Jaipur India Pale Ale

Sold in a stylish 500mL bottle, Jaipur India Pale Ale is produced by the Thornbridge Brewery of Bakewell, UK. Jaipur contains 5.9% alcohol and pours a cloudy yellow-orange colour. In truth, it looks a lot like a witbier. It yields a white head and moderate carbonation.

Jaipur has a beautiful aroma that encompasses fruit sweetness and a citrus-y bitterness. The flavour starts sweetly with notes of orange and peach, and it closes with fulsome hoppiness. Jaipur is a really delightfully complicated ale. The hop profile is substantial, as one would expect in an IPA, but there is also a gentle foreground--it starts naively and finishes knowingly.

I'm glad that I enjoyed it, because buying it was a massive rigamarole.  There was a huge line behind me at the liquor store and the barcode wouldn't scan--it was a brand new offering. The woman at the store had to run to the shelf to look for a price, while the crowd behind me glowered and groaned. It was tense.

Jaipur India Pale Ale was quite intriguing. I'm looking forward to buying more soon.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Skjálfti

I'm writing this post in July, but it's scheduled to be posted on September 28th.  September 28, 2012 is a noteworthy day, because it is my last day as a bachelor.  Wish me luck!

Skjálfti comes from Ölvisholt, Iceland, where it is brewed by Ölvisholt Brugghús. I bought a 500mL bottle that featured some pretty gnarly characters on it. According to the label, Skjálfti is Icelandic for earthquake. It goes on to explain that the brewery was struck by a considerable earthquake in 2000, so they named a beer after the event.  Badass.

Skjálfti contains a predictable 5% alcohol. I'd call it a pale ale, though the label doesn't specify. It pours a hazy golden orange colour and has a tonne of carbonation. It is graced with a luxurious creamy head that has some serious staying power. The aroma is a complicated blend of hoppy citrus and a touch of sweetness. Flavour-wise, Skjálfti tastes of biscuit with some notes of grapefruit and orange rind and is ever so slightly sour. The final note is a lingering bitterness.

It's a nice beer, but maybe not earth-shaking.  Sorry, but I couldn't resist the pun.  In all seriousness, Skjálfti is a lovely brew that is well worth your time.

Rating; 7.5 out of 10.

Waterloo Amber

Waterloo Amber is a seasonal lager from the Waterloo Brewing Co. of Waterloo, Ontario.At a robust 6.8% alcohol, it's a brew with some kick. It comes in 473mL cans and pours a cloudy orange colour. W.A. has vivacious carbonation and it's topped with a creamy eggshell head. The beer leaves tonnes of lace and the head retention is admirable.

There is a sweet aroma of caramel and pear in W.A. The lovely full flavour blends complex malty caramel notes with punchy bitterness and a bit of welcome fruit character--I get notes of pear or possibly apple. The aftertaste is bitter with a dose of burnt toffee. The boozy blast makes it a nice evening sipper.

Waterloo Amber is unexpectedly bitter.  I found it to taste more like an ale than a lager. The beer was a real treat. Wonderfully complex, strong, and multifaceted. I'd love for Waterloo to make this beautiful beer a regular offering.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Old Speckled Hen

Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England is home of Morland Brewery and the beer known as Old Speckled Hen.  Ol' Speck is a pale ale that clocks in at 5.2% alcohol. It comes in clear 355mL bottles that show off its lovely amber colour. It pours with an eggshell head and a fair degree of carbonation.  The namesake of this oddly named brew is, according to the bottled, an MG automobile.  Who knew?

Ol' Speck has a fairly forceful aroma that is at once metallic and bready. Just a smidgeon of toffee sweetness underlies the largely bitter brew. There is a definite copper taste that leads into a quick, dry, bitter aftertaste. It's an idiosyncratic flavour that matches the idiosyncratic name.

This isn't a beer that I reach for on a regular basis, but it's one that I'm happy to pick up and enjoy once or twice a year.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Red Baron

Red Baron Premium Blonde Lager comes from Waterloo, Ontario. It's produced by the Brick Brewing Co., and checks in at 4.8% alcohol. The 341mL clear glass bottle contains the following statement: "Clean, crisp, refreshing".  This is reasonably apt.

