Dragon's Milk - New Holland Brewing (United States - Missouri - Holland) 11.0%

 Dragon's Milk - New Holland Brewing (United States - Missouri - Holland) 11.0%

Dark brown in a glass with a silky head of mocha coloured foam. A really nice, almost chewy, aroma of dark fruit and chocolate; plenty of oak and vanilla as well.

Dark fruit flavours, and oak and vanilla abound. There is some distinct alcohol tingling in the mouth and warming of the chest. Strong bourbon spice in the finish, that same spice may explain some of the tingling I had ascribed to the alcohol. The mouthfeel is creamy as you drink it but thin once you swallow leaving a nice espresso, vanilla and hints of oak aftertaste but very little lingering texture for a stout (probably because of the cleansing properties of the high alcohol content).

I have found in the past that oak accentuates the taste of alcohol (and I don't think that's just because I, as a bourbon fan, associate oak with hard liquor BTW) but I think the strongish alcohol sensation and a bit of a taste are actually from the alcohol content. Now you may wonder why I'd comment on this when reviewing a beer that is listed at 11% but I've had other 11% beers that carried their alcohol less obviously. All that said, I think Dragon's Milk might be even stronger than the 11% indicated on the label, considering how squishy my head is feeling already. While Dragon's Milk carries its booze a bit more obviously than some other ales I think they did a bang-up job making a tasty chocolatey and oaky stout that is well suited to their High Gravity (aka high alcohol) series.

Sinha Stout - Lion Brewery Ceylon PLC (Sri Lanka)

Sinha Stout - Lion Brewery Ceylon PLC (Sri Lanka) 8.8%

Black and utterly opaque in a glass. A vigorous pour generated a inch of mocha foam that settled quickly but did not completely dissipate sticking around the edges and and left some nice lacing. The aroma is chocolate heavy with some coffee, and a touch of grape or perhaps more like raisins and prunes. There is something also a little milky, like you'd find in a milk stout in the aroma. No signs of the 8.8% alcohol in the aroma until it warms up just a little. There is an issue with the aroma though, it is a little bit musty which may be as a result of a little oxygen tagging along in the bottle during the travel time from Sri Lanka to Ontario.

Milk chocolate flavours but a bit of a thin mouthfeel with some taste of alcohol in the finish. Ah, but let it warm up a little bit and the mouthfeel is there as well as the chocolate flavour, dark fruit, some leather tones. Also the finish is more smoke and dark chocolate with some alcohol, but not much, and just a little of that musty flavour. The aftertaste is dark fruit first and then some chocolate.

Overall, Sinha Stout is actually pretty good considering it was only $2.15 and it is 8.8% ABV. It is not the best stout but the only real knock on it is that is was musty and thin at times.

Aphrodisiaque - Brasserie Dieu du Ciel (Canada - Quebec - St. Jerome)

Aphrodisiaque - Brasserie Dieu du Ciel (Canada - Quebec - St. Jerome) 6.5%

Opaquely black in a glass with a fairly quick fading light brown head. Strong cocoa and vanilla aroma with dark dried fruit. The vanilla aroma is delicate yet forceful and reminds me cookies and baking generally - Aphrodisiaque may just be the comfort food of beer. The flavour is initially all chocolate (delicious chocolate) but on subsequent sips, the vanilla envelops and enhances the chocolate culminating in a delightfully dessert-like beer experience. The finish is still laden with chocolate and vanilla but also has a certain smoky quality. I expected Aphrodisiaque to be more bitter and while it is not overly sweet by any means, it probably isn't more bitter than some of the darkest chocolates. I think Dieu du Ciel was very wise in this regard and has done a good job of letting the natural bitterness of the cocoa and vanilla beans stand on their own without using much of a hops bitterness at all. This is a delightful beer and though filling like a traditional stout, I could be easily persuaded to drink several of these indulgent beauties rather than eating dessert (or eating at all).

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.

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.

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.

Double Chocolate Stout - Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 5.5%

Double Chocolate Stout - Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 5.5%

This Double Chocolate Stout pours a very dark brown in a glass. The aroma has a surprising amount of melon hops in it along with milk chocolate and a bit of something like Earl Grey Tea. The mouthfeel is creamy just like a stout should be. The taste is again surprisingly hoppy, though mellow melon rather than cedar or pine tones; sweet milk chocolate flavours with some yummy caramel. Quite an interesting stout, not quite as chocolatey as I expected but it has a very nice. Only available until the end of February so go, go out and get some.

Granite Brewing Sample Tray (Canada - Halifax and Toronto)

Granite Brewing Sample Tray (Canada - Halifax and Toronto) 

Best Bitter

Quite a bit of grain and floral in the taste. Bitter, clean, crisp, lightly green in its crispness, roasty and sweet.

Best Bitter Special

Really just the best bitter with a long lingering hops flavour. Cloudy for some reason, more fruit or more accurately nectar and floral tones from the hops. A bit of barnyard in the aroma.

