Molson Canadian 67 Session IPA - MolsonCoors (Canada)

Molson Canadian 67 Session IPA - MolsonCoors (Canada) 3.0%

I'm dubious that this is going to be good, not because it's only 3% ABV but because it's made by MolsonCoors and they have a number of products in their portfolio that are less than desirable.

It pours nicely though! A proper head of white foam with a darker shade of amber coloured body in a glass. And... how about that? The aroma is strongly hoppy! Tropical fruit, resin and hints of something vegetal.

The flavour is also hop forward with the same mix of hop tones as in the aroma coming through clearly but without much intensity. The body is very thin (unsurprisingly, given it is a low calorie and very low alcohol beer) and it's a bit over carbonated as a result. The aftertaste is very short lived but over all this is an interesting beer. If very low alcohol and hops is something that you were looking for in a beer than I have to recommend giving this Session IPA a try. Really my only complaint is that it is over carbonated to my taste but I imagine that might appeal to some.

Black IPA - Big Rig Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa)

Black IPA - Big Rig Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa) 6.2%

The first things I check when I have been served or pour a Black IPA are the obvious ones: is it dark and is it hoppy. Big Rig's Black IPA meets both those criteria. It is a very dark (and damn near opaque) mahogany colour (or maybe even darker than that) with a thick and creamy mocha coloured head of foam. It also has a very nice resiny hop aroma with loads of tropical fruit tones. To the taste the first thing I noticed was a earthy, toasted, nutty, slightly coffee-like malt flavour followed closely by a strong hops flavour of cedar and resin with a strongly bitter finish. This is a really nice Black IPA and, to top it all off, the design on the can is super cool.

Kissmeyer Nordic Pale Ale - Beau's All-Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill)

Kissmeyer Nordic Pale Ale - Beau's All-Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill) 5.6%

Full gold in a glass, cloudy too. It totes a resilient heady of creamy white foam. A berrylike (gooseberry?) touch to the hoppy floral, herbal, pine and citrus (tangerine) aroma.


The taste is floral, spicy, herbal, resiny, sweet but perfectly bitter with a delightful berry flavour throughout that is a little tropical and never seems out of place or inappropriate. A very tasty beer. Overall the impressive ingredient list (rose hips!) and the delightful flavour combine for a spectacular beer.

Rhyme & Reason - Collective Arts Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Burlington)

Rhyme & Reason - Collective Arts Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Burlington) 5.7%

Brilliant gold in a glass with a big fluffy white head of foam. Very citrusy hops aroma of grapefruit as well as peach and mango tones with cedar and resin as well.

Fairly bitter hoppy flavour: pine, cedar and other woods tones as well as citrus flavours reminiscent of grapefruit peel and oranges. Quite bitter, still very drinkable as long as you like bitter beers. There is a toasty, biscuit malty body that, in combination with citrus hops character, reminds of range marmalade on scones.

Collective Arts Brewing does something interesting with their labels, there are different ones on nearly every bottle. There seem to be upward of 60 different labels in at least 2 serieses. It makes the completionist in me want to buy far too many bottles of beer but at least the contents are also enjoyable.

California Sunshine APA - Cameron's Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Oakville)

California Sunshine APA - Cameron's Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Oakville) 5.2%

Gold with a big head of resilient white foam. A nice resiny, cedar aroma with plenty of sap and citrus touches (orange and grapefruit) and mango.

The hops flavour is actually more of a dry herbal character than the sticky, resiny citrus tones that the aroma featured - not much sweetness comes through from the malty body so while there some woodlike hops flavours they are more like the way lumber would smell than the scent of trees or freshly cut wood with sap ooze from it.

This is a very pleasant and refreshing American Pale Ale, it is nice to find an APA that is genuinely bitter with a bunch of sugar or caramel in the flavour. This type of bitter beer would pair well with lots of food but is just dandy all on its own.

Angry Moose - Stack Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Sudbury)

Angry Moose - Stack Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Sudbury) 9.0%

A crystal clear amber gold in a glass. A sweet and somewhat peachy aroma mixed in with all those hops! Cedar, resin and citrus. As it warms there is a bit of toffee

Bitter flavour with lots of evergreen flavours a mix of cedar, pine and ... well that's just about all the evergreen trees I know. Oh wait, spruce! A caramelized sweetness that reminds me of the way burning sap smells which is exactly where some sweeter barrel tones come from as the charring on the inside of barrels before their use in aging beer or spirits brings out and caramelizes the sap and sugars in the wood. This beer is really amazingly balanced and it really conceal its alcohol content well. If they can produce this beer consistently to this high quality, and consistency can be a problem for new microbrews as they start up, I can see this Imperial IPA bringing home some awards for Stack Brewing.

