Category Archives: Beer Review

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Beer 16 – The Duck-Rabbit Brewery – Baltic Porter

Leave a comment

Day 16 - The Duck-Rabbit Brewery - Baltic Porter

We have arrived at Day 16 of the advent calendar.  Not too many left to go before we arrive at the last. I am also getting close to my trip and I am getting pretty psyched. I’ve already been exploring the best beer spots and prepping my trip to allow for some beer time.  It was a good day yesterday, despite the beer not really being my favorite, I’m optimistic for today.

Today we have a beer from The Duck-Rabbit Brewery (yes I love the name too) and it is a Baltic Porter.

Located in Farmville, North Carolina, is a brewery.  It has an interesting name and makes interesting beers.  The Duck-Rabbit Brewery was founded by Paul Philippon and sold its first beer in 2004.  It was a long journey to arrive at this point for Paul.  Pursuing a career teaching Philosophy, Paul first got he idea to open his brewery in 1987.  After working over the next number of years at three different breweries, he was finally able to open his own.  In 2004, Duck Rabbit Brewery sold its first beer and has continued to grow since.

Paul came up with the logo for the brewery using his experience as a philosophy teacher.  The image is one of those which when viewed from a different perspective looks like more than one thing.  Like the old lady and young lady picture, this logo is based off one which looks like both a rabbit and a duck, depending on how you look at it.  Hence the name, and the logo.

The Duck-Rabbit brewery team includes a number of folks helping out with the various tasks. The brewery uses a 20-barrel brew house and brews into 20, 40, 60 and 80 barrel tanks.  The focus of the brewery is not on brewing a wide variety of beer styles, but focusing on being the “dark beer experts”.  For them, the dark styles of beer are under represented in the marketplace.  Given the enormous flavour and style possibilities in brewing the darker styles of beer, they hope to be able to make something that will suit the tastes of every beer fan.

Today we have from them a Baltic Porter.  Now, as I discussed on day 2 of this blog, porters and stouts are not really historically different beers.  While we do have beers sold under both names, stouts traditionally were stronger versions of porters.  The Baltic Porter is a prime example of this historical nature, though, it is still quite strong in an of itself.  The Baltic Porter is in fact a version of the Russian Imperial Stout which originated in the Baltic region of the world.  What makes this different is that it is usually cold fermented, similar to a lager.  With the export of Britain’s Russian imperial stouts being quite popular in the Baltic region, it was only a matter of time before they decided to make their own using their own ingredients and brewing styles.

A Baltic porter often has the malt flavours similar to an English Brown porter but with less of the roast on the malt, like a schwarzbier.  Overall, typical of this style is a sweet malt combined with deep malt, dried fruit esters and alcohol.  Smooth roasted malt flavours coming close to burnt with a clean lager characteristic.  An interesting style that I’ve not had the opportunity to enjoy too often. So, I am looking forward to this one.

Rating:  88/100

Appearance:  Deep dark brown, almost black in colour. A good amount of head that fades really quickly.
Smell: Chocolate, toffee, plums, currant, date and roasted malt.
Taste:  really nice sweetness from the malt as well as some good bitterness thrown in there as well. The roasted malts come through really nicely along with those chocolate and dark fruit notes. There is a lightness to this beer as well and it is incredibly smooth.
Mouthfeel: Full bodied, lighter than a Russian imperial stout, soft carbonation, good warming finish from the alcohol. Smooth drinking.
Overall: Sweetness is not overwhelming, really well balanced, great depth of flavours with the roasted malts bringing in chocolate and toffee and then the dark fruit notes coming in on the back to just add even more to it. Alcohol is present, but not noticeable on taste, just there to warm the cockles of your heart.
Do I like it: Oh yes.  So far this is my second favourite from the Calendar.  It has a lot of those same positive points from the Boris the spider, but with a slightly lighter body.  Overall, this one is really strong and really worth drinking. I’d have this one again any time.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 15 – West Sixth Brewing – Christmas Ale

2 Comments

Day 15 - West Sixth Brewing - Christmas Ale

Well, for those of you who have been reading regularly, you’d be aware that today I defended my Master’s Thesis.  It was quite a nerve wracking experience up until it started and then things went as smoothly as I could have hoped.  So, if you’re at all interested, I was successful and I have officially passed the thesis component of my Master’s program.  I’m pretty thrilled.

Back to business.  The beer we have today comes to use from West Sixth Brewing in Lexington Kentucky and it is a Christmas Ale.

West Sixth Brewing was founded by four friends who all felt that Lexington, KY needed more high quality local beer.  So, with their diverse sets of talents and skills, Ben, Brady, Joe and Robin all came together to create not only beer for the craft aficionado, but also beer you could drink after a bike ride.

With this in mind, West Sixth Brewing produces a number of different beers with a focus on quality ingredients, hand crafting, and working hard to make sure every beer that goes out the door is just as delicious as the last.  West Sixth produces four flagship beers as well as various seasonal beers.  The beer we are having today is one of their seasonal brews.

