Post Xmas Update

Happy Holidays to everyone, I trust it was filled with good company and good beer. Xmas beer season started early for me with a few pints of my local brewpubs winter seasonal Brewsters Cranberry Wheat Ale. Honestly I was hoping for something dark and strong to fend off the cold but the beer was decent enough. Wheaty and citrusy with a little tart cranberry flavour. (Rating: 3) I'm also very pleases with my new toy - a new beer (wine) fridge which came stocked with a variety of Unibroue beers! It was quickly filled up with good beer, check out the pictures below.

More recent rates: Gluten Free Green's Beers and other odds n sods

I was somewhat excited to find three new gluten free ales available on a recent visit to the bottleshop. The beers are sold under the Green's brand, and are brewed by DeProefbrouwerij of Lochristi Belgium. They are fairly prolific brewers, 157 beers are listed under their namesake at Ratebeer.com. With that many beers, not all can be knockouts. The Green's beers are interesting in that they are gluten free ales that attempt to emulate some classic beer styles. Quest approximates an Abbey Tripel, Endeavour the Dubbel, and Discovery is apparently a strong ale of English origins. The beers are packaged in 500ml brown capped bottles with a best before date and a neck-tag that in block letters states "NO WHEAT NO BARLEY ALL NATURAL". Further reading of the label reveals that Green's beers do NOT contain any of the following: Crustaceans, Eggs, Fish, Peanuts, Soya Beans, Milk, Lactose, Nuts, Celery, Mustard, Sesame Seeds, Sulphur Dioxide and Sulfites. I appriciate their thouroghness, as I suffer from food allergies myself, however most of those ingredients are never found in beer at all so it seems strange to list them. (Any brewer want to take on a celery and egg beer?)

How do beers brewed without malt taste? Well, in short I wasn't a huge fan. All of the Green's beers shared traits with the last gluten free beer I had (La Messagere) - they seems to all posess a grapey/winey component, both in aroma and flavour and also a cider/apple component that seems to overpower, regardless of style. I liked the Endeavour the best (rating 3.2), Discovery (shown left) came in second (rating 2.3) and Quest came in last of the three (rating 2.2). In the end I'm glad I got to try these, they were all drinkable, if a bit odd and didn't really capture the styles they were aiming for, but they were also interesting in an experimental kind of way. I'm glad a brewer decided to try some classic styles malt-free, who knows what they'll brew in the future - malt free imperial stouts and barleywines maybe? You know I'd try em.


Other odds and sods that have crossed my tastebuds recently: Bowen Island Irish Cream Ale. My first taste of the mild style. I was "mildly: disappointed. It showed promise in the aroma - toffee and honey, but fell apart in the mouth, thin and watery with a little nut and caramel. I was hoping for more. Kamloops Brewery does make some tasty beers for some chain restaurants in the area. The Bowen beers are budget priced at around 7 bucks for 6 cans, so I guess for that price point...

Next came the (in)famous Pacifica Clara from the great beer nation of Mexico. Grupo Modelo makes this, and they also make the loathesome Corona, so I was not expecting much. It was your average pale lager - a bit corny and grainy, a lot of carbonation, light body. Nothing special really, but on a hot day it could work. (rating 1.4)

Pump House Scotch Ale was another single I picked up, but would gladly buy a sixer of this. It was surpringly smokey, but this was a good thing. Flavour was of smoke, caramel malts and peat with similar aroma. Very sessionable and a good effort coming out of Eastern Canada, will look for others from theis Moncton brewer. (rating 3.6)

Next comes a Bohemian Pilsner which in my books seems a little underrated on the beer rating sites. I'm a sucker for classic pilsners, and Krusovice Imperial 12 was drinking like a classic the day I had it. Pleasant hay/grass aromas, bready malts and Saaz-ish flavour and bitterness. A nice fresh (rating 3.4) I rated this one above the benchmark for Czech pils - Pilsner Urquell (rating 3.1). Will end this post there as I could blather on forever... cheers!

The return of the Blog... and recent rates.

