10 Reviews

A pretty wide array of beers here.  Lots of Belgian styles, some I enjoyed, some I did not.  Highlights here were: Great Lakes Saison Du Pump (a pumpkin infused saison), which you can always buy tomorrow for Halloween; Brasseries Dunham IPA Belge, which I found to be painfully drinkable and refreshing yet complex enough to keep me captivated until the end of the bottle; and lastly (but by no means least) the absolutely massive Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Hibernus, the Belgian Dark Strong ale that just keeps giving up layers of flavor (but be warned it's a beastly 9.5% ABV, a hell of a sipper).

Charlevoix Dominus Vobiscum Hibernus
750 mL bottle. Pours dark mahogany with a thick tan cap of head. Solid aromas of dark fruit, rum, banana, medium treacle and oak. Sweet but well balanced by moderate carbonation, hop bitterness and alcohol bite. Dangerously smooth, full bodied and deep. Finishes with hops and spices. Delicious.

Spirit Tree Draught Cider
341 mL bottle. Pours light golden straw with a thin white cap that goes quick. Aromas of apple, honeysuckle and farmy funk. Mildly sweet but still quite dry, with low to moderate carbonation and an above average body for a cider. Love it for that yeast note, a complexity not commonly found in Ontario ciders.

M'Anis 7.3
500 mL bottle. Pours a deep honey color with a short lived white head. Notes of bread, toffee, nut, apricot and a hint of roast. A touch sweet offset by lively carbonation and a warming boozy bite. Moderate body with a sticky malty finish. Not bad, but not for me.

Great Lakes Brewing Saison Du Pump
650 mL bottle. Pours a cloudy straw with an obnoxiously lacy head of white. Aromas of pumpkin, nutmeg, banana, bubblegum and noble hop. Pleasantly palate coating, but bone dry with full carbonation and a nice bitter finish. Crisp and delicious!

Unibroue Noire de Chambly
750 mL bottle. Pours cola with a beige cap of tight bubbles. Aromas of prune, spice, a hint of roast and Unibroue house yeast. Moderate body and carbonation with a dry yeasty finish and subtle hop bitterness. Not overly impressed, but well made.

Uncommon Brewers Siamese Twin
473 mL can. Pours dark amber brown with zero head. Leaves no lacing. Caramel and spice aromas, with subtle notes of lime leaf and lemongrass. Bready caramel malt and slight hop bitterness on the finish. Sweet and rich, sticky, coating mouthfeel, moderate carbonation and a bit of booze. Too sweet for me, would like to see more of that citrus zip. Good idea, bad execution?

Brasseries Dunham IPA Belge
750 mL bottle. Pours a murky green tinged orange hue with a huge rocky white head that lasts and laces. Aromas of lemony hop, coriander spice, cotton candy and herb. Dry and perfume-like with a floral finish. Moderate body with high carbonation. Strangely well balanced. Tasty, and not what I expected.

Wellington Iron Duke Saison
Cask. Pours dark mahogany with a tan fluff. Aromas of bubblegum, cherry cough drop, spice, slight roast and yeasty funk. Dry, with a lightly bitter finish. Slightly medicinal with a bit of alcohol bite.

Northwinds Corduroy Rye IPA
Draught. Pours hazy copper with a lacy white head. Aromas of herbaceous hop, rye spice, mint and caramel malt. Dry for the style, with a lightly spiced finish. Moderate body and carbonation. Creamy mouthfeel, well balanced.

Lake of Bays Top Shelf Lager
473 mL can. Pours golden with a nice white head that leaves no trace. Cereal and biscuit grain flavor with a hint of toffee. Subtly sweet with a hint of hop bitterness. Full on the palate with a round mouth feel and moderate carbonation. Reminds me more of a Vienna lager than an American one. Not bad at all.

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Highland Park 1990

THE SCOTCH: Distilled in 1990 and packaged in 2010, this fine whisky is 20 years old.  Marked 'Created Exclusively For Global Travel Retail', I picked this up on a trip to the US.  Highland Park is the only distillery on the Isle of Orkney and are known for their scrupulous attention to quality. 40% ABV.

THE POUR: Golden yellow, average consistency.

THE NOSE: Banana, vanilla, clove, oak, honey, a hint of mineral.

THE SIP: Mellow and smooth, candied orange sweetness, round oaky mouthfeel and subtle peating.

OVERALL: An easygoing Scotch, superbly round and balanced.  Gently warming.  Ideally enjoyed neat, I found water ruined this one.

