Tag Archives: Review

Beer Review

Garrison – Ol’ Fog Burner

Leave a comment

Garrison - Ol Fog Burner

I’m pretty happy that some of the beers I grew up enjoying are making their way here to Manitoba. One such brewery is Garrison.  They’ve been around since before I could drink, and I know that they were a go to beer at many local pubs.  They have certainly grown, as have my tastes, and now they produce a wide range of beers.  Today I’m going to review their Ol’ Fog Burner Barleywine.

The Brewery

Garrison Brewing is located in the largest maritime city, Halifax.  The name comes from the fact that this one was of the major garrison sites for the protection of Canada being the largest eastern port.  As well, Halifax has a long history of brewing with William Steel opening shop as the first brewer in 1754 in order to serve the early settlers and troops who were stationed at Citadel Hill.  By prohibition, Halifax was home to some 20 brewing operations!

Garrison itself tries to follow this concept of independent micro-brewing and set this at their heart when they opened in 1997 with their first brew “Irish Red Ale”.  They have continued to produce and grow serving hand-crafted ales that use the best ingredients available.

After 15 years in business, in 2013 they expanded to develop over 13,000 square feet of industrial space to become their new home. Their setup is made up of tanks and equipment that were designed and fabricated in Charlottetown, PEI (keeping it local, very nice) and consists of a single-step infusion mash tun and a propane-fired kettle and whirlpool.  It takes them an average of 10 days start to finish to ferment and condition.  You can read all about their brewing process here.

The Style

This beer is brewed in the style of an English Barleywine.  A very strong, heavily malted beer.  This style is really a showcase of malty richness with a warming alcohol and often pleasant hoppy or fruity notes. This beer can be aged and when done so it can often take on port like flavours.

bass-barley-wine-ad-1907

While there have been strong ales of various different formulations for a long time in England, the modern Barleywine can be traced back to Bass no. 1 in 1872.  This was the first to be called a “Barleywine”.  Traditional a darker style of beer, in 1951 a brewer called Tennant (now Whitbread) produced “Gold Label” a gold coloured Barleywine.

Gold-Label-No1-Barley-Wine-Labels-Tennant-Brothers-Exchange-Brewery-Ltd_39261-1

These beers are quite often the strongest ale offered by a brewery and now typically are stamped with a vintage date as they have become popular cellaring beers.  This style will age well and often changes in flavour profile.  The English Barleywine is the original style of this beer that has spawned off into other styles from Belgium, the US and elsewhere.

As always, read more about the style in the BJCP style guide found here.

The Review

ABV – 11.3%     IBU – 60     Can be cellared

Appearance:  Beautiful tawny/caramel in colour with a good 2” head that just won’t quit.

Smell: A beautiful array of smells come from this complex beer. Caramel, molasses, cognac, raisins, alcohol warming, biscuit/yeasty notes, toffee and some resinous notes as well. The aroma is pleasant and rich.

Taste: This beer has a soft start that moves towards a huge hit of malt, rum and cognac. The warming from the alcohol in this is really pleasant.  The toffee and caramel sweetness is certainly there along with some subtle spices like cinnamon or black pepper. There are some slight fruity notes as well as a nice bitterness that on the finish.

Mouth feel: Medium bodied, rich mouth feel with a nice carbonation. Hugely rich and deep front with a nice clean bitter finish.

Overall: Really impressed with this beer. I expect a lot of complex flavours in a barleywine given the huge amount of malt and complexity available to the style. This beer does not disappoint and brings a huge array of different aromas and flavours to the table. Overall this beer is very well balanced and with the high alcohol content that can be a bit dangerous.

Do I like it: Once again, I am impressed with Garrison.  This beer brings so much in the way of flavour and aroma.  I am certainly going to be aging one of this to see how it tastes next year. Beautifully rich and balanced, well worth it.

I’m pretty excited as I will be heading to the Maritimes this summer to visit family. That’ll mean a visit to a number of new breweries as well as old. I’m going to certainly make the trip to Halifax to visit Garrison, and I can’t wait.

