Dos Equis Lager Especial and Dos Equis Amber (Mexico)

Dos Equis Lager Especial (Mexico) 4.5%

Pale gold in a glass. Lightly flavoured: somewhat malty and sweet, a little bitter. Musty taste like damp cardboard. Fully carbonated and very drinkable but pretty light on taste. A standard international lager but it has great ads though.

The cardboard taste is due to oxidization, and unless this is due to sloppy brewing practices where the beer is exposed to oxygen during the brewing, this probably because the beer is old and has gotten a little stale. Unlike Samuel Adams there is no 'brew date' or 'best before' date on the bottle so you can't be sure if a bottle of Dos Equis is going to be stale tasting until you drink it! And unless your local beer store moves a lot of Dos Equis, there is a good chance you could end up with an older than optimal bottle of beer. Not the brewers fault but something to consider.

Dos Equis Amber (Mexico) 4.6%

Dark amber to the point of being brown. Sweet with hints of caramel, a little musky (like the Dos Equis Lager), malty and roasty. Dos Equis Amber is a surprisingly complicated beer (considering that the lager is quite bland), and it is quite good in my estimation.

A Pair of Very Different Dark Beers

Gosser Dark Beer (Austria) 4.5%

Dark brown in a glass. A creamy malty flavour of dark chocolate and yet not very bitter. Velvety foam. A very nice beer in all.



Guinness Draught canned (Ireland) 4.2%

This is a watery offering with coffee and malt flavours and bitter but without any hints of dark chocolate that might be expected from a black beer like Guinness. All in all, the canned version just isn't Guinness Draught even if it says so on the label and even though it is black in a glass with the cascading silky smooth foam that it is known for.

And what is this "beer - serve extra cold" business at the bottom of the label? That seems more suitable to flavourless American style lagers rather than a pint with this much history.

Beer Maven Canada Day Suggestion - Mill Street Brewery

Mill Street Brewery - Lemon Tea Beer (Canada - Ontario) 5.0%

A dark, but orange and gold tinted, brown colour in a glass. The lemon (and it is actual lemon puree) makes the beer taste like a white beer at first until the maltiness of the lager kicks in.
This is a beer that screams summer, it begs to be drunk on a sun drenched patio. The beer is sweetened with sugar cane juice but it doesn't come across overly sweetened probably due to the fact that it is mixed with actual orange pekoe tea which does a delicious job of balancing the sweetness.

Cheers and happy Canada Day!

www.millstreetbrewery.com

Boxer Lager (USA - Wisconsin) 5.0%

Boxer Lager (USA - Wisconsin) 5.0%

Very little taste to this beer: a little bit of bananas, some malt and a little skunky. An unremarkable lager that has a somewhat scummy mouthfeel.

Needless to say I don't exactly recommend this beer.

Bigtide Brewing Company - Sampler (Canada - New Brunswick - Saint John)

Bigtide Brewing Company - Sampler (Canada - New Brunswick - Saint John)

A delightful brewpub located in historic Saint John with good beer and great food. I enjoyed one of their sample trays of four of their five beers that they currently had available all for the low, low price of $8.00 (and that's including tax!). All their beer is brewed on site although not all the types mentioned on their website are available at all times of the year. I was also allowed into the brewroom, just off the bar area, for a few photos.


Rounding out the experience the service was great too; for whatever reason one of the glasses of beer was flat and our server, Breanne, brought us a new one without complaint. I recommend this place to anyone dining in Saint John.

(From right to left: Hemp, Bitter, Wheat, Brown)

Fogbound Hemp Pale Ale

This very good beer had an unusual but pleasant bitter taste, as well as floral tones and it was also almost a little soapy, probably from the natural oils of the hemp seed. A very interesting beer and tasty; ordered a pint of this one, also took a pint of the bitter.

Benedict Arnold Extra Special Bitter

Caramel taste and bitter. Wooden tones and a sprucy hops taste. A good mix and a very good beer.

Wild Wheat Summer Ale

The least flavourful beer in the tray, a little bitter and not bad but missing the interesting characteristics (usually floral flavours) I expect from a wheat beer.

Stone Circle Brown

Being a brown ale it was not thick like a stout or a porter. An enjoyable beer, the main flavour is a musty cross between coffee and chocolate with a certain woodiness.

A special Beer Maven thank you to Breanne G.