4 x 4 - Stack Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Sudbury)

4 x 4 - Stack Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Sudbury) 5.2%

This a nicely, subtly hopped lager with a nice amount of bitterness as well as a malty body that is a bit complicated but without any flavours that don't belong there. Very tasty.

Steeler - Lakeport Brewing (Canada) 5.0%

Not quite actual size.

Steeler - Lakeport Brewing (Canada) 5.0%

A musty malt aroma with a hint of bitterness. A rather mild malt aroma just a bit of crusty bread.

The taste is very standard lager: not sweet, not bitter (though there is a bit of bitterness). At times I got a metallic touch but this is otherwise a pretty acceptable beer in the style of yellow and fizzy. It's better than Molson Canadian, better than the Bud products and I like it better than Labatt. It's also cheap and it comes in a giant can! What more could you want from a giant can beer?

Tusker (Kenya - Nairobi) 4.2%

Tusker (Kenya - Nairobi) 4.2%

Dry hops, lightly malty, just the barest hint of creamed corn (DMS) and a touch of skunkiness. In other words, the classic international lager aroma.

Light malty flavour, very crisp. I find some North American lagers (Budweiser and Canadian) sometimes leave a scummy feeling on my tongue but Tusker is very refreshing and really makes me want to reach for a second. Also the malt body is quite light but is also really quite satisfying for a light lager. This is a plus-lager.

Portage Ale - Mill St (Canada - Ontario - Toronto|Ottawa)

Portage Ale - Mill St (Canada - Ontario - Toronto|Ottawa) 5.0%

A mild creamed corn aroma with a hint of hops, something oddly lager-like (turns out it is aged with lager yeast - pretty cool) and a touch of almost tart bitterness.

A toasted bread taste with some bitterness, this carries on in the aftertaste as well, it's nice and quite an appetizing flavour. At times I pick up faint nearly smoky roasty flavours. Overall this is a refreshing beer and a highly quaffable ale perfect for the canoe trips the name implies and afternoons on patios (you know, when the weather finally warms up).

Hops and Bolts India Pale Lager - Mad and Noisy Brewing - Creemore Springs (Canada - Ontario - Creemore)

Hops and Bolts India Pale Lager - Mad and Noisy Brewing / Creemore Springs (Canada - Ontario - Creemore) 5.3%

Slightly cloudy, full gold with a distinct orange hue and a big, frothy off-white and touched with orange or gold head of foam that leaves some pretty nice lacing as it fades.

Hoppy cedar or pine aroma with a little resin, some malty tones and something that is distinctly lager-like in there too. Caramelized malt coupled with resin and cedar in the flavour. Fairly bitter, particularly in the finish. A roasty and a little sticky aftertaste with a grain flavour that sometimes borders on nutty.

Hops and Bolts is a neat example of an India Pale Lager, essentially a very hoppy lager, and I quite like it. It is certainly worth a try, especially if you are in Ontario, because it is tasty and it might be fun to compare Hops and Bolts with a similarly hoppy India Pale Ale to consider the differences between a lager and an ale.

Maibock - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard)

Maibock - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.8%

Gold and clear in a glass with a fairly quick fading white head. There is some fine sediment at the bottom of the bottle and as long as the beer has been resting for a while most of it will stay there. Although, as you pour out the last drops, the beer in your glass will get cloudy but the flavour does not change noticeably.

A distinctly lager-like aroma plus some dry, European hops tones, grain, a hint of apple-like fruit esters and just a little impression of creamed corn (DMS) and something like the yeast smell of leavening bread.

A surprisingly bitter (though not very bitter) taste. It's only surprising because I didn't pick that up at all in the aroma. Floral and herbal tastes, a little peppery on the tongue, as well as grain and the taste is also a little bit yeasty. There is some sign of the high alcohol content as drinking Maibock certainly warms your chest.

This Maibock by Les Trois Mousquetaires is an excellent example of the style (except for the lack of the mostly superficial resilient head of foam). Maibock, for the record, is brewed in the spring and is essentially a Helles Bock that is brewed to a higher alcohol level.

Sorachi Lager - Duggan's Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 4.0%

Sorachi Lager - Duggan's Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 4.0%

Pale gold in a glass with a fizzy white head that fades fairly quickly. A light floral, citrus aroma that is almost tart and has a distinct pine backing. The taste doesn't have the same tartness as the aroma. It is instead mostly toasted white bread flavours with some of that same light citrus (lemon and subtly orange) touch and a floral tone that is tugging on something in my memory, maybe like a Forsythia? Duggan's Soriachi Lager's finish has a slight coconut note and a tasty umami aftertaste. All in all, this is a different lager with a nice flavour, and more flavour in general than most lagers, and yet it is still light and refreshing to go along with its complexities.