-Beer Winnipeg

Beer Review

Parallel 49 – Bodhisattva

Leave a comment

Parallel 49 - Bodhisattva

That’s right another sour beer! We’ve been seeing more of these start coming our way. I’m a fan of sour beers and so I’m always excited to give them a try. We’ve also slowly been seeing more and more beers come in from Parallel 49 brewing company out of BC. We’ve recently received their Brews Brothers Vol. 2 (still a few left), 12 different beers done in collaboration with 12 different breweries from BC. (I hope to be posting about some of these in the next weeks).  We’ve also recently received their Bodhisattva Dry-Hopped Sour Ale which is the beer I’ll be talking about today. (It’s got a sweet label too.)

The Brewery

Parallel 49 is a brewery that spawned out of three friends love for good beer.  Mike, Nick and Anthony all grew up about 10 minutes away from where the brewery now stands. Having been avid home brewers and lovers of good craft beer, these three friends quit their day jobs in 2008 and opened a restaurant which quickly became known as a mecca for good craft beer in Vancouver. Wanting to put their money where their mouth was and stop talking and start brewing, they partnered with Graham with, a respected Home Brewer, and Michael Tod, a friend who had the business savvy and experience in the Vancouver craft beer industry, the Parallel 49 brewing team was born.

They have a variety of different beers and not afraid of trying some unique things either. I’ve enjoyed all of the beers I’ve tried from them, some more than others, but they are worth checking out.

The Style

What makes a sour beer? Well, that depends. There are two different ways a sour beer can be produced. The most common is controlled.

In the controlled method, the brewer does something to the beer to lower its pH. This can be done by adding other strains of yeast or bacteria (Typically Lactobacillus or Brettanomyces or Pediococcus), by using an Acidulated Malt (this meets German purity laws) or by adding Lactic Acid (an acid produced by Pedioccous or Lactobacillus) or Acetobacter, a less common bacteria.

Check out this blog from the American Home Brewers Association. It goes into detail about all these different strains.

This beer used Lactobacillus, bacteria that acts similarly to a yeast by eating up the sugars in the wort (unfermented beer). Rather than converting the sugars to alcohol like our beer yeast, it turns them into lactic acid. The lactic acid lowers the pH of the beer rather quickly and gives the beer a sour but clean taste. It is most commonly used in sour German styles of beer Berliner Weisse or Gose.

This beer has also been dry-hopped.  While the Phillips Sax in the Dark was aged on Grape Musts to provide it with a different depth of flavour, dry-hopping allows a beer to take on much of the aroma of the hops added without any of the bitterness. You are not really getting the full flavour of the hop but there is certainly a variety of aromas that come along with dry-hopping that can impact the way the beer is perceived and tastes.

Review

ABV – 7%

Appearance – Clear pale straw colour with a nice carbonation on pour that dissipates as quickly as it came. Almost looks a bit like sparkling apple juice.

Smell – The floral hop notes come through nicely on the smell along with some pear notes, citrus fruit and some yeasty funk.

Taste – Crisp and tart, incredibly refreshing. Citrus notes, pear comes through as well.

Mouth Feel – Tart, sour, crisp. Nice carbonation that leaves the tongue a tingling.  Dry finish, light bodied.

Overall Thoughts – Solid, balanced, crisp and delicious. Alcohol content is unnoticeable making this refreshing beer easily drinkable. Overall it is a solidly balanced sour that would be delicious on a nice warm summer day.

Do I like it? – I did really like this beer. I’m a big fan of sours, but even if I wasn’t, this beer brings a lot to the table. It’s crisp, its refreshing, and the sourness is not overpowering. The aroma from the dry-hopping makes it pleasant all around.  I rather enjoyed it.

 

Beer Review, Half Pints Brewing, Winnipeg

Half Pints – Black Galaxy

Leave a comment

Half Pints - Black Galaxy

Today’s review comes to us from a local brewery of which I am very proud to be able to support.  I’ve talked about Half-Pints in the past so for more information about the brewery itself please read those here and here or check out their website here.

