Zenith Belgian Golden Ale

A lengthy walk down Toronto’s decrepit Dufferin Street left me with a powerful thirst, so I ducked into Laylow Brewing Co., reputed to be Toronto’s smallest craft brewery.

The place was empty when I walked in, but it definitely shouldn’t be. It’s a cool little spot, partnered with Young Animal, a Trinidadian kitchen, with hip hop on the stereo and an array of interesting beers, mostly with Belgian leanings. Exceptionally friendly staff behind the bar. Really a good place.

To warm my bones and ease my mind, I ordered a Zenith Belgian Golden Ale, recommended by the guy working the bar. A 6.1% ale, the beer showed up golden and pretty, with just a disc of white head. I was dubious when the tasting notes in the menu listed bubblegum next to stone fruit and shortbread—mostly because bubblegum is nasty. But damn if there wasn’t a hint of the pink stuff in the nose, nestled with white wine and powerful yeast notes. The flavour was just dandy—notes of dry white wine, a bit of apple, and some playful yeast. The mouthfeel moved quickly from sweet to dry, building to a curt finish with only a tickle of bitterness.

My first taste of ale from Laylow was just about everything I wanted it to be—tasty, subtle, and Belgian-inspired. A nice change up from downtown Toronto’s infatuation with NEIPAs, the beer left me eager to work through the whole list.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Hümber Helles

On a chilly December Sunday afternoon, a cheery little lager is just what the doctor ordered. Enter Hümber Helles, a Helles lager from Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery. The 4.8%, 12 IBU pale lager is sunny-hued and brightly carbonated, with a modest crown of white suds. The beer is sold in 473mL cans.

Hümber has sweet hay and grain aromatics. Behind a mellow mouthfeel, it has a sweet and grassy flavour with just a speck of bitterness evident at the back end.

Hümber Helles Lager is fairly enjoyable; however, it’s too sweet and that affects the crispness negatively, making the beer a little less refreshing than I’d have wanted it to be.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Lula’s Kentucky Common

Brewed in Toronto by Great Lakes Brewery in collaboration with a homebrewer, Lula’s Kentucky Common is a 5.3%, 23 IBU alcohol ale made with flaked rye, flaked corn, and molasses. It’s a handsome brown beer that pours with a thin cap of white head and sold in 473mL cans with a hound dog on the label. It’s a member of GLB’s 7 Barrel Series.

Lula’s has a sweet, sticky aroma with molasses and malt notes leading the way. A classic brown ale scent. The flavour is malty, woody, and flecked with notes of sweet, dried fruit. It finishes sweetly and with only limited bitterness. Through it all, there is just a hint of rye heat.

Lula’s is my first experience with a Kentucky common, so my frame of reference is limited to a field of one. Wikipedia tells me that it’s a dark cream ale classically brewed pre-Prohibition. It’s apparently not a frequently produced style. Based on my experience with Lula’s, I found it to be a sweetish brown ale—sipable and agreeable, with a smooth body. Lula’s was perhaps a touch too sweet, but it has nice brown sugar, toasty caramel, and molasses notes. As a brown ale fan, I can understand how beers like Lula’s used to be en vogue in the Louisville area. I don’t know whether this is a good exemplar of the style or a poor one, but I can safely say it was tasty and interesting. It had English ale characteristics, with a whisper of low-yeast Belgian dubbel thrown in for good measure. I liked it a lot and I’d like to try more in the style.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Miami Weiss White Pale Ale

Roll up your blazer sleeves! I’m reviewing Miami Weiss White Pale Ale from Toronto and Great Lakes Brewery. According to the pitch on the can, the beer isn’t a weiss and they’ve never even been to Miami—rather, the name is “just something the guys in marketing came up with.” MW is a wheat beer, though, and at 4.5%, its a pretty sessionable one. And at 35 IBUs, it has some pale ale bitterness, too.

MV is sold in 473mL cans that feature lurid pink and turquoise colour scheme and a palm tree scene. It’s a hazy, pale gold beer that pours with a hefty fluff of white suds. It has a vivid nose rich in sweet, tropical fruit notes and a whiff of yeast. The wheat ale is plenty flavourful for a low alcohol number, with fruit up front and some citrus bitterness at the back end, but it also has a mellow, smooth wheat beer mouthfeel.

