Love Fuzz

According to the copy on the 473mL can of Love Fuzz, a red pale ale from Toronto’s Black Oak Brewing Co., the brew is a triple-hopped number, that uses Legacy, Simcoe, and Galaxy hops. The beer clocks in at a healthy 6.2%. It pours with a gnarly walnut-red hue and a hefty dose of durable sudsy cream head.

Love Fuzz has a nose that blends metallic, malty, and fruit-focused notes. Its flavour has classic red ale notes of copper and malt, but features hoppy pine and spruce clanging alongside some fruity notes, and the faintest hint of light roast coffee and a whisper of rye spice. The can told me to expect blueberry, which I might not have noticed without some guidance, but the citrus notes described were an easy flavour to pick up.

The can claims that Love Fuzz was a gold medal winner at the Canadian Brewing Awards, and one can tell why. This weird hybrid style is executed with a precision that makes you wonder why it isn’t more prevalent. Robustly flavourful, with the best of many worlds, I found Love Fuzz to be a breath of fresh air and a bang-up brewski. My biggest concern is that it won’t be regularly available at the shops maintained by my government-run beer barons. Black Oak—please keep this one coming!

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.