Combat Wombat

Every once in a while, Ontario’s liquor control authority will import an interesting American brew, but often the product seems to be old by the time it gets to me, the thirsty consumer. By way of example, I submit the adorably named Combat Wombat from Newport, Oregon’s Rogue Ales. Purchased by me in late August, the production date listed on the bottle is the Ides of March. Of course, if I weren’t such a hypocrite, I’d vote with my dollars and refuse to buy the sub-optimally fresh, six-month old sour IPA; however, the chance at a 650mL bottle of a novel 7.2%, 49 IBU ale brewed with lactose, wheat, oats, blood orange and grapefruit was too much to pass up on principle. Farts.

The beer, billed as a sour, Northeast-Style IPA, poured hazily, with a copper-orange cast and a thick bristle of suds that faded pretty quickly to an off-white tonsure. As well, there was a bit more sediment in the bottom of my glass than I’d have preferred. Huge sour and citrus elements characterize the aroma. Flavour-wise, there are notes of sour candy, tart grapefruit, and some juicy field berry notes. Bitterness, balanced against sweet and sour, made up the finish.

Despite the 7.2% weight, I found myself fairly guzzling this stuff—the lactose-enhanced mouthfeel and candy elements made me gulp thirstily. I really enjoyed the flavour, though it was at times a bit too candied. I’d have liked the assertive sourness of the aroma to carry through a bit more into taste. As well, a stronger carbonation game might have elevated my enjoyment to the next plateau (this might be attributable to the beer’s venerability; however, Ontarian scarcity of this particular brew may make that suspicion hard to confirm). All told, I’m glad I bought the stuff—I just wish I could have a crack at a fresher batch.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Mangrove IPA

Mangrove IPA, the latest India pale ale from Toronto’s Bandit Brewery, looks like grapefruit juice. That is, it looks like grapefruit juice with a sudsy, off-white head. Clearly a hazy IPA, it’s an opaque, yellow-gold grog that clocks in at a respectable 6.8% alcohol. Sold in 500mL bottles, the beautiful labels feature a reflected rendering of a raccoon bathing beneath the eponymous tree.

Mangrove has a potent aroma, encompassing significant citrus bitterness, some tart funk, and a lot of tropical fruit notes. For all the olfactory bombast, the flavour is surprisingly subtle. It’s comprised of juicy passionfruit and pineapple elements, as well as some damp, sticky hops notes.

With solid strength, nice juiciness, and a dank finish, Mangrove checks a lot of my boxes. I’ll gladly buy this stuff again and I bet you’ll like it too.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Revealed Constellations Smash IPA

I’m a man of many bad habits, and one of them is letting 355mL shorty cans get buried in the back of my fridge. One such can was Revealed Constellations, which, sadly, spent a sub-optimal number of months behind its taller brothers and sisters. Revealed Constellations Smash IPA is a session IPA from Toronto’s Eastbound Brewing Co. At just 4.4%, it’s a low voltage brew with carbonation to spare.

Slightly hazy and topped with a fluff of white suds, RC has a sticky bitterness and stone fruit elements through the nose. The flavour has nectarine notes in spades, and a slightly dank hops backing unit.

Fairly full-flavoured, but light-bodied and a little too thin thin, Revealed Constellations is a pretty agreeable low octane ale. It coulda been a bit crisper, but back of fridge venerability might well be responsible for that (on me).

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Overhop Hazy New England IPA

Sold in 473mL cans, Overhop Hazy New England IPA’s packaging has a ... creepy, sexy Terminator/Ghost Rider (?) vibe. The cans feature a woman with nearly half a face’s worth of exposed bone and one hoppy eye. They’re weird. But a new IPA from a Toronto brewery (this time(Overhop Brewing Co.) will always bring this boy to the yard, so I picked up a can of the hazy, 6.5%, 50 IBU brew.

The orange-gold beer is attractive as can be—it’s hazy as heck and topped with a fluffy layer of white head. It has a bright, sweet, citrus aroma. The flavour seizes on those themes, emphasizing orange juice notes, and progressing from light and sweet to dank and bitter.

