Poppins the Indestructible Brett Barrel Aged Grisette

Poppins the Indestructible Brett Barrel Aged Grisette is a weird concept made manifest. Grisette is an effervescent, low alcohol, old world style, but Poppins, a Torontonian ale from Black Lab Brewing is barrel aged with funky yeast and brewed to 5.5%, basically turning the style on its head. According to the label, the beer is a collab with Escarpment Laboratories and Gorman Smith Beverage Equipment.

The beer is a cloudy, fizzy golden frog topped with a thin layer of off-white suds. To my nose, the beer is primarily characterized by tart yeast notes, earth, and a wee whisper of cranberry. The flavour is also yeasty and tart, with some earthiness. For a barrel aged beer, the woodiness is an understatement, but I suspect it is in part responsible for the >5% strength.

Based on the quirky reprogramming of a classic style, I wanted to like this beer a lot, but in practice, it was just good. Poppins was flavourful, but for a Brett barrel aged beer, it went nearly as funky or wild as I wanted it to be.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Black Lab x The Sidekick Dunkelweiss

The cute comic book-y label signals that Black Lab x The Sidekick Dunkelweiss is a collaboration between the East Toronto brewpub and nearby Sidekick Comics—a dark wheat beer brewed with Sidekick’s Single Origin Kenya AA coffee. The 5.5% ale comes in 500mL bottles, which it exists with a handsome oak colour, covered up in a quickly thinning off-white head.

This coffee-ified collab really delivers on the promise of java, with a snootful of coffee notes that show up the otherwise sweet, malt and yeast of the dunkelweiss. The coffee notes are somewhat tempered through the flavour, though they never really disappear. Rather, they’re joined by sweet roasted malt, and a quick finish that is only meagrely bitter.

Unlike many of the coffee-infused beers I’ve sipped over the years, this one left me with a hankerin’ to actually seek out the featured coffee—I haven’t done so yet, but it seems like something I’d try to incorporate into my next visit to Black Lab Brewing. The result was an unusual wheat beer that would have gone nicely after a large meal (though it was still pretty good killing time on an empty stomach while waiting for a dinner reservation).

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Social Parade Dry Hopped IPA

Next up from Toronto’s Black Lab Brewing was their Social Parade Dry Hopped IPA. This 6.5% ale was actually the first bottle that I selected when I was putting together my mixed-six—the 500mL bottle pretty much flew out of the cooler and into my hands.

Dull-orange and hazy, Social Parade poured with a short-lived off-white foam. I caught an unexpected initial whiff of sweet harvest-time apple, but that was quickly out-muscled by a wallop of fresh, grassy hops looming behind. The flavour proved to be pretty assertively hoppy, floral first; then piney and dank. Despite an imbalance of hops to malt elements, there managed to be a fair amount of grainy sweetness, which was not at all unwelcome.

 

New as I am to Black Lab, this was my first brush with one of their IPAs (typically a brewery make-or-break for me, a lad of simple tastes). I found myself quite pleased with this one—it was a bit tough to categorize, without the bold citrus or pine of a typical West Coaster, the haze and juice of an NEIPA (despite the description on the website), or the malt balance of a British-style. Rather, this li’l unit had a grain bill befitting a pilsner backed with a floral hop kaboom that left me pretty satisfied. 

If this beer was regularly available to me, I can’t guarantee that it’d be in constant rotation (it’s perhaps a touch too sweet for that), but it’d certainly be a semi-regular guest star in my fridge. In a market where IPAs can blend together, its flavour offers something a little quirky.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Cornerstone Black Lager

Another of Black Lab Brewing’s two flagship beers, Cornerstone Black Lager is a 5% schwarzbier sold in 500mL bottles. The blackish lager, highlighted in amber, pours with a quickly thinning off-white head.

The beer has a lovely roasted malt and chocolate nose, accented with a whisper of anise. The beer is initially sweet and malty, with decent balance provided by a semi-sweet chocolate and raisin closing note, with just a touch of dark cherry.