The Style

The beer I am tasting from Half-Pints today is there highly rated Black IPA, Black Galaxy.  A Black IPA is a specialty style of an IPA.  Like an IPA, they are meant to be hop forward and drinkable. One of the biggest differences is that they bring a darker colour and often roasted or burnt flavours from the use of different malts.

When drinking this style one can expect to get a lot of different hop notes from the variety of hops used in the brewing of the brewer that are melded with a variety of different malts that would not normally be used in the brewing of an IPA.

This beer is a variation of the IPA style and was first commercially produced by Greg Noonan as Blackwatch IPA around 1990. It began to grow in popularity through the 2000s and there are many varieties of this style which can be found.  This beer is also known as a Cascadian Dark Ale.  Overall the style is similar in many respects to a traditional IPA but bringing with it some more complexity in the malt profile to compete with the diversity of hops.

The Review

Appearance:  Black with a slight red hue when held up to the light. A persistent 2 finger off-white head that leaves lacing as it dissipates.

Smell: Piney notes, citrus, passion fruit, roasted malt. Soft notes of pineapple and coffee also.

Mouth feel: Medium body, medium carbonation that leaves a bit of tingle on the tongue.

Taste: Passion fruit and pineapple come through on the taste with a nice bitter finish that balances well with the sweet fruit, light caramel, and roasted dark malt backbone.

Overall: I haven’t had many Black IPAs to compare this too but overall this is a great beer. It is well balanced and brings a depth of different flavours (passion fruit, pineapple, caramel, coffee, roasted malt) that all seem to balance well together and with the 60 IBUs.

Do I like it:  Yes. This is a beer that I really enjoy. Half Pints does a great job with this beer bringing both balance of malt and hop. The flavours in this are really good together and I’d be happy to drink this any day of the week.

Beer Review

Picaroons – Timberhog Irish Stout

1 Comment

Picaroons-Timber-Hog

Intro

I’ve actually rather enjoyed taking the opportunity to write some more reviews of beers. It gives me a good opportunity to read through style-guidelines and gets me excited about new beers to try in the future.  With that, there is another beer that has recently arrived on shelves here in Manitoba and it comes from my hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick. That beer is Timberhog Stout from and the brewery is Picaroons.

Growing up in the Maritimes was pretty great. I visited the ocean pretty much every summer, enjoyed mild wet winters with close to 6 feet of accumulated snow, easy access to Montreal or Boston. What I enjoyed the most about growing up in New Brunswick was the people. We also had great beer. Some of my first beers came from Garrison and Moosehead. As I grew up, so did the beer tastes of the community in Fredericton.

The brewery

While I’m hard pressed to choose a favorite brewery, these guys have a really firm place in my heart. It’s likely because I’ve grown up with them and the fact they come from my hometown.  They originally brewed their first beer in 1995.  They pushed too hard too fast and eventually went out of business in 1999.  This was a pretty big blow to the craft beer scene in NB.

Picaroons didn’t stay down. In 2001 they got back up on their feet and started brewing again. This time taking it slowly, using bigger bottles (500ml bottles) and keeping distribution close to home. Eventually they started making their way into pubs around the city, expanding distribution and growing their selection of beers.

My brother over at Beer Toronto interviewed the owner and brewmaster Sean Dunbar back in 2013. Rather than reiterate all of the good information he got, take a look at his write-up.

In 2014 Picaroons proudly became a certified Benefit Corporation. B-Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. In a nutshell, B Corp is to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee.

We’ve had a few beers from Picaroons show up on our shelves here in Manitoba. We’ve got their Irish Red and their Yipee IPA and now we’ve got their Timberhog Stout. I really hope we might see more come our way, including my favorite Feels Good Imperial Pilsner.

The Style

Stouts are a dark beer made using roasted malts or roasted barley, hops, water and yeast.  Traditionally the term stout was used to describe the strongest (most alcoholic) porters, typically around 7-8%, produced by a brewery.  The reason for the name ‘stout’ was because these strong porters were often sold in stouter bottles than the standard porters.  This gave them the nickname ‘stout’ which eventually became the term used to describe the style of beer.