Rickard's Shandy - MolsonCoors (Canada) 4.5%

Rickard's Shandy - MolsonCoors (Canada) 4.5%

Pale gold in a glass with a quick fading white head. Lemonade aroma (plain lemonade not pink lemonade), sweet but sour. The taste is lemonade first and foremost but some malty lager flavours come out in the finish and particularly in the aftertaste. I had only ever had a shandy made by mixing beer with ginger ale but the lemonade version is okay too. Summery and refreshing, Rickard's Shandy is highly quaffable and as long as you think of it as a beertail (a cocktail made with beer) rather than a beer it's pretty nice. It doesn't taste artificial to me it just tastes like a blend of lemonade and a lager.

I'm a little curious as to what beer they are blending with lemonade since the only Rickard's beer that uses a lager yeast is their pilsner, Rickard's Blonde. Based on the underlying beer flavours that could indeed be the beer they are using.

King Brewing Vienna Lager (Canada - Ontario - King Township)

King Brewing Vienna Lager (Canada - Ontario - King Township) 4.8%

Full gold, bordering on brass, colour in a glass. Quite a roasty and bitter aroma. Very sweet taste with a punch of fruit like flavours and an alcohol taste which is stunning since it's only 4.8% - it actually has hints of sherry despite the low alcohol. A moderately bitter aftertaste with some flavour of crusty bread. A very tasty beer all and all, despite the surprise alcohol flavour, with nice roast flavours. Reminds me of Spitfire Premium Kentish Ale specifically and UK Pub Brews in general.

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.

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.

Lager - Cameron's Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Oakville) 5.0%

Lager - Cameron's Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Oakville) 5.0%

Malty, sweet aroma. A shade paler than full gold in a glass. Quite a nice flavour of grain, lightly roasted malt, a touch of fresh bread, the barest hint of nut and a green taste of light hops bitterness which builds to a fairly bitter aftertaste. The bitterness of the aftertaste and the unassuming but delicious flavour make this beer very refreshing and an ideal pair with a wide assortment of dishes.

Another great lager, heaping shame on all those bland lagers pumped out by megabreweries.

Big Rock Honey Brown Lager (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 5.0%

Big Rock Honey Brown Lager (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 5.0%

Orange, brown colour in a glass. Honeyed brown bread aroma, faintly like vanilla. It tastes "blonder" than it looks: sweet, bread tones, something a little like tomato sauce. A mildly bitter touch in the finish. A nice honey flavoured beer its important to keep in mind that it's a brown lager, not a brown ale, so it's more honey than malt.

Galt Knife Old Style Lager - Grand River Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Cambridge) 4.4%

Galt Knife Old Style Lager - Grand River Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Cambridge) 4.4%

A deep, deep gold in a glass; slightly cloudy with very light sediment. A frothy white head with slight lacing but even though my glass was clean it wasn't "beer clean" because I forgot to rinse my glass prior to the pour (note: d'oh!) so it's probably my fault there isn't more. Pouring another dash (into a beer clean glass this time) had better head and lacing.

A malty aroma with biscuit and honey touches and a prelude of the bitterness; just a hint of yeast like you'd get from fresh bread. Delightfully bitter taste for a lager with lots of biscuit, grain and bread tones. The hops character is mostly just bitter without being at all floral but it has a bit of some leafy green flavour to it. Also, there is just a hint of something like clover in the sweetness of the malt. A bitter aftertaste with notes of grain and hints of that clover taste again. Galt Knife Old Style Lager is a very nice lager, refreshing but interesting and suitable for just about any occasion.

Rickard's Oakhouse - Molson Coors (Canada)

Rickard's Oakhouse - Molson-Coors (Canada) 5.5%

A really nice, light vanilla, brown sugar sweetness and slightly spicy oak aroma to this beer which pours a brass colour in a glass. Lots of oak in the taste with that same malty brown sugar-like sweetness, and some baking spices mixed in there for good measure. However, after the initial drink, much of the sweetness fades and is a touch overpowered by the oak. The oakiness, which can be a touch on the tangy side naturally, mixes with the hops to form a slightly sour taste.