They also have a strong community focus.  Since the beginning part of the model for West Sixth has been to have a positive impact on the community in which they live. They do this in a number of ways.  The most simplistic way is by contributing money back to charities.  They have so far committed to contributing 6% of their net profits back to various charities every year. They also hold special “Sixth for a Cause” nights at their brewery allowing non-profits to come in and use the space and setup all kinds of things in their tap room.  From this they contribute 6% of their sales that night to the non-profit as well as whatever is donated directly to them through whatever activities they’ve setup.

Now, Christmas beers come in all shapes and sizes.  This style typically refers to beers consumed at Christmas time that are generally spiced with seasonal spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger.  These beers also tend to be higher on the ABV ranger and can often use odd or interesting ingredients.  These beers don’t have a specific style necessarily.  Already we’ve had a Christmas beer that was in the style of a Belgian Dark.  Fort Garry’s “Naught and Spiced” could be considered a Christmas beer and is made using a porter base.  This specific beer we have today is called an ale.  The brewery itself, which is something I love, gives the exact malts, spices, yeast and hops used in the production of this beer.

Based on this, it has some Belgian components in the use of Abbey Malts and Belgian dark beet syrup, as well as the Christmas spices (ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg) along with some traditionally used in a wit (cardamom, clove and orange peel.)   At 9 ABV and with a good range of spices and malts, I’m interested to see how it tastes.

Rating:  66/100

Appearance:  Dark Amber Brown with very solid head that fades quickly after pouring
Smell: Smells of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and roasted malt. The smell on this is fantastic and really does smell like Christmas.
Taste:  I’m feeling as thought something may be off with my beer.  The spices come through but there are some serious off flavours in this one.  In reviewing other comments on the advent calendar beer, I’ve come to conclude that whatever I got is not quite as strong as the others for some reason.  I had a hard time drinking this beer and really, the taste was unappealing and very off putting.  It may just be me.
Mouthfeel: Good carbonation, medium body, bitter finish.
Overall: I’ve never pretended to be a beer tasting expert and have always stated that my tastings are my own opinion of the beer to help me know which I like best.  This is a situation where some may like this beer but I found, overall, it was very off putting and I ended up not being able to finish it.  The spices tasted off, there was a weird metallic aftertaste that really was not nice and it simply did not taste good.
Do I like it: No.  I’m not suggesting that this beer is bad. In fact all other comments I’ve read suggest the opposite.  For me, and in this particular situation, it tasted bad and was really off putting.  As always, I suggest people try beers they think sound interesting and make up their own minds. For my particular can, it was not good.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 14 – Saugatuck Brewing Company – Blueberry Maple Stout

Leave a comment

Day 14 - Saugatuck Brewing Company - Blueberry Maple Stout

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I had the opportunity to sit down and relax a bit and forget that tomorrow I have to present my thesis defense.  I have to say that this process has been one of the most mentally taxing and at the same time, incredibly rewarding experiences I’ve ever undertaken.

I’ve been overall pretty impressed with a lot of the beers in this calendar so far. I’ve felt that many of them were quite tasty and have given me yet another opportunity to try a variety of different styles and flavours in beers.  Today will be no different as we have a Blueberry Maple Stout coming to us from Saugatuck Brewing Company in Douglas, Michigan.  Douglas is a city that is after our own hearts.  It’s been the “City of friendliness” since 1870. Well, Friendly Manitoba says hello Douglas.

Developed as a three-phase brewery plan by founder and original brew master Barry Johnson, Saugatuck Brewing Company first opened its doors in 2005.  In its infancy it consisted of a 3.5 barrel “brew on premise” system in a leased industrial space.  3.5 barrels is about 300 litres of beer, not very much when you are providing interesting and tasty craft beers.  So, in 2008 they moved to a 25,000 sq/ft facility that was fully remodeled to include an Irish style pub providing not only tasty beers but also tasty snacks.  They continued to use the “Brew on premise” system allowing for patrons to come in and brew their own beers to be taken away in bomber bottles after fermentation and carbonation were complete.

Around this same time a 10-barrel system was installed in the brew house and production began en masse of and start planning for regional distribution of their beers. Starting with a meager 70 barrels of fermentation space and only a single 650ml bottle filler, their first year consisted on only 250 barrels.  In 2010 they purchased Meheen 6 head bottle filler and in-line labeler enabling them to produce 4 mainstay styles of beer to be sold in six-packs. This allowed them to distribute not only to the lower part of Michigan but also into Chicago and they managed to reach 2000 barrels of production in 2012.

Today, Saugatuck Brewing boasts a large 45-barrel system paired with 960 barrels of fermentation space.  With newly installed bottling system and a fleet of over 6,000 kegs they are able to produce on average 13,000 barrels per year with a large scale distribution.  They produce a number of mainstay beers as well as seasonal and specialty beers. They’ve got quite the team over there as well, head up by head-brewer Ron Conklin and provide little write-ups on each member on their website.

