Moroccan Brown Ale from Spearhead

Quite a few people have told me how great Spearhead Brewing Company's Hawaiian Style Pale Ale is. I picked it up the first time I saw it at the LCBO - I've always been a sucker for a good label.

It looks delicious, right?

Unfortunately, I assumed it was Hawaiian-style in the same way that an ale might be American-style or a Wit would be Belgian-style. If I'd read the label, I would have seen that it's Hawaiian in the same way that a pizza is Hawaiian - there's pineapple.

I'm allergic to pineapple.

As far as I can tell, Spearhead's Hawaiian Style Pale Ale tastes like burning. Mild burning, but still. Burning.

So, when I spotted their new Moroccan Brown Ale, I was excited - finally, I could check out a Spearhead beer!

I read this (awesome) label very carefully.

This ale's ingredient list, thankfully, doesn't include any pineapple. It does, however, feature raisins, dates, figs and cinnamon. These lend the dark brown brew a sweet, complex flavour - not, like, crazy-sweet, but a nice change of pace from hopped up IPAs. I would love to drink it while eating excessive amounts of cheese. Totally recommended.

Cheers!

Emily


Moroccan Brown Ale
Spearhead Brewing Company in Toronto, Ontario
Available at the LCBO
6.0% alc./vol
355 ml bottles
6 bottles $13.95

City and Colour from Flying Monkeys

I was torn when I spotted City and Colour at the liquor store. On one hand, I've never had a maple beer that I liked; on the other hand, I've never had a Flying Monkeys beer that I didn't like. Ultimately, I couldn't resist picking up one of the individually boxed 750ml bottles.

I'm, like, 90% sure the lumberjack in the Canadian Guitar Forest is Dallas Green.
I'm definitely not your #1 source for Canadian Music Information.

 

This is the second beer in Flying Monkeys' Treble Clef series. The first, BNL Imperial Chocolate Stout, was my spirit animal. I tried to stockpile it, but couldn't leave it alone. It haunts my dreams.

I miss you, bosom friend.

This collaboration with City and Colour (aka Dallas Green) is an Imperial Maple Wheat, brewed with Ontario Maple Syrup and fair-trade organic bourbon vanilla.

The maple syrup is abundantly evident in a quick sniff of the beer. It is excessively evident in the first sip - kind of like swilling maple sugar candies some kid has melted in their sticky little fist . It's super-sweet with a silky texture.

I do not like this beer. I tried. I finished a glass, just in case, and I may even polish off the rest of the bottle another time. Maybe. If I do, it will be primarily on principle; I can't bear to waste beer, especially such a pricey beer.

Bright spot: This was the cap wisdom

I liked this more than the maple offerings from Mill Street or Lake of Bays - that's not exactly high praise, as the Lake of Bays' Spring Maple Belgian Blonde Ale is one of only two beers I've ever purposely left unfinished. It might be good for people who prefer sugary coolers to beer? I make no guarantees.

Blech. A thousand times, blech.

So now there is one Flying Monkeys beer I don't like. Sadness.

They can make it up to me by bringing back the chocolate stout.

Cheers!

Emily


City and Colour
Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery in Barrie, Ontario
Available at the LCBO
11.5% alc./vol.
750 ml bottles
1 Bottle $13.95

Sunny & Share from Creemore Springs

I found it! Creemore Springs' Sunny & Share! One sad, lonely can all by itself on the Beer Store shelf - I was happy to give it a good home.

"I've got you, beer."

Now, there's still no sign of this citrus saison on Creemore's website, but it appears Sunny & Share is the second offering in Creemore's craft beer exploration series, Mad & Noisy - the first was Hops & Bolts. Geography Fact: The series takes its name from two rivers that meet just outside Creemore, Ontario.

The packaging stands in stark contrast to that of the brewery's usual offerings - muted colours, traditional fonts, pastoral scene. The Beer Store guy I chatted with actually seemed a little put out by the louder, tattoo-inspired design of the Mad & Noisy series. It's definitely not something you would quickly identify as a Creemore.



Part of me really likes this package design.
Part of me can't tune out the announcer voice in my head saying "This isn't your daddy's Creemore."

The beer's based in the tradition of Belgian farmhouse ales, and incorporates flavour from citrus peels and cloves. It's a cloudy amber-colour with a frothy head, and it smells like lemon candies. The taste is dominated by the lemon and orange playing off the spiciness of the cloves, and it has a lingering sweetness.

I liked this beer when I first sampled it in Stratford, and did again when I started this one. However, about halfway through it started to taste less like beery lemon hard candy and more like beery citronella - it may be that this is best served very cold, or that the "perfect for sharing" suggestion on the packaging should be taken very seriously. It's a nice summer beer, and I'd happily drink it again if someone were to set it down in front of me, but I don't think I'll be scouring Beer Stores for a second can.

Cheers!

Emily

Sunny & Share
Creemore Springs Brewery in Creemore, Ontario
Available at the Beer Store
4.5% alc./vol.
473 ml cans
1 Can $2.85, 8 Cans $22.80, 24 Cans $62.40

Naughty Neighbour from Nickel Brook

As friends and I sang in Philadelphia two years ago today, "America Day! America Day! Hey, everybody, it's America Day!"

Special surprise guests that Independence Day were Boys II Men. Here, this earworm is a special 4th of July gift from me to you.

I was loitering in the liquor store this afternoon, reveling in the A/C, when I spotted Nickel Brook's Naughty Neighbour, an American style pale ale. I have a general "Nickel Brook makes me think of Nickelback" bias against this brewery, but you can't go wrong with a pretty lady dressed as Uncle Sam, amiright?

 

This is a basically ideal muggy afternoon beer. It's smooth and crisp, with a sharp piney-hop bite, taking the edge of the heat rather nicely. At 4.9%, it's wonderfully sessionable too, which is a strong asset when there are so many humid hours of yuck in store.

