Accumulation - New Belgium (United States - Colorado - Fort Collins)

Accumulation - New Belgium (United States - Colorado - Fort Collins) 6.2%

A whole bunch of tropical fruit makes up the aroma to this cloudy golden beer: mango, papaya, passionfruit and grapefruit. The taste is quite bitter, especially initially and in the finish, and it is full of the same tropical fruit mix but with more orange. The mouthfeel is a little bit creamy with some classic wheat herbal tones (coriander) in the finish. As far as the combination of the two flavour spectrums of a Belgian White and an IPA I think Accumulation does it best of the, admittedly few, I have tried.

Despite the wintery scene on the label, Accumulation's flavour seems like a tropical breeze - or maybe that's the point. Accumulation certainly is a refreshing break from the winter.

Tante Blanche - Petit Sault Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Edmundston)

Tante Blanche - Petit Sault Brewery (Canada - New Brunswick - Edmundston) 4.7%

A brilliant, full gold in a glass; slightly cloudy with a thin white head of foam. The aroma is of nectar and field flowers, some hints of citrus and spices like a mix of the coriander or seeds of paradise that many Whites feature. The flavour has citrus (orange) and is spiced along the same lines. The wheat flavour and texture come through and Tante Blanche reminds me of a golden ale flavoured with wheat and wheat spices. All in all, it's well balanced and very tasty. Cool label with an amusing picture and a good story.

Two Mill Street Brewery Cask Ales in Ottawa: Part of Ontario Craft Beer Week

Yesterday, June 19th, 2014, as part of the Ontario Craft Beer Week celebrations I had the opportunity to try two cask beers from Mill Street Brewery. One at The Corner Bar and Grill, at 344 Richmond Road, and the other at the Mill Street Ottawa Brewpub.



The Riddler - Mill Street Brewery

Gold and a little cloudy in a glass with a standard white head of foam. Orange citrus aroma with a bit of lemon, seeds of paradise and wheat tones. Orange flavour but not as much as I expected from the aroma. Some herbal, guava hops flavour and a bit of bitter finish. Definitely some wheat in The Riddler as it has a creamy mouthfeel though it obviously isn't a standard white wheat beer.

Valley Irish Red - Mill Street Brewery

Very tropical hop aroma: papaya and touches of berry. A Real Ale level of carbonation which is to say not very carbonated. It has a mustiness that is not unpleasant, a bit of a berry flavour and a taste that is a bit like the aroma of apple blossoms to go along with some grounding maltiness and sweetness.

Winter Ale - Great Lakes Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Toronto)

Winter Ale - Great Lakes Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 6.2%

A dark and very red colour in a glass with a medium head of white foam. An aroma of cinnamon and perhaps cloves [note: nope] with a touch of roasted malt: not all that dissimilar from a pumpkin ale, although without any gourd tones kicking around, of course.

Lots of cinnamon (lots) and sticky, roasted malt in the flavour. The finish is fairly bitter and that is where some hops but especially the citrus (orange peel) comes out. It isn't the sort of sweet citrus that you get in a Belgian Wheat or with some hoppy west coast IPAs but the tangy, sour jolt of real orange peel. There are some red fruity, nearly sherry-like tones in the aftertaste. The spicy mix, which I originally (and mistakenly) thought included cloves (thinking of that other fabulous Christmas beverage, mulled cider) reveals the ginger in Great Lakes Brewery's Winter Ale as the beer warms.

This is a fine spiced beer but it doesn't quite suit the season to my taste. I cut my teeth, so to speak, as a beer geek/blogger/critic on Norwegian Yule Beers (see here, here and here) and therefore winter beers hold a special place in my heart. I just don't find molasses-less ginger and orange peel really speak to me as a far as the proper flavours of a beer for winter. Additionally, the lowish alcohol content and the only moderately malty body (one that is overshadowed by the spices anyway) don't really qualify this as a "true winter warmer" as the label asks you to believe. But do not misunderstand me: it may not fit my idea of a winter beer or a Winter Warmer but this is a tasty spiced beer, maybe just better suited to autumn.

Chatoe Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale (USA - Oregon - Newport) 6.0%

Chatoe Rogue Pumpkin Patch Ale (USA - Oregon - Newport) 6.0%

A slightly cloudy, deep copper colour like a lucky (though not shiny) penny. Cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, the classic aroma of pumpkin pie, along with touches of the earthy aroma of the gourd itself.

