Highland Rye Ale - Pump House Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 5.8%

Highland Rye Ale - Pump House Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 5.8%

An ever so slightly cloudy full gold colour in a glass with an appealing and fairly resilient head. A light aroma of grain and malthouse tones. Highland Rye Ale is sweet and creamy with a mellow grain flavour that strengths as you swallow and a nice strong-ish bite of bitterness at the end. There is a distinct rye grain flavour throughout and in the aroma. This is an interesting Rye Ale.

Hopfenweisse - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.0%

Hopfenweisse - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.0%

A big frothy proper wheat beer head with impressive resilience and nice lacing. The orange, citrus aroma typical of wheat beers brewed with orange peel is accentuated by the choice of hops to give an aroma that is exactly as they claim on the label: papaya and mango. I can also detect something like banana too although more like banana, in fact the whole thing smells a lot like a smoothie but with a hoppy pine-like touch. As time passes, a more herbal aroma comes out as well. Hopfenweisse (a pitch perfect name too, by the way) is a glowing orange in a glass and is cloudy with some light sediment.

The taste is quite bitter: a great deal more of the pine aspect of the hops character comes through. The papaya and mango flavour is still there but more muted. Malt and wheat characteristics are also there but again mostly overshadowed by a fairly bitter pine hops flavour with some touches of mango. No surprise that this reminds me of the last hoppy wheat ale I tried, Electric Unicorn White IPA by Phillips Brewing out of Victoria, British Columbia.

The marketing reps earned their pay-cheque with this one: the stylish bottle (like a mini champagne bottle), minimal but chic label and lettering, and the clever name all ooze opulence. The aroma is very cool and the taste is quite good too but I am just a little disappointed that more of the papaya, mango couldn't come through in the taste also the wheat characteristics are somewhat silent. All that being said, the hop aroma is nearly worth the price of the beer on its own and the taste is going to be very pleasing for you hopheads out there. Hopfenweisse is an interesting example of what I would characterize as an American Wheat: a wheat ale with a pile of aromatic hops.

Mild Winter Ale - Okanagan Springs (Canada - British Columbia - Vernon) 4.8%

Mild Winter Ale - Okanagan Springs (Canada - British Columbia - Vernon) 4.8%

A sweet slightly maple, lightly chocolate aroma with roast notes. A dark brown in a glass; chestnut really just like the information on the label says. The taste is somewhat caramelized and almost (but not quite) sticky at first, like a Red Ale, but with a chocolatey finish. There are some dry hop tones throughout and they make the beer refreshingly crisp.

It is a little light, or mild, for a Winter Beer but since that is exactly what they were going for I have to say that Okanagan Springs did a good job with their Mild Winter Ale: it's light and refreshing but still has those warming malt flavours perfect for cold December nights (or cold March afternoons).

Guinness Black Lager (Ireland) 4.5%

Guinness Black Lager (Ireland) 4.5%

True to its name it is indeed black, just about opaque too with a head that is just a shade paler than beige. The aroma is sweet with some roast, something distinctly lager-like and some dry Euro hops.

The taste is a little like any other European Lager but with a bit more bitterness and quite a bit more malt character. There are tastes of roasted malt and some smoke tones. There is a caramel note kicking around in there too. All in all Guinness Black Lager is a pretty nice Black Lager: refreshing and clearly a lager but with a more interesting makeup.

Muddy River Stout - Pump House Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 4.8%

Muddy River Stout - Pump House Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 4.8%

Opaque in a glass and served with just the perfect amount of head, which is tan coloured, thick, creamy and left nice lacing. The aroma is chocolatey with sweetness just a little roasty caramel.

The mouthfeel is creamy and just perfect for the style. Chocolate flavour with a smoky finish. The sweetness has just a hint of a very pleasant sweet caramel flavour. There is just a little acidity and a faint touch of dry hops as well as something that comes through like just a bit of grapes or maybe black cherry. You may be surprised to hear I think that there is a grape flavour in Muddy River Stout but bear in mind it is very mild, tasty and mixes very well with the other flavours - it is likely just the way my toungue is processing the slight acidity and the yummy chocolate malt flavours. This is a fine stout, true to the style and very much pub-appropriate.