The result is pretty good, though this hazy boi is too sweet from stem to sterm. The beer itself is beautiful, though the packaging is clearly not to my taste, and there isn’t a hint of the sediment that occasionally plagues a lesser NEIPA. Given the opportunity, I’m sure I’d buy this stuff again.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Beau’s Helles

Beau’s Helles has, what in my estimation at least, is the single best 473mL can in the province of Ontario. It’s styled to look like a classic cassette-driven boom box, and I love it. The beer inside comes from Vankleek Hill, Ontario, where it’s brewed to 5% by Beau’s Brewing Co. The pale lager is a clear gold, streaked with raucous carbonation and capped with white foam.

Sweet cereal grain kicks off the nose, which also possesses toasty elements and a slight bitter charge. The flavour is toasty and grainy initially, before drifting into dry, bitter territory for a short-lived finish.

Crisp and crunchy, dry and grainy, Beau’s Helles is a refreshing, summery lager with little to complain about. Sure, it doesn’t distinguish itself from some of Ontario’s excellent Helles Lagers (looking at you Waterloo Helles and Muddy York Gaslight), but it does its job quite well and it looks good doing it.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Getaway IPA

Getaway IPA calls Collingwood, ON, and its Side Launch Brewing Company, home. The 473mL can shows that this 6.3% ale is brewed with rye flakes, oat flakes, and wheat flakes. According to the copy, it’s a New England-style IPA, though based on the lack of haziness alone, I question that classification.

Getaway is a fairly clear golden ale that pours with a luscious cover of white suds. The aroma that emerges through the bubbles is poised between citrus and evergreen. The flavour trends closer to coniferous than juicy, though the finish is moderately bitter, and its here that a little tropical fruit enters the mix.

I found Getaway to be reasonably enjoyable stuff, though it’s a touch too sweet for my tastes. If I’m drinking a mid-strength IPA, I want crisp and bitter in the driver’s seat. There is a place for sweetness, but it calls for more rambunctious fruit notes than were in evidence here. The mouthfeel is nice, though, and the initial burst of pine is delightful. This stuff’ll never be regular rotation, but I’ll definitely enjoy it again periodically.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Trifecta

From scenic Vancouver, B.C. comes Trifecta, a hopfenweisse brewed by Parallel 49 Brewing Company. The beer is a 5% number that comes in 473mL cans that feature a lady wearing a hops hat. According to the copy, the beer gets its name because it’s brewed with a trio of hop varieties; however, the identity of the three in question isn’t revealed on the can (a little research on the Parallel 49 website shows that it was Huell Melon, Meridian, and Saphir). Hazy and dull orange-gold, Trifecta pours with a thick layer of lovely white head.

To my nose, the hoppy wheat beer had notes of tropical fruit, yeast, and some banana esters at the back end. The flavour has had more weissebier qualities than I was expecting, with lots of yeast and banana staking out a strong position in the front end. More to my expectations, the back end featured dank, hoppy notes, as well as some stone fruit.

In my limited experience, some hopfenweisses (hopfenweissi?) are closer to one side of the hybrid or the other; however this little ditty seems to straddle the line between a wheat beer and a pale ale with dexterity. It’s a refreshing summer beer, though a bit more booze would have been nice. 

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Bronan Vermont IPA

Despite its reputation for being one of Ontario’s premiere wine-producing regions, Niagara-on-the-Lake is fast becoming known for its excellent breweries as well. This includes High Road Brewing Co., which produces Bronan Vermont IPA.

At 7.1%, Bronan doesn’t suffer fools. Sold in 473mL cans that would vex someone with trypophobia, the beer is a hazy and well-carbonated dull gold with a durable and fluffy layer of off-white head. True to style, Bronan packs a mighty aroma rich in tropical fruit notes—both sweet and a little dank. The flavour, too, delivers a great deal of juiciness—particularly passionfruit, with a bit of over-ripe mango. The back end has some sticky hops in evidence, but this is tamed by a persistent sweetness that runs from tape to tape.