Again, it has been a while since I've posted here, apologies to my legions of readers. You may have noticed that I tweaked the layout a bit, the brown colour theme remains. I am a bit dissapointed by the formatting problems I seem to be having with Blogger. Stuff doesn't seem to line up correctly on the page. I've edited a million times and it just reverts back. We'll have to live with it for now, readers. I'll also try to get back into the habit of hyperlinking the text here, as some readers told me they enjoyed that.

For those wondering, I've still been rating and drinking beers in general over the month and a half or so absence. I'm slowly approaching the 800 rate mark. Not sure what I'll pick for that next Milestone. I have some good things on deck. Some possibilities are Brooklyn Local 1, Gouden Carolus Noel (bottle has been cellaring since this time last year), Rogue Old Crustacean 2006 (at least 9 months in my cellar), St Bernardus Abt 12 Special Edition (now retired). Maybe the readers can help me decide? Will keep you updated. I have 2 weeks off for the holidays, so chances are I'll be drinking/rating a lot.

Since I last posted, I completed a beer trade with an Ontario ratebeerian which brought me up to speed on a few of the Ontario craft beers I'd been missing since moving to the City Of Champions. I got to try Creemore Springs Traditional Pilsner (rating 3.2), Taps Red Cream Ale (rating 3.2), Taps Premium Lager (rating 3), J.R. Brickman Pilsner (rating 2.8), Amsterdam Framboise (rating 3.4), Great Lakes Devil's Pale Ale (rating 3.4). All were decent, and if the Devil's Pale Ale and Framboise were available here I'd pick them up now and then.

There's more, but I'll get to them next post. Until then I'll leave you with a few beer pics.

The Grizzly Paw Brewing Co.

I had the opportunity to visit another brewpub on my vacation to the Rocky Mountains last week. Canmore Alberta is a little town off the Transcanada highway nestled into the Mountains, east of Banff. It was once a mining town, but is now is more known for being home to the Canmore Nordic Centre where our country's Olympic ski teams train. It is also home to The Grizzly Paw Brewing Co. - a brewpub/brewery located on Main St.

The building has a bit of a ski chalet look at first glance, a many windowed turret is the focal point of the front of the building. Timbers fence off a fair sized patio in front with a stone fireplace. It was a little chilly to sit outside, but the view from here is stunning - a full view of the mountians and thier snowy peaks.

The view from just outside the brewpub.

Upon entering I instantly felt comfortable. The brewpub was clean and spacious with stone and wood details. Up front was a large dining room which slowly filled up with locals at lunchtime. The rear contained the bar which sprouted a dozen shiny chrome taps. To the left of the bar the brewing operations were visable through a window. A sign pointed to a staircase and proclaimed "pool tables upstairs!". A few TVs were tuned into a tennis match and the radio featured classic rock. From the ceiling near the bar hung many stoneware tankards. Staff were decorating for Halloween (bonus cool points) at the time, adding fake spider webs in the windows. It was quite sunny up front so we sat near the bar at a tall table surrounded by highbacked wooden chairs and browsed the menu. The offerings were familiar - burgers, ribs, various sandwiches, fries, chicken, nothing groundbreaking though some used beer as an ingredient. I ordered a meaty pizza made with a local flatbread and found it to be quite tasty and well put together, bonus points for using local ingredients as well. Our bartender doubled as our server (I forget your name man, sorry) and I ordered up a sampler tray featuring a small (3-4oz at most) sample of each of the beers on tap. I blazed my way through the sampler, there were a few I had tried before. For the most part, the beers were decent session styles, a pilsner, red ale, IPA, a berry wheat, brown ale, plus 2 seasonals. As is often the case with a brewpub, the seasonals were better than the regular taps. The first was the "light seasonal" which revealed itself as JackOLantern Pumpkin Ale. I like pumpkin beers, they're just so hard to find. When I lived in Ontario I'd look forward to fall and the LCBO getting a few bottles of McAuslan's Pumpkin beer in. Most years the shelves were empty - such is the life of an Ontario beerhunter. Grizzly's version was pretty light in colour, which surprised me as most other pumpkin beers have a bit of colour to them. The beer had the requisite pie spice aroma - some nutmeg and some pumpkin fruit as well. Flavour was similar to the aroma with a caramel malt base and pumpkin flesh sweetness. It was light bodied and had a grainy finish. Not bad. The second seasonal was the "dark seasonal" - Moose Knuckle Oatmeal Stout. I procured a full pint's worth of this stuff, knowing I was on to something good. The beer poured deep brown colour with a large tan head. It held a nice sweet nose of cocoa and molasses with roast malt. The flavour surpised me a bit with a touch of smokiness. It was suitably roasty, with some moderate sweet notes. I caught a little licorice in among the roasted malts in the finish. Well worth trying if you visit in the fall or winter seasons.

