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!)

Picaroons: PART TWO

Picaroons is a great brewery located right in my own "backyard" here on the East Coast of Canada.

This is the concluding half to my review of the eleven Picaroons beers I've had the good fortune to try. In addition to the eleven I've tried, I'm looking forward to their Maple Cream Ale that I've heard is coming out at the end of March.

Irish Red - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 4.8%

Sweet roasted caramel malt, a dark taste with a bit of tang. Malty with a mildly bitter and sweet aftertaste. A good red though they are not my most favoured style.

Man's Best Friend - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 5.0%

Black in a glass with a velvety froth. Coffee, hints of the taste and mouth feel of oatmeal, malty, milk chocolate. It is sweet but bitter, well balanced and very pleasant. This is a good porter and like most porters you likely wouldn't drink more than one but you would drink the first one very happily.

Simeon Jones River Valley Amber Ale - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 4.5%

Smells of sweet caramel malt. Doesn't taste overly sweet though, tastes malty, barely bitter and a hint of what I would describe as pumpkin spice, with a roasted malt edge. A very pleasant amber ale.


Timber Hog - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 5.0%

Black, black, black in a pint glass. Smells sweet and of malty caramel. This stout is thick and even sounds thick as you pour it in a glass. It is sweet and tastes strongly of caramel malt, appropriately bitter, a little bit nutty and all round good. It is, however, very filling and 500ml was a little hard to finish. Although, it was good to the last drop.

Winter Warmer - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 7.5%

Lovely sweet smell of caramel malt that carries over into the taste: initially very sweet with a nice overload of caramel flavours; a touch of hops accents the malty tones. The combination leaves a mild bitter aftertaste. Quite nice and typical of North American winter beers.

Yippee IPA - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 6.5%

Smells of malt and hops - more malt than hops. Tastes of hops and malt - way more hops than malt: very green, hoppy and super bitter. Initially somewhat sweet and tastes of caramel malt but very quickly that is washed away by a stinging hopes taste that is very bitter and linger on and on. It gets less bitter with the drinking.

Since your bitter taste buds are more concentrated at the back of the tongue you can hold a tiny sip of this beer at the front of your mouth, just behind your teeth under but not touching your tongue, to enjoy the sweet caramel malt taste before swallowing it and fully activating the hoppy bitterness. It's an interesting beer because you can play with it like this. Picaroon's Yippee IPA definitely would be a fun entry in any beer tasting.

Picaroons: PART ONE

Picaroons is a great brewery located right in my own "backyard" here on the East Coast of Canada. I have had the good fortune to try eleven of their beers and will be posting reviews of each them.

Presented here in PART ONE, and in alphabetical order, these are the first five. Cheers!


Best Bitter - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 5.2%

Sweet, delicious roasted caramel malt flavour that matches the pleasant burnt amber colour it has in a glass. A bitter aftertaste hits late but is a nice counterpoint to the caramel. The smell is almost surprisingly sweet like a malty candy store.

Blonde Ale - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 5.0%

Scent of hops spice mixed with malt. Quite a mellow sweet malt taste, a little buttery with a slightly bitter finish. Very drink-a-lot-able and pleasant.

Dark and Stormy Night - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 4.8%

Dark in a glass but translucent. Roasty and malty; bitter and a little sweet. It was a litle oddly sour but that does not detract from the other flavours. Good but tastes a little thin which could be a bit of a drawback if you were looking for a stick-to-your-ribs dark ale, however, on the plus side, it also means you could happily have more than one or drink it with food. Though it is a dark beer it is very drinkable even for people who wouldn't normally drink anything darker than a lager or maybe a red.

Feels Good Imperial Pilsner - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 7.0%

Smells like a strong pilsner. Tastes like a strong pilsner drowning in hops: way too bitter and green for my tastes. Also with a long lingering aftertaste that makes it slow to drink. In time, (ie. through much of the bottle) the hops mellows and the beer tastes sweeter but is still really bitter. If you just can't get enough of hops, then this one would be great for you!

Fox Tail Ale - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton)

Made specially for the Snooty Fox restaurant in Fredricton, New Brunswick, this draught beer is amber in a glass and has the typical Picaroons crystal/caramel malt taste, but its flavour is also fairly dark and roasty. A little waterier than most Picaroons offerings presumably because it's a draught beer rather than from the bottle; all in all, a fine choice from the taps.

Three Beers For Beer Geeks

Wychwood Brewery Hobgoblin Traditionally Crafted Legendary Ruby Red Beer (England - Oxfordshire) 5.2%

Fairly red, fairly bitter. Kind of fruity and caramel-ey. Generally mild in flavour despite the grandiose name.



Beer Geek Breakfast - Mikkeller (Denmark) 7.5%

Black, black in a glass. Smells bitter and faintly of black olives (?). Tastes malty and quite pleasantly bitter and most unsurprisingly of black coffee. Really tasty, I would recommend drinking this out of a wine or brandy glass if possible.







Erdinger Alkoholfret (Germany) 0.0%

Sweeter than most wheat beers, though I usually find that most no or low alcohol beers are sweeter than their counterparts (because the sugars weren't changed into alcohol by yeast? mayhaps) but still it has a mild wheat beer taste. A bright gold in a glass. Nice to look at, nice to taste, nice to have as a middle of the day alternative to alcohol bearing beer.