There are numerous styles of stouts ranging from Dry Stouts, to Porters, and Oyster stouts and my favorite Imperial Stouts.  While they had lost popularity in the early 20th century after the First World War, they have started to have a bit of an upswing due to the growing popularity in craft beer and breweries.  Stouts are very versatile allowing for a lot of creativity in adjuncts and flavouring and you can see a number of craft breweries doing stouts quite regularly.  Higher alcohol stouts also often age well making them a wonderful cellaring beer.

The Review

ABV – 5.0%         IBU – 29

Appearance – Black as ink with a good 1 finger of persistent tan head.

Smell – Roasted malt, caramel and toffee and sweet bread

Taste – Nice flavours of molasses, toffee, coffee and cocoa that come through especially as the beer warms up. The combination of these flavours really blends well with the dry finish and the slight bitterness. If anything, it’s a little bit sweet.

Mouth Feel – Oily mouthfeel with good carbonation and a medium body. Finish is dry with a bit of bitterness. The finish is nice to contrast the sweet notes in the taste.

Overall Thoughts – Good combination of flavours and finish. Molasses, toffee, coffee and cocoa bring a really nice flavor profile along with the dry bitter finish. The balance is certainly there as are the dark malts and other expected flavours. As I said, if anything, it is a little sweet.

Do I like it? – I do enjoy this beer. While I think it’s better when I can get it from the source, I’m excited to see Picaroons making its way out here. It’s a taste of the Maritimes and of my hometown and each time I drink one of these I get a twinge of nostalgia.

Beer Review

Phillips – Sax in the Dark Sour

Leave a comment

Today I’m going to take a stab at another beer that has recently arrived here in Manitoba. Phillips Sax in the Night Dark Brown Sour Ale.

This beer has quite the lengthy name. While we’ve been getting beers from Phillips for quite some time now (Their Double IPA Amnesiac seems to be a staple at the Liquor Marts) it is only recently we’ve started to get some of their seasonal releases.  It’s also only recently we’ve started to see more and more sour beers making their way onto the shelves of the liquor marts here in Manitoba.

About the Brewery

Phillips opened in Esquimalt BC in 2001. The brewmaster Matt Phillips, formerly the brew master at Spinnakers Brewpub and Wild Horse Brewing, had always been passionate about beer and dreamed one day he would be able to make beers he wanted to drink. In 2008 they moved the brewery across the bridge to downtown Victoria. This gave them space to grow and to produce new and interesting beers.

Sadly, there isn’t much information on their website about their brewing capacity.  A friend of mine from BC told me they are his “Picaroons”. Picaroons was the craft brewery I grew up with on the East Coast. I loved the beer they made; they were my first introduction to craft beer. So, if Phillips is that for British Colombians, then I say good work.

The beer I am trying today is a new release from Phillips. Released on March 14 from the brewery, we’ve just received it here in Manitoba. Be sure to check Liquor Marts’ listing page to see where you can find it. This is the second beer in their “Sour Notes” series, but the first we’ve gotten here.

This beer is a sour beer and it’s important to understand what that means. All clean beers are brewed using a genus of yeast called Saccharomyces. While there are a variety of different strains of this yeast, the Genus is the same. It is responsible for all clean brewed beers and has a big role to play in brewing sour beers as well. It is a fast-acting high IBU resistant yeast that is responsible for most of the alcohol production in beer, even in sours.

About the Style

What makes a sour beer? Well, that depends. There are two different ways a sour beer can be produced. The most common is controlled. This is where a brewer will specifically choose what he is going to do the beer to make it sour. The second way is to leave the fermenter open to the air and allow bacteria or wild strains of yeast access to your beer. This particular beer was produced using the controlled method, so that’s the one we will focus on.

In the controlled method, the brewer does something to the beer to lower its pH. This can be done by adding other strains of yeast or bacteria (Typically Lactobacillus or Brettanomyces or Pediococcus), by using an Acidulated Malt (this meets German purity laws) or by adding Lactic Acid (an acid produced by Pedioccous or Lactobacillus) or Acetobacter, a less common bacteria. Check out this blog from the American Home Brewers Association. It goes into detail about all these different strains.