Overall it was a nice visit and I will return next time I'm visiting Banff or Lake Louise. Decent grub, some good session beers, even better seasonal beers, a homey and comfortable feel, and a great mountain setting. This place doesn't do big beers but that's cool. What they do is decent. Oh and they also make a few "craft sodas". I had the grape and it was pretty good.

He'brew 10:10

Genesis 10:10 is a limited edition brew put out by the Olde Saratoga Brewing company under the He'brew label to celebrate "10 years of delicious beer and delicious shtick" - from the label. The label also states "conceived in San Francisco 1996 - Brewed in New York 2006". It's also interesting to note that the beer is brewed with pomegranate juice. Anniversary beers are usually pretty big, this one was no exception. It poured a dark red-brown colour with an impressive looking tan head. It lasted forever and was extremely sticky and clingy. In addition to looking great, it smelled great - a ton
of caramel/toffee malt with fruity pomegranate notes. The flavour was heavy on malt - it had a toffee/caramel/raisiny sweetness to it - richness even. Hops were surprisingly light, they were there, offering a little citrus character and some light bitterness toward the end. Pomegranate was pretty much absent from the flavour until the beer warmed up a bit, even then it was just a hint.

He'brew Genesis 10:10

The body of this beer was pretty thick, pretty viscous. It reminded me of a barleywine at times, though I wished they would have upped the hopping a bit to balance out the malt sweetness. Nonetheless, this was a fine brew, a sipper, good for the imposing fall weather. It does take the chill out of the bones at 10%abv. I'm glad I was able to participate in the shtick. L'chaim!

Tree Hop Head India Pale Ale

Tree Hophead IPA

I'm not always about trying new beers. Once in a while I revisit an old favorite, like this IPA from Tree Brewing - Hop Head. Beer geeks take their IPAs very seriously, myself incuded. If it says IPA on the bottle, it better have some hops in it. This does. It's not really a West Coast hop bomb, but there is some pleasing bitterness. There's also a balance of sweet malt to offset the hopping. It's also not as strong as a lot of stock IPAs, this one weighs in at 5.8%abv which is still respectable for the style, though many fall into the 6-7%abv range. I'd still sneak this one into my "session beer" category. Great aromatics - oranges, apricots, grapefruit. It's also great looking - deep orange-gold with a nice sized creamy lasting white head. It leaves a lot of sticky lacing. So far I've only had the bottled version, looking forward to trying it on tap one day. It comes in 6x 341ml bottles or as part of Tree's sampler pack. Tree is cool enough to brew using no preservatives and leave their beer unpasteurized. The label of Hop Head also proudly bears 2 maple leafs!

Wild Rose Brown Ale

Wild Rose was a brewery I really looked forward to trying on my first visit out here. They made a variety of styles that were'nt very common in Ontario inculding an IPA and Wit. Since then I've had their beers a few times, and I've seen their quality improve a lot since then. Freshness is key. I decided to review their Brown Ale, because 1) I had it on hand and 2) I feel Brown Ales get a bad rap in general. This one is by no means a world classic but it is well made and flavourful, and is a decent session drinker.