R.B. pours a clear straw colour. It's mad fizzy and is topped by a cloud of white head. It has a grassy aroma and flavour, accented with a bit of corn sweetness. There isn't much more to this one brew than its mild flavour, considerable drinkability, and delightfully lean price tag.

Red Baron is definitely not a bad beer. It's easily on par with the leading national macrobrews, but slightly cheaper. However, it doesn't offer a lot to the beer connoisseur.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

Dragon Stout

I love the idea that stout is popular in Jamaica. In so many neighbouring countries, watery pale lagers are all the rage, but in Jamaica, a heavy, oil black stout is a popular brew. It makes me very happy.

And Dragon Stout is no novelty either.  It's a take no prisoners stout, sold in tiny 300mL bottles and weighing in at a muscly 7.5%. It hails from Kingston, Jamaica, where it's brewed by Desnoes and Geddes Limited. It's heavily carbonated and crowned with a frothy tan head. It's not a dry stout by any stretch--rather, it's quite malty with a subtext of fruity sweetness. The aroma is relatively mild--it's sweet with molasses notes and a gentle nuttiness.

Dragon Stout is a fun beer.  It's a stout that isn't all that typical of the style, but that only makes it more interesting to me.  It's certainly not my idea of a warm weather brew, but what do I know?

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Faxe Amber

Hailing from Faxe (of Fakse), Denmark, Faxe Amber is a tasty brew sold in 500mL cans that feature a viking with a strangely shaped beard (who am I to talk?). It's a lager, and clocks in at a standard 5% alcohol. It's a strikingly clear brew that pours an attractive amber colour. It's topped with a luxurious, but quickly fading, eggshell head. F.A. has a bready aroma that's tinged with brown sugar. It has a slightly toasted flavour with a relatively malt forward character for a lager. There is some bitterness in the aftertaste.


It tastes nice, but not all that substantial for an amber beer. I'd like a touch more flavour. Still, it's refreshing, drinkable, and very attractive.  I won't be rushing out to stock up on cases of this one, but I'd definitely be receptive to trying it again sometime.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Abbot Ale

This crystal clear amber coloured ale is brewed by Greene King in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England. It's topped with a frothy white head and contains just a touch of carbonation. Abbott Ale is sold in 500mL cans and contains 5% alcohol.

Abbott has a mild aroma, with notes of metallic bitterness. The mouthfeel is quite smooth, and the flavour is characterized with some slight caramel notes wound up in a spool of bitterness. Underlying it all is a pleasing dose of copper taste.

This is a pretty fine bitter ale. It's easy-drinking, smooth, and decently hoppy. It isn't unbelievable, but it's a fair little brew. I suggest taking it for a test-drink.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Radlermass Lemonade Lager

This curious specimen comes from the Waterloo Brewing Co. of Waterloo, Ontario. According to the label, this beery concoction that blends lemon soda and brewski originated in a German tavern, when the innkeeper was running low on beer just as his establishment was overrun with a fleet of cyclists. I have no idea whether this is a true story, but I like it.

Radlermass is sold in 473mL cans. It contains 4.8% alcohol. A clear, yellow-gold colour, Radlermass is heavily carbonated and topped with a layer of white head. It looks just like a conventional pale lager.  However, one sniff and you realize that an average lager this is not--the aroma is fiercely lemony. A beer taste is plainly present, but it is easily dominated by a strong lemon flavour--one that is quite sweet rather than tart.

The Radlermass Lemonade Lager has a quirky flavour. It's undeniably refreshing, and I suspect it would be dynamite on a hot day. It wasn't my favourite, but it's most certainly worth a try.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Harvest Gold Pale Ale

Harvest Gold Pale Ale is built by the good people at the Barley Days Brewery in Picton, Ontario. It comes in 341mL bottles emblazoned with an oil painting of a team of horses hauling a plow. HGPA clocks in at 4.8% alcohol. It pours a faintly cloudy brass colour, is fairly carbonated, an is topped by a cloud of white head.