White Shield - Worthington's (United Kingdom) 5.6%

White Shield - Worthington's (United Kingdom) 5.6%

Deep gold in a glass with an aroma with a bitter touch, a bit of honey and some wood tones that border on resiny. Light flavour of malty, toasty sweetness, lightly spicy or herbal with the barest hint of red fruit esters but with a somewhat bitter and resiny finish. In English India Pale Ales the hops flavours are much less bombastic than in their American IPA cousins and White Shield is no exception; however, while White Shield has the ideal flavour spectrum for an English IPA it seems awfully muted. The flavours are all quite subdued so while White Shield is on point it is a bit timid, even for an English IPA.

Dinner Jacket O'Red IPA - Arch Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Guelph)

Dinner Jacket O'Red IPA - Arch Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Guelph) 6.3%

A red hued gold in a glass with a big head of off-white foam. Cedar and resin aroma, with a scent of some sticky caramelized sugars you would expect from a Red Ale.

Very bitter, hops forward flavour at first and a very bitter aftertaste - a little metallic even. Honestly, Dinner Jacket seemed too bitter at first but I got accustomed to it quite quickly and more of the flavours came out rather than solely bitterness. Resin, cedar, pine and other faint wood tones form the hops character while crusty bread, and some nearly sticky candied fruit tones in the malty body. As promised on the label and by the use of oats, Dinner Jacket O'Red IPA does have a creamy mouthfeel.

In the end, the malt body of a Red Ale is what distinguishes this from other IPAs and a bit more of those Red Ale malt flavours as well as a bit less of the bitterness would make this beer a real standout.

Vulcan Ale - Pluto's Moon Beer Company

Vulcan Ale - Pluto's Moon Beer Company 5.4%

A dark amber in a glass, nearly brown when not held up to the light. Slightly hoppy (resin, cedar), toasty, sweet with a touch of something sticky - all said it reminds me a little bit a thin molasses.

Strongly sweet flavour but it is nicely toasty (just on the verge of turning into something roasty) and there is just enough hoppy bitterness. Some subtle wooden tones and faint red, fruity flavours round out this Irish Red Ale. I would say that Vulcan Ale is hoppier and just a little sweeter than an Irish Red ought to be but I enjoyed drinking it. Most importantly the name and can/label are awesome.

Live long and prosper.

Honey IPA - Trafalgar Ales and Meads (Canada - Ontario - Oakville)

Honey IPA - Trafalgar Ales and Meads (Canada - Ontario - Oakville) 5.5%

A dark, amber colour, smoke and fire kissed - kind of like the colour of sap. Resiny, coppery aroma, with a distinct sweet honey tone and touches of lavender and clover - maybe a bit of toffee too.

A fairly mellow hops flavour actually; resiny with much of the bitterness in the aftertaste. Sweet honey adds to the malty body of crusty bread and some nearly roasty malt flavours. A bit of a toffee flavour too that is well balanced by the bitterness. Also a subtle nutty flavour like the kind you'd taste from multigrain bread.

Overall I think this beer is pretty good, it's not an really IPA, by flavour or by alcohol content, however it's a fine American Pale Ale and I like the honey twist.

Screamin' Beaver - Beau's All Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill)

Screamin' Beaver - Beau's All Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill) 9.9%

A shade more gold than burnished copper in a glass with a head of off-white foam. Alcohol, oak, resin and cedar in the aroma. I'm excited to taste this one, an oak-aged Imperial IPA is not something I come across every day. It'll probably need to warm a bit from refrigerator temperature for it to be best since a high alcohol content, hops AND an oak flavour all tend to stand out a bit too much, in my opinion, and overwhelm the malt when a beer is too cold.

Cedar, a touch of alcohol then sweet, toasty, caramelized malt tones, resin follows and then the oak kicks in. A toasty but very bitter finish with a bit of alcohol and resiny bitter aftertaste that has some fleeting metallic touches.

Indeed as it warms the aroma does change, the alcohol no longer stands out, the oak comes to dominate. Predictably the alcohol also fades out of the flavour as it warms and the malt comes out much more. Screamin' Beaver is an indulgent beer, indeed the very idea of a oak aged Imperial IPA is indulgent. So go ahead, indulge yourself or even better, indulge yourself and a friend or two because at nearly 10% ABV this delicious beer is made for sharing.