In my experience, most Vermont or New England IPAs typically limit their alcohol content as well as their bitterness, but Bronan eschews that strategy, and the result is a beer that is both juicy and boozy. This gives the flavour added depth, but it also results in an ale that is just a touch too sweet to be optimal. The finish is really smashing, though—a great intersection of tropical fruit and dank hops, buoyed by healthy strength, makes for a memorable combo.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Post & Ring: Jack Layton’s New England IPA

Post & Ring: Jack Layton’s New England IPA, from Toronto’s Henderson Brewing Company, was brewed to honour the legacy of Jack Layton, who, before becoming leader of the federal New Democratic Party, was a Toronto city councillor and a top-notch cycling advocate in Canada’s largest city. One of his lasting contributions to cycling in the city are the post and ring bicycle lock stations that pepper Toronto. As a nice nod, the can says that a portion of sales is given to Cycle Toronto.

Post & Ring is Henderson’s Ides of June 2019 beer. Brewed for Bike Month and with input from Jack’s son (and my city councillor until a cruel trick of redistricting shuffled his ward boundaries) Mike, the beer is a 6% ale, sold in colourful 355mL cans. P&R is brewed with Azacca, Huell Melon, and Citra hops. It’s a hazy dull-gold grog that pours under a cloud of off-white head. It has a hefty citrus and tropical fruit aroma. For flavour, it tastes of fresh citrus, with tangy orange out front and bitter grapefruit hit on its heels. As you’d expect from an NEIPA, bitterness is present, but it plays second fiddle to juiciness.

Really a solid NEIPA, it’s a shame that P&R is a limited release, as I’d be happy to bring this hazy, juicy stuff home on the semi-regular.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Florida Cracker

Named in honour of 18th century “cracker cowboys”—a term I’d never heard that apparently refers to pioneer settlers in Florida—Florida Cracker is a 5.5% Belgian-style wheat ale brewed with coriander and orange peel. It comes (by way of brewing at Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard, NC) from Tampa, Florida’s Cigar City Brewing, and it’s sold in 16oz cans.

The beer is slightly cloudy and pours with a layer of bright white suds. It has a yeasty nose that has elements of orange and banana. The flavour is pretty much classic witbier, with big yeast, banana esters, orange zest, and some peppery spice notes. 

Refreshing and agreeable, Florida Cracker is a pretty respectable southern take on the witbier. It doesn’t offer any surprises or departures, but it also doesn’t stray from the style guideline.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

It’s Not an IPA ... P.S. It’s an IPA

The brilliant K.C. brought me a fresh 355mL can of It’s Not an IPA ... P.S. It’s an IPA from Boone, North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountain Brewery, and like an idiot, I forgot all about it in the back of my fridge until it was a little less than fresh. Despite the sub-optimal venerability, I decided to write it up anyway, but with this acknowledgment.

It’s Not an IPA ... is of course an IPA, weighing in at 6.7% alcohol. It comes in quirky-looking cans from which emerges a hazy, pale golden ale with a sudsy white head. It has a fruity, slightly dank aroma and a flavour that features nectarine and sweet orange notes up front and a sticky resin finish.

While it could have been fresher, I still quite enjoyed It’s Not an IPA .... I found it to be amply flavourful, with juice and resin notes balanced comfortably.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Passionfruit Guava Flavoured Kettle Sour

Apparently a relation of Coriolis Effect Berliner Weisse, Sawdust City Brewing Co.’s Passionfruit Guava Flavoured Kettle Sour weighs in at a mere 3.5% alcohol and 6 IBUs, but it punches well above its weight in terms of flavour.

The beer, which is sold in 473mL cans, has a straw yellow, almost pale green colour. It pours with a little bit of white head and a deep well of tart and juicy fruit aromatics. This can be explained by the presence of passionfruit juice, guava juice, and lactobacillus brevis (apparently a lactic acid—brewing science is neat).  Tart and acidic, this passionfruit guava concoction has a wild amount of fruity funk, with both tropical products represented about equally. Though low alcohol, the beer has a similar mouthfeel and essence as a glass of young white wine, and once you acclimatize to the sourness, there is a pretty high degree of juicy sweetness waiting in the wings.

