My first dance with an offering of the Shillow Beer Co., a Toronto beer-making establishment, was their Bitter Waitress Black IPA. Sold in cool looking 473mL cans, Bitter Waitress is a 6.5% ale. It proved to be a midnight black brew sporting a lush and fluffy tan head reminiscent of a stout.
Bitter Waitress displayed a bitter and
slightly sweet roasted malt aroma. It's flavour kicked off smooth, well
roasted, and malty up front, if perhaps a touch thin. However, the back
end stormed the gates with a ribald hops profile that I found almost
beguiling.
I'd never complain that the Ontario,
or more specifically the Toronto beer scene is overcrowded. In the beer
world, a busy marketplace is a drinker's dream. Based on the quality of
Bitter Waitress, I get the impression that Shillow Beer Co. could be a
welcome addition to the fold. Bitter and pushy, this black I.P.A.
delivered a lot of the factors that I'm looking for from the style. The
front end is a bit underwhelming, but the finish is bruising and verging
on badass. Quality roasted malts throughout and dynamic hops make this
beer well better than ordinary. I'll be keeping both eyes out for more
Shillow brews to see whether this one was a rookie fluke or a harbinger
of yet another strong contributor to craft brewing in the province I
choose to inhabit.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
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