Cask Days 2013

There are few things that get beer geeks more excited than a cask of real ale.  Over 200 Casks of real ale all in one location is one of those things.  Cask Days is an annual (this year marks the ninth), two day celebration of real ale, and the largest of it's kind in Canada.

'Real Ale' is unpasteurized, unfiltered, living (there's plenty of yeast still in suspension), beer that has been conditioned in a cask  (formerly barrels, now likely to be a stainless steel vessel called a pin or a firkin) and served without the aid of carbon dioxide or nitrogen.  The beer is cloudy with yeast haze, served at cellar temperature (around 10C) and very lightly carbonated.  To the average consumer, this seems like a scam and a waste of delicious beer.  To those in the know, cask ale offers an opportunity to really showcase the flavour of a beer.  Only very well made beers can be served unpasteurized and unfiltered, thus setting a benchmark for how they are made.  There is no carbonation to disguise off flavours and the warmer serving temperature awakens aromatics normally muted when cold.

This years Cask Days was held at Evergreen Brickworks, an old quarry located in North York.  The outdoor setting created the perfect environment to keep over 200 unrefrigerated beers at serving temperature.  Food was offered up by Toronto favourites such as The Ceili Cottage, Bar Isabel, Tracy Winkworth, Pig Iron Coffee and Parts & Labour.  This year featured over 230 firkin of beer from all over Canada and the U.K.

Here's the list of what I got into, along with notes for the beers that I can recall clearly.

Amsterdam Highborn Farmhand (Saison with Brett and Noble Hops)
Cloudy straw colour.  Nice brett notes, musty and woody alongside spicy, herbal hop

Daniel Thwaites Lancaster Bomber (ESB)

Kensington Brewing Company Tragically Hopped (IPA)
A nice cask style IPA, on the lighter side of things, well balanced with pine and citrus hops.

Les Trois Mousquetaires Oud Bruin (Flanders Brown Ale)

Spirit Tree Dry Hopped (Dry Hopped Heritage Apple Cider)
Similar to their original cider, but with hints of citrus and woody hop,

Les Vergers de la Colline Rouge Dolgo (Crab Apple Cider)
Very tart, with a nice pink tinge.  Definitely tastes like crab apples.  Refreshing.

Snowman Make Like a Tree and Leaf (Gluten Free Maple Porter)
Spicy non-barley malt notes, a hint of maple sweetness and a bit of roast.

Amsterdam X Great Lakes Brewery Maverick and Gose with Raspberry (Raspberry Gose)
Tainted with diacetyl.  The only bad beer I consumed at the festival.  A shame, I had my eye on this one before we even got there.

Bellwoods Brettal Head with Lemon (All-Brett Wheat Ale with Lemon)
Very murky lemonade colour.  Slightly funky/musty with various layers of lemony-ness.  Smelled very much like Moroccan style preserved lemons.  Creamy mouth feel.  Probably my favourite taste of the afternoon.

Muskoka Masala ChaIPA (Chai Spiced IPA)
A well balanced IPA that finished hoppy and faded to spice notes, not by any means overpowering.

Half Pints Drunken Bunny (Chocolate Milk Stout)

Sawdust City X Nickelbrook X Nogne O Test Pilot (Eisbock)
A style you don't see much in Canada.  Beer that has been concentrated by slowly freezing and removing the water (which freezes before the alcohol). Surprisingly clear for a cask beer.  Notes of candied fruit and pure malt.  Warning, this one came in at 14% ABV.  

Sawdust City A Nun Rolling Down a Hill (Dry Stout)
Chocolate and roast, a nice dark reddish-black.

F&M Sour-Y About Last Year (Sour Bock)

Niagara Oast House Brewers Mild R'Oast (English Mild)
As close as one can get to coffee beer without actually having coffee in it.  Full bodied for the meagre 3.8% ABV.  Cask style at its finest.

Thornbridge Brewery Jaipur (IPA)

IPA Challenge Beer 2 (IPA)
Weirdly balanced.  Citrus and tropical fruit, caramel malt.  Didn't do it for me at all.

IPA Challenge Beer 3 (IPA)
Very light color, finite notes of yeast spice and Noble hop.  Got my vote.

IPA Challenge Beer 4 (IPA)
Full bodied and tropical with a dark and malty back bone.  Quite filling.

I discovered that I don't much care for sour beers on cask.  Strange that two of my favourite styles of beer don't come together to make a style I like even more.  The bracing acidity of sours is lifted and lightened by the carbonation, creating more of a contrast;  on cask these beers seem heavy and unlively.