This is the fourth stout that we’ve had in this advent calendar and, although a different variation on the style,  I already did a write up on stouts on Day 2. So if you are interested in reading a bit more about the Stout style, feel free to take a look at that one.

This particular stout is an American Stout and uses the base style of beer, essentially hops, roasted malts resulting in dark colour and caramel, toffee, and/or chocolate notes in the flavour.  It has then been flavoured using most likely blueberry syrup as well as maple syrup to provide those two addition flavours. American stouts are generally has more roasted malt flavours and are a bit hoppier than their Irish or English counterparts. Breweries will express individuality through their choice of roasted malts and flavourings and this one has had both blueberry and maple flavours likely through the addition of syrups. It should contain most of the appearance, smell and flavour of stout but with the addition of the blueberry and maple flavours.  Let’s try this one, I am excited to see how those blueberry and maple flavours come through.

Glassware: Stein, Pint Glass, or Snifter.
Temperature: 8-12 Celsius

Rating:  68/100

Appearance:  Jet black with a tan head that fades quickly leaving fast uprising bubbles.
Smell: Big blueberry aroma with hints of maple sweetness.  Really smells like blueberry pancakes with maple syrup.  There is a slight roasted malt with notes of chocolate present but only as undertones.
Taste:  Ridiculously sweet taste.  Almost overwhelmingly so.  It tastes like drinking blueberry syrup on the first taste, but once your palate has adjusted to the sweetness, it tones down a bit and some roasted malt comes through.  Slight roasted malt notes, low to non-existence hop bitterness, everything is outshone by the blueberry and maple notes.
Mouthfeel: Soft carbonation, full body, and sweetness dominating from start to finish.
Overall: This is a very sweet stout. The flavour is dominated by the maple and blueberry and completely overwhelm any other flavour that might be there.  It would make a good desert beer to be sipped slowly in front of a fire or after a meal.
Do I like it: No.  I found that this beer was far too sweet.  The blueberry flavour was artificial tasting and the maple flavour was too much like syrup.  This beer was toned WAY up on the sweetness factor and was completely out of whack with any of the other flavours that might have been there.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 13 – Evil Twin Brewing – The Cowboy Smoke Pilsner

1 Comment

Day 13 - Evil Twin Brewing - The Cowboy Smoke Pilsner

We have successfully made it through the half-way point of the calendar and are drawing ever closer to the end.  I’ll be heading out of town on the 22nd to enjoy some holiday time in the sun with my wife but I’ll do my best to post the last two beers while I am away.  Whether I bring them with me, or I break the rules and drink them before I go, I’d like to get the posts all done before the New Year.

After these blog posts I’ll be back to my regular shtick of trying to keep anyone who is interested up to date on what is happening in the beer scene.  I’ve been checking in with folks along the way and hope to be able to write some posts updating you all on where the various local breweries are.  My expectation is that Peg Beer and Barn Hammer will be up and running around mid-January (at least I hope) and we will all be able to enjoy pints of what I expect will be fantastic beer.

Today we have a beer which comes to us from Evil Twin Brewing and it is The Cowboy, smoked pilsner.

Founded by Jeppe Jarnit–Bjergsø in 2010, Evil Twin isn’t really a brewery.  Jeppe is known as the “gypsy brewer” in that he brews all over the place.  He develops recipe after recipe of unique styles and plays on styles that are brewed out of other breweries and exported around the world.  At the moment, he brews out of 10 different breweries in 6 different countries around the world.  This means that Evil Twin doesn’t really have any year round beers but rather a huge number of different and interesting one-off brews. To put it in perspective, Evil Twin launched more than 40 beers in 2012.

Jeppe was born in Denmark and began his adult life as a school teacher.  In 2012 he moved his family to Brooklyn, NY so that he could be closer to where it all happens and to grow his brand.  His goal is to make New York the beer capital of the world.  While many of the beers that he makes are experimental, they are also in many cases critically acclaimed.  Brewing in small batches, usually no more than 2500-3000 barrels (~3500 hectoliters), the beers tend to be a bit more on the expensive side and very difficult to find.

This particular beer that we are going to be trying today was brewed out of Two Roads brewery in Connecticut and is another example of an experimental recipe from Jeppe.  It is classified as a smoked pilsner which is unique in itself as most beers that are classified as smoked tend to be on the darker side.  As this is a combination of styles, I’ll make some comments on both Pilsners and Smoked Beers.

“I need to know what kind of beer cowboys drink, as I have recently become one. I want to be the best cowboy I can be, and I think drinking the correct beer is important. I already have a cowboy hat and a nice big shiny buckle?”
-From the bottle

Pilsners are one of the most popular beer styles in the word and originate in the City of Pilzen in 1295.  While Pilsners are considered to be bottom-fermented beers now, they were actually top-fermented until about the mid-1840s.  The taste and standards of this older styles varied widely and in many cases entire barrels of beer were dumped out.  In 1839 the city of Pilsen founded a city owned brewery (now Pilsner Urquell) which was to brew beers and pioneer the Bavarian style.  Brewers had already begun to brew using bottom-fermenting yeasts that were fermented and stored in colder temperatures to be drunk later. This is where the term lager comes from. Lagern is the German word for storing and comes from this process.

