Premier George Coles Cream Ale - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown)

Premier George Coles Cream Ale - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown) 5.0%

A very lightly hopped malty aroma. Light flavour with a bit of creaminess and just a little bit of hops. The malt character is somewhat sweet with some flavours of toasted rolls and a subtle honey aspect. This is a sessionable and mildly flavoured cream ale.

Sir John A's Honey Wheat Ale - Gahan House/PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)

Sir John A's Honey Wheat Ale - Gahan House/PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown) 4.5%

Sweet with hints of a darker honey. A touch of yeast with a strong grain and malt flavour, tastes like the way it smells to be in the heart of a craft brewery: a very nice raw, mash tun flavour. Certainly fitting with the "all natural" proudly emblazoned on its side.

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.

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.

Gahan Sydney Street Stout - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)

Gahan Sydney Street Premium Stout - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI) 5.2%

Pitch black in a glass, an impressive velvety head of tiny bubbles with good lacing. Coffee, grain, brown bread aroma, chocolate and hints of smoke like you get from bread toasted to point of being nearly charred.

Initially, a bitter dark chocolate taste so strong and distinct it seems like they could have actually used chocolate although there is no indication that they actually did. I view the use of actual chocolate in stouts as practically "cheating" when a good brewmaster can work such magic with judicious use of different types of malted barley. I have exceptions for my rule to allow for desert beers and other creative uses, and I'm certainly not a Reinheitsgebot-ist that pooh-poohs the use of any ingredients other than water, malt, hops and yeast but I digress. The dark chocolate flavour lasts throughout but takes a step back to allow some wooden tones, some bread flavours and a touch of hops to come through as well. The mouthfeel is creamy but not heavy.

I very much like this limited edition bottled stout and I hope the PEI Brewing Company sees fit to add Sydney Street Stout to their current roster of 1772 IPA, Sir John A Honey Wheat, Iron Horse Brown and Island Red which are all available in bottle in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and soon Nova Scotia.

Gahan 1772 India Pale Ale - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)

Gahan 1772 India Pale Ale - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown) 6.5%

A resilient and frothy head with great lacing. A cedary hops aroma with a touch of earthiness. A lovely cedar, resin and floral hops taste, not overly bitter considering the strong (and lovely) hops taste. The sweet malt flavours that come through as a mix of fresh bread and honey give this IPA perfect balance. 1772 would pair well with any food, except for the most mild flavoured foods which it could overpower, because the hops character and malt flavour combination is so appetizing. 1772 isn't only one my favourite beers by the PEI Brewing Company but one of my favourite IPAs ever.

Gahan Island Red - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown)

Gahan Island Red - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - Prince Edward Island - Charlottetown) 5.3%

Quite a dark and reddish amber colour in a glass with an impressive frothy head and good lacing. Quite a mild aroma with some roast and some earthiness. A roasty flavour with dark malt notes that are somewhere between light molasses and chocolate all mixed with some wood tones, touches of caramel and a bitter finish. A touch of a vegetal flavour from the hops. Not sticky sweet like some reds. In fact it isn't particularly sweet at all which makes it sessionable.

Gahan House Iron Horse Brown - PEI Brewing Co (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)

Gahan House Iron Horse Brown - PEI Brewing Co (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown) 5.3%

I already reviewed this beer (albeit briefly) in my review of the sample tray available at the Gahan House in Charlottetown. However, in honour of its arrival on the shelves of New Brunswick Liquor stores I thought a more extensive review was deserved.

Sweet brown and crusty rye bread aromas. Touches of molasses and an earthy dark chocolate or coffee hint. The taste is sweet, even a touch sugary, with those same rye and brown bread flavours from the aroma throughout the drink. Molasses tones, sweetened coffee or milk chocolate flavours as well as a distinctly bitter bite lending nice balance. Iron Horse Brown is a nice Brown Ale with a lightly sweet, lightly smoky, dark bread aftertaste.

Gahan House Pumpkin Ale - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)

Gahan House Pumpkin Ale - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)

Sweet with a bitter tangy jolt. A honeydew hops tinge to the aroma and flavour along with, of course, pumpkin. The pumpkin is a mix of the flavour of the actual gourd mixed with spice and meaty nutmeg shanks that remind me of, not only pumpkin pie filling, but the crust and Christmas and Thanksgiving too.

Gahan's Pumpkin Ale is unique compared to other pumpkin ales because others usually taste mostly like the filling but this also has that darkness of the crumbly crust, and this is reflected in the colour - it is a darker pumpkin orange, like dark brushed copper.

Definitely one of my favourite Autumn/Fall seasonals. It was available at the Gahan House Pub in downtown Charlottetown in 2011. Hopefully they are brewing it again this year!

Gahan House Tasting (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)

Gahan House Tasting (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)


In historic downtown Charlottetown, Gahan House is a great restaurant with an even better brewery attached to it. A nice pub style restaurant by day, the Gahan House turns into a boisterous pub by night. A favourite watering hole for plenty of professionals in the after-work crowd and a perfect spot for a lunch or a pint while in the city. Their taster tray is a delight and was a pleasure to review.


Harvest Gold Pale Ale

A light sweet malty body. Slightly bitter hop finish.

Sir John A's Honey Wheat Ale 4.5%

An interesting beer: tastes of grain and bread. It slightly sweet, slightly skunky, malty, barely bitter. A hardy tasting beer that still manages to be very refreshing.

Gahan House White

Smells citrusy. A bit of a silky sort of soapy mouthfeel tastes very much of lemon.

Honey Brown (Mix of Sir John A's Honey Wheat Ale & Ironhorse Brown)

Tastes like a sweet thin brown. Somewhat roasty and some faint coffee tones.

Island Red 5.3%

Late onset of flavour, it is sweet and really quite bitter for a red. Roasty and a little caramel.

Ironhorse Brown

Roasty, some coffee flavours. A little tangy. A very pleasant brown ale one of the highlights of the sample tray.

1772 IPA 7.0%

Smells like hops and alcohol. Tastes strongly of hops with a melon character but also with a cedar/sprucy hops aspect. Quite sweet and caramely too. A nicely balanced IPA that people who don't normally like IPA might enjoy because it is quite sweet and, although it has a strong hop flavour as the type demands, it has a mix of hops characteristics and is not overly bitter. Definitely high alcohol: has a bit of a burn.

Sydney Street Stout

Smells very smoky and roasty. Tastes very strongly of dark chocolate/cocoa, roast. Barely carbonated. A great stout, very much in the tradition. Would work as a dessert beer and reminds me of Norwegian Yule beers.