Flavourful and rich, Cornerstone is an agreeable dark lager. I’d have liked the percentage to creep a bit higher, and the finish could have been more robust, but that hardly takes away from an otherwise excellent schwarzbier. An all-too-rare for Ontario after dinner lager.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Whippet Wheat

A collaboration between Toronto’s Black Lab Brewing and the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies, Whippet Wheat is, appropriately, a hybrid. Specifically, it’s a hopfenweisse—a hefeweizen hopped like an IPA. In this case, the beer is a 5.5% job that has, according to the website, been double dry hopped with Azacca. Along the way, a touch of oat was also added. The result is a cloudy beer—dull yellow-gold, with a bright white head, and not a lot of sediment for a wheat beer.

Whippet Wheat has a sharp, yeasty pong, with more than a suggestion of fruity elements, particularly pineapple. While the scent suggested a hefe-dominant combo, the flavour flipped the script with a fractious hop profile leading the way, and yeasty, mellow wheat beer notes in a beta role. Again, pineapple was prominent, building to a gritty bitter finish.

On a toasty July evening, this beer left me refreshed and chilled out. The tawdry relationship between IPA and hefe was carried off admirably, resulting in a hybrid that marries significant IBUs with a smooth, wheaty mouthfeel.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Sitting Pretty American Pale Ale

Billed as one of Black Lab Brewing’s flagship offerings, Sitting Pretty American Pale Ale leapt out at me because of the use of rye malt, alongside Citra and Barbe Rouge. Sold in attractive 500mL bottles, the 4.5% ale looks pretty good too—a hazy, dull gold brew under a layer of eggshell foam.

The Toronto-born APA has a bitter, tangy grapefruit nose. For flavour, Sitting Pretty pairs citrus with a slightly floral note to create a mellow yet crisp offering, with a hefty taste that belies its low alcohol stats.

Like a good flagship beer should, Sitting Pretty is uncomplicated, but it isn’t simple. An eminently quaffable APA, SP provides a plus amount of flavour while delivering a session-friendly experience, leaving the drinker eager for more, but not buffeted with tricks and flash. If I were holding the leash, I might have pulled this one up to 5% and given free rein to the rye elements, but what came in the bottle was perfectly agreeable.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Black Lab Brewing

I’m a lazy ol’ sod. Black Lab Brewing has been open for ages in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood, and its been my radar since before it opened, but, pathetically, I only just hopped on a streetcar and trekked over. And, to make matters worse, I only visited the bottle shop. I eschewing the taproom, which would have been my usual first point of contact, because a bout of extreme back pain made the prospect of sitting at a bar an almost certain study in agony. So, after nearly an hour headed east via the 501 streetcar, I only actually spent about 15 minutes in the place.

Fortunately, my brief visit to Black Lab’s bottle shop was stewarded by an extremely helpful and knowledgeable staff person named Ashley, who guided me in putting together an optimal six-pack of the beers on offer on this particular Saturday in July. I left with a suitable smorgasbord of 500mL bottles, some stickers for my home bar, and a playful piece of glassware.

So, stay tuned over the next several days for my thoughts on an initial, belated run of ales and lagers from Black Lab Brewing.

IPA No. 10

The tenth edition in Collective Arts Brewing's IPA series, IPA No. 10, is a low alcohol 3.2% “nano IPA”. Brewed in Hamilton, Ontario using Simcoe and Mosaic hops, the beer is sold in 473mL cans that feature a tank-driving panda. It’s a hazy, orange-creamsicle coloured ale with a short-lived cap of white head.

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As I’ve stated many times, I like my IPAs to be potent. That said, this beer achieves its objective admirably—a low test, high flavour brew with an interesting IPA taste.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Dew Double IPA (Galaxy)

The Galaxy Edition of Bandit Brewery’s Dew Double IPA was a hazy beast. At an even 8%, the strength checked out, and a 500mL bottle was enough to give my liver a whirl. The beer was a milky orange gold, with a comely layer of off-white head.

 

Off the jump, aromas of grapefruit and orange were dominant, but as time passed, more tropical notes seemed to emerge, particularly passion fruit. The flavour was sweet and fruity, with an unrepentant boozy streak. The back end found some understated NEIPA bitterness based around the citrus theme.