Using Pilzen’s soft water, local saaz hops and this Bavarian style of lagering produced a clear, crisp and refreshing beer that became the standard for the style.  With the introduction of modern refrigeration there was no need to use caves for beer storage and this enabled the brewing of bottom-fermenting beers in many new places.  There are three styles of Pilsner:

  • German-style Pilsner – More bitter and earthy in flavour
  • Bohemian (Czech) Pilsners – tend to have lighter flavour
  • Classic American Pilsners – Brewed with more corn and rice as well as native cluster hops along with the noble hops when available.

All modern pilsners are very clear, very light beers that are pale to golden yellow.  All of them have a distinct hop aroma and flavor.  There are also Dutch and Belgian pilsners (not a separate style) which can be slightly sweeter.

As for smoked beers, they should not be confused with a traditional Rauchbier.  Smoked beer can be quite robust and even overpowering.  Many versions of this style use peat smoked malts which are much stronger and more assertive in their smoke flavor.  Beers of this style tend to be made in the style of Scotch Ales or more typically Porters.  What is expected is that there be a balance in aroma between the base beer (in this case Pilsner) and the smokiness imparted by the smoked malts.  This should be low to assertive and not overpowering. Flavours should also be balanced between base style and the smokiness.  I’m curious to see how smoke combines with the nice crisp flavours of a pilsner. Let’s get to it.

Glassware: Flute, Stein, Pilsner Glass or Stange.
Temperature: 4-7 Celsius

Rating:  84/100

Appearance:  Golden, slightly hazy, many uplifting bubbles and a thick head that retains well.
Smell: Slight alder smoke smell reminiscent of smoked sausage or bacon.
Taste:  Bitterness right away and then the smoke comes through on the finish to leave a smooth and lightly smoky flavor.  It is balanced with the light body of the pilsner.  The smoke is not overpowering and blends well with the bitterness and earthy notes from the hops used in this beer.
Mouthfeel: High carbonation, coarse mouthfeel, finishes with wood smoke.
Overall: Overall this beer has subtle bitterness on the start that balances well with the smoke.  The smokiness goes well with the beer and the bitterness is reminiscent of a German-style Pilsner but using more american hops than noble hops.  As a smoked beer though, it is quite tasty and really nicely done with the light body of the base beer.
Do I like it: I really do like this beer a lot.  I would be happy to drink it and would certainly buy it if I had the opportunity.  I think this is a great summer beer that would go especially well with a barbecue.  I certainly would expect a cowboy to drink this beer and love it.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 12 – Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery – Saint Beatnick Chocolate Stout

Leave a comment

Day 12 - Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery - Saint Beatnick Chocolate Stout

I’ve made it to the halfway point of this 24 day beer blogging journey through beers and styles from across North America.  It has been pretty fun so far.  As with last year, I am finding myself learning more about the various styles of beers (I’ve taken up reading the Beer Judge Certification Program guidelines on the styles when possible) as well as more about breweries that I may wish to visit in the future.  I hope that those of you who are taking the time out of your days to follow along and read these blog posts are finding them both interesting and informative.

Today’s beer comes to us from a familiar brewery here in Manitoba, Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery located in Barrie, Ontario.  I’ve had the opportunity to try a number of there beers and I haven’t often been disappointed.  We tend to get a number of them in at the Liquor Marts here and they are a pretty solid go to beer when you aren’t really sure what to try.  The beer we have from them today is one that I have not had the chance to try before, Saint Beatnick Chocolate Stout.

Founded in 2004, Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery was originally called “the Robert Simpson Brewing Company”.  It is located right on the waterfront of downtown Barrie, Ontario, and prides themselves on being unique.  Making an effort to cast aside the concept of Macro-brewing and small batch “taste-a-likes” Flying Monkeys cast aside their original name 2008 to show their true selves.  Since then they have made every effort to brew collaboratively and creatively brewing adventuresome beers that fill the needs of craft beer drinkers in Ontario.

The brew master at Flying Monkeys, Peter Chiodo (Not the mobster…), learned the ropes of home brewing from his grandfather in an Etobicoke basement. He refined his skills as a broke university student in Alabama, then as a broke grad student in Mississippi.  Having honed his skills, Peter also developed a passion for beer that is made by hand, not by machines, and has a passion for locally brewed craft beers.  Beer site, whatsbrewin.ca visited Flying Monkey’s and spoke with Peter.  You can watch there video of that here.

Flying Monkeys takes a pretty firm stance on brewing beer on their website (which is also a bit weird itself). They say:

“Any Craft Brewer worth anything started somewhere as a Home Brewer. We learned the craft, we followed the curve, and we invested our All. If a Craft Brewery started solely as a name, a brand, or a business plan, then shame on them. Marketing is not Brewing.” 

This statement gives you a pretty good idea of how they feel about craft beer.  They have a number of interesting beers and I suggest you take a look and when you see one at the Liquor Mart, give it a try.  You never know, you might like it.