The beer pours cola brown, the head is tan but doesn't stick around. Aroma is chocolately with some toffee and maybe a slight hint of molasses. The flavour is malty - roasty and chocoaltey with coffee notes. A trace earthy. Not much hops to be found here. Aftertaste has cocoa and some nuts. Carboantion is on the light side, body is light to medium. It has more roasty and chocoalte character than a "northern" Brown Ale like Newcastle, but nowhere near the hopping of an American Brown like Brooklyn Brown. The beer is 5%abv and comes in 341ml brown bottles (6packs) or is available kegged. Rating 3.3

Moinette

Moinette Blond is a Tripel style ale brewed by Brasserie Dupont, Tourpes, Belgium. It is 8.5%ABV and is bottle conditioned. I was forunate enough to have the forethought to stash away 2 bottles out of the 4 pack I picked up. While rooting around in the cellar I came across them and remembered I needed to rate it.

The beer was carefully poured into an Affligem goblet, and the result was a very clear deep golden brew with a large creamy white cap. The head settled a bit but was still formidable. The beer had an sweetish orange zest aroma with yeast notes, there was some spice and bread as well. Moinette is fairly hoppy, the hops being slightly herbal and lemony. There is some malt-fruitiness (pear and peach), yeast and some spice and alcohol. It finishes dry. Carbonation is fairly active, the bubbles are fine and the mouthfeel is almost creamy. The body is medium with a little stickiness.

I've yet to enocounter a bad beer from Dupont, Moinette was exceptional. Rating 4.

Homebrew Review

I received a nice bonus in my last beer trade, a homebrewed Russian Imperial Stout. The generous sender was Goldorak, who is an active member at ratebeer and beeradvocate. He hooked me up with a lot of top notch brews, some of which I still have to get around to reviewing. Anyways, thanks Goldorak. Here's a review of your brew, it was awesome!

Ilsa La Tigresse Du Goulag Russian Imperial Stout by Brasserie Deux Gars Fouettes

Aroma 8/10

Appearance 3/5

Flavour 8/10

Palatte 3/5

Overall 16/20

= 3.8

330ml brown bottle, capped. Pours a dark brown colour with reddish highlights, at first glance it seemed to be a bit light for an Impy, but it does fall within the BJCP standards. Head was composed of a small layer of light brown foam, fine swirly bubbles. Aroma held a nice fruit/citrus/orange note, suggesting American hops. The hop aroma intensified as it warmed. There was some sweeter chocolate malt aromas and a slight trace of alcohol. Flavour was roasty yet sweet with notes of chocolate and dark roast coffee. Nice complex long finish with raw coffee bean, dark chocolate and some late sticky hop bitterness, some raisin and slight alcohol warming in the throat. Full body with a fine active carbonation.

Veltins Pilsener

It wasn't too long after I finished my last entry that I realized my palate was sharp enough for one more beer... so I had to crack open that can of Veltins.

It poured a light straw colour. The head was large and fluffy, white in colour and long lasting. The aroma has a grassy, straw like note to it with grainy malts. The flavour is similar to the aroma, it delivers a clean grainy malt flavour with a background of grassy hops. The grassy hops linger in the finish, bitterness is light but noticable. It was pretty much what I imagined it would be, grainy and grassy and clean. I hate to use a cliche like "crisp", but this beer is crisp. It may not be the best German Pils, but it is quite drinkable and straightforward. Rating 3.

Paddock Wood 606 IPA

Greetings from Wild Rose country... I've been away for a while. Still drinking good beers, just not blogging as much as I would have liked to. Not too many new beers arriving in the province in the last month or so, I did manage to grab a can of Veltins on my last beer excursion, (some of you may know I have a soft spot for the German Pils style) plus a few old favorites that I hope to feature in the near future. I also grabbed a 6 pack of Paddock Wood 606 IPA, which I am quite impressed with.

Paddock Wood brews their beer in Saskatoon, they don't use additives and their products are unpasteurized. They typically sell their products by the 6 pack, but I have seen singles for sale, and occasionaly a mixer pack. Their bottles are 355ml pry offs, and they feature great artwork. And hey, the beer is usually great too.