Peculiar

Roasty and sweet, an alcohol taste oddly enough for 5.6%, quite bitter and sticky and red tasting. A touch sour and cherry-like before the long sweet roasted glaze-like finish. The sour touch works and makes this ale interesting, unique and pretty good overall.

Keefe's Irish Stout

A good creamy head, dark but not opaque in a glass. Sweetly creamy, milk chocolate, a touch of smoke in the aroma. A touch of dark fruit (like figs) and the hops come through as a touch of herbal. Kind of thin for a stout - more like a brown.

Ringwood

The aroma is sweet malted grain aroma, actually checked to see if it was a wheat. A nice touch of hops. The taste is very sweet, plenty of grain, not hoppy, lightly nutty. Springy on the palate but mostly grain flavours overall - not much else to this pale blonde ale.

Martello Stout - Garrison Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 4.8%

Martello Stout - Garrison Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 4.8%

A delectable aroma that is bitter and dark, full of coffee and chocolate tones with hints of sweetness and a touch over something that makes me think of black olives. Opaque and black in a glass with a tan head of foam that leaved behind nice lacing. The taste is also dark and delicious. Garrison's Martello Stout has a strong coffee flavours and a pleasantly creamy mouthfeel. A few mild touches of hops come through at different point balancing the malt nicely. A bitter almost smoky long lingering aftertaste makes sure you won't forget what you're drinking. This thick (nearly meal replacing), malty yet refreshing and low alcohol beauty of a stout should be a pub staple.

Cobblestone Stout - Mill Street (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 4.2%

Cobblestone Stout - Mill Street (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 4.2%

I don't believe in these nitrogenating beers being sold in beer cans (Guinness on a can is a poor imitation of Guinness on tap in my experience) but we'll see how this one goes. Well Cobblestone Stout actually has the tiny bubbles and cascading foam action you should expect of a nitrogenated beer even if the can opened with quite a roar of escaping nitrogen (which doesn't dissolve in a liquid as well as carbon dioxide).

An extremely thick, highly resilient beige head that leaves impressive lacing. Lovely coffee malt aromas, grain, sweet with milk chocolate hints. It has a really nice flavour that is sweet with lots of coffee and actually it tastes a lot like a latte: coffee, milk chocolate, sweetness and very creamy mouthfeel. Some grain or maybe more accurately biscuit flavours as well make this solid stout almost qualify as food. The coffee flavour in the beer gets a little washed out after you taste a mouthful of the foam revealing some roasty caramel and light touches of hops.

Cobblestone Stout is a nice beer and pretty great proof that nitrogenated stout in a can actually works.

Espresso Stout - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 4.2%

Espresso Stout - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 4.2%

Pours a dark, dark brown in a glass: nearly black, nearly opaque. A bitter aroma of dark black coffee and grain with a touch of milk chocolate, more than a touch of smoke like burnt toast. Very smooth mouthfeel, fairly sweet and not as bitter as I was expecting. A moderate coffee flavour (much stronger in the aftertaste), milk chocolate, a faint grain flavour. Big Rock's Espresso Stout is a very nice beer with subdued but pleasant and interesting flavours. It's tasty even though its coffee flavour (and stout flavour for that matter) isn't nearly as strong as I expected it would be: more of a sessionable stout.

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.

Two Delicious but Temporary Offerings from Rockbottom (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Wreckoning - Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 10.0%

Yikes, this Russian Imperial Stout is not messing around! On account of its strength, I wouldn't mind if they sold a 8oz version rather than only the 12. On account of its taste, I wouldn't mind getting a barrel to take home with me; but more on that later.

Wreckington smells punishingly high in alcohol with lots of dark fruit and bourbon tones: delightful and dangerous. Nitrogenated by a sparkler faucet this stout has a velvety smooth, creamy head. Black and more or less opaque in a glass.

The taste is just, wow. Bursting with flavour: dark and milk chocolate, molasses, fruit esters, vanilla as well as oaky wood tones, dark fruit and bourbon-like tones. So good and, as I have already mentioned, not messing about. As a result, beer geeks will flip for this one while many others will turn up their noses at a beer so strongly (and awesomely) flavoured.

Blackened IPA - Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 6.8%

A strongly green spruce aroma with a hefty dose of sweetness. A shade more brown that black but just about opaque in a glass with just a touch of sediment. Lots of that same spruce flavour in the taste with plenty of wooden tones and a green cut grass taste that comes through with an astringent quality and a chest warming feeling that conveys its high ABV. This cask ale was of normal carbonation but pleasantly just on the cool side of room temperature having been sitting on the bar in a kirkin sized thermos for about three hours before I got my pint. A lovely cask ale, makes me wish I was in Halifax for every Firkin Saturday at Rockbottom.

Rockbottom Brewpub (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Rockbottom Brewpub Sample Tray (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax)

Six bucks for a sampler? Yes please! All of Rockbottom's brews were good and their seasonals were real standouts, can't wait to see their next batch of seasonals as the calendar turns. I also very liked the menu that comes with complete descriptions of their beers (which I didn't read), ABV, IBU and suggested food pairings: if only every restaurant treated beers with such respect! Our server was knowledgeable and enthusiastic, chatting with me about beers and their various events (a firkin of their specially made cask beer every Saturday!).