The beer I immediately think of when I think of oak done right is Innis and Gunn's line of barrel aged brews. Each of them are much sweeter, higher in alcohol than Oakhouse and are ales rather than a lager. The sweeter and more robust malt flavours in an Innis and Gunn balance the barrel tones; and the body of an ale seems better suited to carrying those wood flavours than the thinner, less robust body of a lager.

I have very much enjoyed some other Rickard's seasonals produced by Molson-Coors but while this one delivers on the promised oak flavour, the rest of the beer simply does not have the legs to carry these pronounced oak tones.

Barking Squirrel Lager - Hop City (Canada - Ontario - Brampton and St John NB)

Barking Squirrel Lager - Hop City (Canada - Ontario - Brampton and St John NB) 5.0%

Gold with an amber hue in a glass, a fluffy head leaving nice lacing. Malty lightly roasted aroma, a touch of hops. Sweet taste with the barest roast touch and equally light (if not lighter) apple touch. A hint of astringent bitterness which is the only taste of hops that comes through in this beer. A nice lager with some complexity of flavours and yet it is still as sessionable as the label claims. My only complaint about Barking Squirrel Lager isn't really a complaint at all but... the brewer's name is HOP City; it has an admittedly bad-ass cartoon squirrel holding a HOPS nugget on its label; and it also mentions on the label the blend of hops they used and yet... Where's the hops flavour? But of course it's not required by the style and the beer is otherwise enjoyable so I won't hold my cartoon-squirrel-inspired expectations against them.

Berthold Keller Premium Lager - Martens (Belgium)

Berthold Keller Premium Lager - Martens (Belgium) 5.0%

The aroma is malty, has dry hops and quite a lot of grain. Gold in a glass. A very nutty flavour that tastes exactly like plain roasted sunflower seeds. A touch of grain and sweetness in a way that reminds me of multigrain toast. Not really much of any hops taste that I expected from a Euro Lager but the is just enough bitterness to balance it nicely. A good very lager, reminiscent of a English Pale Ale in its nuttiness. Also the graphic design of the cool blue coloured can with slick post-modern lettering is very nice.

Rickard's Cardigan Autumn Spiced Lager (Canada)

Rickard's Cardigan Autumn Spiced Lager (Canada) 5.5%

First off, the name, label and even the bottle cap are awesomely hilarious. And it's fitting (har, har. Get it? It's a sweater!) too: the spice mix really does make this comfort food in the form of beer.

An orange hued gold in a glass. The aroma is of cinnamon, all-spice and cloves with just a touch of malt in there also. Some of the underlying sweetness is likely due to the added brown sugar but I didn't get any more sweetness than could be credited to the malt.

The taste is very spicy with lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, some brown sugar and cloves. A bitter finish reminds me that this is in fact a beer as well as a collection of flavours reminiscent of pumpkin pie and that reminds me of everything nice about Autumn. And it's a beer that I enjoy very much at that; I can feel the leaves turning with every sip. You absolutely must serve Rickard's Cardigan Autumn Spiced Lager quite a bit warmer than typical refrigerator temperature otherwise the spices are understated and the bitterness comes out much too clearly.

The food pairings suggested on the box are quite apt and I think they would work quite well: braised ribs, sweet potato fries or turkey. Overall a nicely spiced lager perfect for this time of year, so unless you hate pumpkin pie or flavoured beers in general you should give Rickard's Cardigan Autumn Spiced Lager a try.

Two Canadian Beers that are Red in Title but not in Style

Red Racer Pale Ale (Canada - British Columbia - Surrey) 5.0%

First of all it comes in a really cool can. It has a very sweet malty taste with a hops backer. This American Pale Ale (by style not nationality) has a hoppy citrus aroma and is very nice paired with food although the bitter hops can make spicy foods taste even spicier!

Red Baron Premium Blonde Lager (Canada - Ontario - Waterloo) 4.8%

Pale gold in a glass. Sweet and malty. Light in flavour with a somewhat bitter hops touch in the finish which makes it more refreshing than it otherwise would be. A light malty, hoppy aroma. All in all a nicely crafted lager.

Alpine Max 6.0 - Moosehead (Canada)

Alpine Max 6.0 - Moosehead (Canada) 6.0%

Pale gold to gold in a glass. Has a malty, very slightly yeasty aroma. Malty and a little sweet: typical bland international lager taste but with a slight alcohol burn even though it's only 6.0%. The alcohol probably stands out because there is so little actual flavour going on that there is nothing to mask it. This would be a fine choice if all you drink is bland international lagers and are looking to get drunk on the cheap, otherwise you aren't missing much by missing Alpine Max 6.0.