Tokyo Black Porter - Yo-Ho Brewing (Japan - Nagano) 5.0%

Tokyo Black Porter - Yo-Ho Brewing (Japan - Nagano) 5.0%

Super dark, black and totally opaque in a glass with a brown frothy head. Raisin, grain and coffee, a little dark chocolate and smoke in the aroma.

Delicious dark malt flavours: smoke, coffee, raisins and other dried dark fruit flavours, complete with a dark chocolate backer. The smoke flavour is quite heavy and has a charred characteristic to it. The malt dimension as a whole is thick and delightful, and the mouthfeel is quite smooth and creamy. This porter is not too bitter for all it's smokiness and on the whole is exceptionally well balanced. Tokyo Black is exceptionally good and I heartily recommend it.

Suiyoubi No Neko - Yo-Ho Brewing (Japan - Nagano) 4.5%

Suiyoubi No Neko - Yo-Ho Brewing (Japan - Nagano) 4.5%

Gold in a glass, absolutely clear - not cloudy at all. The aroma is of nectar and malty sweetness. From the aroma and appearance it is fair to say Suiyoubi No Neko is more like a Belgian Blonde Ale than a Beglian White so far.

The taste is sweet and nectary like a Belgian Blonde but with coriander touches and a slightly creamy mouthfeel like a Wheat. While the style may be a bit of a mash-up the flavour is wonderful: sweet and floral with touches of apricot along with the nectar and coriander. It is also well balanced and refreshing. Suiyoubi No Neko really does seem to me like a cross between a Belgian Blonde Ale and a Belgian White but that is a pretty delightful combination and, as a result, this beer is thoroughly delicious. Also the can is incredibly cute.

Yona Yona Ale - Yo-Ho Brewery (Japan - Nagano) 5.5%

Yona Yona Ale - Yo-Ho Brewery (Japan - Nagano) 5.5%

A deep orangey gold colour in a glass with a big off-white head that leaves nice lacing. A pleasantly malty aroma with more than a little roast and some resiny hops.

Quite a sweet taste with nice citrus notes (orange and lemon), a little papaya and a bit of resin all from the hops. This is a very tasty American Pale Ale. Very drinkable with moderate hop bitterness and some light spiciness while the malt gives the ale a bit of a light caramel flavour. Yona Yona Ale is very tasty and would make a great session beer. It would also pair well with many types of food with its pleasant flavour and well balanced bitterness. Not a surprise that Yona Yona Ale has won craft beer awards in Japan.

Aooni - Yo-Ho Brewing (Japan - Nagano) 7.0%

Aooni - Yo-Ho Brewing (Japan - Nagano) 7.0%

A crystal clear rusty orange colour in a glass with a big frothy head with good resilience and it comes in an extremely cool can. A very light hops aroma of resin and cedar.

Quite bitter, a touch metallic, and the alcohol also comes through quite clearly. There really isn't as much in the way of a hops character as I expected; mostly just bitterness and some cedar. The malt dimension is also fairly muted, toasty and somewhat sweet but mostly unremarkable.

This beer is a little bit of a let down. It's not a bad beer by any means but it doesn't have much depth of flavour beyond bitterness with a touch of toasty malt. It is possible that the beer is old and that the flavour has faded but Aooni tastes like it was designed this way; it is not unbalanced and doesn't have any off-flavours. Also, and most importantly, the timing doesn't make sense for it to be too old: it was purchased three weeks ago from a store in Japan and then hand carried to Canada by my fiancee. So I guess it is just a bitter, high-alcohol beer with an otherwise relatively tame flavour, definitely more English IPA than American IPA. However, considering the high-alcohol content, Aooni is very drinkable for a beer this strong.

Hitachino Amber Ale Nest Beer - Kiuchi Brewery (Japan - Ibaraki) 6.0%

Hitachino Amber Ale Nest Beer - Kiuchi Brewery (Japan - Ibaraki) 6.0%

A very dark amber, more like a red-tinted chestnut colour in a glass with a big head of off-white foam that leaves behind fairly nice lacing. The aroma is one of grain and malt, with some sweetness, some caramelization, some hops, a bit of honey and a hint of something faintly citrusy.