This is another stout, although a different variation on the style.  I already did a write up on stouts on Day 2 and so if you are interested in reading a bit more about the Stout style, feel free to take a look at that one.  I will say that Chocolate stouts are beers which have noticeable dark chocolate notes both in flavor as well as in colour.  This is done through the use of darker, more aromatic malts.  Specially, chocolate malts, malts which have been roasted or kilned until they develop a chocolate colour.  In some instances, chocolate stouts can actually be brewed with real chocolate.  I’ve read nothing to indicate that is the case with this beer.  Enough about it, let’s get to it.

Rating:  79/100

Appearance:  Dark chocolate in color with a very thin off-white head that fades quickly leaving little lacing.
Smell: Dominated by chocolate followed by slight alcohol smell, almost as though it has been aged in whiskey barrels though there is no indication this is the case.  Very little else is noticeable on the nose.
Taste:  Mocha comes through strong followed by a bitter finish and lingering alcohol taste.  This beer tastes a lot like an Irish coffee in a lot of ways.
Mouthfeel: Soft carbonation, creamy mouthfeel, lingering alcohol and bitter finish.
Overall: Lives up to its name. The sweetness on the nose is quite overpowering but is less in the flavor. The carbonation is soft which is good, but I feel that the chocolate notes and sweetness almost overpower many of the other flavors that might be there. The chocolate and the lingering alcohol flavor certainly stand as the stars in this chocolate stout, which likely is the point.  Overall the chocolate is certainly the star in this stout with lingering alcohol flavors and good aroma.
Do I like it: I find the sweetness of this one to be a little overpowering for me. It’s not that I don’t like it, I think it is okay, it is just that the sticky sweetness is a bit much. Overall, I’d probably have this one again but I think I prefer other offerings from Flying Monkeys and would be more likely to gravitate towards them.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 11 – Grizzly Paw Brewing Company – Ursa Major Brown Ale

Leave a comment

Day 11 - Grizzly Paw Brewing Company - Ursa Major Brown Ale

This week has been a pretty hectic week.  I’ve been working as usual but with extra meetings during the day and in the evenings.  I also happen to have a meeting this weekend.  Normally this would not be that bad, it’s pretty common place for me.  Unfortunately, I happen to also be trying to finalize my thesis presentation for my defense, practice this, and come up with questions I might be asked.  This has added a bit of stress to my week.  Luckily, I always have a beer waiting for me to try and so far I’ve been pretty happy with most of them.

On day 11 of the advent calendar I get to try a beer from a brewery I’ve had the opportunity to visit.  It is Grizzly Paw Brewing Company’s Ursa Major Brown Ale.

Grizzly Paw is a brewpub located on Canmore’s Main Street in the Canadian Rockies.  It’s a beautiful location surrounded by the mountains and on a clear day it’s just absolutely spectacular.  I had the opportunity to visit with my brother a few years back and it’s almost surreal to sit amongst the Rockies enjoying a fresh pint of beer right from the brewery itself.

The owner, Niall Fraser, got the idea for opening this brew pub from his frequent visits to “The Rocks” in Sydney, Australia.  While he was living there he frequented this brewery/pub and was impressed by the setup on old granite rocks nestled in the famous historic district between the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House.

When he returned to Canada, he sought a perfect location to open his brewpub and finally found it while on a mini-vacation, Canmore, Alberta.  On April 29th, 1996, the brewery opened its doors for the first time and has been trucking away ever since.  Originally brewing a partial mash and only 200 litres at time, the brewery grew substantially and by 2009 they needed to open a brand new brewery to keep up with demand.  In April, 2013, the new brewery opened up and at 20,000 sq/ft the space is quite large.

Not only does Grizzly Paw brew beers, they also make micro-brewed sodas, make great burgers using Alberta beef, and other foods as well.  Being Canada’s first brewpub, Grizzly Paw offers quite a lot of variety and acts as a tourist attraction.

This beer is an American brown ale.  These ales get their origins from the originally English brown ales.  The term brown ale was first used in the 17th century.  These beers varied in alcohol content but were usually brewed with light hops and brown malt.  They grew to fame in the 1925 with the release of Newcastle Brown Ale which set the stage for the success of future beers in this style. In 1986, craft beer pioneers Pete Slosberg and Mark Bronder released “Pete’s Wicked Ale” which basically set the stage for the American Brown Ale style.

This style includes the dark-brown ales from southern England, reddish-brown ales from northeast England, and even the slightly sour brown ales from Flanders.  American Brown Ales are a recognized member of this spectrum and tend to have more hop bitterness than their English cousins.  The style is also lower on the alcohol spectrum, typically between 3.3% and 5%, has caramel and chocolate malt characteristics, low to medium hop aroma and medium to high hop bitterness.  On to the beer.