 

I fairly crushed this can after coming home from a toast late July afternoon walk. It wasn’t quite as refreshing as the tall glass of water I downed first, but it was decidedly more satisfying. If you dig fruity, sour, sessionable suds, this little entry from Gravenhurst, Ontario is a winner.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Jurassic IPA

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ve probably put together that I’m a beer enthusiast with an arguably unhealthy relationship with alcohol and I get routinely excited when I hear about a new IPA. However, I was uncommonly excited when I heard about Cameron’s Brewing’s Jurassic IPA, because this dude loves the Michael Chrichton/Steven Spielberg epic. Unlike the Bitter Wife, I don’t believe it’s the greatest film ever made, but I certainly recognize a little cinematic mastery when I see it, and JP rocks that heartily.

Jurassic IPA is a 6.8%, 68 IBU ale brewed with a trio of hops: Simcoe, Summit, and Citra. It comes in red, white, and blue 473mL cans with a Tyrannosaurus Rex and some foliage. It’s a brassy, hazy ale with a crown of off-white suds. It has a hoppy grapefruit nose and a matching flavour. It moves from vaguely sweet to enthusiastically bitter in a blink, and packs a load of citrus stank.

Even if I isolate my fandom, Jurassic IPA is a well-made and flavourful IPA from a brewery I’ve always enjoyed. It’s not elite, but it is a quality Ontario IPA with lots of flavour and depth. Good strength and ample taste makes it a keeper.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Sleeping Lemons Export

All the way from Lower Westcombe Farm in Shepton Mallet, UK comes Sleeping Lemons Export, a 6% alcohol gose from The Wild Beer Co. According to the copy on the bottle, this beer was initially brewed domestically and was so popular that a higher alcohol “export” version was devised. The name Sleeping Lemons is apparently the English translation the Moroccan term “L’hamd Maraked”, which refers to the preserved format of those sour, yellow buddies, and the beer is indeed with brewed with preserved lemons and salt.

Each 330mL bottle of SLE contains a cloudy golden liquid that has some yeast and/or salt sediment and pours with just a murmur of off-white suds. This wheat beer has a colossal lemony scent that kicks off sharply, but allows for a little sweetness to seep in if you take a mighty whiff. The beer wasn’t nearly as tart or as briny as I expected. Those elements were definitely both present, but the balance was far more generous to sweetish lemonade than the aroma led me to expect. The label promises lemon curd and I think that’s what SLE delivers. The beer finishes with a solid sourness to seal the deal.

A refreshing and different pre-dinner treat, I thought this gose from The Wild Beer Co. was a playful and well-conceived bit of brewing. It didn’t leave me with much to complain about, so I’ll critique the copy-editing. Unless I’m much mistaken, both the English and French ingredients lists are missing a comma, unless the French version features “citron sel” and the English contains “salt hops”. If you’re looking for a starter gose, look no further, because this stuff is salty and sour, but it takes both slowly.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Steam Whistle Pale Ale

From the people who profess to “do one thing really, really well”—Toronto’s Steam Whistle Brewing—comes Steam Whistle Pale Ale. A 5% ale, SWPA comes in 473mL cans that are a metallic teal doppelgänger to Steam Whistle Pilsner’s green. They also have Steam Whistle's unnecessary trash foil can hat.

The beer is a golden ale with an amber accent. It has a toasted malt nose with toast elements and a slightly metallic tinkle. Malt-forward, the beer has a toasty, British-style pale ale quality. The mouthfeel is crisp and refreshing; however, it has a dearth of robust hops. There is some bitterness, but it comes late at the back end and could be considerably more aggressive.

I’ve heard some smack talked about this second effort from Steam Whistle from the Ontario beer enthusiast community on Twitter, and I’m not sure it was totally deserved. The beer tastes decent enough, but lacks punch. It’s refreshing and attractive, but uninspired.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.