The taste is sweet and caramelized but also quite pleasantly hoppy and bitter with some resiny cedar tones and an umami finish that is ever so slightly metallic. This is a bit more easy drinking and lighter on the citrusy and floral hops than an American Amber but it still has a nice bitter hops bite. Kiuchi Brewery's Hitachino Amber Ale Nest Beer would pair well with lots of foods because of it robust flavour and palate cleansing bitterness; quite a nice beer and my favourite out of the three from Kiuchi that I have tried.

Hitachino White Ale Nest Beer - Kiuchi Brewery (Japan - Ibaraki) 5.5%

Hitachino White Ale Nest Beer - Kiuchi Brewery (Japan - Ibaraki) 5.5%

A cloudy, glowing gold colour in a glass with a white head with fairly good resilience. A slight pine hops touch to the wheat aroma of cloves and spice, with some papaya and orange touches: a positively delectable aroma.

The expected (and tasty) white ale flavours are there, seeds of paradise and coriander, and orange zest, as well as papaya, some spice and a fairly bitter taste from that same hops flavour of pine that I detected in the aroma. The bitterness depends on how much sediment ends up in your glass. I got a fair amount so I found Hitachino White Ale Nest Beer ended up tasting like an American White Ale but a pour that leaves more sediment in the bottle may present a more classic white ale, sweet and fruity. After reading the label I realized I could pick up a little of the nutmeg they have used too, it's probably the source of some of the spicy touch as well as some of the bitterness.

Hitachino Nest Beer Pale Ale - Kiuchi Brewery (Japan - Ibaraki) 5.5%

Hitachino Nest Beer Pale Ale - Kiuchi Brewery (Japan - Ibaraki) 5.5%

A light cedar hops and malt aroma. A pleasant looking burnt orange hue in a glass. This English style Pale Ale has a fairly bitter taste with a toasty and sweet malt flavour at first as well as a nutty edge. A dry hops character with some light cedar notes is late arriving, builds a little as you drink and rounds out the taste nicely. All in all a tasty beer. If you are in Japan and in the mood for a craft brewed beer this is a fine choice. I'm looking forward to trying the other two beers from Kiuchi Brewery my fiancee brought back for me when she returned from her recent foray to Japan.

The Premium Malt's - Suntory (Japan) 5.5%

The Premium Malt's - Suntory (Japan) 5.5%

Gold in a glass with a bubbly white head with some staying power. There is something about the heavy tappered bottle and the gold label that seems very Eighties chic to me.

The aroma is malty and sweet but there is also a dry hops character to it with some skunkiness, likely from being light struck despite the heavy and dark brown glass bottle. As regular readers of the blog may recall, I don't really mind a bit of skunkiness. Even though I know it is technically an off-flavour, I think it can bring out the hops nicely in the right beer.

Quite a dry bitter taste with some genuine hops flavour that is green, somewhat spicy and almost bordering on pine. Some light malty sweetness for balance but there is quite a backing of hops. This a very nice Pilsner actually, I must say I am pleasantly surprised by this beer. I would definitely have a Suntory Pilsner Beer again if I were in Japan and the situation called for a Pilsner!

Asahi Super Dry (Japan) 5.0%

Asahi Super Dry (Japan) 5.0%

A lightly malty, lightly hopped aroma. Asahi pours a shade paler than full gold with a head of respectable. The taste is quite sweet, lightly malty (a bit like the way canned corn smells) and lightly bitter but with a more bitter than expected finish. Basically Asahi Super Dry is a typical international lager but I'd choose it over Budweiser or Molson Canadian if I was at a Yomiuri Giants game at the Tokyo Dome (and those beers were my only choices). Also it comes in a can that is frankly adorably small and perfect, I suppose, for the commuting salaryman.

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.

Innis and Gunn Original (Scotland) 6.6%

Innis and Gunn Original (Scotland) 6.6%

Quite a pleasant and very sweet toffee flavour at first which is an interesting prelude to the oak, peat, and scotch flavours that follow. A truly unique beer, it tastes so much more like the scotch bearing barrels it is aged in than it tastes like a beer. An unforgetable taste that deserves to be savoured.