 

 

Rating:  71/100

Appearance:  Rich and clear dark brown with very little head even though I poured it somewhat aggressively.
Smell: Caramel, chocolate, roasted malts as well as notes of hop tartness.
Taste:  Malty on the front, but not a very deep richness to the malt flavours, they fade quickly to a mild bitterness from the hops that lingers. Dry on the finish with slight citrus.
Mouthfeel: Soft mouthfeel with very low carbonation, this one is almost flat to me. It is likely due to age or transport. Dry finish with slight citrus notes.
Overall: American Brown Ale styles should be dominated by the hop bitterness with the malt flavours playing a supporting role. This one certainly has the hop bitterness as the star as the malty sweetness fades quickly to the bitterness from the hops.  It has a dry finish as well as some very soft citrus notes.  Roasted malt is present which compliments the hop bitterness nicely.  The lack of carbonation takes the rest of the flavours down a notch and they don’t taste as full as I would have expected.
Do I like it: It’s not bad. I don’t drink a lot of brown ales and those that I do I prefer of the other various styles of this category, specifically the sour ones from Flanders.  It’s a nice beer that if it wasn’t almost flat I would likely have enjoyed more. It’s one of the risks with this calendar given that the beers tend to sit a while and have to be transported.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 10 – Bridge Brewing Company – Sleigh Booster

Leave a comment

Day 10 - Bridge Brewing Company - Sleigh Booster

We are nearing the halfway point of this 24 beer journey and so far I’ve been pretty impressed with the beers I’ve had.  Because I know people are not reading all of these, I want to take a minute to reiterate something.  I am not a beer judge, I just really like beer and as I’ve been drinking it my palate has become better. I’m by no means perfect and there are a lot of things I still have to learn.  All the ratings I do in this are based on my own personal opinion of the beer.  Like I’ve said before, I don’t always listen to people when they rate beers and I don’t expect you to either.

The main focus of these 24 posts is to learn about the breweries and the styles of beers. The ratings are so I can look back at the end of this and decide which one I liked the best. I hope that in reading these you will at least learn a bit more about the breweries, styles, and make up your own mind if you’d like to give them a try.

Today we have a beer from Bridge Brewing Company located in North Vancouver, BC.  The beer is called Sleigh Booster and it is an Imperial Red Ale.

Bridge Brewing Company opened in 2012 as Vancouver’s first nano-brewery. Bridge was housed in a 1,000 sq/ft space and was brewing beer in 800 litre batches. Craft beer drinkers loved their beers and they’ve been working hard to expand production as much as possible to meet their demand. They have since expanded their brew house and brought on some help in order to meet the demand for their beers.

What is really interesting about Bridge Brewing is that they are committee trying to be a zero-waste brewery. At present they are 99% waste free. As they brew in small batches their hops and grains in small quantities so that they make sure they get the most use out of them. This also helps them ensure high quality standards in all of their batches of beer.

Speaking of beer, they brew quite a lot of different styles from year-rounds, their iron-worker series, as well as seasonal beers.  The beer we are having today is from the Seasonal selection and sounds pretty tasty.  I’ve had the opportunity to try another one of their season beers, their Uganda Sipi Coffee Brown Ale and I thought it was pretty good.

Imperial Red Ales tend to use American hops and has a perception of hop bitterness to the flavour. Typically, with a solid malt profile and a beautiful deep amber to deep copper colour, these beers tend to bring a good balance between hop bitterness and malty sweetness. While Imperial Red Ale itself is not a traditional style, it is an example of North American brewers taking the traditional Irish Red Ale style and ramping up the flavours. Typically using a lot of hops to bring out that bitterness, these beers can also be bottled conditioned with results in slight fruity esters.  These beers also tend to be quite high on the ABV range, 7.9%-10%, and the alcohol flavour is a noticeable part of the taste profile. I’m looking forward to giving this one a try.

Rating: 80/100

Appearance:  Deep amber in colour with about 1” of off-white head that retains well.
Smell: Low aroma.  Slight spice, malty caramel and toffee notes. These malt notes are the most evident.
Taste:  Malt is front and centre on this with alcohol notes a close second. Front is chocolate, caramel and toffee with a bitter finish and strong hop notes.
Mouthfeel: Creamy mouthfeel with soft carbonation, bitter and alcoholic finish. This is a strong ale, alcohol notes are expected.
Overall: As an Imperial Red Ale it is pretty good. The body, head, and flavour notes are near an Irish Red Ale but ramped up. The use of strong hop notes is uncommon to the Irish Red Ale category but to be expected in the Imperial Red Ale. Good tasting beer that balances the malty sweetness on the front with the hop bitterness on the finish.
Do I like it: I enjoyed drinking this beer but it wasn’t something I was over the moon about. I felt that the malty sweetness was good and it balanced well with the hop notes. I did enjoy it and I’d be happy to drink it again. It makes me curious to try the other brews from Bridge.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 9 – Iron Fist Brewing Company – Spice of Life

Leave a comment

Day 9 - Iron Fist Brewing Company - Spice of Life

Well, I have to take a minute to send an apology out to all of my twitter followers.  I have been so excited about the beers from the advent calendar that I’ve been tweeting them out first thing in the morning.  In all of my enthusiasm, I never considered that I might be spoiling the fun for others by telling them what beer they will be getting before they get it.  So, to all of those for whom I’ve spoiled any of the surprise, I apologize. So, starting tomorrow, I will not post what beer it is until I post my review. Someone else might, but I wont.

