Gahan Sydney Street Stout - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI - Charlottetown)

Gahan Sydney Street Premium Stout - PEI Brewing Company (Canada - PEI) 5.2%

Pitch black in a glass, an impressive velvety head of tiny bubbles with good lacing. Coffee, grain, brown bread aroma, chocolate and hints of smoke like you get from bread toasted to point of being nearly charred.

Initially, a bitter dark chocolate taste so strong and distinct it seems like they could have actually used chocolate although there is no indication that they actually did. I view the use of actual chocolate in stouts as practically "cheating" when a good brewmaster can work such magic with judicious use of different types of malted barley. I have exceptions for my rule to allow for desert beers and other creative uses, and I'm certainly not a Reinheitsgebot-ist that pooh-poohs the use of any ingredients other than water, malt, hops and yeast but I digress. The dark chocolate flavour lasts throughout but takes a step back to allow some wooden tones, some bread flavours and a touch of hops to come through as well. The mouthfeel is creamy but not heavy.

I very much like this limited edition bottled stout and I hope the PEI Brewing Company sees fit to add Sydney Street Stout to their current roster of 1772 IPA, Sir John A Honey Wheat, Iron Horse Brown and Island Red which are all available in bottle in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and soon Nova Scotia.

Rifleman's Ration - Black Creek Historic Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Toronto)

Rifleman's Ration - Black Creek Historic Brewery (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 5.0%

A rosy brown colour in a glass with a subdued head that fades quite quickly but leaves nice lacing. I'm not sure how unfiltered it is but there was zero sediment. A smoky, extremely roasty aroma with some grain, lots of wood tones, a floral touch as well as an earthy touch. Also an aroma like the crust of well baked brown bread and a bit tartly astringent as if it was higher in alcohol than only 5.0%.

The taste is all that and more. Molasses, palpable smokiness, wood tones, piles of roast, brown bread, a milk chocolate aspect, a bit a fresh cut grass taste from the hops and a slight taste of alcohol with a chest-warming booze sensation (5% really?) that combines with the other flavours already mentioned to be a little rum-like. An umami and brown bread aftertaste with a touch of molasses and smoke. A delicious taste indeed to have lingering in your mouth. Definitely follow Black Creek Historic Brewery's recommendation and drink Rifleman's Ration at room temperature.

I can't say enough about how much I like the concept of this beer and brewery. For me, trying historic beers brewed according to old recipes is one of my favourite spin offs of the craft beer revolution. Garrison makes a Spruce Beer that is a similar concept though with a different flavour and different ingredients.

Plowman's Ale - Grand River Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Cambridge)

Plowman's Ale - Grand River Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Cambridge) 4.7%

Hoppy aroma, sweet and some tones of roasty fresh brown bread or even rising bread dough. Some fruit esters and something that smells a little like alcohol at first blush - but that can't be right as it is only 4.7%. Quite brown and gold with a reddish hint in a glass and ever so slightly cloudy. A slick creamy head with frothy, robust nearly lumpy lacing. Some fine sediment towards the end of the bottle that kicks the cloudiness up a notch.

A hoppy, darkly resiny taste, still some fruit esters, roasty and just a touch sticky like many reds. A nice American Amber as the hefty hops tones and bitter finish are balanced with rough malt tones and the more traditional red flavours. At times the bitterness of the hops flavours and the fruit ester combine to make something nearly port-like but it is all very nice and Plowman's Ale strikes lovely balance between food like malt flavours and bitter green hops flavours.

Oranje Weisse - Amsterdam Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto)

Oranje Weisse - Amsterdam Brewing (Canada - Ontario - Toronto) 5.0%



Pale, nearly full gold in a glass and just ever so slightly cloudy. My bottle had been stored for quite a while (at an appropriate temperature, mind you) so I think more sediment resisted the Weisse Roll (see photo below) than not. Towards the end of the bottle more of the sediment ended up in my glass and was quite nice. A quick look at the ingredients list reveals the reason why this aroma differs from other white beers: it is the anise which adds quite a pleasant aspect to go along with the coriander, yeast, malt and wheat tones.

The taste is quite a nice mix of anise and coriander with the citrus flavour being just a little muted (I, of course, did not serve it with an orange slice as the bottle suggested). The malt flavour speaks more to barley than wheat, though the wheat is clearly there and the mouthfeel is fairly creamy. This mix of grain choices has the added benefit of making the beer lighter and more refreshing than if they had gone heavier on the wheat: tailor-made for patios during hot Ontario summers. All in all quite nicely refreshing and I like the use of anise.

Brasseurs RJ - Blonde d'Achouffe (Canada - Quebec - Montreal)

Brasseurs RJ - Blonde d'Achouffe (Canada - Quebec - Montreal) 8.0%

A bright gold in a glass with an aroma of honey, fresh baked bread, yeast; quite floral, touching on nectary, like a perfume. Very nice. There is sediment in the bottom of the bottle (as I tend to expect from the style) so the look and taste will tend to change as you drink it unless you pour it into a glass all at once, and that would have to be a big glass since the bottle holds 660 ml. I use a smaller tasting glass so this tasting had to proceed in stages.

Well carbonated, the alcohol comes through to the taste with a bit of a bite and in a chest warming sensation. I suggest serving it warmish so that the alcohol mixes better with the other flavours. The taste is sweet with flavours that are much the same as the aroma: honey and bread, touches of yeast but where the perfume, nectar and floral aspects carried the aroma they are more subdued in the taste. As I got to the midway point of this big bottle the flavour is more malty though the floral, nectar tastes remain. This flavour spectrum continued even after large-ish flaky sediment started finding its way into my glass. A very nice beer that you should definitely try if you like Belgian style Blondes.