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.

Dos Equis Lager Especial and Dos Equis Amber (Mexico)

Dos Equis Lager Especial (Mexico) 4.5%

Pale gold in a glass. Lightly flavoured: somewhat malty and sweet, a little bitter. Musty taste like damp cardboard. Fully carbonated and very drinkable but pretty light on taste. A standard international lager but it has great ads though.

The cardboard taste is due to oxidization, and unless this is due to sloppy brewing practices where the beer is exposed to oxygen during the brewing, this probably because the beer is old and has gotten a little stale. Unlike Samuel Adams there is no 'brew date' or 'best before' date on the bottle so you can't be sure if a bottle of Dos Equis is going to be stale tasting until you drink it! And unless your local beer store moves a lot of Dos Equis, there is a good chance you could end up with an older than optimal bottle of beer. Not the brewers fault but something to consider.

Dos Equis Amber (Mexico) 4.6%

Dark amber to the point of being brown. Sweet with hints of caramel, a little musky (like the Dos Equis Lager), malty and roasty. Dos Equis Amber is a surprisingly complicated beer (considering that the lager is quite bland), and it is quite good in my estimation.

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.

Beer Maven Canada Day Suggestion - Mill Street Brewery

Mill Street Brewery - Lemon Tea Beer (Canada - Ontario) 5.0%

A dark, but orange and gold tinted, brown colour in a glass. The lemon (and it is actual lemon puree) makes the beer taste like a white beer at first until the maltiness of the lager kicks in.
This is a beer that screams summer, it begs to be drunk on a sun drenched patio. The beer is sweetened with sugar cane juice but it doesn't come across overly sweetened probably due to the fact that it is mixed with actual orange pekoe tea which does a delicious job of balancing the sweetness.

Cheers and happy Canada Day!

www.millstreetbrewery.com