104th Regiment - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

104th Regiment - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton) 4.2%

A clear brown colour in a glass with a head of off-white foam. Roasty, biscuit, caramel and brown sugar aroma.

A watery mouthfeel and quite carbonated (a bit of a more aggressive pour would have dealt with that though, I think). Biscuit and roasty, not quite coffee, sweet with caramel and brown sugar. Drinkable and pub appropriate if a bit sweet for a brown ale. Quite nice and I think it may be even better on tap.

Plaid to the Bone - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

Plaid to the Bone - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

Like a female beer lover's perfume: caramel, floral with a bit of a nutty aroma. The floral is a little bit along the lines of lavender - I haven't had many interactions with heather but I imagine it's along the same lines as flowers of the heath such as lavender and clover. The taste is earthy and floral as well as highly drinkable.

Picaroons Tap-Takeover at Ducky's Pub (Canada - New Brunswick - Sackville)

Picaroons Tap-Takeover at Ducky's Pub (Canada - New Brunswick - Sackville)

Sackville is my hometown and a 2008 Cultural Capital of Canada, and smack-dab in the middle of Sackville is the new and improved Ducky's Pub, established in 1989, shifted and refurbished in 2013. With the move has come a renewed focus on tasty regional craft beers as well as a full menu from a partnership with their new neighbour Pickles European Deli. This past weekend I had the great pleasure of attending a Picaroons tap-takeover at Ducky's.

Under the watchful gaze of Picaroons reps Tony and Dave each of Ducky's twelve taps were "taken over" and instead of pouring a variety of craft beers poured only tasty Picaroons brews for the evening. As you can read below, I took this opportunity to review two special edition ales that had been aged in Glenora whiskey barrels from the highly rated distillery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. I also enjoyed Picaroons' seasonal Plaid to the Bone, an ale brewed with heather that will be hitting NB Liquor shelves soon.

Barrel Aged Winter Warmer - Picaroons Brewing (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

A lot of the whiskey barrel in the nose and dark but not quite opaque. The alcohol content is not quite a known factor but is likely higher than the 7.3% of the non-barrel aged version since the aging process along with some added sugars for an additional fermentation will kick the alcohol up a notch.

Lots of barrel and whiskey notes in the taste such as vanilla but also a sweetness along with a hefty malt body and flavours. More than detectable levels of alcohol - you can really taste it as you draw your next breath.

It reminds me a little of a Russian Imperial Stout without the hops because it has actual wood tones where wood tones in a typical RIS are just an interaction between the flavour of the hops and the alcohol. I liked Picaroons' original Winter Warmer but the Barrel Aged Winter Warmer is just spectacular.

Barrel Aged Timber Hog - Picaroons Brewing (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

Opaque in a glass and this hefty stout even looks like it'll stick to your ribs. The aroma is similarly filled with barrel notes but with more of a peat emphasis than the Barrel Aged Winter Warmer. As a result the aroma is very whiskey-like when coupled with the sweetness and alcohol content that a thoughtful sniff reveals.

The Barrel Aged Timber Hog definitely has a more mellow flavour than the Winter Warmer but it is full of dark malt flavours of chocolate and coffee. A bit of subtle cherry and molasses as well. There is no confusing this with a RIS though, as it does not have the same bitterness or alcohol content as the Barrel Aged Winter Warmer.

The Barrel Aged Timber Hog is highly drinkable for a beer so hearty. The barrel aged version is particularly good but the Timber Hog you can get year round in bottles is also quite good.

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.

Best Bitter (cask) - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

Best Bitter (cask) - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

Very much hoppier than the regular version: resiny and fresh cut grass as well as a fairly bitter aftertaste. Still not a hop bomb by any measure. Also there is none of the caramel flavour I associate with Picaroons beers. Well balanced with malt, roasty and a little sticky but I still found it hop forward. I had the good fortune to have one of the first pints out of this cask and I found it was quite a bit hoppier than my second glass; quirks of cask beer perhaps.

This event at Marky's Laudromat Espresso Bar on January 10th was being held to raise funds for the employees of the Garrison District Ale House that has been temporarily shuttered due to fire damage.

Picaroons Winter Warmer (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

Picaroons Winter Warmer (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton) 7.3%

Caramel, molasses, brown sugar, a coffee hint, some wood tones and a touch of alcohol in the aroma. Dark but not opaque, a clear, very dark reddish brown with a velvety head and lovely thick lacing. Quite a strong coffee flavour, wood tones, hops, strongish alcohol touches and some nice caramel high notes as is typical of Picaroons ales. Fairly bitter but some sweet brown sugar in there too. Chocolatey dark malt finish along with some smoky wood tones from the mix of dark malt, alcohol and hops. Though there are tastes of alcohol the strength of this 7.3% beer is carried well by the broad and creamy dark malt flavours. This tasty heavy ale will do more than only warm you on a winter's night, it will feed you too!

Picaroons Harvest Ale (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton)

Picaroons Harvest Ale (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton) 5.5%

A green hop aroma with some resin and celery, sweet malt and earthiness. It is very foamy and has a super frothy head and spectacular lacing. Copper coloured in a glass.


Quite bitter with a mix of nice hop flavours: green vegetal tastes, touches of resin. In addition to the hops, Harvest Ale has some balancing malt sweetness, though the hops win out, and a touch of earthiness. All in all a nice tasting beer.

Picaroons Harvest Ale is an example of a rash of new beers from the Maritime Provinces that use fresh or "wet" hops (to indicate that they haven't been dried). Brewers in the Maritimes have the opportunity to use wet hops during harvest time now that numerous hop farms big and small have sprung up all across the region. It certainly is an exciting time to be a craft beer lover. Picaroons has included on their label a stamp to indicate variety of hop the farm and batch from which the hops originated and even a link to a page on their main website that identifies the farmers. Pretty great community building.

Picaroons's Summer Brews

Melon Head - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton) 4.5%

Smells like watermelon bubblegum and somehow tastes like that too! A mix of hops and natural extracted watermelon flavour gets the credit but Melon Head's flavour is so different it's still hard to believe it isn't artificially tweaked to taste this way. A really interesting beer and refreshing to boot. A full gold colour in a glass with a hilarious label.

Dooryard Summer Ale Organic Wheat - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredericton) 4.5%
A flowery and caramel aroma and taste. A subtle flavour of orange and a little spiciness to go along with typical wheat tones but they are somewhat masked by the caramel taste that is found in nearly every single Picaroons beer. The caramel taste is nice but its recurrent appearance in Picaroons's wide variety of types and styles (sometimes slightly inappropriately, in my opinion) is somewhat puzzling and could begin to wear on the palate. Still this is a pleasant, and certified organic, ale.

Maple Cream Ale - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 5.0%

Maple Cream Ale - Picaroons (Canada - New Brunswick - Fredricton) 5.0%

This ale has a velvety head and is the colour of a dark genuine New Brunswick maple syrup. The aroma is a combination of wisps of smokiness and sweet, dark maple syrup reminds me of the campfires back in the sugar woods where syrup is best enjoyed poured over a scoop of freshly fallen snow.

The taste is sweet and distinctive: while there is a malty smokiness, sweet maple syrup is the dominant taste and smell too. Pick up this seasonal treat while it's here!

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.