The 606 IPA pours a caramel brown colour with a hint of orange. The head is unfortuantely short lived. It dwindled to a faint wisp on the surface. The nose is fairly malty for an IPA, they use Maris Otter malt from the UK. There is a bit of caramel sweetness and some light citrus/grapefruit hop in the background. Flavour is initially malty, then blends into some nice hop flavour, again of the citrusy/grapefruit variety. The hops used in this beer are Cascade and Amarillo. The hop flavour carries into the moderately bitter finish. I found the beer was a bit light bodied for the style with carbonation also being on the light side. It definately can stand up to some of the US IPAs I've had, though this isn't a hop bomb. It has good hop/malt balance. Quite drinkable and sessionable. Rating 3.7

More soon... cheers!

Edmonton's Festival Of Beer '07 and other stuff

Beerfest: I attended another small festival this weekend - Edmonton's Festival Of Beer 07. It was housed in the Aviation Museum Hanger, a nicer more spacious venue than the earlier fest held at the Dinwoodie Hall at the U of A. I also got wise and got myself there at noon Saturday in hopes of avoiding the crowds, which made the experience more enjoyable, I actually got to have a few conversations with the brewery reps. It was a small fest, there really wasn't anything availble there that I couldn't have found at the local store or brewpub. I did manange to sample a few that I hadn't had, saving me from buying a sixer. I did find it strange that our 2 local micros were both absent from the fest. I can understand Maverick not being there, as they are in the middle of restructuring (possibly closing?), but Alley Kat, where were you? Sadly Paddock Wood was absent as well. Hopefully these three will be back at next year's fest, assuming there is one, and hopefully it isn't held on the same dates Calgary's fest. Now on to "other stuff"...

Beer Podcasts: I've been really digging the podcasts put out by the fellas at Craft Beer Radio. I've been loading 'em up on the ipod and listening on the way to work. Makes the 3 bus and one train trip a little more tollerable every morning. Thanks guys!

Recent Tastings: Not a lot to report, a few quickies from the fest. San Miguel Dark caught my eye, as something I might like, I was also curious to see if it was similar to Efes Dark which I had at the last fest. It was similar, sweet brown sugary aroma, a little bit of coffee and roasted malts. Rating 3 Brewsters Wit (listed as Christmas Wit on ratebeer) was a very drinkable example of the style - nice clove/yeast/pink gum aromatics, light bodied, sweet clovey flavour, a nice choice for hot weather (hope we get some soon) Rating 3.7 A second wit I found at the fest was Rickard's White. Can Molson make witbier? Sort of... it seemed quite sweet and orangey, and grainy especially in the finish. Really doubt I would buy this, especially when Hoegaarden or even Blanche De Chambly are so common, and more flavourful. Rating 2.8

Some recent beers

Well, it seems I've slowed down rate-wise as I approach another milestone, rating number 700. I have a ton of beers on hand, and time to rate, just haven't got my butt in gear lately. May be the onset of spring here (it comes a little late in Edmonton) and wanting to be outdoors enjoying the few rays of sun after being cooped up for a long, cold, snowy Albertan winter. At any rate, the few beers I've taken notes for have been for the most part enjoyable.

Edelweiss Snowfresh Weissbier

Edelweiss Snowfresh Weissbier - This beer poured an expected hazy pale yellow, fairly strong white head as a Weiss should have. Pleasant wheat aroma with some pink bubblegum and vanilla notes. The flavour was similar to the aroma - wheaty, yeasty and vanilla-y, some citrus. Some of the "alpine herbs" the bottle proclaims it is brewed with show up as grassy notes in the finish. Light bodied and good to comsume in hot weather. Rating 3.6

Lobkowicz Demon 13° - I was surprised to find this beer classified as a Vienna, as I haven't had very many of the style. This Czech version was coppery with a small tight head, with a nice strong malty nose. Flavour was also malt accented with some grassy hop accents. The aftertaste was again malty and toasty. A nice find. Rating 3.5