Boundary Ale - Moosehead (Canada - New Brunswick - Saint John)

Boundary Ale - Moosehead (Canada - New Brunswick - Saint John) 5.3%

A deep amber colour in a glass with a head of off-white foam. An earthy but also resiny and sticky hops aroma with caramelized sugars and a malty body.

A slightly sweeter flavour than I expected, caramelized sugars that are on the red side of the Maillard process and just not quite roasty. Definitely still some hop tones: resin, cedar and a dry bitterness with just a bit of citrus. This ale is nicely balanced and has an appetizingly bitter aftertaste.

In my opinion this is the best beer that Moosehead makes (as a New Brunswicker that is saying something) and it's very nice: refreshing and complex. Boundary Ale is a lot (but not exactly) like an English IPA even if its hops character is a touch resiny.

Rudolphus VI - Beau's All-Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill)

Rudolphus VI - Beau's All-Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill) 6.9%

A very cloudy gold in a glass with a big frothy head of soda-like foam that settles down into a nice creamy layer of beer foam. The aroma is hoppy but it also has a malty body as well as distinctly Belgian, sweet tones.

Very hoppy, bitter flavour of cedar and resin at first. As you become acclimatized to the hops, Belgian candi sugar notes and nectary sweetness come out even as strong hops flavours remain. This is an interesting Belgian IPA, it is pretty strongly hoppy but also quite appropriately (for a Belgian style ale) sweet with the aforementioned nectar tones and some yeast flavours as you get down to the last third of the bottle. As a result of this unique mix of flavours, Rudolphus VI is one of those styles that you should know what you are going to be drinking before you taste it: a hoppy and bitter beer with the nectar and sugary sweet tones you expect from a Belgian ale.

Doc's Feet Dubbel - Beau's All Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill)

Doc's Feet Dubbel - Beau's All Natural Brewing (Canada Ontario - Vankleek Hill) 7.6%

Reddish, dark brown colour in a glass with a large off-white head. It gets cloudier as the bottle goes, and darker too: the first pour was only somewhat brown, not nearly as cloudy and the head of foam was fairly fast fading. Sweet, honeyed, nectary, herbal aroma (bordering on floral) with a roasted malt and lightly spicy background.

Strongly herbal flavour, sweetly caramelized, bordering on roasty, but with a moderate hops character that is drily bitter with faint hints of cedar and resin. The hops flavours are a pleasant surprise and work well with the other flavours. A mild alcohol taste comes through at times but not as much as one might expect from a beer with 7.6% ABV. The aftertaste is quite roasty, a bit chocolate like and also with echos of the yeast flavour. This is an interesting Belgian Dubbel; quite tasty.

Red Racer India Pale Ale - Central City Brewers (Canada - British Columbia - Surrey)

Red Racer India Pale Ale - Central City Brewers (Canada - British Columbia - Surrey) 6.5%

A slightly red full gold colour in a glass with a big head of white frothy foam. Resin, cedar, citrus (grapefruit) and mango hops aroma. Strongly hoppy flavour, with grapefruit, papaya, cedar, pine and sticky resin. Quite bitter but with some sweetness from the malty mixed in. A bitter hops (especially grapefruit) and slightly metallic aftertaste. This is a solid IPA that would go well with stirfry and one that I would drink regularly if it was local, that's no knock against Red Racer I just prefer my locally produced beers for environmental reasons.

Fuller's Vintage Ale 2012 (United Kingdom - London)

Fuller's Vintage Ale 2012 (United Kingdom - London) 8.5%

Just on the amber side of gold and barely cloudy with not much of a head, although I am pour it out in dribs and drabs so that I can savour this beer that I have been saving for more than a year. Sweet, nectary, peach and apple pie aroma. Apple because of some esters but pie because of the sweet, somewhat roasty malt flavours. Subdued but solid resiny hops, earth tones and a touch of alcohol blends this all together tantalizingly.

Sweetly sugary but with malt tones like barley candy, dried fruit flavours (dates, raisins) and lingering peach or marmalade tones. These sweet flavours are grounded with spicy, herbal hops tones and medium bitterness. The aftertaste is slightly bitter, earthy, with a caramelized sweetness and leather hints with a faint lingering touch of that marmalade flavour. I think the flavour of Fuller's Vintage Ale 2012 is truly delightful. If I had to describe it in only one sentence I'd describe it as such: a lighter body and perhaps slightly sweeter barley wine but with all the complexity. Bear in mind that barley wines are among my favourite beer styles of all time so this is high praise indeed.

