well (though more subdued than in the aroma). The grapefruit is a little tart, more like actual grapefruit than the grapefruit-like aroma citra or cascade hops can give a beer. Overall, this is quite a nice fruit flavoured wheat.

If you happen to be in the Ottawa area you can buy Pink Fuzz in growler format straight from the brewery. If you do, be sure to agitate it gently so that the sediment is more evenly distributed: it holds a lot of the flavour. Of course, Pink Fuzz is also available on tap throughout Ottawa; a format in which this tasty brew never fails to please.

Maredsous Brune (Belgium)

Maredsous Brune (Belgium) 8.0%


Yeasty, spicy aroma with floral hints and a dark malt back. Very roasty with a high alcohol burn that borders on a hum; floral and fruit tones (fig, prune). Very carbonated but that can be easily handled in the pour. Very nice brown version of you should expect from a Belgian Abbey Ale - perfectly balanced and bursting with character. Some light sediment that doesn't take anything away from the flavour.

Big Red Cherry Ale (cask) - Mill Street Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa) 7.0%

Big Red Cherry Ale (cask) - Mill Street Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa) 7.0%

This cask wheat ale looks a lot like tomato juice: very red with a slight brown hue and very cloudy in a glass. The aroma is slightly hoppy with cherry and a tartness mixed with some subtle wheat touches that reminds me of rhubarb.

The taste has some wheat and coriander flavours along with the cherry, which is quite moderate actually, somewhat tart with some sticky red sweetness. The high alcohol content comes across quite clearly in the finish. There are almost more yeasty flavours in this cask version than there are cherry flavours though it is still quite clearly a fruit beer.

Innis and Gunn Rum Cask (Scotland)

Innis and Gunn Rum Cask (Scotland) 7.4%

Very sweet at first and throughout, a definite alcohol burn which suits the amazingly intense rum flavour. Oak tones as well as spice and a whole punch bowl of fruit tones. A very strong tasting and interesting beer. Unforgettable and definitely worth trying. A great aroma that reminds me of sunlight, spices and wood.

Summer Weizen - Okanagan Spring (Canada - British Columbia - Vernon) 5.0%

Summer Weizen - Okanagan Spring (Canada - British Columbia - Vernon) 5.0%

The aroma is a blast of apricot, peach and passionfruit with some hints of citrus. Okanagan Spring's Summer Weizen pours a lovely and cloudy apricot colour with a moderate head.

The taste is also potently apricot, mostly dominating the complimentary wheat flavours. You can certainly still taste the wheat: it gives the beer an appetizing creaminess. Also, the apricot and other fruit flavours (I feel like the passionfruit comes through well in the taste) are so pleasant and tasty that as long as you tend to like a fruit flavoured wheat ale, and know what to expect from this one, you are sure to like Summer Weizen.

As always, Okanagan Spring has an interesting and informative label which I appreciate. I also like the fact that use apricots (presumably) grown in the Okanagan Valley region.

PEI Brewing Grand Opening (Canada - Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown)

PEI Brewing Grand Opening (Canada - Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown)

I had the privilege to attend a pre-grand-opening, last night in Charlottetown for PEI Brewing new fantastic facility. The space is beautiful and well designed with a full bar, a tasting room, a event area, a retail store filled with cool merch and beer, and (of course and most importantly) a state of the art brewery just begging to be toured.

As you can see from the photos below, the brewery is set up with tours and the public in mind what with the nifty orange signs hanging over everything interesting. Rest assured, however, the beer they make here is delicious too. I had the pleasure of trying their new Blueberry Wheat and Mango Wheat.

If you are in the Charlottetown area they are having a Grand Opening party on Saturday, May 18th that sounds like a lot of fun. Check out their Facebook page for more details.