Deadwood Wheat 5.0% [12 IBUs]

Bread-like aroma. Slightly tart flavour with a touch of hops and a distinct grain taste.

Big Water Brown 5.5% [17 IBUs]

Very roasty, nearly coffee dark malt flavours at first. Nutty, grain & rye bread, sweet and slightly bitter with some fruit tones. A watery mouthfeel keeps it refreshing.

Fathom IPA 6.9% [70 IBUs]

Very floral, sweet, citrus (grapefruit) and melon hop aroma. That'll wake up your taste buds! Flavour is much the same (super nice) but more bitter than the aroma and the hops has a sprucy green edge as well as floral, sweet and really nice. A grain finish and floral bitter hops aftertaste.

Balticus 7.8% [70 IBUs]

Strong wooden tones come through in the aroma with spice and nut flavours as well as a smell that I can only describe as almost salty: very interesting. Some wooden tones come through in the flavour with hops and spice - quite a bit of bitterness as well as a mild high alcohol burn. This seasonal porter is also sweet with a touch of caramelized sugar.

Desecration 8.6% [65 IBUs]

Very floral hops aroma, sweet with grapefruit and melon tones but also a slight sticky sweet edge. This Imperial Red has punchy fruit and melon tones with a bitter hops finish. A nice beer with excitingly sharp tastes. The combination of alcohol burn and fruit tones almost make it a little wine-like but not a barley wine because it is not nearly that malty.

Jacktar Stout 6.7% [70 IBUs]

Chocolatey aroma, quite sweet with a hint of hops. Chocolatey taste as well as quite bitter with quite a bit of hops flavour too. Touches of fruit. A bitter finish. The hops seems to outshine the dark malt flavours to star in this one.

Happy Fourth of July!

For this Independence Day I thought it would be a good for me to post a bunch reviews of great American beers I've tried over the last year or so. Cheers!

Allagash White (USA - Maine - Portland) 5.2%

Smells very fruity and floral, hint of banana. The taste is also floral, orange, spicy, coriander, bitter, a little yeasty. The suggested technique of pour most of it then swirling & pouring makes a great frothy head. Very cloudy gold or pale gold in a glass. A great Belgian style white beer.

Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale - Berkshire Brewing Company (USA - Massachusetts - South Deerfield) 5.3%

A heady mix of nutty and spicy malt and hops. Caramel sweetness and a perfect bit of bitterness. Described on the label as what the water in heaven should taste like and I am inclined to agree.

Pennant Beer - Brooklyn Brewery (USA - New York - New York) 5.1%

Caramel aroma and taste, quite sweet but also tangy with hops and a little bitterness that lingers on. Quite nice and well balanced. I drank this at the Cheers bar in Boston.

Gritty McDuff's Red Claws Ale (USA - Maine - Freeport)
A caramel and toasted bread aroma with some bitterness. Sweet caramel flavour with a spicy green hops bitterness. The warm round tones of toasted bread and caramel are nicely contrasted with, and the sweetness is cleaned out by, the spice of the hops and fairly bitter finish. Very enjoyable and drinkable. Would go well with food or on its own. An amber-brown colour in a glass.

Old Plowshare Stout - North Coast Brewing (USA - California - Fort Bragg) 5.7%

Not quite opaque, A roasty, chocolatey, oatmeal scent. A milk chocolate taste, sweet and smooth, some wood tones also. Has tiny bubbles, as a proper stout should. A pleasant slightly chalky mouthfeel with mild bitterness. A very pleasant stout; for those who favour organic food and drinks this one mustn't be missed.

 Redhook ESB (USA - New Hampshire - Portsmouth) 5.8%

A deep pumpkin orange. Sweet, earthy tones at first; a bitter tangy almost coppery finish that is quite hoppy. Sweet caramel malt combines with the mild earthy and wooden tones as well as a fairly pronounced hops taste for a pleasant-drinking and somewhat rustic beer which seems appropriate for a beer from northern New England.

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.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

In honour of my favourite day of the year, here are two splendid beers from the Emerald Isle.

Harp Premium Irish Lager (Ireland) 5.0%

Malty and a little bitter for a lager. A nicely non-bland taste that doesn't take away from its refreshing-ness. A gold colour with a full head, I kind of expected it to have a few more characteristic of a red beer based on the name and its lineage.

O'Hara's Irish Stout - Carlow Brewing (Ireland) 4.3%

This stout is black and for all intents and purposes opaque in a glass. A velvety smooth head and well carbonated. Smells deliciously smoky as if delicious wood was being roasted in dark chocolate. The taste is nicely bitter, roasty and more of coffee than dark chocolate but there is an earthy blend of both. One of the most expensive beers in the import aisle but well worth it. A delicious Irish Stout, sooo much better than the infinitely more famous Guinness, it's no wonder O'Hara's Irish Stout has won numerous awards in international competition. You'll be glad it comes in a 500 ml bottle because there is plenty to savour - it also has a beautiful bottle cap.