If you need us, the cat and I will be locked in our only air conditioned room, reading, napping, and drinking another Naughty Neighbour.

Cheers!

Emily


Naughty Neighbour
Nickel Brook Brewery in Burlington, Ontario
Available in Ontario at LCBO and Beer Stores
4.9% alc./vol.
355 ml bottles
6 bottles $12.25

Stratford Pilsner from the Stratford Brewing Company

I've been down in Southwestern Ontario for a bit of a vacation (is it technically a vacation if you stay in your parents' guest room?) and my dad had the beer fridge well stocked with Beau's Lug Tread, Sleeman Original Draft and a big bottle of Innis & Gun Original. I also partook in my fair share of ice cold Bud Light from a cooler on my aunt & uncle's deck on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon.

But it only seemed right that my official attempt at tasting should be a homegrown brew: Stratford Pilsner, from the Stratford Brewing Company. It's their signature (and generally only) offering, an all natural, traditionally brewed Czech-style pilsner. I absolutely must quote their website, which claims the beer "is as smooth and graceful as the swans floating down the Avon River."

I was just going to add a standard tourist bureau shot of Stratford swans floating down the Avon,
smooth and graceful as beer, but then Google showed me this. Undercover Swan for the win! 

The first six pack disappeared before I had a chance to sit down for a proper tasting, so right off the bat I can tell you it goes down easy while reading or watching someone else barbecue.

It's totally at home outdoors, right?

After a second trip to the liquor store, I sat down for what I explained to my mother was a Work Beer, as opposed to earlier recreational beers. This is serious business.

Stratford Pilsner is a lovely golden colour, with malt dominating its aroma. It's crisp and heavily carbonated; I think I tasted lemon and floral undertones, but that may be because I read a review that pointed them out beforehand. There's a rather grassy-tasting hop finish. Overall? Pretty good.

I promise to improve these reviews. I'll get a beer tasting book out of the library, okay?

Right now, I'm on the hunt for Sunny & Share, a saison from Creemore - we got a sample at the Boar's Head one night. If you like Muskoka's Oddity, you'll like this, too. If you're the three people I was with Monday night, you won't.




The freebies have already started rolling in: after my friends told her
about my blog, the waitress let me keep this empty bottle. Score!

 

It isn't even on Creemore's website! The LCBO doesn't seem to carry it, but the Beer Store's fickle site seems to indicate that it does? Once I find it, y'all will be the first to know.

Cheers!
Emily


Stratford Pilsner
Stratford Brewing Company in Stratford, Ontario
Available year-round in Ontario at select LCBO stores
4.9% alc./vol.
341 ml bottles
6 bottles $11.75

Kellerbier from Creemore Springs

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! If you liked having your Facebook feed clogged with beautiful iPhone 3S pictures of beer, you're going to love Hey, Look What I Drank: The Blog!

I'm launching on Father's Day because it, rather brilliantly, marks the first day of Ontario Craft Beer Week. There are a slew of dad-themed beer events (or "beervents") going on today - if it weren't so miserable out, I'd be begging someone to accompany me to Beau's Father's Day barbecue in Vankleek Hill where they're launching their 2013 Pan Ontario beer, a collaboration with Amsterdam, Flying Monkeys, Great Lakes and Wellington breweries. There are lots of things going on all week - for example, basically every restaurant, everywhere, ever is hosting at least one Mill Street Beer & Sampler Paddle tasting event. Check out ocbweek.ca for a full list of who's doing what, where & when.

Beer drinking with my own father will be done later this week, when I head to Southwestern Ontario. Though generally a Blue drinker while I was growing up, there was a period when Dad took to buying whatever the person ahead of him in line at the Beer Store was getting. One of my uncles (a Bud/Canadian/Coors Light kind of guy) was thoroughly traumatized by one such purchase, and will bring it up at any family dinner where the beer selection is suspiciously eclectic.

It seemed fitting to follow my dad's lead for a maiden post on Father's Day. My local Beer Store is one of the new-fangled, go-ahead-and-touch-the-product kind of places, so I needed to finesse his technique a little - I decided I would buy the first beer I saw someone carrying. I can't tell you how relieved I am that the sad soul with two cases of President's Choice Light was the second person to cross my path.

Luckily, fate smiled and there is now a glass of Creemore Spring's Kellerbier before me.

I got all artistic with a plaid shirt in honour of my dad.

Lacking the traditional earthenware mug, I'm making do with my standard lager glass (and, no, I didn't know off the top of my head that an earthenware mug was recommended. I looked that up to be all edumacational for you.) I'll shamelessly quote a description from the packaging, rather than attempt to trickily rephrase what I learned there:

"Kellerbier is an unfiltered medieval German lager known for its naturally cloudy appearance. Served straight from the brewmaster's cellar, it was a true honour for special guests visiting a brewery to be offered a taste."

It's a beautiful red-amber colour. I'm told (yes, again by the can) to expect citrus and spice flavours from the German hops. Those notes are there, but I'm especially tasting a pine needle quality, particularly in the dry finish. It's crisp and delightful, a great patio session sort of beer (she says wistfully, tugging at her cardigan as torrential rain pours beyond the window) especially since its ABV is 5%. My baby carrot food pairing probably isn't especially ideal, but I'm not going to get ahead of myself. Once I'm actually any good at tastings we'll start worrying about the supporting cast.

Cheers!
Emily


Kellerbier
Creemore Springs Brewery Ltd. in Creemore, Ontario
Available year-round in Ontario at the LCBO and Beer Store
5.0% alc./vol.
473 ml cans
1 Can $2.80, 8 Cans $21.80, 24 Cans $59.40