Avling IPA

Avling IPA comes from Toronto’s Avling Brewery, where the 6% ale is deposited into stylish 355mL cans. The beer, a light gold potion, pours with a thin covering of off-white suds.

With potent notes of tropical fruit, Avling IPA has a glorious aroma. The flavour has a sweet and juicy front end, with pineapple elements integrated brilliantly. That gives way to a floral, slightly earthy finish that maintains the fruitiness and is excellently bitter.

While I’m tempted to be effusive in my praise of Avling IPA (my first taste beer from this relatively new east-end brewery), there were a couple of things I’d have changed. Foremost, I’d have upped the octane just a bit to something closer to 7%. But also, I’d have smoothed out the front end to make it just a little less sweet. Otherwise, this is a fantastic IPA. The finish, particularly, is compelling.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Straight Up Sour w/ Peaches

From Toronto’s Radical Road Brewing Co. and their Funk & Sour Series comes Straight Up Sour w/ Peaches, a 6% sour ale brewed with Ontario peaches.

The beer is yellowy gold and pours with almost no head. It has an acidic nose with loads of peach notes. For flavour, we’re dealing with considerable tartness and a bit of fruity funk, although less peachy than I’d have liked. The mouthfeel was a touch thin, though the booze quotient was optimal.

This beer had promise and delivered with some good attributes, but I’d really have liked it if it’d hit the peach harder and featured a bit more carbonation.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Killer Cupcake Panda

According to its tag line, “Cute can be vicious”. That’s the word on Killer Cupcake Panda, an 8.3% double pastry IPA from Guelph, Ontario’s Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery. Brewed with citrus custard, pandan leaves, and “vanilla cupcake aromas”, the beer is a hazy golden grog with a thin cover of white foam.

KCP has a sticky and extremely sweet vanilla nose. The flavour kicks off with sweet vanilla notes, but, in the later stages, that cupcake sweetness shares the bill with confectionary citrus notes and an odd floral bitterness.

I’m dubious of pastry beers generally, and pastry IPAs in particular. This one did little to assuage my suspicions. The flavours are very strong, but not entirely in accord. If I’m being honest, the vanilla notes deliver exactly as promised. However, the pandan and the curd don’t really jive well with big booze in the finish, with a result that is a bit disjointed. Flying Monkeys should be praised for trying something quirky and innovative; however, the end result just isn’t for me. Too much sweetness clashing with bitterness and odd flavours that aren’t entirely complimentary. This might easily be someone’s cup of tea, but I found it a bit bewildering.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Clair-obscur

Clair-obscur, from Archibald Microbrasserie in Quebec City, is a schwarzbier, a German-style smoked dark lager. It’s a 5.5% brew sold in 473mL cans. It’s a black, cola-coloured lager with a thin layer of short-lived, off-white head.

With its powerful smoky aroma, Clair-obscur has loads roasty malt notes. The flavour is smokier still, with serious campfire energy, along with a bold, slightly sweet malty vibes. The finish remains persistently smoky, with just a hint of bitterness.

I love a nice schwarzbier, and Clair-obscur gets the job done with aplomb. It has a nice strength (honestly, it tastes stronger than 5.5%) and a lovely flavour, though I’d like a touch more back-end bitterness.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

The Wolf of Glen Moray Port Cask Finish

The Wolf of Glen Moray Port Cask Finish is a “dark Scottish ale aged in a Glen Moray whisky cask” brewed in Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland by Windswept Brewing Co. This one is aged in a port finish cask. It’s a burly 9% ale with a deep mahogany colour and a very this cream head. It comes in a 330mL bottle, sold in a whisky-style tube. My bottle was hand-numbered (4279/4344).

The Wolf Port Cask has a terrifically rich and sticky sweet aroma—malt heavy, with notes of raisin and treacle. The flavour is sweet, initially, with boozy, dried fruit leanings. The back end is warm, faintly bitter, and has subtle whisky elements.

This beer was highly agreeable; all the more so because it was woody without being overly sweet. Often I find barrel-aged strong ales run too saccharine, and this one displayed admirable restraint. Boozy and flavourful, this stuff was jammin’.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Fergie’s Classic Pilsner

Named in honour of one of the most successful Canadians to ever play Major League Baseball, Fergie’s Classic Pilsner is apparently a collaboration between Sons of Kent Brewing Company and the man himself, Ferguson Jenkins. Both the brewery and the Hall of Fame pitcher hail from Chatham, Ontario, and this beer raises funds for the local Children’s Treatment Centre. Sold in 473mL cans that feature Jenkins’ MLB careen wins, ERA, and strikeout totals (3,192!!!), the pale lager contains 4.9% alcohol. It’s a clear yellow-gold brew with decent carbonation, although it doesn’t pour with a whole lot of the white head that caps the beer.

Fergie’s Classic Pilsner has a grassy and sweet fragrance. The flavour kicks off sweetly, with cereal notes steering the ship. Bitterness picks up towards the stern, but not with the level of gritty crispness that I like to see in a pilsner.

For me, Fergie’s is an enjoyable enough lager in honour of a good cause and a great ball player, but it’s not sufficiently crisp or flavourful to stake a claim as an elite Ontario pilsner.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Evil Genius

Another entry from Skeleton Crew Brewing Company (brewed by Cameron’s Brewing in Oakville, Ontario) is Evil Genius, their 4.5% 34 IBU session IPA brewed with Crystal and Loral hops. The beer is handsome gold, with a thin layer of white head and an unfortunate concentration of tiny suspended chunks which give the appearance of an attempt at haze gone a bit askew.

Evil Genius has an agreeably juicy, slightly tangy aroma. The flavour is built on the same foundation, with citrus notes up from and a slightly perfumed bitterness in the back end.