The flavour is more or less identical to my description of the aroma though there is a bit of a roasty and sweet malt flavour which complements the spices nicely. There is some sediment at the bottom and, if it finds its way into your glass, it adds not just some yeast flavours (banana and an intensification of the cloves) but also suggestions of the orange peel Rogue used so it's worth adding.

Baldwin Fish-Eye - Kensington Brewing Company (Canada - Ontario - Toronto/Guelph)

Baldwin Fish-Eye - Kensington Brewing Company (Canada - Ontario - Toronto/Guelph) 6.5%

An amber orange in a glass with a frothy white head with impressive staying power. Seriously this head last and lasts, it may contribute to the flavour being more bitter since the foam often contains the more volatile hop oils. An aroma like a pine and cedar forest but with some citrus (orange) and a perfumy floral touch too. I could contentedly just sit and smell this beer for quite a while.

Hoppy cedar and resin taste along with nice toasted bread and grain flavours. Pleasant orange flavours and malt sweetness balance some of the hops.  Quite a grain heavy finish. Late onset of a robustly bitter aftertaste. A nice IPA, more orange flavour with a more bitter aftertaste than the average IPA (if the term 'average IPA' means anything). If you like really bitter beers and the citrus character of hops this one is a riot and would go well with just about any strong flavoured food.

Mad Tom IPA - Muskoka Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Bracebridge) 6.4%

Mad Tom IPA - Muskoka Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Bracebridge) 6.4%

Cedar, resin, kumquat, passionfruit, grapefruit and a little orange rounds out the delectable aroma. A brass colour in a glass with a big, resilient, frothy white head of foam.

Unlike some IPAs with fruity and floral hops aroma the passionfruit and citrus continues in the taste along with the sticky cedar. In fact these delightful flavours are first and foremost. Mad Tom IPA is fairly sweet, especially in the finish, but still has plenty of the bitterness expected from an IPA. Its tasty aftertaste is sticky resin along with a certain pleasant grain touch. Overall, Mad Tom is a really nicely flavourful IPA.

Shawinigan Handshake - Le Trou du Diable (Canada - Quebec - Shawinigan) 6.5%

Shawinigan Handshake - Le Trou du Diable (Canada - Quebec - Shawinigan) 6.5%

A cloudy orange colour in a glass, like the colour of a peach (just like the label suggests), with a nice fluffy white head. Sweet, honey and melon aroma with citrus (orange and nectarine) as well as a resin background.

Be warned before pouring: there is some heavy duty sediment at the bottom of the bottle. While a little of it may even enhance the flavour the dregs you'll get from pouring every last drop of this otherwise delicious beer, are overly yeasty, bitter and otherwise not very nice.

The taste is bitter at first with a great hops character of pine and still some melon and nectarine tones. Yeasty banana, maybe a little apple juice, green pear, and bread flavours really come out mid-mouth. The hoppy finish that is also heavy in slightly spicy honey is followed by an aftertaste that I would describe as dry cedar while the label calls it "dry spruce" and while I feel like there is a difference there, it is very slight.

Rye Pale Ale - Cameron's Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Oakville) 6.6%

Rye Pale Ale - Cameron's Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Oakville) 6.6%

A glowing orange colour in a glass with big a fluffy off-white head of foam that left nice lacing as it faded.

A sweet hoppy aroma of pineapple, cedar, resin and a little floral. Strong, bitter taste with hops first: cedar, resin, a little citrus (orange) and some of that pineapple. The rye flavour really comes out in a grain loaded finish and aftertaste but this bitter brew is all about the hops which are strong throughout.

If you aren't a full blown hop-head and find Cameron's Brewing's Rye Pale Ale too bitter at first you are probably not alone. My suggestion would be to let it warm up most of the way and give a chance for the toasted bread (rye bread of course) and light caramel tones to really come out. Warmer and this RPA is still bitter but shows more balance.

White UFO (Un-Filtered Offering) - Harpoon Brewery (USA - Massachusetts - Boston)

White UFO (Un-Filtered Offering) - Harpoon Brewery (USA - Massachusetts - Boston)

A bright gold colour. Smells like moderately bitter, moderately sweet orange juice. While there certainly are citrus tones in the flavour it is more lemon & lime than orange. Also quite floral with some spiciness and some nice bread tones in the background that balance out this beer nicely.