All in all the festival was a great time!  Thanks again to Keep6 Imports/Bar Volo/Cask Days for throwing the event, I look forward to next year!  For more information please visit www.caskdays.com

10

A bunch of new beers here from the fell release as well as a few product samples.  For a harvest themed meal pairing try the Nickelbrook Wet Hop or Renaissance Punkin with your turkeys; or use the 8Wired iStout or LTM Doppelbock as an after dinner sipper, like a fine cognac.

Beau's Mr. Hyde
600 mL bottle. Pours amber with a frothy white cap. Rye and hop spices intermingle with a hint of caramel malt sweetness, cedar, applesauce and prune fruit notes. Slightly sweet but reasonably balanced. Moderate body and carbonation level. Nice complexity.

Beau's Two Weeks Notice
600 mL bottle. Pours very dark brown, almost black with a fuzzy light brown lid. Roasty malt, chocolate, coffee, licorice and Noble hop aroma. Quite bitter through and through with the dark malts on the attack and hop bitterness on the finish. Light on the palate, medium bodied and average carbonation.

Radical Road The Wayward Son
750 mL bottle. Pours golden with a thick lacy head of fuzz. Soft sugary aromas, Noble hop, pilsner malt, orange candy and fruit. Slightly sweet, light to medium body, full carbonation and a hint of bitter aftertaste. A good example of a Golden Strong; a style I don’t like much, but where’s the oak?

Nickelbrook Pie Eyed
355 mL bottle. Pours hazy burnt orange with a thin white cap. On the nose, clove, cinnamon and pumpkin and a hint of malt. Taste is somewhat watery, mildly sweet and spiced. Thin to moderate mouth feel and medium carbonation. Not to my taste.

Nickelbrook Ontario Wet Hop Pale Ale
750 mL bottle. Pours a pale golden with a thick foamy head of white. Nose is peach, mango, subtle pine and cedar. Crisp, with cracker like malt notes and a fruity finish. Moderate body and carbonation with a slightly bitter finish. Designed to showcase hop character. Quite enjoyed this, very sessionable.

Renaissance Enlightenment Series The Great Punkin
500 mL bottle. Pours dark garnet with a frothy off white head. On the nose, pumpkin, pie spices and bready malt. Slightly sweet with roasted vegetable and caramel malt notes. A nice spice and pumpkin balance that plays well with the maltiness, finishes slightly bitter. Medium body with medium to high carbonation. A good pumpkin beer, would have been better if it were more modestly carbonated.

8Wired iStout
500 mL bottle. Pours opaque black, period. Beige head. Aroma is intensely concentrated. Dark chocolate, coffee, deeply roasted malt and stewed fruit. Surprisingly sweet for a RIS; balanced, but not as bitter as is typical for the style, less roasty than anticipated. Full on the palate with low carbonation. The beer that eats like a meal. Still damn delicious.

Les Trois Mousquetaires GC Doppelbock
750 mL bottle. Pours dark amber with a foamy tan head that leaves no trace. Aromas of fruitcake, rum, candied orange, chocolate and demerara. Fairly sweet and firm bodied, moderate to heavy carbonation and full on the palate. Leaves a lingering sticky sweetness on the palate, gently offset by a touch of acidity and woody hop spice. Liquid bread indeed!

Amsterdam Calm Before the Storm
355 mL bottle. Pours a dark walnut with little to no head. On the nose; roasted nuts, bittersweet cocoa, rye spice. Dry with a lingering roasty hoppy bitterness. Thin palate with average carbonation.

Amsterdam Oranje Weisse
500 mL bottle. Pours a hazy golden with a thin head that exits quickly. Aromas of citrus juices, coriander, liquorice and yeasty spice. Moderately dry and fruity, very clean on the palate, average plus carbonation. Tasty but not that exciting.

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still breathing; still brewing

It's been a while since I've posted anything but ratings and thought I might put together a bit of a review of what's going on in the brewing department.

I got started immediately once we finished moving into our new place with an Christmas inspired Old Ale I've named 'Oak to Joy'.  The beer was drawn up to be a fairly strong sipping beer for the cold winter months and partially aged in oak.  The thing took near a month to ferment out!  I was expecting to be sampling it by now and instead I'm waiting for it to mellow out before bottling.

A week later I set down a beer that I intend to age out for a few months.  The idea was to spike a classic Dunkelweizenbock with Brettanomyces bacteria.  This will develop a gamey, musty, cellar-like character that I think will balance well with the malty, smoky notes typical to the style.  The weizen yeast is all done fermenting and the brett should be munching away at the residual sugars for the next three months before I package it.

