Granite Brewing Sample Tray (Canada - Halifax and Toronto)

Granite Brewing Sample Tray (Canada - Halifax and Toronto) 

Best Bitter

Quite a bit of grain and floral in the taste. Bitter, clean, crisp, lightly green in its crispness, roasty and sweet.

Best Bitter Special

Really just the best bitter with a long lingering hops flavour. Cloudy for some reason, more fruit or more accurately nectar and floral tones from the hops. A bit of barnyard in the aroma.

Peculiar

Roasty and sweet, an alcohol taste oddly enough for 5.6%, quite bitter and sticky and red tasting. A touch sour and cherry-like before the long sweet roasted glaze-like finish. The sour touch works and makes this ale interesting, unique and pretty good overall.

Keefe's Irish Stout

A good creamy head, dark but not opaque in a glass. Sweetly creamy, milk chocolate, a touch of smoke in the aroma. A touch of dark fruit (like figs) and the hops come through as a touch of herbal. Kind of thin for a stout - more like a brown.

Ringwood

The aroma is sweet malted grain aroma, actually checked to see if it was a wheat. A nice touch of hops. The taste is very sweet, plenty of grain, not hoppy, lightly nutty. Springy on the palate but mostly grain flavours overall - not much else to this pale blonde ale.

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.

Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Rockbottom Brewpub Sample Tray (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Six bucks for a sampler? Yes please! All of Rockbottom's brews were good and their seasonals were real standouts, can't wait to see their next batch of seasonals as the calendar turns. I also very liked the menu that comes with complete descriptions of their beers (which I didn't read), ABV, IBU and suggested food pairings: if only every restaurant treated beers with such respect! Our server was knowledgeable and enthusiastic, chatting with me about beers and their various events (a firkin of their specially made cask beer every Saturday!).

Deadwood Wheat 5.0% [12 IBUs]

Bread-like aroma. Slightly tart flavour with a touch of hops and a distinct grain taste.

Big Water Brown 5.5% [17 IBUs]

Very roasty, nearly coffee dark malt flavours at first. Nutty, grain & rye bread, sweet and slightly bitter with some fruit tones. A watery mouthfeel keeps it refreshing.

Fathom IPA 6.9% [70 IBUs]

Very floral, sweet, citrus (grapefruit) and melon hop aroma. That'll wake up your taste buds! Flavour is much the same (super nice) but more bitter than the aroma and the hops has a sprucy green edge as well as floral, sweet and really nice. A grain finish and floral bitter hops aftertaste.

Balticus 7.8% [70 IBUs]

Strong wooden tones come through in the aroma with spice and nut flavours as well as a smell that I can only describe as almost salty: very interesting. Some wooden tones come through in the flavour with hops and spice - quite a bit of bitterness as well as a mild high alcohol burn. This seasonal porter is also sweet with a touch of caramelized sugar.

Desecration 8.6% [65 IBUs]

Very floral hops aroma, sweet with grapefruit and melon tones but also a slight sticky sweet edge. This Imperial Red has punchy fruit and melon tones with a bitter hops finish. A nice beer with excitingly sharp tastes. The combination of alcohol burn and fruit tones almost make it a little wine-like but not a barley wine because it is not nearly that malty.

Jacktar Stout 6.7% [70 IBUs]

Chocolatey aroma, quite sweet with a hint of hops. Chocolatey taste as well as quite bitter with quite a bit of hops flavour too. Touches of fruit. A bitter finish. The hops seems to outshine the dark malt flavours to star in this one.

Clocktower Brewing Sampler (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa)

At $14.95 I thought this sample tray was a bit on the expensive side but the glasses were large for samples so that made up for it. An enjoyable time all around: good brews and the food was good too. Unfortunately I can't find my photos so this is going to be a rare photo-less review but there are plenty of pictures on their website. Enjoy!


Kolsch 4.4%

Nice hops spice and malty sweetness gives this beer a nice round finish. The aftertaste is a little skunky like a true Kolsch from Koln Germany, but otherwise it's not very similar to an authentic Kolsch: it's better. Pale gold


Raspberry Wheat 4.4%

Not drowning in raspberry. A fairly bitter finish and aftertaste that is not typical of wheat. Served with a slice of lemon on the rim which I removed at first. With the lemon in the beer it seems sweeter and obviously more lemony, I think it is better with the lemon but I recommend trying it both ways. Barely cloudy gold.