This beer used Lactobacillus, a bacteria that acts similarly to a yeast by eating up the sugars in the wort (unfermented beer). Rather than converting the sugars to alcohol like our beer yeast, it turns them into lactic acid. The lactic acid lowers the pH of the beer rather quickly and gives the beer a sour but clean taste. It is most commonly used in sour German styles of beer Berliner Weisse or Gose.

While this style of beer is not a specifically recognized BJCP style, it falls under the Mixed-Fermentation Sour style, which is a variation of any base style of beer that has been soured. This particular beer is a Dark Ale that has been soured with Lactobacillus and aged on Grape Musts.

Review

 IMG_4956

ABV – 5.0%

Appearance – Clear dark amber colour with a quickly dissipating head.

Smell – Smells musty, some red-wine notes, as well as some caramel and dark fruit notes. Some light yeast funkiness is present on the nose as well.

Taste – Nice tartness on the tongue with a subtle malty sweetness, toffee and caramelized malt.  It tastes almost like a lightly fouled red wine, but not necessarily in a bad way. There is almost no hoppiness to this beer at all.

Mouth Feel – Really forward carbonation with the bubbles almost frothing on your tongue as you drink. Good medium body and nice off-dry finish.

Overall Thoughts – The sourness is there, but not really. It’s not hard to drink. It is a decent offering in the style, but there are certainly better ones out there.

Do I like it? – After trying other sours that we’ve had in town recently, I had hoped for a good sour offering from Phillips as well. This one was underwhelming. While it isn’t bad and I enjoyed drinking it, I think I had my expectations high and this didn’t live up to them. Like always, I recommend people give it a try, but for me this one was just ok.

 

 

Beer Review

Black Bridge – Double IPA

Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking quite a bit recently about whether or not I want to review beers on this blog. I’ve had a few people ask me if I could or if my site is a good place to read about different beers.

While I have reviewed beers in the past for the Craft Beer Advent Calendar, I haven’t really done too much of it outside of that. Given that we will soon have some new craft breweries opening up here in Manitoba and we seem to have a lot more new craft beers coming in, and as a way to help educate myself and others, I’ve decided to post reviews.

What I won’t be doing is giving beers a score anymore. I made this decision after my last advent calendar review. I want to provide people with information about the beer and what I think about it. I don’t feel I need to give it a score for that. So, what I am going to do is just give you information about the beers and whether I liked it or not. You can read a bit more about it on my about page.

So each review will be structured as follows:

  • Beer name, location, and style of beer.
  • Description of the style, origins and information about the brewery.
    • Appearance (Body, Colour, Head, Retention)
    • Smell
    • Taste
    • Mouth feel (Light, Medium, Heavy, Smooth, Coarse)
    • Overall thoughts
    • Do I like it (Yes or No) and why.

My hope is that my reviews will encourage you to get out and try new beers. Not all of my reviews will include this preamble.

The Review

Today I am going to review Black Bridge Brewery’s Double IPA. We’ve had their regular IPA! in our liquor marts for quite some time now and I’m excited to give the Double IPA a try. It just arrived in the city and you can find it around town starting on Monday. Right now It’s listed at Grant Park, but be sure to check its listing page at Liquor Marts to get details about where you can find it.

Black Bridge Brewery is located in Swift Current Saskatchewan.  They employ 5 full-time folks as well as two casual employees at their brewery and taproom. The name of the brewery comes from a local landmark, a black bridge, which is located in the south of the town. The bridge is rumored to be haunted and if you grew up in the area it’s something that you are likely quite familiar with.

The brewmaster, Clayton Stevenson, opened this brewery back in 2014 with his wife Kari. Originally it was just the two of them. Clayton had been a homebrewer for 10 years and had always wanted to open a brewery.  They run a 20 hectolitre system and have already made waves, winning a bronze medal for the Milk Stout at the Canadian Brewing Awards.