 

My first thought on noticing the slight granularity in the beer is that it might be a bit old, but the absence of a date stamp on the can leaves that an open question. Additionally, I might have acquired a can from a flawed batch. Or it could be a brewing issue. Whatever the source, the version of Evil Genius that I cracked looked a bit off. However, it should be said that it had no impact on the flavour, which was perfectly pleasant, or on the mouthfeel, which was agreeably crisp.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Wet Hop Cascader Invader

Perth, Ontario and the Perth Brewery are the sources of Wet Hop Cascader Invader, a session-friendly pale ale. According to the 473mL can, the brew is a collab with a local hop farm and it supports “our community foundation”—no details about the what and the how.

The brew itself is a 4.7% job. It has handsome dull gold colouring and pours with a lush nimbus of off-white head. To my nose, WHCI has a slightly sweet lemony note, balanced against malty biscuit. The taste follows the same blueprint, but writ large: the flavour is rich in sweet citrus and toasty malt. There is some fresh and floral bitterness that becomes evident at the back end.

Aside from the excellent packaging, what stood out most to me about this beer was a vibe of freshness—it has notes that are agrarian, damp, and enjoyable. The mouthfeel is a bit thin, but otherwise I liked it a lot. I gotta think that an Ontario beer built by wet hopping fresh hops likely has to be a seasonal offering, but I’m going to buy more of this stuff while I can and hope it comes back yearly.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Versaverse IPA

One of the nice things about living across the park from a great brewery is freshness. I just picked up a 473mL can of Versaverse IPA that was brewed three weeks ago and that’s fine by me.

Versaverse comes from Toronto institution Bellwoods Brewery. It’s a zippy 7.2% ale brewed with a trio of hops: Azacca, Centennial, and Loral. The beer is a hazy orange brew with a short-lived layer of off-white head. It has citrus aromatics, but beneath that is a subtle scent of plastic—to my mind a bit of an off note. The flavour runs parallel to the citrus notes, with a floral orange element leading the way. Unfortunately, to my tongue anyway, there is also a whisper of plastic wrap. To be clear, I’m talking about a very faint off note—barely there—but enough for me to be a bit distracted. The beer finishes with pretty good bitterness—citrus and slightly dank.

 

Versaverse IPA was a decent effort from a great brewery. Compared to some of Bellwoods’ best IPAs, like Ghost Orchid, Roman Candle, and the excellent Cat Lady, this one is a bit of a swing and a miss. Good look, great strength, but ultimately flawed. I’d be interested in trying this one again lest I had a tainted batch, but until then, I feel this one is not quite up to snuff.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Blanche des Honnelles 1979

Blanche des Honnelles 1979 is billed as a “Dubble Wit”. It’s a 6% wheat beer from the Belgian Brasserie de l’Abbaye des Rocs. Sold in 330mL bottles, the beer is a dull bronze colour. It pours with an almost non-existent white head.

1979 has a hefty sweet wheat and yeast aroma. The flavour is also quite sweet—it has a yeasty vibe with notes of citrus, banana, and spice. The finish remains fairly sweet and has spicy, with not a lot of bitterness.

 

Honestly, I didn’t love this beer. I found its limited carbonation to be a major drawback. Similarly, the flavour was not nearly as assertive as I was hoping for. The double wit style—if there is such a thing—isn’t one that I have any experience with, but if 1979 is an exemplar, I’m not keen to dig much deeper. To my mind, witbiers ought to be crisp and light. Adding weight doesn’t totally float my boat. That said, if you’re a witbier zealot, this stuff might be really interesting to you.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

ai Alai India Pale Ale

Another much-loved American IPA has made its way, a little slowly, north of the border. Jai Alai India Pale Ale, the 7.5%, 65 IBU bruiser from Tampa, Florida’s Cigar City Brewing, recently showed up at my local LCBO. It’s dated June 3 and I’m drinking it in October, which isn’t ideal, but I’ve enjoyed older beers many times.

Jai Alai is a happy golden ale with a hefty portion of off-white suds. It has a sweet, caramel malt aroma balanced against a whiff of solid citrus bitterness. The flavour and the nose of this IPA are in absolute accord, with notes of caramel/toffee claiming the initial position and orange pulp bitterness occupying the back end. 

This beer is hoppy, sure, but it’s also really well-balanced. The strength of this beer is a strength, as it were, but so to its rich and agreeable flavour. As expected, I liked this stuff a lot. Despite the slightly aged provenance, I was pleased with the beer and found it bright and fresh-tasting. Guys, this really is a good beer. Just a nice riff on the IPA with lots of heft and commendable balance.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Ginger Belle Barrel-Aged Barley Wine

From Barrie, Ontario’s Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery, Ginger Belle Barrel-Aged Barley Wine has a whole lot going on. The beer is actually a blend of two of the Monkeys’ ales—their Gingerbread Stout and their Belle Époque Imperial Belgian IPA. That blend is aged four years in bourbon barrels resulting in a high-octane 11.3% concoction. The beer is sold in boxed 473mL bottles. It’s a hazy, rust-brown ale with a thin layer of cream head. I picked this one up in April with the idea of letting it age a bit—only made it to October, though.

Ginger Belle has an aroma that is sweet, boozy, and heavily spiced. The flavour has a rowdy combo of notes: mulled apple cider, cranberry tartness, spicy ginger, woodsy sweetness, and a crackle of evergreen hops. The lengthy barrel-aging is evident, manifested in sweetness, bourbon notes, and a thick mouthfeel.

This is a bit of a kitchen sink ale—there is a whole lot going on, making the beer a bit muddled, but nonetheless quite enjoyable. It’s spicy and warm, making it a welcome treat for a chilly evening—I don’t know that I’d recommend drinking it, as I did, on a fairly warm October Sunday afternoon.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.