Channel Ocho - Beau's All Natural Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill)

Channel Ocho - Beau's All Natural Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill) 8.9%

It pours an opaque dark dark brown, bordering on black, with tan head of foam that faded fairly quickly. Lots of dark, dried fruit, like figs and prunes in the aroma; leather, dark chocolate, some plum, something a bit floral and a spicy note that makes my nose tingle.

This beer is spicy! And very chocolatey but the dark fruit flavours continue as well. I can't quite place the name of the spice (habanero?) but it is quite familiar and its flavour comes through as well as its heat. You cannot taste the alcohol but it may be contributing to the warming feeling I attributed to the spice. There is a bit of a gingery flavour too.

This is a nice spicy ale, I've had a couple (and tried to make one) but this is the best execution.

Dogstalker April Bock - Grand River Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Cambridge)

Dogstalker April Bock - Grand River Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Cambridge) 6.0%

Pours a orange, reddish amber in a glass without much of a head; some sediment at the bottom of the bottle. The aroma has caramel sweetness, actually more like toffee, brown or even molasses bread and some, nay lots, of apple-ey red fruit as well as some dark fruit (prune) notes.

The aroma is a bit like malt syrup used in homebrew but isn't nearly that sweet. The occasional roasty smell drifts in and out but it never shows up in the flavour, instead it is well on the sweet, caramelized, red ale side of the Maillard process. Lots of brown bread and toffee. There is some underlying tartness and syrupy sweetness reminds me of sherry and unfortunately it is the cooking kind that springs to mind not the drinking kind. When combined with overly forward red fruit flavours it kind of ruins this beer for me. 

The difficulty for me with invented (or at the least styles I haven't heard of and don't show up in my beer encyclopedia) styles like an April Bock is that I'm not sure what the brewer was going for. It could be that they nailed this and it is just not to my taste because I have liked other Grand River Brewing products but I am not really a fan of this one. If I am on the right track with what the concept, an April Bock would be pretty good if the fruit flavours had been a bit more subdued and if the sweetness was less syrupy and more malty. 

8th Sin - Hop City (Canada - Ontario - Brampton)

8th Sin - Hop City (Canada - Ontario - Brampton) 5.0%

Very dark, nearly opaque, with an off-white head which is lighter than I expected for a beer with such a dark body. Milk chocolate aroma, with a subtle earthiness, a bit of coffee, a tiny bit of grain. Chocolatey flavour with a bit of dark, dried fruit tones and a grounding earthiness as well as the taste of the crust of dark bread. The mouthfeel is a bit surprisingly (and pleasantly) light while still being creamy. The aftertaste is more strongly earthy with light prune and raisin flavours to match the chocolate.

This is a really tasty beer, I can honestly say I have never had a Black Lager that had this depth and breadth of dark malt flavours. The is something to it that I am finding hard to put into words that seems more like a lager than an ale but I think I would be bluffing if I asserted that, in a blind taste test, I'd be able to tell the difference between this and an equally tasty dark ale with a similar light mouthfeel.

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

Doppelbock - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 8.6%

A reddish chestnut colour in a glass with a big head of frothy, resilient, off-white foam.

A malty, sticky, caramelized aroma with red fruit, a sugary molasses, and some alcohol tones tones a bit like fruitcake. A really delicious fruitcake.

Sweet with some flavour tones that remind me a bit of sherry but with much more depth and breadth than I have ever taste in a sherry. Some red fruit tones, as in the aroma, tastes of a light molasses, a hint of wood (likely from the hops) and plenty of dried fruit like raisin, dates or prunes but with a lighter taste to them.

Les Trois Mousquetaires' Doppelbock has a surprisingly light mouthfeel which keeps this beer very enjoyable and without allowing the sweetness to become cloying even at warmer temperatures (the suggested serving temperature is between 10 and 14 Celsius). There is a little sediment at the bottom of the bottle and it tends to make the beer a bit more yeasty and just the slightest bit sour so I would leave the last centimeter of beer in the bottom of the bottle to avoid that.

Maredsous Brune (Belgium)

Maredsous Brune (Belgium) 8.0%


Yeasty, spicy aroma with floral hints and a dark malt back. Very roasty with a high alcohol burn that borders on a hum; floral and fruit tones (fig, prune). Very carbonated but that can be easily handled in the pour. Very nice brown version of you should expect from a Belgian Abbey Ale - perfectly balanced and bursting with character. Some light sediment that doesn't take anything away from the flavour.