Dragon's Milk - New Holland Brewing (United States - Missouri - Holland) 11.0%

 Dragon's Milk - New Holland Brewing (United States - Missouri - Holland) 11.0%

Dark brown in a glass with a silky head of mocha coloured foam. A really nice, almost chewy, aroma of dark fruit and chocolate; plenty of oak and vanilla as well.

Dark fruit flavours, and oak and vanilla abound. There is some distinct alcohol tingling in the mouth and warming of the chest. Strong bourbon spice in the finish, that same spice may explain some of the tingling I had ascribed to the alcohol. The mouthfeel is creamy as you drink it but thin once you swallow leaving a nice espresso, vanilla and hints of oak aftertaste but very little lingering texture for a stout (probably because of the cleansing properties of the high alcohol content).

I have found in the past that oak accentuates the taste of alcohol (and I don't think that's just because I, as a bourbon fan, associate oak with hard liquor BTW) but I think the strongish alcohol sensation and a bit of a taste are actually from the alcohol content. Now you may wonder why I'd comment on this when reviewing a beer that is listed at 11% but I've had other 11% beers that carried their alcohol less obviously. All that said, I think Dragon's Milk might be even stronger than the 11% indicated on the label, considering how squishy my head is feeling already. While Dragon's Milk carries its booze a bit more obviously than some other ales I think they did a bang-up job making a tasty chocolatey and oaky stout that is well suited to their High Gravity (aka high alcohol) series.

Vanilla Porter - Waterloo Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Kitchener)

Vanilla Porter - Waterloo Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Kitchener) 6.0%

A strongly delicious, strongly vanilla aroma. Chocolate, sweetness, caramel and so much vanilla!

The vanilla flavour is strong but lessens with progressive sips. Along with the vanilla there are strong caramel and coffee/espresso flavours as well as nice dark chocolate flavours with a touch of black olives. If you have ever had a vanilla beer, porter or otherwise, and thought, "There's some vanilla, but I would like more" then this Vanilla Porter is for you. No one is going to say Waterloo Vanilla Porter is lacking in vanilla, that's for dang sure.

Burnt Rock - Beau's All-Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill)

Burnt Rock - Beau's All-Natural Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Vankleek Hill) 4.9%

Opaque, dark brown with a gigantic mocha head of foam. Earthy chocolate and dark fruit aroma, vanilla and light wood smoke.

Strong vanilla flavour, a bit of coffee to go with the milk chocolate flavour; there is an earthy tone underlying everything as well. The vanilla makes up a much greater share of the flavour than it does of the aroma. A very nice beer, I find the vanilla flavour a bit strong in the afternoon or if you are drinking for a buzz but it would be perfect as a dessert beer.

Vanilla Porter - Mill Street (Canada - Ontario - Toronto)

Vanilla Porter - Mill Street (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 5.0%

Very dark in a glass, opaque even, with a large, light mocha coloured head of silky foam. You can hear a fairly violent discharge as the nitrogen capsule fires when you open the can. The foam takes quite a while to settle but that's alright since it tastes just as good as it smells. Speaking of which: Mill Street's Vanilla Porter has a delightful vanilla and milk chocolate aroma.

The mouthfeel is silky smooth, creamy and yet refreshingly watery at times. The beer tastes mostly of vanilla but with dark chocolate and coffee notes as well as a lightly smoky backdrop. On top of that it features an aftertaste that I can best describe by comparing it to coffee flavoured ice cream. This dessert porter is quite delightful and will certainly please fans of vanilla.

Vanilla Barley Wine - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie)

Vanilla Barley Wine - Flying Monkeys (Canada - Ontario - Barrie) 11.3%

This magnificent barley wine is a dark cloudy brown in a glass (a pint glass!) on the Patio at the Arrow and Loon in Ottawa, with a creamy and resilient head of foam.

The aroma is straight vanilla at first but also toffee, caramel and sticky malt that comes to dominate. Some oaky wood tones, a bit of leather and some sweet espresso/coffee with milk added.

A creamy mouthfeel with caramel, vanilla, leather, smoke and mild wood flavours. Sweet initially with alcohol tones (though not as strong as you might expect from a beer that clocks in at a whopping 11.3% ABV) but the taste shifts (although it does so, so smoothly that it's much more like a glide) to a bitter finish and an aftertaste of barley candy. Overall, this is a really nice barley wine: sweet but balanced, malty, boozy and delicious featuring some very nice vanilla.