Last weekend I brewed up my fourth solo batch, a Biere de Garde.  This is one of the few traditional French styles of beer.  Hallmarks include a very slow ale fermentation at low temperatures and long term lagering that results in a smooth malty beer with a mild yeast and hop profile.  The White Labs French Ale yeast I used fermented the beer out in an astonishing four days!  I let it rest for four more and have started bringing it down to a lager temperature of 40F.  The beer will age there for four weeks and continue to mellow.

I'm currently building up a starter for another experimental batch, an all Brettanomyces Clausenii blonde table beer.  All brett beers require a lot of patience and a large yeast starter, so despite the fact that I began propagating yeast today, I won't be brewing for two weeks time.  I selected a very lightly colored, mild malt base with a small amount of slightly spicy hops to really let the yeast flavour shine through.

On top of all that I'm working on switching from bottling to kegging.  I'm debating between converting my own keg fridge or purchasing a commercial one.  The switch should make brewing a lot cleaner: bottling is the messiest and fussiest part by far.

That's where things stand!

Ratings Double Header!

A trip to Caledon yielded some fine ciders from Spirit Tree Cidery.  There's some nice fall feeling brews in here, as well as half of the Beau's Oktoberfest gift pack!  Fans of dry stouts need to have the Le Trou de Diable Sang D'Encre!  Enjoy.

Spirit Tree Estate Reserve Cider
750 mL bottle. Pours a hazy light pear colour with a thin short lived mousse. Floral with notes of apple flesh and skin notes, malolactic fermentation, oak and a hint of funk. Bone dry and crisp with mild carbonation and a light body. Lingering notes of apple and lightly tannic oak on the mouth. Good stuff, but I prefer the pungent funkiness of the original. Nonetheless a very real cider, nothing to hide here.

Amsterdam Autumn Hop Harvest Ale
500 mL bottle. Pours a deep gold with a lacy white head. Aromas of earthy hop, citrus rind, biscuity malt, pine and bread. Taste is dry with a lingering hop bitterness. Sticky on the palate with moderate carbonation and light to medium body. A nice fall beer; and my favorite Amsterdam brew next to the Boneshaker.

Renaissance Voyager IPA
500 mL bottle. Pours a muddy amber color with a lacy white foam. Resiny hop aromas or grapefruit and beeswax with notes of crystal malt and yeast. Slighty sweet balanced by a hint of hop bitterness and floral aromatics. Low carbonation and surprisingly light on the palate. Distinctly British tasting.

Midtfiyns/De Molen X Porter
500 mL bottle. Pours opaque black with a creamy brown head that lingers and laces. Aromas of chocolate, coffee, burnt sugar and molasses. Hints of black cherry, prune and roasted malt. Starts out sweet and quickly turns roasty and bitter with hops. Rich and dense with a thick coating mouth feel. Full bodied with moderate carbonation. An enormous porter, made for after dinner sipping.

Cameron's Ressurection Roggenbier
650 mL bomber. Pours dark butterscotch with a thick white head and nice lacing. Aromas of spicy-sweet rye, medium crystal malt, a hint of plum, banana, apple and floral hop. Full carbonation with a lingering sweetness on the palate. Not bad but I expected more somehow...

Spirit Tree Perry
341 mL bottle. Pours a light pear juice color with a split second long white cap. On the nose is pear and musty funk reminiscent of olive brine. Fruity and thin bodied with a slightly tart, floral finish. Clean on the palate. Well made and tasty.

Beau's Smokin' Banana Peels
600 mL bottle. Pours hazy off yellow with a thick white head that laces nicely. Aroma is smoke, mineral, clove phenols and banana. Just smoky enough that you know it’s there but not intense enough to overwhelm the delicate hefe character. A mild sweetness with moderate body and full carbonation. An upgraded thirst quencher.

Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Pale Ale
550 mL bottle. Pours light ruby with a thin head. Caramel, bread, apple and spicy/herbal hop. Moderately sweet, balanced by a bitter hop finish. Medium bodied with moderate plus carbonation. A nice ESB.

Le Trou de Diable Sang D'Encre
375 mL bottle. Pours opaque black with a splotchy beige-brown head. Dark molasses, coffee, cocoa, dark bread and earthy hop notes. Dry and layered with notes of licorice and roast. Moderate to full bodied with lively carbonation; slightly sticky. Need more stouts this good to be readily available.

Beau's Oktobock
600 mL bottle. Pours crystal clear, liquid gold with a thick white head. Bready with caramel toffee, nut butter, lemon verbena, cracker and hop spice. Moderately dry, above average body and normal carbonation. Lingering bitter finish, slightly sticky on the palate. A big ol’ Helles.

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