My feelings on this offering from Toronto’s Bandit were only slightly mixed, due to the pronounced sweetness, particularly initially. I’d have liked the juicy notes to have tended more toward tart. However, the strength was admirable, the look was elegant (as long as you don’t mind haze), and the finish provided a decent counterweight to the front-end sugars.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Cloud IPA

A definite haze-monster, Cloud IPA from Bandit Brewery is a 6.8% ale sold in 500mL bottles that feature a nimbus-rendered raccoon in a blue sky. The Torontonian brew is a milky yellow-gold colour with a white head that appears almost pearlescent due to the beer’s haze.

With an aroma that tightropes Florida OJ and bitter grapefruit, citrus is definitely the name of the game. Orange notes dominate the front end of the flavour, with citric bitterness picking up a head of steam toward the back end.

Juicy and lively, with a respectable booze punch, Cloud IPA is pretty close to my ideal of a hazy, New England-style IPA. I might have liked the flavour to weave into mango or stone fruit territory, but the straight up citrus angle is not without its appeal. I bought this beer as an afterthought during a trip to Bandit to round out my order, and I’m extremely glad I did, because it’s a real winner.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Mr. Pink Hibiscus and Watermelon Pale Ale

Appropriately named, Mr. Pink Hibiscus and Watermelon Pale Ale from Toronto’s Bandit Brewery is a rose-hued beer with a thin layer of white head. The 5% alcohol supper comes in 500mL bottles branded with Bandit’s trademark raccoon—this time decked out in homage to Steve Buscemi’s memorable character in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.

Mellow watermelon characterizes the nose, and it dominates the flavour as well. Behind that, there is a slight floral bent. The beer has a thin mouthfeel that doesn’t provide much of a platform for bitterness, but it does give the ale a delightfully refreshing, summery quality.

A full-strength yet light-bodied ale, this beer is juicy and refreshing, if also a touch too sweet. The melon is none too subtle, which is great if you dig it. There isn’t actually a whole lot of underlying beer elements.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Zap! Sour IPA

 With a black and teal 473mL can that feels like an homage to Futurama, Zap! Sour IPA is a 5.5%, 28 IBU brew from Burlington, Ontario’s Nickel Brook Brewing Co. Brewed with flaked oats and a trio of popular IPA hops (Simcoe, Cascade, and Citra), the beer is yellow-gold in colour, under an effervescent white foam.

Zap! has a tart, citrus nose and a turbo-charged lemony flavour. There is a nod toward a citrus bitterness at the back end, but this beer’s primary focus is its sour sizzle. I’m no math wizard, but it seems to me that the ratio of sour:ipa in this sour IPA is a lot closer to 3:1 that 1:1.

Tasty, refreshing stuff with a tangy kick, Nickel Brook’s Zap! is a tart treat. I’d like it to be a touch stronger, with a bit more IPA stank, and less zeal for lemon sour, but the result is a memorable beer that I’ll buy again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Peacock Pilsner

With a portion of sales going to support the High Park Zoo, Peacock Pilsner contributes to a Toronto institution. It’s a 4.6%, 23 IBU pale lager from High Park Brewery. Sold in 473mL cans, the beer is a cheery, clear yellow gold with a layer of white suds on the roof.

Peacock Pilsner has a grainy, slightly bready nose. For flavour, cereal sweetness gives way to a style-appropriate floral hood finish. The beer is light-bodied, but it doesn’t quite hit the crispness level I’d have liked from a pilsner.

A beer in support of a good cause is nice to see, though I’d have liked a bit more info about what proportion of the proceeds go to the Zoo. The beer itself has a great finish, but the front end is a little shallow. Possibly upping the booze quotient to a 5% might have helped to even it out a bit. The end result, though, is a brew I’d be glad purchase again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Gravel Run Session IPA

From Blyth, Ontario’s Cowbell Brewing Co. comes Gravel Run Session IPA, a 4.5% 40 IBU brewski named, apparently, in honour of historic, rural drunk driving escapades.

The beer is a reddish gold number with a fluffy nimbus of white head. There is a mild but bright citrus scent, supported by a much more enthusiastic flavour. Notes of grapefruit give way to a bitter, floral finish.

Really quite flavourful for a beer that weighs in at less than 5% alcohol, Gravel Run is a fairly enjoyable option. The finish is a bit muddled, but the overall effect is none too shabby.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.