Wishart's Bitter 5.3%

Oak woodiness was first to jump out at me. It is bitter and the hops is a little spicy and floral. Pretty nice. A copper colour in a glass.


Clocktower Red 5.3%

A brown red it's so red. Very hoppy but not overwhelming. Malty and sweet tastes just a little fruity like and finishes with a bit of a burnt flavour suitable to a red.


Bytown Brown 4.8%

Bitter and dark. Roasty, hints of chocolate, quite a bit like coffee. Malty and sweet.

Beer Tasting on the DFDS Crown of Scandinavia

This beer tasting consisted of five good sized samples of different beers brewed by the Skands Brewery of Denmark. The samples, served in the cozy environs of the Red and White Wine Bar on Deck 8 of the Crown of Scandinavia while sailing from Oslo to Copenhagen, were presented and described by the bartender (and self-described Wine Guy) Peter who did an excellent job of guiding me through the flavours.

(Peter, manning the bar and doling out helpful tips, as well as delicious wines and beers)

The tasting itself is also well designed working up from the more subtle flavours to the stronger tasting beers; I really recommend this tasting. So, if you find yourself planning to travel by boat on any DFDS ships check to see if they have this service. It's much cheaper if you buy it ahead of time, when ordering your ticket online, but still isn't very expensive (for Scandinavia) if purchased on board: 120,00 (DKK) or around $24.00 (CAD).


First up:

Humle Fryd (Hops of Joy) 5.5%

This is a hoppy, lightly flavoured beer with a measured but lingering aftertaste. It's very pale in a glass and while it isn't bad it pretty well just tastes like any other international lager.

(I drank it before I remembered to photograph it ... I was thirsty!)

Elmegade IPA 6.2%

This IPA smells a bit like apples or cider and tasted the way an old fort converted into a museum sometimes smells, musty but with an interesting history. This sounds like a terrible condemnation but I swear it isn't. Elmegade IPA is bitter but not overly, actually quite refreshing. Has a faint herb taste in the background of the flavour that I couldn't pin down (maybe coriander) but enjoyed. A tasty IPA this may not be exactly what was rolled onto the India bound sailing ships of the British Navy those hundreds of years ago but it tastes like it should be and if it was: lucky sailors.


New Stout 5.8%

Peter: " A modern interpretation of stouts and porters: lighter so you can drink more of it."

And drink more of it you will! Eminently drinkable I heartily recommend this one. Still has smoke, and coffee and caramel flavours and although dark in a glass it is not opaque. It is also nicely carbonated and certainly light enough to enjoy with food and to drink several of them. Of the beers in the sampler this is the first I made plans to order more of. It really is a wonderful interpretation of heavier stouts and porters because it manages to keep the full flavour without being heavy like traditional stouts and porters, and without being watery as some other dark beers that are striving to be more drinkable.

(I drank this one before I photographed it also but had to order a full bottle of this one!)

Bla Chimpanse (Blue Chimpanzee) 6.5%

A Danish attempt to mimic the beers made by the Belgian brewery monks of Chimay. A fruity bouquet, creamy with a complicated taste, more sweet than bitter. Cloudy and a deep amber in a glass. A taste of clover and a hint of caramel. This is a good beer but the Belgian original is better.

(On the return trip this one was worth trying again)

Last but certainly not least:

Esrum Kloster 7.7%

Brewed by Skands but spiced with herbs from the very old monastery after whom the beer is named.

A sip of this beer is a veritable blast of flavour: jasmine and sage pound the senses of the unwary. A sweet and gingery aftertaste left me intrigued and very pleased to have a whole glass left. This lovely beer has a taste like what every gardener who plants beautifully smelling herbs intends/wishes/hopes/dreams their backyard will smell like. No hint of the high alcohol content except that it reminds me a little of a particularly potent Swedish mead.

If you can only try one of the beers from this sampling make it this one. I enjoyed the rest (particularly the New Stout) but this one is far and away the best and indeed one of the best beers I've ever had to pleasure to drink.

(Mmmm....)