On the strength of Fuller's Vintage Ale 2012's flavour I plan to pick up two or three of their 2013 (and 2014 and 2015 and ...) edition: one for a year from now; one for a vertical tasting with a one-year-old 2014; and one for a vertical tasting with a one-year-old 2015 and two-year-old 2014. Vertical tastings take a long horizon and a good deal of planning and foresight (not to mention a place to actually properly store the beer) so I still haven't done a proper one (once, out of luck I managed to find a few Orval bottles at an NB Liquor store that were bottled eight months apart) but this beauty of a beer from more than twelve months ago has convinced me that it has to happen.

India Pale Ale - Sleeman Breweries [Sapporo Brewery] (Canada)

India Pale Ale - Sleeman Breweries [Sapporo Brewery] (Canada) 5.3%

Aroma of honey and bread, the faintest bit of dry european hops somewhat toasty.

Malty with some rye bread flavour actually, subtle fruit flavours with a hint of roast like very light chocolate. Sleeman IPA has a bitter finish but not any overly strong hop characteristics though there is some resin and slightly herbal flavours.

This is definitely much more of an English IPA than an American IPA. Don't expect a hopbomb, that's the wrong side of the Pond, but this is a quite good English IPA.

Pink Fuzz - Beyond The Pale (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa)

Pink Fuzz - Beyond The Pale (Canada - Ontario - Ottawa) 6.0%

A sweet red ruby grapefruit aroma, cedar and resin hops as well. A bit of fresh, floral vegetable like really sweet, raw and fresh off the vine green bean.

A cloudy pale gold, more like yellow, in a glass with a slight pink hue that turns the colour of the beer to just like grapefruit peel. Cedar and pine flavours, grapefruit as well (though more subdued than in the aroma). The grapefruit is a little tart, more like actual grapefruit than the grapefruit-like aroma citra or cascade hops can give a beer. Overall, this is quite a nice fruit flavoured wheat.

If you happen to be in the Ottawa area you can buy Pink Fuzz in growler format straight from the brewery. If you do, be sure to agitate it gently so that the sediment is more evenly distributed: it holds a lot of the flavour. Of course, Pink Fuzz is also available on tap throughout Ottawa; a format in which this tasty brew never fails to please.

Autumn Hop Harvest Ale - Amsterdam Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Toronto)

Autumn Hop Harvest Ale - Amsterdam Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 5.6%

Herbal, citrus (orange and a hint of grapefruit), a bit floral, pine and sticky resin rounds out hops character of the aroma while there is also some earthiness and biscuit and honey tones from the malty body. Clear full gold in a glass.

To go along with its moderately hoppy flavour and sweet grain tones, this beer made with fresh hops (as in added without being dried first) has a pleasant peppery earthiness. The combination of spice and earth tones feels to me a bit like autumn incarnate (distillate?) which I think is perfect for a seasonal such as Autumn Hop Harvest Ale. The aftertaste is moderately bitter hops that tastes of pine as well as a little herbal, citrus and some resin too. This is a nice American Pale Ale in its own right but I feel it also is a good example of the appeal of fresh hop beers and the variety they can bring.

The Canadian Dream - Mikkeller Brewery (Denmark - Copenhagen)

The Canadian Dream - Mikkeller Brewery (Denmark - Copenhagen) 4.6%

An orange amber colour in a glass with a big off-white head of foam. A sweet and citrusy aroma with some resin and ever-so-slightly musty wood tones.

Very hoppy taste, cedar and light resin. Some citrus and tropical fruit flavours: I pick up papaya (think of those dried orange cubes in trail mix), some grapefruit and maybe tangerine. While this beer has sweet tastes at times it is also quite bitter and leaves the tongue tingling a little as a result.

There is a bit of confusion as to the alcohol content of this beer, the label claims 4.6% but I have seen it registered at 5.5% in several places on the internet. I think it is more likely to be 5.5% because this would otherwise be the hoppiest and lowest alcohol beer I ever had by a longshot. Roughly speaking, a higher alcohol content requires more sugar for the yeast to eat. Also, for a beer to be this hoppy without being overwhelmingly bitter there has to be a fair amount of balancing sweetness, this is something that I just don't think could be accomplished in a conventional beer that is only 4.6%. Regardless of the ABV, this is a very nice American Pale Ale.