Shock Top (USA - Missouri - St. Louis)

Shock Top Belgian White (USA - Missouri - St. Louis) 5.2%

A nice orange apricot colour in a glass, slightly cloudy. This beer has a pleasant wheat and peach aroma. the taste is more floral and citrus (orange) than spicy but you can definitely taste the added coriander. Made by Anheuser-Busch/In-Bev this is actually (in my opinion) a nice beer. Pleasant fruit tones to go with the wheat flavour and a very slight kick of spice. I'd still prefer it with a little more coriander flavour and I have the sneaking suspicion that they may have used adjuncts like rice or corn in the brewing process but that could just be my natural suspicion of mega-breweries.

Shock Top Raspberry Wheat (Saint Louis, Missouri) 5.2%

Smells strongly of raspberries but doesn't taste all that much like them. Spicy and sweet, fruity and malty; a little bitter. Because it is not drowned in raspberry flavour it is distinctly a wheat beer and a cloudy gold colour in a glass.

The Legendary Muskoka Spring Oddity

The Legendary Muskoka Spring Oddity 2012 (Canada - Ontario - Bracebridge) 8.0%

Hint of melon in the hops, some banana. Sweet malt. Quite sweet and quite bitter - hops and distinctly gin-like with the juniper berries. A orange peel flavour rather than the sweetness of orange flesh. A bit of alcohol warming, toasted bread bordering on caramel in the malt. Full gold in a glass, no sediment in the glass or the bottle. A bit spicy maybe a bit of honey finish. The juniper, orange peel and malt form a really nice mix that puts me in mind of nectar though the mouthfeel is not thick, though not quite watery. As it warms and loses carbonation (it is well carbonated by the way) it tastes more and more like honey.

I wonder how this beer would age, if it were bottled on lees? It seems like the flavour could go from good to great however it's not bottled on lees so it would only grow musty and stale; it even has an expiry date. It also has great artwork on the label and an interesting story you can read in the image below.

Hopfenweisse - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.0%

Hopfenweisse - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 6.0%

A big frothy proper wheat beer head with impressive resilience and nice lacing. The orange, citrus aroma typical of wheat beers brewed with orange peel is accentuated by the choice of hops to give an aroma that is exactly as they claim on the label: papaya and mango. I can also detect something like banana too although more like banana, in fact the whole thing smells a lot like a smoothie but with a hoppy pine-like touch. As time passes, a more herbal aroma comes out as well. Hopfenweisse (a pitch perfect name too, by the way) is a glowing orange in a glass and is cloudy with some light sediment.

The taste is quite bitter: a great deal more of the pine aspect of the hops character comes through. The papaya and mango flavour is still there but more muted. Malt and wheat characteristics are also there but again mostly overshadowed by a fairly bitter pine hops flavour with some touches of mango. No surprise that this reminds me of the last hoppy wheat ale I tried, Electric Unicorn White IPA by Phillips Brewing out of Victoria, British Columbia.

The marketing reps earned their pay-cheque with this one: the stylish bottle (like a mini champagne bottle), minimal but chic label and lettering, and the clever name all ooze opulence. The aroma is very cool and the taste is quite good too but I am just a little disappointed that more of the papaya, mango couldn't come through in the taste also the wheat characteristics are somewhat silent. All that being said, the hop aroma is nearly worth the price of the beer on its own and the taste is going to be very pleasing for you hopheads out there. Hopfenweisse is an interesting example of what I would characterize as an American Wheat: a wheat ale with a pile of aromatic hops.

Hitachino White Ale Nest Beer - Kiuchi Brewery (Japan - Ibaraki) 5.5%

Hitachino White Ale Nest Beer - Kiuchi Brewery (Japan - Ibaraki) 5.5%

A cloudy, glowing gold colour in a glass with a white head with fairly good resilience. A slight pine hops touch to the wheat aroma of cloves and spice, with some papaya and orange touches: a positively delectable aroma.

