Spark House Red Ale - Lake of Bays Brewing Company (Canada - Ontario - Baysville)

Spark House Red Ale - Lake of Bays Brewing Company (Canada - Ontario - Baysville) 5.0%

The colour is a bit on the dark side for a Red Ale and it boasts a large resilient head of off-white foam. The aroma is somewhat sweet, has a hint of maple and the caramelized sugars whose flavour is best characterized as red. They are a step beyond toasty but shy of roasty, they lie at the point on the carelization spectrum when blonde sugars turn to yellow and then a shiny red. They give Red Ales' their characteristic colour, flavour and name. These red sugars are the main flavour but they are balanced by a moderate hoppiness that keeps the sweetness from being too strong so that the beer remains refreshing.

River Walker Summer Ale - Lake of Bays Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Baysville)

River Walker Summer Ale - Lake of Bays Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Baysville) 6.0%

Full gold in a glass with a big, white, fluffy head. A nice ginger aroma that is sweet with hints of citrus (lemon) as well as some added melon tones, perhaps from the hops, that comes across as cantaloupe with just a hint of cucumber. But the ginger spice really is first and foremost and quite delightful.

The ginger continues in the taste but River Walker also has quite a bitter bite. There is also melon (still cantaloupe) and a grain sweetness. The ginger isn't overpowering at all but it is the main player. The citrus is fairly faint in the taste and the mouthfeel is a little creamy from the wheat but with a crisp, quite a dry finish. In the aftertaste, ginger and melon are there along side a distinctly toasted wheat taste, that builds to be quite toasty actually. The aftertaste is almost a little sticky with some resiny hops flavours presenting themselves.

The ginger and melon mixture actually reminds me of a few [pumpkin] beers I have had but is quite nice and, although it is marketed as a Summer Ale I think River Walker is better suited to late August and early September where there is just a touch of autumn in the air and you want to enjoy a summer day's warmth or savour the excitement of a late-summer night's chill.

Lake of Bays Brewing (Ontario - Baysville)

Pale Ale - Lake of Bays Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Baysville) 5.0%

Noticeably hoppy aroma that carries through to the taste. Caramel malt is the delicious counterpoint to the bitter hops that is the main flavour of the aftertaste. This well balanced and interesting beer was a delight to enjoy while overlooking one of Northern Ontario's many beautiful and picturesque lakes.

Mocha Porter - Lake of Bays Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Baysville) 5.2%

This porter is very dark in a glass but not quite opaque and it smells of coffee and oatmeal. The taste itself is mainly of black coffee, a little watery as a porter compared to a stout usually is, and a bit like raisins with a hint of black olives. Actual coffee was added to this porter which seems a little like cheating to me but the end result is very tasty.