Captivator Doppelbock - Tree Brewing (Canada - British Columbia - Kelowna) 8.0%

Captivator Doppelbock - Tree Brewing (Canada - British Columbia - Kelowna) 8.0%

Dark brown that is deep and nearly opaque but acquires some darkly glowing amber tones when you hold it up to the light; a fairly thin off-white head of foam. There is some light sediment at the bottom of the bottle but nothing you need to avoid.

The aroma is delicious. What, you want me to be more specific? Ok, it's richly malty and sweet with touches of caramel and white cake but it is heavily laden with sweet dark fruit tones like baked raisins or prunes as well as molasses tones and vanilla.

The taste is quite sweet and very malty, dark fruit tones and molasses a more than bit of vanilla. A mix of dry hops, tastes of alcohol and some faint wood tones takes some of the edge off of the sweetness but this is a very sweet and very delicious beer. This is a sweeter and lighter doppelbock than some that have more roasty or coffee, chocolate and smoke flavours but it is still loaded with malt flavour and it is quite high in alcohol

It is a limited edition so I strongly recommend checking your local stores to see if they have any left and buy a few. Enjoy one now and set aside a few for aging or for a special occasion.

Aphrodisiaque - Brasserie Dieu du Ciel (Canada - Quebec - St. Jerome)

Aphrodisiaque - Brasserie Dieu du Ciel (Canada - Quebec - St. Jerome) 6.5%

Opaquely black in a glass with a fairly quick fading light brown head. Strong cocoa and vanilla aroma with dark dried fruit. The vanilla aroma is delicate yet forceful and reminds me cookies and baking generally - Aphrodisiaque may just be the comfort food of beer. The flavour is initially all chocolate (delicious chocolate) but on subsequent sips, the vanilla envelops and enhances the chocolate culminating in a delightfully dessert-like beer experience. The finish is still laden with chocolate and vanilla but also has a certain smoky quality. I expected Aphrodisiaque to be more bitter and while it is not overly sweet by any means, it probably isn't more bitter than some of the darkest chocolates. I think Dieu du Ciel was very wise in this regard and has done a good job of letting the natural bitterness of the cocoa and vanilla beans stand on their own without using much of a hops bitterness at all. This is a delightful beer and though filling like a traditional stout, I could be easily persuaded to drink several of these indulgent beauties rather than eating dessert (or eating at all).

Innis and Gunn Spiced Rum Finish (Scotland) 7.4%

Innis and Gunn Spiced Rum Finish (Scotland) 7.4%

A toffee aroma that will buckle your knees. Vanilla and also a hint of alcohol along rum and a hint of spice mixed with oak tones. Such a nice aroma I could sit with my nose in the glass all afternoon!

A distinct warming of the chest as I sipped on this delicious ale. A touch of bitterness, alcohol and even a hint of hops at the very first. Then very sweet with toffee and vanilla. As the toffee fades, spices and oak come out with as the spiced rum makes it presence felt.

Innis and Gunn Spiced Rum Finish is a spectacular mix of the warm toffee flavours of Innis and Gunn's Scottish Ale and the flavours of vanilla, oak and others from a fine spiced rum missing only the strong, burning alcohol taste of hard liquor. Very enjoyable and memorable like all the other Innis and Gunn products I have tried.

Innis and Gunn Blonde (Scotland) 6.0%

Innis and Gunn Blonde (Scotland) 6.0%

A bunch of sediment in the bottom, thought that was a bit odd especially since it's new to the store. Gold in a glass, the sediment did a good job staying on the bottom of the bottle - thankfully.

Very sweet, oak wood tones aroma. The taste is candy sweet, brown sugar, caramel touches along with plenty of vanilla and oak wood tones and a little bit of malt. Innis and Gunn's Blonde is quite nice if you are prepared for how sweet it is because it really is very sweet. The oak tones are balanced and not overpowering. This is a nice ale suitable for sipping or quaffing.

15th Anniversary Malt: Vanilla and Cocoa - Garrision Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 9.0%

15th Anniversary Malt: Vanilla and Cocoa - Garrision Brewing (Canada - Nova Scotia - Halifax) 9.0%

Opaque, dark chocolate black/brown in a glass with a thick beige head. Bitter dark chocolate aroma with a mix of faint dark fruit and some doughy rye bread tones with some subtle hops aromids too. Some light sediment at the bottom of the bottle that adds some grain and fairly prominent oatmeal flavours. The sediment really adds an interesting dimension to the beer so I'd strongly suggest pouring the whole bottle into one glass (or into a pitcher and then into glasses if you are really intent on sharing).