The style, Double IPA, is a beer that is an American craft beer invention that began in the 1990s. Craft breweries were trying to “push the envelope” on their beers and appease the hop aficionados who were growing ever more interested in the flavor and variety that this plant can provide. By the 2000s this style had become much more mainstream and provides a way for brewers to experiment and be creative with hops. The adjective “Double” really doesn’t mean anything other than this beer is stronger than a regular IPA. You will see “Imperial” used quite regularly as well. It’s the same style.

The style should be intensely hoppy and fairly strong with an IBU (international bitterness unit) in the range of 60-120, an ABV of between 7.5% and 10% with a lighter colour. Drinkability of the style is important and it should be well balanced with strong malt backbone and residual sweetness.

Black Bridge Double IPA

Black Bridge Brewery Double IPA
ABV – 8.5% IBU – 80

Enjoy as Fresh as Possible

Appearance – Light copper, a persistent thick foamy white head that leaves lacing on the glass as it dissipates. Great clarity especially for an unfiltered beer.

Smell – Very floral with hints of tropical fruit likely coming from the addition of Mosaic hops. Subtle grapefruit and piney aroma as well possibly from Chinook or Simcoe.

Taste – Great use of hops. Good floral notes, resin and spice as well as some really subtle hints of grapefruit. Strong bitterness, subtle malt that brings some pretty good balance to the beer. Good bitterness on the finish, not overly harsh.
Note: I quite enjoy hoppy beers. This one is fairly bitter and if you are not used to very bitter beers it might be harsher for you.

Mouth Feel – Medium body, smooth, good carbonation.

Overall Thoughts – Great use of hops in this double IPA, it’s got the strength of bitterness and ABV but it doesn’t taste overly strong. Good balance with the malt.

Do I like it? – Yes, I do like this one. I’m pretty impressed with the quality of this Double IPA. It tastes fairly fresh, which isn’t always the case for IPAs at our Liquor Marts. Very smooth, nice flavor. For the alcohol content of this beer it is dangerously drinkable. I enjoyed this one.

 

 

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015, Uncategorized

Advent Calendar 2015 – Wrap-Up

2 Comments

Wrap

Sorry this took so long. I had a great time travelling and am now back and ready for the New Year. It’s a pretty exciting time to be writing about beer. While last year when I started it was all about what might come, it is now about what is coming. I met and interviewed a lot of up and coming breweries last year. This year, I get the opportunity to write about them opening. Like I said, exciting. I’m in the midst of setting up follow-ups and looking forward to Winnipeg’s craft beer community growing.

Once again I’ve been really impressed with the craft beer advent calendar.  While I know there are qualms and concerns with the beers sitting for so long, having a chance to try unique and one-off beers is well worth it.  So, let’s wrap up with some statistics.

  • Once again we had 24 beers, this time from around North America.
  • There were 15 from the USA and 9 from Canada
  • States and Provinces represented:
United States Canadian Provinces or Territories
–          California (3)

–          Washington

–          Massachusetts

–          Colorado

–          Montana

–          North Carolina (2)

–          Maryland

–          New York

–          Connecticut

–          Michigan

–          Kentucky

–          Alabama

 –          Yukon

–          British Columbia (2)

–          Ontario (4)

–          Alberta

–          Saskatchewan
  • One of the beers, Evil Twin’s Smoked Pilsner, technically doesn’t come from anywhere in particular as the brewer uses other breweries. That particular one came from Connecticut, but he is based out of Brooklyn, NY.
  • 62.5% of the beers came from the United States and 37.5% from Canada

I’m a bit disappointed that most came from the United States, but I suppose they were the ones who chose to participate. I’d like to see a more Canadian advent Calendar and I’m actually hoping next year there will be enough breweries here in Manitoba I can just build my own local version. Or maybe we will get a collaboration pack for Christmas…hint hint.

Over the 24 days there were some hits and misses. Out of all the beers though, my favorite came to us from:

Spider Bite Brewing Company, Holbrok, Long Island and was Boris the Spider Russian Imperial Stout

Once again it’s been a lot of fun doing this blog-a-thon of beers from the advent Calendar. I brought some pretty interesting ones back from my trip and I’m looking forward to trying those.  As for this blog, I’ll be returning to my focus on beer in Manitoba. I can’t wait.