Innis and Gunn Spiced Rum Finish (Scotland) 7.4%

Innis and Gunn Spiced Rum Finish (Scotland) 7.4%

A toffee aroma that will buckle your knees. Vanilla and also a hint of alcohol along rum and a hint of spice mixed with oak tones. Such a nice aroma I could sit with my nose in the glass all afternoon!

A distinct warming of the chest as I sipped on this delicious ale. A touch of bitterness, alcohol and even a hint of hops at the very first. Then very sweet with toffee and vanilla. As the toffee fades, spices and oak come out with as the spiced rum makes it presence felt.

Innis and Gunn Spiced Rum Finish is a spectacular mix of the warm toffee flavours of Innis and Gunn's Scottish Ale and the flavours of vanilla, oak and others from a fine spiced rum missing only the strong, burning alcohol taste of hard liquor. Very enjoyable and memorable like all the other Innis and Gunn products I have tried.

Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout (Scotland) 7.4%

Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout (Scotland) 7.4%

This beer is very much a stout; dark and nearly opaque in a glass, Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout has strong elements of chocolate, coffee and smoke from the darkly roasted malt in the taste and the aroma. The task is quite sweet but there is a earthiness (peat?), a bit of a nutty flavour in there as well as wood notes, something red and caramelized and a bitter, lightly smoked taste that lends balance. At 7.4% there is also a cheek-tingling high alcohol feeling though the alcohol does not show up too much in the taste.

Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout is an excellent high alcohol stout, the only knock against it (if you can call it that) is that it doesn't stand out from the pack quite so much as one might expect. Innis and Gunn's more unique, and delicious, offerings are barrel tone heavy versions of their respective styles; Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout, however, is clearly a stout with some barrel tones, not the other way around. If you like other high alcohol stouts, like Russian Imperial Stouts, you'll probably like this easy drinking (dangerously easy drinking) version of a high alcohol stout (like a Russian Imperial Stout without the hoppy bitterness). On the other hand, if you find some of Innis and Gunns other beers too sweet or you don't like the strong flavour imparted by the barrel aging process you may find Innis and Gunn Irish Whiskey Cask Scottish Stout to your liking.

Innis and Gunn Blonde (Scotland) 6.0%

Innis and Gunn Blonde (Scotland) 6.0%

A bunch of sediment in the bottom, thought that was a bit odd especially since it's new to the store. Gold in a glass, the sediment did a good job staying on the bottom of the bottle - thankfully.

Very sweet, oak wood tones aroma. The taste is candy sweet, brown sugar, caramel touches along with plenty of vanilla and oak wood tones and a little bit of malt. Innis and Gunn's Blonde is quite nice if you are prepared for how sweet it is because it really is very sweet. The oak tones are balanced and not overpowering. This is a nice ale suitable for sipping or quaffing.

Beach Chair Lager - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - Prince Edward Island) 4.5%

Beach Chair Lager - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - Prince Edward Island) 4.5%

A shade paler than full gold in a glass, this lager has a light malty aroma with just a touch of hops. The taste is sweet and deliciously nutty with grain tastes and some hints of a taste like the aroma of leavening bread. A nice lager.

I like that Beach Chair Lager is served in a can rather than a bottle: protects the beer from light, is lighter and packs more easily. Also, appropriately, it is a more suitable beverage container for the beach.

Fredericton Craft Beer Festival 2013

Fredericton Craft Beer Festival 2013

The inaugural Fredericton Craft Beer Festival took place this past weekend (March 9th, 2013) at the Delta Fredericton. The event was well attended and thoroughly enjoyable with an impressive selection of great beers. Where some beer festivals have a number of international lagers that we've all had before, Fredericton Craft Beer Festival was a tribute to craft beers and had none of these "filler beers".

I was very pleased to be able to try beers by Bushwakker, based in Regina, Saskatchewan and by Shiretown out of Dalhousie New Brunswick. I'm not normally able to get my hands on these brews so that was interesting.

Also Picaroons had a cask version of their Yippee IPA that was just amazing. The most surprising beer of the festival had to be Moosehead Cask, it was flavourful and really interesting - not what I expected from Moosehead to be honest.