Strong tasting: roasty, a little smoky, slightly tart dark fruit and dried red fruit tones, alcohol with the bitter flavour of the darkest of chocolates.  This mixing of light sweet malts with touches of caramel (crystal and caramel malt) with a smorgasbord of dark (and very dark) malts and then coupled with the high alcohol tastes like an alcoholic fruitcake made with brandy (maybe a splash of whiskey - if anyone actually makes fruitcake with whiskey) and absolutely loaded with dried fruits.

Not entirely unexpectedly, this beer gets better as it warms: the fruit esters and touches of high alcohol are still decidedly there but mix more deliciously with the deep malt flavours and the vanilla really starts to come out. It is still very bitter, and there are still chocolate flavours, but rather than striking me as a mostly dark chocolate flavoured beer I'd almost say molasses and maple with some smoke sum up the flavours better (with the aforementioned fruit esters and tastes of alcohol). The hops flavours also come out more as it warms but this brew is still a celebration of malt rather than hops. Obviously there's a lot of depth to this malty beauty: try it cool, try it warmer and enjoy it all round.

Scottish Style Heavy Ale - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 7.0%

Scottish Style Heavy Ale - Big Rock (Canada - Alberta - Calgary) 7.0%

Brown hued amber in a glass. Sweet, caramel, slightly oaky aroma with hints of vanilla and roast with just a bit of hops. A complicated flavour with heady fruit esters and roasty sweetness, some caramel, some wood tones and bread flavours. Some hops flavour here and there lending some balance. Not much taste of the 7% alcohol except mixed with the fruit esters and hops to generate a port-like flavour and the wood tones respectively. I'd recommend serving it warmish to get the full flavour. A bit of a different take on a Scottish Wee Heavy: Big Rick's Scottish Style Heavy Ale is on the sweeter side but without those heavy, almost chewy, malt flavours.

St-Ambroise Scotch Ale - McAuslan Brewing (Canada - Montreal)

St-Ambroise Scotch Ale - McAuslan Brewing (Canada - Montreal) 7.5%

A brown amber in a glass. Initially a dry, lightly hoppy aroma that reminds me of euro lagers (which was unexpected) but after the head faded (which happened rather quickly, actually) dark malt aromas of grain, peat (that's probably because I'm looking at the word scotch too much but it is a touch smoky), roasty glaze and not quite coffee tones continuing on into a quite sweet aroma with molasses, light wood tones and vanilla is a late arriving scent. The vanilla is very pleasant and very noticeable once some of the other aromas fade. Really, the vanilla comes to dominate with dark malt sweetness and the hops sticking around and keeping the balance nicely. No alcohol really detectable in the aroma but that may change as it warms up.

Bundles of flavours to taste here. Clearly high in alcohol that you can taste in the roof of your mouth but carried so nicely by chewy malt flavours of molasses, dark bread and some dark fruit touches like prunes or dark candied cherries. The aftertaste is long lingering, less sweet and hoppier with grain flavours as well as the shadow of dark malt flavours. As St-Ambroise Scotch Ale warms, caramel flavours reveal themselves from the mix and assert themselves quite strongly and round out this Wee-Heavy inspired winter seasonal. The mix of flavours is just perfect for a cold winter's night (or day).

Lions Winter Ale - Granville Island Brewing (Canada - British Columbia - Vancouver) 5.5%

Lions Winter Ale - Granville Island Brewing (Canada - British Columbia - Vancouver) 5.5%


A brownish, reddish amber in a glass. Lots of vanilla, wood tones (oak?), and a touch of molasses in the aroma; maybe a hint of chocolate. Vanilla and quite a bit of something milk chocolatey to the taste. After the frist few sips the chocolate (milk, not dark chocolate) aspect of the aroma really came out. Lots of "chewy" malt flavours in there, enough it would seem, to support a high ABV but at the same time it's nice to have a winter ale that has a sessional alcohol content. The wood tones from the aroma can also be found in the taste but they're actually a blend of the subtle hops character (that balances the malt nicely by the way) and the vanilla which I associate with a bourbon or whiskey even as it plays so nicely in Lions Winter Ale. Suggested food pairs on the back ("sweeter full-flavoured foods and cream-based sauces") look promising. Maybe it's the Rocky Mountains on the label but I think it'd go great with fondue as an apres-aki. This is a really nice beer and a splendid Winter beer. Not that they have a real winter in Vancouver but I guess thye do at altitude in the mountains.