Shock Top (USA - Missouri - St. Louis)

Shock Top Belgian White (USA - Missouri - St. Louis) 5.2%

A nice orange apricot colour in a glass, slightly cloudy. This beer has a pleasant wheat and peach aroma. the taste is more floral and citrus (orange) than spicy but you can definitely taste the added coriander. Made by Anheuser-Busch/In-Bev this is actually (in my opinion) a nice beer. Pleasant fruit tones to go with the wheat flavour and a very slight kick of spice. I'd still prefer it with a little more coriander flavour and I have the sneaking suspicion that they may have used adjuncts like rice or corn in the brewing process but that could just be my natural suspicion of mega-breweries.

Shock Top Raspberry Wheat (Saint Louis, Missouri) 5.2%

Smells strongly of raspberries but doesn't taste all that much like them. Spicy and sweet, fruity and malty; a little bitter. Because it is not drowned in raspberry flavour it is distinctly a wheat beer and a cloudy gold colour in a glass.

Fruli Strawberry (Belgium) 4.1%

Fruli Strawberry (Belgium) 4.1%

A cloudy red with a brown or amber tint. Even the head has a slightly pink hue. A strong tart raspberry aroma with a strawberry mix and a bit of grape and lemon. A very sweet taste with some wheat grain flavours and LOTS of fruit juice. Quite a lot of sediment in the bottom of the bottle it's pretty fine though. Fruli Strawberry is a nice juice to drink and quite tasty but it's kind of weird for a beer, there's not really any beer flavour to speak of it's more like a slightly spiced fruit punch. It does however make a really good beer cocktail (or beertail) when mixed with a chocolate stout (Young's Double Chocolate Stout in particular).

Blueberry Ale - Pump House Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 5.0%

Blueberry Ale - Pump House Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 5.0%

Smells strongly of fresh blueberries with a bit of malt and grain. Gold in a glass. The flavour is full of crushed blueberry but it is also clearly an ale: malty, creamy, and sweet with grain tones. Very nice.

It reminds me their Cadian Cream ale but less creamy with not as much malt. Pump House's Blueberry Ale is an award winning beer that can be found pretty far a field. The flavour is light and fruity but also has a tasty ale base, it certainly can be enjoyed in any season but really suits summertime. It is sometimes served with blueberries in the bottom of the glass but this can make the beer overly sweet for some and this ale can definitely stand on its own.

Biere de Garde - Pump House (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 7.5%

Biere de Garde - Pump House (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 7.5%

It is an orange amber colour and barely cloudy in a glass. The aroma is spicy, apple, cranberry, malty with cedar hops. The taste is strongly caramel with cedar hops and bitterness initially, fading with drinking; tart some grain and plenty of cranberry-esque fruit esters with quite a bitter finish. Some barely smoky wood tones make it into the flavour along with a little bit of an earthy flavour. A nice beer that is a bit off the beaten path. Reminds me a bit of a darkish and hoppier saison.

Trappistes Rochefort 6 - Abbaye St-Remy (Belgium) 7.5%

 Trappistes Rochefort 6 - Abbaye St-Remy (Belgium) 7.5%

Big, frothy but very quickly fading head (more like a soda), which is a little unexpected.

A cloudy, deep gold and amber colour in a glass. A pleasant herbal, yeasty aroma; sweet, roasty and malty too. A delicious, rounded malt flavour; lots of biscuit and honey. Very nutty with only mild herbal tones, a little apricot and something like green grape raisins; just a little bit of hops too. The alcohol comes through a little but all the flavours work really nicely together. This is a sweet little Trappist number but also more similar to mainstream ales than other Trappist beers and its stronger brethren Trappistes Rochefort 8 and Trappistes Rochefort 10.

False Creek Raspberry Ale - Granville Island Brewing (Canada - BC - Vancouver) 4.5%

False Creek Raspberry Ale - Granville Island Brewing (Canada - BC - Vancouver) 4.5%

Cloudy pink with amber hints in a glass with a frothy quick-fading white head. Tart and sweet raspberry jam aroma but with some nice malty tones in the background. Very tart raspberry flavour with sweet notes, some citrus hints and an appetizing aftertaste. The malt flavour is underwhelming or more accurately overwhelmed by the fruit, so this is a mainly raspberry ale. False Creek Raspberry Ale would mix well in a beertail (aka a beer-cocktail) and would pair well with summer fare from salad to BBQ to sorbet.