Now, today’s beer is from Iron Fist Brewing Company and it is a Bière de Garde called Spice of Life.

Iron Fist is a family owned brewery located in Vista, California, right in the middle of San Diego’s craft beer scene.  While the website doesn’t give a lot of details about the specifics of the brewery or the people who run it, they do provide a list of there beers and a video that gives the story of the brewery.  So rather than me writing all about them, why not take a watch.

Biere de Garde (keeping beer) is a strong pale ale style of beer that was traditionally brewed in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.  They were originally brewed in farmhouses during the winter and spring to avoid unpredictable problems with the yeast in the summer time.

Typically copper or golden in colour, they are a beer that is brewed and then cellared in order to be consumed later in the year, basically like the Saison style. Most are top-fermented and bottle-conditioned but they can be bottom fermented.  What is interesting about this style is that if it is brewed using regional ingredients it is eligible for a Appellation d’origine contrôlée, similar to French wines.

Characterized by a toasted malt aroma, slight malt sweetness, and medium hop bitterness.  Typically brewed with noble hop varietals, there are earthy and musty notes often in this beer as well as fruity esters from the yeast.  Chill haze is expected (hazy colour when cold) in bottle conditioned versions of this style.  The style we are drinking today is brewed using grains of paradise, bitter orange peel, and coriander.  It is a bottle conditioned beer and so the haze is expected.  Let’s get to it.

Rating: 83/100

Appearance:  Copper in colour, poured with basically no head.
Smell: Brewed with orange peel, coriander and grains of paradise, all of these are noticeable on the nose of the beer.  There is also the smell of toasted malt and some fruity esters from the beer.
Taste: Alcohol flavour is noticeable, common for this style.  There are fruity notes from the orange peel, the coriander is present as well as toasted malt notes and a sweet smooth finish.  There are also some good peppery notes to this likely coming from the grains of paradise.
Mouthfeel: Soft carbonation, smooth mouthfeel, almost creamy.
Overall: Strong example of this style. Good flavours, lots of things going for it. The lack of head was concerning at first but the carbonation throughout is great. Good fruit notes balanced against the sweet malt and pepperiness. Overall quite good.
Do I like it: Yes, I do like it. It’s a good beer to drink on a summer day, it was a nice one to have after the warm weather we’ve been having here. I had just gotten back from a long walk and it was nice and crisp and refreshing.  I’m a fan of these Belgian styles of beer and this one lives up to my expectations. Quite good.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 8 – Spider Bite Brewing Company – Boris the Spider Russian Imperial Stout

1 Comment

Day 8 - Spider Bite Brewing Company - Boris the Spider Russian Imperial Stout

Yesterday was a pretty decent turn around in respect to beer.  While it was not my favourite, it was okay and that’s a big jump from day 6.  Today, as usual, I got up early and went into grab the now individually wrapped day 8 beer from my spare bedroom (away from cats who might knock it over). Given that the advent calendar beers tend to sit for a little while before actually being opened, I was hoping that I might something that actually can age well.  Today’s beer is just that.

Today we have Spider Bite Beer Company’s Boris the Spider Russian Imperial Stout.  Spider bite is located in Holbrook, Long Island and distributes its beer primarily between Long Island and New York.  Spider Bite Beer Company was conceived by founders and friends Larry Goldstein and Anthony LiCausi back in 2008.   Larry was born and raised on Long Island, but after getting biology degree he decided to move to Atlanta to study Chiropractic medicine.  It was during his time in Atlanta that Larry discovered a love and passion for craft beer.  He began home brewing, entering competitions, writing tasting articles for a local paper and then began assistant brewing at a local brewpub.  After more than a decade as a Chiropractor he moved his family back to his hometown of Nesconset, NY.  Larry attended the American brewers’ guild to receive a formal brewing education followed by an apprenticeship at Lost Abbey/Port Brewing in San Diego.  It was here he fell in love with many of the styles he brought over to Spider Bite when it opened in 2008. You can listen to the guys talk about there beer and the brewery here.

Spider bite has a number of different spider themed beers.  Check them out.  I am pretty excited about today’s beer.  Russian Imperial Stouts are a style that I’ve really started to enjoy and appreciate.  These beers age incredibly well and change over time.  This style of beer was originally brewed in the 1800s by Thrale’s brewery in London England for export to the court of Catherine II of Russia. This same beer is brewed today now under the Courage brewery name and is called Courage Russian Imperial Stout (RIS).   Ranging between 8%-12% alcohol with strong malt notes of coffee, caramel, chocolate and dark fruit (plums, prunes or raisins for example), it is a perfect beer for a winter night.