As fun as the festival was I feel like I could have had a better time if the event had done a better job of getting information to us. When I arrived I was handed a roll of tickets without explanation. None of the volunteers inside the venue that I asked knew what the tickets were for. I eventually went back out to the gate, asked the staff there and found out that the tickets were for the "Garrison Beer Education Room" but with no indication as to what the "Garrison Beer Education Room" was.

I eventually made my way to the Beer Education Room and, to my utter astonishment, found what seemed like more than a dozen more ales, barley wines and bock beers to sample by Unibroue, Brooklyn brewery and plenty of other breweries that had not been advertised in the lead up to the event and were not even included in the beer checklist pamphlet I received when I arrived!

Jackpot.

... Except, the Garrison [District Ale House] Beer Education Room closed an hour before the end of the main event and precisely ten minutes after I discovered it, bummer. However, I still got to try Brooklyn Brewing's Monster Barley Wine and their Local 2, so I'm grateful for that.

Edit: The organizers of the Fredericton Craft Beer Festival contacted me after this post went up to explain why the Garrison Beer Education Room worked the way it did. According to them the Beer Education Room had to be treated as a separate event due for licensing reasons as a result they weren't able to promote in the same way as the main event. This explains a lot and I am grateful to the organizers for reaching out to me to explain this.

All in all, I am very glad I went. The venue was very nice, it was a great opportunity to meet some brewers and fellow beer geeks and to try a wide variety of really excellent beers. The VIP ticket was definitely worth it as the pass got me admitted to the event a half hour early and gave me access to the Bushwakker beers for only $10 more. Also the free chips and popcorn was a nice touch and the water jugs at glass rinsing station were always kept full. Next time (and I'll happily go again) I won't leave the Beer Education to the last few minutes. Also, it would be nice to be able to buy a few bottles to take home though I'm sure that would be another regulatory nightmare for the organizers.

Propeller Honey Wheat (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 5.0%

Propeller Honey Wheat (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 5.0%

A shade pale gold colour in a glass. Grainy aroma of fresh malt and sweet with a hint of the honey they use; a touch skunky also though I am drinking it on a sun drenched patio. The taste is much more strongly honey: sweet and a touch spicy. Fresh wheat tones of malt. Lightly bitter. Well balanced and best served cool. Some green hops flavours accentuate the raw freshness of the wheat flavours.

Propeller IPA (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 6.5%

Propeller IPA (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 6.5%

A lovely brass colour in a glass. Very hoppy and bitter as the style demands, this award winning beer is also strongly malty and quite sweet as well. The hops character is green but also resiny and reminds me of sap from a spruce tree. Very nice, very balanced and, like all really good IPAs, it would pair well with pretty much any type of flavourful food.

Propeller Pilsener (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 4.8%

Propeller Pilsener (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 4.8%

A sweet malty but also light tasting Pilsner with a pronounced hop finish that is dry - true to the Pilsner style.

What is neat about this Pilsner is the flavour is mild yet intricate: a malty grain flavour with a hint of nuttiness washes over you before the hops and accompanying bitterness come in late and just to the edge of being very bitter before receding in a pleasant Pilsner-ey aftertaste. The beer is gold in a glass [and ever so slightly cloudy (may just be a chill haze)] and has a lovely aroma that brings through for me all the facets I described in the flavour. A must try for anyone who swears by a Pilsner.

Propeller Double IPA (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 8.2%

Propeller Double IPA (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 8.2%

Very strong hoppy pine aroma with a bright citrus (mix of lemon and orange) element. A dark brass colour in a glass.

Very bitter with plenty of wooden, earthy tones mixed in with the strong hops flavour. A sweet and toasty, nearly caramelized, malt flavour mixes with the bitterness of hops to remind me of a tart unripe dark cherry in a very, very good way.

Propeller's Double IPA is a great way to beat the heat and a good beer to share to unwind after a day at the office. Just like the label says this is a "TRUE hop bomb, for TRUE hop heads". It's hops character is nicely accentuated by the malt to make a beer that is more than just really hoppy. A can't miss for you hopheads out there.