A good fruit flavoured beer, if you aren't into flavoured beers: move right along, nothing to see here.

Oranje Weisse - Amsterdam Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto)

Oranje Weisse - Amsterdam Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 5.0%



Pale, nearly full gold in a glass and just ever so slightly cloudy. My bottle had been stored for quite a while (at an appropriate temperature, mind you) so I think more sediment resisted the Weisse Roll (see photo below) than not. Towards the end of the bottle more of the sediment ended up in my glass and was quite nice. A quick look at the ingredients list reveals the reason why this aroma differs from other white beers: it is the anise which adds quite a pleasant aspect to go along with the coriander, yeast, malt and wheat tones.

The taste is quite a nice mix of anise and coriander with the citrus flavour being just a little muted (I, of course, did not serve it with an orange slice as the bottle suggested). The malt flavour speaks more to barley than wheat, though the wheat is clearly there and the mouthfeel is fairly creamy. This mix of grain choices has the added benefit of making the beer lighter and more refreshing than if they had gone heavier on the wheat: tailor-made for patios during hot Ontario summers. All in all quite nicely refreshing and I like the use of anise.

Beer Suggestions for the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto, Ontario

What is a football game (or any sporting event) without a few beers? The Canadian Football League Championship Game is being played in Toronto this year so here are three reviews of Toronto brewed beers in honour of the 100th playing of the Grey Cup. There's a light beer if you intend to drink a pile of 'em, a flavoured wheat if you like a splash of fruit with your ale and an IPA if it's hops that punches your ticket.

Cheers!



86 Light - Amsterdam Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 3.8%


A nice gold colour in a glass, this light beer is light indeed. Very carbonated, lightly malty with a slight grain flavour, barely bitter, not sweet. It's nice for a light beer, well put together with a clean, crisp flavour. If light beer is what you want this is a fine choice.


Mill Street Brewery - Walker's Blueberry Wheat (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 5.0%

A neat pink tinted amber colour in a glass. Quite a lot of medium sized sediment. A tart aroma that reminds me more of blueberry skins than it does of the blueberry flesh and carried with it some lemony notes.

Quite bitter and tart, the blueberry flavour mainly comes through in the sediment so this can be a hard beer to share: if you don't get the bottom of the beer it tastes very light indeed. Definitely should pour this beer into a glass to drink it.

A good but not overpowering blueberry flavour with plenty of tartness with citrus some other fruit flavours that remind me of watermelon and maybe a bit of cherry - kind of like a fruit punch. The blueberry in this beer is more like what wild blueberries taste like, rather than what blueberry juice or pie would taste like: more tart, less sweet, more of the peel's flavour coming through.

Duggan's Brewery 9 IPA (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 6.2%

A brown hued gold in a glass. An aroma of resin, roast, alcohol and a dark malt coffee hint. The taste is very hoppy with lots of resin and alcohol taste and warming. Some toasted bread and darker malt touches. Pretty bitter as suits the style. Overall well balanced and an interesting darker type of IPA.

Scottish Ale - Highlander Brew Co (Canada - Ontario - South River)

Scottish Ale - Highlander Brew Co (Canada - Ontario - South River) 5.0%

A burnt amber colour in a glass with a frothy head and good lacing. A roasty aroma of malt with a sugary glaze aspect, a touch of molasses, a bit of spice, some faint fruit esters (cherry, raisin) and a fresh-baked bread aroma: all quite appetizing.

The taste does not disappoint. Roasty but with a punch of fruit esters and light hops character that really mixes well; a touch of grain continuing the fresh-baked bread from the aroma. Highlander's Scottish Ale has low to moderate bitterness and a really nice balance between the sweetness, the bitterness and the high-flying fruit esters.