Brooklyn Lager - Imagine my surprise finding another Vienna to rate just a few days after the Demon. Brooklyn advertises this one as a "pre-Prohibition" styled lager. I enjoyed this one a bit more than Demon. It was a great beer to look at - orange/gold in colour with a lasting sticky white head. Aroma was floral, flavour was somewhat fruity (citrus/apricot) with a hoppy, dry finish. Another good lager to session while the sun beats down on you. Rating 3.7

O Hanlons Goodwill Bitter - I just picked this up on my last beer shopping trip because I love a good bitter, especially a Camra approved bottle conditioned 500ml bottle of it. Upon getting it home I noticed St Nick on the label. Yup, a Christmas seasonal just became available to us at the end of May. I also noted that when I popped the cap, the cap liner had a gummy layer of yeast under it, leading me to believe the bottle spent some time upside down on it's journey from Devon, England to Edmonton, Alberta. It poured a hazy orange with a small receeding white head. The aroma was standout with some candied orange and sweet malt behind it. The beer was solid flavourwise, malty with a citrusy bitter finish. Fairly light bodied with fine light carbonation, a great session pint. Looking forward to cracking the bottle of their Port Stout I also picked up! Rating 3.7

Bieropholie Cascade Plus - One of the many bottles I recieved in a mystery beer swap. This has the same malt bill as their regular Cascade IPA, but double the hops. It poured beautifully, orange in colour with a sticky, thick, merangue like head which lasted to the end of the glass. Tons of Cascades in the aroma, grapefruity with a touch of spice. Hoppy flavour, earthy in the finish. Went down way too easily for a 7%abv beer. I'll seek this out (and some more Bock Emassaire)if I'm ever in Quebec again. Rating 3.9

La Recidive

Brasseurs et Freres La Recidive - Another great bottle received in the mystery trade. I read in someone's review that Recidive means "second offence", which I guess eludes to the fact that you'll be reaching for another bottle of this great stout once you finish the first. The label shows a bandaged, somewhat derranged looking mouse returning to the mousetrap for another hunk of cheese. Very deep brown/black colour with a beige cap. Superb chocolatey aroma. Flavour had coffee, cocoa and a dark (blue?)berry like fruitiness beneath it all. Bitter, roasted finish. A lot of flavour packed into this 4.8%abv stout. Canadians can definately make some kick ass stouts (see St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, Dieu De Ciel Peche Mortel, Paddock Wood Bete Noire for starters)! Rating 4

Other beers I've recently had included the harsh, fizzy Carling Black Label Extra Old Stock malt liqour (Rating 1), the average Western Canadian amber Kootenay Mountain Ale (Rating 2.8), and an underacheiving, slightly lemony, corny pale lager from South Korea - Hite (Rating 1.5) Can't win all the time I guess...

Recent Rates

A quick look at what I've been drinking lately.

Rogue Monk Madness - Despite the name, not a Belgian beer at all. It was a great looking beer, deep brown with red highlights and a persistant foamy head. Light malt, caramel and hop aroma. Flavour wise it was hop forward, with a light malt character. Citrusy, grapefruity lingering aftertaste. I enjoyed it. Rating 3.5

Mt. Begbie Cream Ale - Cream ales have been pretty popular in Canada, particularly in Ontario, I think in part due to the sucess of Sleeman Cream Ale. They are alive on the west coast too, this was a decent offering from BC's Mt. Begbie. It was fruity and floral both in aroma and flavour, a lighter ale/lager crossbreed. Would be a good summer quaffer. Packaged in a brown 650ml bottle. Rating 3.1

Pike Pale Ale - A good example of the American Pale Ale style. Citrusy flavour and aroma with light toasty malt notes. A good session beer, one I'll be revisiting. Rating 3.6

Deus - A Belgian strong ale done in the method champagnoise. Awesome presentation, gold foiled, corked and caged green 750ml bottle. 2005 vintage. It gushed a little when uncorked. Flavour was a bit herbal, notes of honey, white grapes and herbs. Unique beer, quite pricey ($22cnd) but something interesting that I might pick up for a special treat. Rating 4.2