Like I said I have become a pretty big fan of this style and have learned to appreciate the deep rich complexity of these beers.  I think this is one of those styles that takes a little bit of getting used to and I certainly didn’t appreciate these beers last year as much as I do now.  Without anything further, let’s get to tasting this beer.

Rating:  89/100

Appearance:  Pour incredibly dark, like a black hole absorbing all light around it.  Very minimal head which is to be expected with this style.
Smell: Rich coffee smells, smoke, chocolate and black licorice.
Taste: The smoke notes are evident on the start which fades into a chocolate malty sweetness finishing with a rich coffee aftertaste. Almost like a smoky chocolate mocha.
Mouthfeel: Low carbonation but full rich body, silky smooth with a slightly sharp finish.
Overall: Overall a very deep and layered imperial stout. There is a lot going on with this beer.  The richness of this and ability to hide the alcohol content with a nice warm lingering after the finish makes it a really delicious Russian imperial stout.
Do I like it: Absolutely. I really like this one.  As I said I am a big fan of Russian imperial stouts and this one lives up to my expectation. The rich flavours balanced eminitley and smooth make this a great beer to sip on a cold winter’s night.  This certainly is not a gulping beer, that wouldn’t do it justice, it’s a beer to savor.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 7 – Cameron’s Brewing Company – Into the Shade Saison

Leave a comment

Day 7 - Cameron's Brewing Company - Into the Shade Saison

Well, yesterday was a little bit of a disappointing day in respect to the particular beer.  I am hoping it’s the only one that has been oxidized.  I had the opportunity to brew yesterday which a good bit of fun.  I am brewing a Tamarind Ginger Saison with a friend for a competition and I’m pretty excited about it.  After all this advent calendar blogging is done I’ll have to do a write-up of that beer.  It was pretty fun to make and I’m cautiously optimistic for the final product.

It’s quite fitting that I brewed a Saison yesterday as today’s beer is in fact a Saison from Cameron’s Brewing Company in Oakville Ontario.  It is there Into the Shade Saison, limited edition unfiltered release.  Unfiltered beers tend to have more nutritional value, better head retention, and more flavour.

Cameron’s is a family owned craft brewery that was founded in 1997 by Cameron Howe.  Cameron wanted to introduce quality craft beer into the Ontario market and started off home brewing before quickly turning into a small business.  Cameron’s tries to remain true to these roots and brews high quality beers that have won a number of awards over the years. They do a good job of running through there history and have a timeline on their website of some important milestones. It’s worth taking a look.

Currently Cameron’s president is Bill Coleman who was originally in a senior marketing role at Molson.  He is part of the team who was responsible for the “I am Canadian” ads as well as launching Rickard’s Red.  After leaving the beer industry to join Alias in the tech industry, he found that he missed beer and brewing.  After Alias was sold to Autodesk he sought to return to the brewing community and brought his experiences to Cameron’s.

He joins the brew master, Jason Britton, who has over 20 years of brewing experience from around the world including at Amsterdam Brewery in Ontario and Walkerville Brewing Company.  He works with his brewing team, Kyle and Curtis, to produce high quality beers using the best ingredients possible.  You can take a look at there brew system and process on there website.

Saison’s are a sturdy farmhouse style of beer.  Originally brewed in Wallonia, the French speaking part of Belgium, it was a beer brewed at the end of the cool season to last through the warmer months before refrigeration was common.  It had to be sturdy enough to be able to last but also not too strong so it would quench your thirst in the summer months.   This style of beer is very complex with a lot fruit notes, spices, and earth yeast notes to the beer.    They tend to combine nice fruity notes with spice and a subtle sourness or tartness.  Usually lots of spice with mild bitterness and a dry crisp finish and only a hint of sweetness.

At one point in time Saison’s were an almost extinct beer style but they have seen a great resurgence and are commonly brewed by a number of craft breweries across Canada.  We are seeing them pop-up more and more here in Manitoba and it is really one of my favourite styles of beer right now.  Let’s see how this one tastes.

Rating:  78/100

Appearance:  Crazy.  I popped off the cap and it just started shooting everywhere and wouldn’t stop.  Once I poured it into the glass it had a golden hazy colour with very little head.
Smell: Very fruit.  Pear, apples, apricot and citrus notes. Almost smells a bit like an apple juice or a cider in many ways.
Taste: Tastes quite fruity as well.  Pear, apple, apricot notes all come through on the taste with a nice tartness and a semi-sweet finish.
Mouthfeel: Really quite carbonated.  The bubbles on this almost numb the tongue in some ways. Dry finish with that semi-sweetness from the fruit.
Overall: Quite good.  I ate it with some spicy food which really brought out a lot of the flavours and extenuated them.  It’s also not really a winter beer. In the summer this would be fantastic.  Overall it was a good, but not mind-blowing, Saison.
Do I like it: At first I found the fruit notes to be a bit much for me.  It tasted almost like I was drinking apple juice or a cider.  As I got into it more the complexity of the flavours, the apricot, pear and peppery notes came out. As I ate my supper these were intensified and I enjoyed it more as I ate.  So, yes I do like this beer, but only in particular circumstances.