  • Beer Winnipeg
Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 23 – Sound Brewery – Yonder Star English Strong Ale

Leave a comment

Day 23 - Sound Brewery - Yonder Star English Strong Ale

Sorry for the late post.  Here in Hawaii it’s 4 hours behind Winnipeg, so it isn’t always easy to remember that. I’ve been enjoying some good local island beer, and also, some of the great American stuff they have. But, as for the Calendar, only one left after today.  I hope it’s going to be a good one.  So far this has been a pretty solid advent calendar and I’m happy I managed to get it.  I hope next year they will have the packaging issues sorted out.  There are a lot of interesting calendars coming out.  Who knows, maybe next year I’ll be reviewing a collaboration pack from the new local Winnipeg breweries (here’s hoping.)

Today’s beer comes to us from Sound Brewery in Washington State and it is called Old Yonder Star and it is a Yorkshire Style Christmas Ale.

Unfortunately, their website does not really provide a whole lot of details on them.  I can’t seem to find much in general.  Maybe I’m not looking hard enough because I’m on vacation, so if you have better luck, let me know.  What they do list is their beers and there are a number of them.  They have some good info on each one so that is at least worth a read.

This beer is brewed in the style of an English Strong Ale.  Now, English Strong Ales are somewhere in between a Pale ale and a Barleywine.  They are strong, complex, and rich in flavours.  Typically, with a colour between deep amber and reddish copper, they usually have bold fruity flavours and a malty mix of toasted and chocolate malt. Hops can vary depending on brewer but they can have full blown hop potential to a subtle bitterness.  Alcohol is usually evident with even some solvent taste to it depending on quality.  Many of this style are unfiltered and bottle conditioned.

I’m interested in trying it, so let’s get to it.

Rating:  79/100

Appearance: Jet black with a really thin dark brown sliver near the edges.
Smell:  Molasses, alcohol, black cherry notes
Taste:  Roasted malt combines with malty sweetness and finishes with a slightly bitter oily finish.
Mouthfeel: Very fine carbonation. Oily slightly bitter finish with alcohol warming.
Overall: Overall, not bad. It doesn’t have the full body and depth that a barley wine might have nor does it have the light hoppy notes of a pale ale.  Overall it’s a good balance between these two.
Do I like it: It’s alright. I’m not a huge fan of it. I think it could be doing a lot more.  Overall it’s not bad, just not really right up my alley right now.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 22 – Yukon Brewing – Longest Night Cascadian Dark Ale

Leave a comment

Day 22 - Yukon Brewing - Longest Night Cascadian Dark Ale

So, the beer made it through a plane ride just fine.  I had them wrapped well and no breakage, super awesome.  As I’m on holiday and don’t really have a lot of time to be writing these given there is so much to see and do, I’ll be keeping these last ones a bit shorter. I also don’t have my photo editing program, so, no titles on the pictures unfortunately.

Today’s beer comes to us from Yukon Brewing based out of Whitehorse in the Yukon.  It’s called the Longest Night and is a Cascadian Dark Ale.

Yukon Brewing originally opened its doors in 1997, but under a different name.  Originally it was called Chilkoot Brewing Co. Ltd. The owners, Allan and Bob, came up with their idea for the brewery around a campfire on a canoe trip.  Being from Ontario originally, they have both lived and worked in the Territory for most of their lives.

The plan was to open a quality brewery while keeping jobs in the Territory and service the north with good beer. Over a decade later, this is still the main goal of the brewery and they now employ over a dozen staff and support many local events every year.

Bob and Allan still act as the chief officers and now Yukon distributes its 9 brews outside the Yukon to Alberta, BC, Manitoba and some finding their way into Quebec and even all the way over to German. They’ve got a good blog on their website and chat a bit more about their beers.  Take a look if you have a chance.