The expected (and tasty) white ale flavours are there, seeds of paradise and coriander, and orange zest, as well as papaya, some spice and a fairly bitter taste from that same hops flavour of pine that I detected in the aroma. The bitterness depends on how much sediment ends up in your glass. I got a fair amount so I found Hitachino White Ale Nest Beer ended up tasting like an American White Ale but a pour that leaves more sediment in the bottle may present a more classic white ale, sweet and fruity. After reading the label I realized I could pick up a little of the nutmeg they have used too, it's probably the source of some of the spicy touch as well as some of the bitterness.

Ice Fog - Yukon Brewing (Canada - Yukon - Whitehorse) 6.0%

Ice Fog - Yukon Brewing (Canada - Yukon - Whitehorse) 6.0%

Full gold in a glass. Pine and citrus loaded hops aroma. A mellow but sticky hops character with resin and citrus (sweet orange mostly). A bit of biscuit rounds out the taste. Ice Fog is more of a summer IPA than some (because of the strong citrus aspect) and as a result would pair well with lighter fare than most IPAs and certainly any dish that contains orange and a bit of spice could go nicely with Ice Fog.

Wild Rose IPA (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 6.0%

Wild Rose IPA (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 6.0%

Pours an orange gold in a glass the colour of which I find reminiscent of sap. A floral, piney, resiny, slightly metallic aroma with fresh-cut grass and (more so at first) more than a little grapefruit and orange. A big, fluffy, frothy head with good lacing. It's really nice served a little warmer than fridge temperature though the foam can get impressively crazy when its warm. Quite a bitter taste, spicy, floral hops with a taste of citrus, cut grass and a bit of earthy grain flavour. Wild Rose IPA has a sweet citrus and hoppy finish; a roasty and toasty aftertaste that is bitter and a bit sticky. The overall bitterness and lightly watery mouthfeel would make this a great beer to pair with food as it is palate cleansing while still being somewhat light and refreshing. With this beer Wild Rose has made a nice IPA that is similar to a West Coast IPA in someways but interestingly different in other ways.

Electric Unicorn White IPA - Phillips Brewing Company (Canada - BC - Victoria) 6.5%

Electric Unicorn White IPA - Phillips Brewing Company (Canada - BC - Victoria) 6.5%

It pours a cloudy gold in a glass with a frothy head that fades quickly but leaves nice lacing. Lots of melon (honeydew), unripened mango, passionfruit, some fresh cut grass and a touch of something astringent. Very bitter taste with a pine hops character that didn't stand out in the aroma. A smorgasbord of fruit flavours (orange, mango and passionfruit) come out in the unique blend of hops and wheat beer spice (coriander and cloves) even though the ingredients list only includes coriander and orange peel on top of barley, wheat, hops, water and yeast. A bitter and very appetizing finish with an aftertaste of toast and umami.

Electric Unicorn is great beer with a fun label and bottle cap. This tasty White IPA has a hilarious description /back story on the bottle (see below).

Oranje Weisse - Amsterdam Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto)

Oranje Weisse - Amsterdam Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 5.0%



Pale, nearly full gold in a glass and just ever so slightly cloudy. My bottle had been stored for quite a while (at an appropriate temperature, mind you) so I think more sediment resisted the Weisse Roll (see photo below) than not. Towards the end of the bottle more of the sediment ended up in my glass and was quite nice. A quick look at the ingredients list reveals the reason why this aroma differs from other white beers: it is the anise which adds quite a pleasant aspect to go along with the coriander, yeast, malt and wheat tones.

The taste is quite a nice mix of anise and coriander with the citrus flavour being just a little muted (I, of course, did not serve it with an orange slice as the bottle suggested). The malt flavour speaks more to barley than wheat, though the wheat is clearly there and the mouthfeel is fairly creamy. This mix of grain choices has the added benefit of making the beer lighter and more refreshing than if they had gone heavier on the wheat: tailor-made for patios during hot Ontario summers. All in all quite nicely refreshing and I like the use of anise.

Headstrong Pale Ale - Big Hole Brewing (USA - New York - Utica)

Headstrong Pale Ale - Big Hole Brewing (USA - New York - Utica) 5.5%

This ale is well balanced and easy drinking with some interesting features that make it worthy of tasting as well as quaffing. The taste and aroma are sweet and malty with a hint of orange zest; there is more than a hint of hops but it fades before any strong bitterness kicks it. The is also a herbal touch of something like coriander. A different take on a pale ale that is both drinkable and interesting.