Propeller Extra Special Bitter (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 5.0%

 Propeller Extra Special Bitter (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 5.0%

Roasty aroma of crusty brown bread and more than a touch of hops. A very dark brown in a glass; a good head with some lacing. Nice taste, sweet in a caramelized sort of way - tones you'd find in a Red. Some faint floral hops tastes and a satisfyingly bitter finish. Plenty of roast and bitterness in the body too; dark bread tones with hints of molasses and a touch umami. Some mild wood tones and a light smokiness is there too as a result of a mixture of the bitterness of the hops and the dark roasted malt. A nice bitter, emphasis on the bitter, no surprise it is one of Propeller's best sellers. The bitterness and the robust roasted malt flavour make Propeller's Extra Special Bitter an ideal ale to pair with hearty stews or roasted dishes.

Farmhouse Ale - Bridge Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 7.5%

Farmhouse Ale - Bridge Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 7.5%

This ale pours a cloudy amber colour in a glass with a big frothy head that leaves lovely lacing. The nose is led by Belgian yeast aromas: floral and herbal tones as well as sweetness. Bridge Brewing describes the aroma as candied fruit and I have to say I agree, a little bit of something gingery in there too. There is a lot of stuff going on in the aroma (I expect everybody will get something a little bit different) and it is really quite nice.

The yeast notes continue in the taste, herbal, nectar, maybe a hint of banana and something like not-quite-ripe mango, but rounded out by a sweet and roasty malt body. There is a bit of pine tasting hops, a bitter bite to the finish as well as a tart touch from the mix of yeast flavours. Also, the aftertaste has a bit of a resiny hops taste to it. You can feel the alcohol warming your chest and as a tingling in your mouth but it barely comes through in the flavour except to accentuate the bitterness. As regular readers of the blog can probably guess I like this ale even more as it warms: the roasty flavours come out more and also the tart yeast flavours, the bitterness as well as the alcohol all blend better in my opinion.

For those of you not aware, Bridge Brewing is an interesting new brewery and project based out of Halifax, their website and this copy printed on the back of their reusable 750 ml ceramic bottles tell their story.

Midnight Sun Espresso Stout - Yukon Brewing (Canada - Yukon - Whitehorse) 6.2%

Midnight Sun Espresso Stout - Yukon Brewing (Canada - Yukon - Whitehorse) 6.2%

Opaque and black but with a reddish hue. Smells strongly like rich, black coffee - dare I say espresso? Some dark chocolate in the aroma as well. A little smoky with some dark fruit and raisin hints.

Midnight Sun's delectable dark chocolate and black coffee taste paired with the creamy oatmeal touched mouthfeel drinks a little like a thick espresso. It's bitter but at the same time sweet with a mouthwatering dark chocolate finish. Amazingly delicious, I usually protest the use of actual coffee or chocolate in beers rather than the brewer producing the same flavours using only malt but this beer is so damn delectable and perfectly balanced that I cannot bring myself to protest. The interplay between oatmeal, the eight malts used and the espresso coffee is really amazing.

Special Old Bitter - Pump House Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 5.0%

Special Old Bitter - Pump House Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Moncton) 5.0%

Gold with an amber hue in the glass. A big fluffy head with good resilience and nice lacing. Resin and cedar hoppy aroma with a bit of roast and a malty, slightly raw, grain touch. Quite a hoppy, cedar and resin taste. A bitter initial flavour with a roasty, and quite a sweet, middle and a bitter resiny hops finish.

This is such a nice "west coast style session beer" and one of my favourites. The freshness of the malt paired with the touch of roast and the perfect amount of hops bitterness makes this Pump House's S.O.B. a great pairing with any pub food from pizza to flavourful pasta to burgers. A great beer, sessionable, interesting and refreshing.

Hoppelganer Double IPA - Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Hoppelganer Double IPA - Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 8.0%

The powerfully hoppy aroma is strongly citrus, floral (maybe even apricot) with pine and some melon that, in combination, have some touches of pineapple. Apricot-orange and cloudy in a glass. The taste is very bitter and pumped full of pine. Malty sweetness tries to get through but gets deliciously stomped on by spicy hops loaded with citrus tones. An awesome Double IPA from my favourite brewpub in Halifax.