Harvest Gold has an interesting aroma that blends hops, toffee warmth, and a bit of nuttiness. Just a hint of sweetness is nearly totally engulfed in hop bitterness and a dose of nuttiness. Despite the low alcohol content, there is lots of flavour, making this a genuinely sessionable pale ale.  However, I wouldn't complain of it was a touch more potent.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

St.-Ambroise Special Reserve

St.-Ambroise's 2011 Special Reserve Russian Imperial Stout is a big, bold beer. It's brewed by the excellent McAuslan Brewery out of Montreal. The handsome 341mL bottle comes in a flashy tube. The beer lurking within contains a potent 9.2% alcohol.

Special Reserve pours a totally opaque onyx colour.  It is topped with a thick reddish brown head. A rich aroma contains notes of chocolate and a dark roast coffee. The flavour has the molasses sweetness typical of a stout, but it's balanced against a substantial wall of hops. Notes of chocolate and a bit of tobacco are present, as is an undeniably formidable blast of boozy warmth.

This is definitely not an everyday beer. It's more of a special occasion sipper. If you plan on drinking more than one in a single go, you'd best clear your schedule. It's not what I would call an accessible beer--non-stout drinkers aren't apt to love this one.  Still, with its great blend of sweet and bitter, this is a glorious pint.

I thought about letting this beer age in an effort to heighten its flavour, but after a couple of months, I got impatient.  Lets face it--aging beer isn't really in my wheelhouse.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Wells Bombardier English Premium Ale

Wells & Young's Brewing Company of Bedford, England, is responsible for this tasty ale.  Wells Bombardier comes in a nice looking 500mL bottle festooned with the Cross of St. George. It's got a respectable 5.2% alcohol.

Bombardier pours a becoming amber colour topped with an eggshell head that just won't quit. It has a decent amount of carbonation for an English ale, and a hoppy, copper aroma.  The flavour is warm and slightly metallic--the brew's copper colour matches its copper taste. The aftertaste has a dignified, if restrained, hop bitterness.

Wells Bombardier is a classic British bitter. It's a beer begging for a cheery pub environment. Definitely a solid brew.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Cameron's Cream Ale

This brassy brew comes from Cameron's Brewing Company in Oakville, Ontario.  It contains 5% alcohol and is sold in 341mL bottles. It's ever so slightly hazy and crowned with an off-white head. The Cream has all sorts of carbonation and a grainy, slightly toasty aroma.  Cameron's Cream has great balance between toasty, malt notes and a gracious, hop kick. There are some caramel notes, but mostly, the flavour is about cereal grains and gentle toastiness.

This is a nice all-season beer. It's a really great example of the cream ale style.  I definitely recommend it!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Buffalo Lager

Brewed by the Flying Bison Brewing Company of Buffalo, New York, Buffalo Lager is a straw gold lager with crazy carbonation. B.L., which checks in at 5.2% alcohol according to the Flying Bison website, is topped with a thick white head. I had a bottle of Buffalo Lager at a Buffalo dessert bar.

It has a pleasant grassy aroma. The mouthfeel is effervescent, almost champagne-like. Flavour-wise, there is a sweet, slightly malty body, with some toasty notes.  The aftertaste continues to be slightly toasty, with an mild array of fruit notes and some hop presence.

Buffalo Lager is a pretty nice pale lager. It is refreshing and tasty with a delightfully fizzy mouthfeel.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Street Brawler Stout

 Buffalo, New York's Pearl Street Grill and Brewery offers a nice stout known as Street Brawler. I had occasion to sample one late one evening during a trip to the Buff, and found it quite to my liking. Street Brawler was billed as an Irish-style oatmeal stout. It contained 4.5% alcohol and came in a plastic cup. S.B. arrived a very dark brown, almost black, topped with a creamy head.  It has a roasty malt aroma, with tobacco notes and a touch of cacao. The flavour is relatively bitter, with pronounced tobacco notes. There are elements of roasted dark malts and some molasses.

 This is a pretty nice stout.  It has an interesting flavour, but a bit more booze would be nice.  A fine brew worth sampling if you find yourself in Buffalo.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.