The style of beer we are having today is called a Cascadian Dark Ale.  Now this style of beer has raised a bit of controversy over what it should actually be called.  Some say it is a Black IPA, others an India Black Ale while, like this one, others call it a Cascadian Dark Ale (CDA).  The US Brewers’ Association accepted it as a style in 2010 and dubbed it the “American Style India Black Ale”. Whatever it is called, it is essentially a dark hoppy beer.

The style has been described in a couple of different ways and this site has a pretty good exploration of that.  Essentially what it comes down to is that it is a darker beer with between 50-90 IBU and good combination of malt characteristics and hopiness.  I’m looking forward to it, so lets give it a try.

Rating:  78/100

Appearance: Deep amber with little head that fades quickly leaving some minor lacing
Smell:  Roasted malt, chocolate, bit yeasty, slight hop notes and toffee notes.
Taste:  Resinous hop flavour, slight chocolate and roasted malt. Very little else.
Mouthfeel: Finishes with resinous bitter note that lingers. Medium-light bodied not withstanding how dark it is.
Overall: Overall, not bad. Decent dark ale but would likely be better with food. Something to bring out the subtle flavours of the malts.
Do I like it: It’s pretty decent. I’d be happy to have it again if I was at a friends but I’m not going to go out and buy it.

Beer Review, Craft Beer Advent Calendar 2015

Day 21 – Clown Shoes Beer – Bombay Berserker Indian-Stlye Chocolate Stout

Leave a comment

Day 21 - Clown Shoes Beer - Bombay Berserker Indian-Stlye Chocolate Stout

Only a three beer left after today.  It’s been quite a run.  I can’t believe it’s already almost over.  I’m heading out of town shortly too, but I’m bringing the beers with me so that I can still get my posts up.  It’ll be a sweet trip and I’m hoping to manage to get to some of the breweries in Hawaii so I can try some of the beer.  I’ve already scoped out a sweet pub near where I’m staying that has a ton of beer on tap from all over the USA. Should be fun.

Today’s beer comes to us from Clown Shoes Beer and it is a variation on a Chocolate Stout called an Indian-Style Chocolate Stout.  The name of the beer itself is “Bombay Berserker” and it sounds pretty tasty.

Founded by Gregg Berman and a group of friends after losing a beeradvocate naming contest.  They decided that they could make Clown Shoes beer themselves and they didn’t need Beer Advocate to be the ones to use the name.  They started off thinking it’d be one brew, just for fun.  After getting some good feedback on their beers, they decided what the heck, let’s keep going.  While they don’t provide too many details about the formation, brewhouse, or anything at all really on their website, they do at least give us a look at the variety of the beers that they make.  They’ve got a ton of special releases, seasonal bombers, 4-packs, and a whopping list of retired beers.  As the name might suggest, while clown shoes represent humility and humour, the brewery itself represents producing beer without pretension while being free to be a little crazy.  They put a big focus on experimentation and the list of beers on their site point to a lot of that.

This is another stout, although a different variation on the style. There have been a lot of stouts in this advent calendar.  This likely has to do with their ability to age. Now, 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.  Like I indicated on the first chocolate stout we tried, they 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.  This beer is a variation on this variation.  While still using the same malts in the beer they have added a number of spices including: chai tea, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and vanilla. I’m pretty excited about this one, it sounds tasty. So, enough about it, let’s get to it.

Rating:  79/100

Appearance:  Pours solid dark brown.  1” of puffy foam with tan head.
Smell: Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, star anise, some caramel malt as well as some chocolate malt.  Some earthy hop notes are present as well.
Taste:  Bready caramel malt, toffee, chai spice, cardamom is really present, ginger is noticeable but as a bitter lingering finish.
Mouthfeel: medium bodied, smooth, some creamy notes as well.
Overall: Pleasantly spiced with a lot of layers and different notes coming through along the way. It’s got a good body to it that carries these flavours overs the threshold. Good sipping beer for sure.  Only complaint is that the spices overpower any of the underlying stout and I don’t really get to taste the beer, just the spice.
Do I like it: I enjoyed it.  I think it had a lot of interesting characteristics going for it.  I’d be interested in trying it again but I’m not going to seek it out.