Imperial Black Berliner Weisse - Collaboration Pit Caribou Microbrasserie & Broadway Microbrasserie (Canada - Quebec)

Imperial Black Berliner Weisse - Collaboration Pit Caribou Microbrasserie & Broadway Microbrasserie (Canada - Quebec) 7.0%

Very dark brown and cloudy in a glass with a creamy head of foam. An oatmeal touch to the aroma, chocolate and earthy touch. The taste of this collaboration Imperial Black Berliner Weisse is unique as in very sour. I'm really glad I read the label so that this didn't catch me off guard, to wit:

The sour flavour hits all upfront, and fades out to be mostly replaced with roasty chocolate and coffee flavours in the mid-mouth taste. The aftertaste is smoky with a hint of grain and chocolate. The flavours of this sour beer work nicely together and is an interesting take on a dark wheat beer.

Opa's Gose (Wild Oats Series #05) - Beau's All Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill)

Opa's Gose (Wild Oats Series #05) - Beau's All Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill) 5.0%

A cloudy gold in a glass with a thin head and a sour, citrusy (lemon) aroma that features tones of grain and some dry Pilsner like hops.

Quite sour with plenty of yummy yeast flavours: nectar, floral and herbal with banana as well. I grew accustomed to the sour flavour very quickly and by the third sip or so didn't really notice it much more than I would with other yeast heavy beers that sometimes comes across as a touch sour. Other Gose beers (sour ales) have been much, much more sour so this one is tame in comparison. There is sediment at the bottom of the bottle but it only adds further strength to the yeast flavours - no additional acidity. The included sea salt is fun: in small doses I found it did add to the flavour somewhat and caused some amusing but under control foaming action. But for goodness sake don't put in the whole four gram package, the baggie pictured below was photographed after I had added the desired amount of salt.

Opa's Gose would pair well with plenty kinds of foods. I found that it paired well with some greasier fare as the tart touch cut through the grease nicely and was quite refreshing.

Gosser (Austria) 5.2%

Gosser (Austria) 5.2%

A creamy malty aroma that is a bit musty and has occasional hints of misplaced banana. Gold in a glass with a resilient head. The taste is fairly bitter, a little sour and just a little bit... cheesy. Gosser's taste reminds me more of a gluten free beer than a conventional beer. Hey, with food you may not even notice the weird taste and mouthfeel which is slightly drying. This beer does not taste good.

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

Gose - Les Trois Mousquetaires (Canada - Quebec - Brossard) 3.8%

Lime, coriander and light floral hops aroma; sour and very intriguing. Orange and somewhat cloudy in a glass with fine sediment swirling about. Some fine sediment also remains in the bottom of the bottle.

Very tart taste. Coriander works it's way into the flavour once you get used to just how sour this sour beer is. There is even some sweetness too as well as creamy wheat flavours and mouthfeel. The combination of coriander and the sour flavour reminds me more of sour limenade than the sour lemonade mentioned on the highly attractive label but, at any rate, Gose has a flavour much like that of a sour and tasty citrus beverage.

The interesting flavour of sour beers makes them suitable for food pairings with light foods like salads or sushi, but also Gose would go great with guacamole or similar flavourful food that has a trace of lime.

Like every other product by Les Trois Mousquetaires, Gose is well-made, very tasty and presented in a beautiful bottle with a sharp looking label that is full of useful information. This is a perfect summer beer and a much more interesting, traditional and flavourful alternative to lagers flavoured with lime.

Faxe Amber (Denmark) 5.0%

Faxe Amber (Denmark) 5.0%

Sweet, honeyed, lightly caramelized malt aroma with a bit of dry hops. A brown tinted amber in a glass.

A moderately caramelized malt flavour which is to be expected from an Amber: a little bit like the crust from dark bread. Also quite bitter and the taste of alcohol is there occasionally despite it only being 5.0% ABV. Unfortunately there's a unpleasant sour taste that comes through sometimes which is not nice. Overall, it's not bad for a mass-produced Amber (which isn't saying much) except for that sour flavour which can be really off-putting. Actually, between the sour flavour and the oddly unmasked alcohol taste Faxe Amber isn't very good. Some other Faxe products are just as cheap but actually quite a bit better.

Farmhouse Ale - Bridge Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 7.5%

Farmhouse Ale - Bridge Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 7.5%

This ale pours a cloudy amber colour in a glass with a big frothy head that leaves lovely lacing. The nose is led by Belgian yeast aromas: floral and herbal tones as well as sweetness. Bridge Brewing describes the aroma as candied fruit and I have to say I agree, a little bit of something gingery in there too. There is a lot of stuff going on in the aroma (I expect everybody will get something a little bit different) and it is really quite nice.

The yeast notes continue in the taste, herbal, nectar, maybe a hint of banana and something like not-quite-ripe mango, but rounded out by a sweet and roasty malt body. There is a bit of pine tasting hops, a bitter bite to the finish as well as a tart touch from the mix of yeast flavours. Also, the aftertaste has a bit of a resiny hops taste to it. You can feel the alcohol warming your chest and as a tingling in your mouth but it barely comes through in the flavour except to accentuate the bitterness. As regular readers of the blog can probably guess I like this ale even more as it warms: the roasty flavours come out more and also the tart yeast flavours, the bitterness as well as the alcohol all blend better in my opinion.

For those of you not aware, Bridge Brewing is an interesting new brewery and project based out of Halifax, their website and this copy printed on the back of their reusable 750 ml ceramic bottles tell their story.

La Messagère - Les Bières de la Nouvelle-France (Canada - Quebec - St Alexis des Monts)

La Messagère - Les Bières de la Nouvelle-France (Canada - Quebec - St Alexis des Monts) 4.7%

Very, very pale gold in a glass. Malty aroma ctually, bread and quite a bit of yeast. Quite taste (at times very sour), flowery but some malt-like taste and overall really not that bad. One of the best gluten-free beers I've even had, by far.

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.