I liked MV quite a bit. I’m not always warm to wheat ales (unless they’re exquisite), but the pale ale hybrid nature of this little, low-booze buddy got me pretty close to where I wanted to be.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Trivia Winnings

On a chilly Thursday night, I played a little pub trivia with an all-star quartet that included the Bitter Wife and our good pals CC and VC. The event, hosted at a little Toronto pub, was a delight and it turned out to be a close thing, but our crack team of trivia buffs managed to pull out a .5 point victory. And the prize? A sextet of Great Lakes Brewery’s small scale releases. Each couple took home a trio, and the ones we got were Miami Weiss White Pale Ale, Hümber Helles Lager, and Lula’s Kentucky Common—none of which I’d ever tried before.

Stay tuned this week for my take on the three fruits of our winnings—offerings from one of Toronto’s elite craft brewers that I likely wouldn’t have tasted had we not known a couple of obscure facts.

Freakshow Crush Hazy IPA

The 473mL cans of Freakshow Crush Hazy IPA feature a collection of wacky sayings and slogans—more than I cared to read, honestly. It’s a pretty wild looking bit of packaging. The beer, born in Barrie, Ontario, comes from Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery. It’s a 6.3% ale that pours a handsome and hazy pale gold under a crown of white foam.

 

Freakshow Crush has a pleasant aroma, with sweetness and bitterness blended together around notes of grapefruit and orange. The ale moves from sweet to bitter, with a delicate, juicy opening note and a considerably more robust citrus finish.

I enjoyed this take on the hazy IPA. It’s got the right ratio of juice to bitterness and the hazy appearance was well executed. The front end was a bit thin for me, but otherwise I thought it worked pretty well.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Old Buddy Espresso Brown Ale

Sold in extremely spiffy 473mL cans, Old Buddy Espresso Brown Ale comes from Wellington Brewery in Guelph, Ontario. The beer is made with espresso reduction and using oats and brewed up to 5.4% alcohol.

Old Buddy is a very dark brown and it pours with a short-lived tan head that shrunk rapidly to a disc of suds. The beer has a potent, coffee-fueled nose buttressed by a bit of spice. The flavour is robust, built around sturdy espresso notes and fitted comfortably into a malty, brown ale body. The back end is agreeably bitter, with persistent java vibes and a whisper of spice.

To me, brown ales and coffee are born partners, and Wellington’s Old Buddy worked the combo professionally. This is a tasty beer with loads of flavour, decent strength, and quality execution. I’d enthusiastically buy this beer again; however, I wouldn’t drink more than one in an evening.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Key West Lime Gose

Born at Radical Road Brewing Co., an East End Toronto suds shop, Key West Lime Gose is a member of the brewery’s Funk & Sour Series. I grabbed a 355mL can at the brewery and poured out a pale golden brew topped with a thin circlet of white suds. At just 3.8%, the beer is quaffable, or would be but for its tartness and salinity.

KWLG has a nose that twitches twixt briny and tart. It has a salty tang that balances a citrus swizzle. In short, it’s both sour and salty to the nose and through the flavour as well. For a low-alcohol brew, this one has intense flavours, kicking off with sea salt assertiveness and merging into lime acidity with just a sliver of sweetness that left me licking my lips.

The result is a shot of tequila short of a margarita. This beer is interesting and assertive. Despite its light weight, it certainly isn’t timid. The flavours pair pretty well, though I found the lime to have a slightly artificial vibe—there is no claim on the can that the lime flavour is natural, but using artificial stuff doesn’t mean it has to taste phony. All told, it was a pretty good gose with electric attitude.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Barrel Aged Anubis

Barrel Aged Anubis is a Baltic porter from the gang at Black Lab Brewing and their Barrel Series. The beer is a massive 12% alcohol ale sold in 500mL bottles. It’s a dark as midnight brew that pours with almost no head—just a scattering of an suds.

For such a powerful beer, BAA has an unexpectedly reserved scent—it is slightly woody and sweet, with some raisin notes, but it is definitely not nose overpowering. While the aromatics are a bit underwhelming, that doesn’t seem to translate into the flavour, which is rich and robust. More than anything, this ale has loads of wood-aged sweetness and a boozy hit. The beer is quite malty, with a liquor element that I liken to brandy. Behind all of that, there are smokey molasses and cocoa expressions and a bit of raisin, too, which lends a fruitcake quality. The mouthfeel is extremely thick, and there is a kiss of bitterness at the back end.

Named for the dog-headed Egyptian god of death, Barrel Aged Anubis is a powerful, boozy bomb. It’s not exactly subtle, but there are definitely layers in this beer. However, I found that the substantial barrel-aging managed to drown out some of the classic porter elements that I was pulling for. I liked the brew, but I didn’t love it.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Positive Reinforcement

Rorschach Brewing Company calls its 6% alcohol festbier Positive Reinforcement and sells it in 473mL cans. It’s a clear, deep gold lager that pours with a tuft of white suds.

The beer has a malty, slightly metallic aroma, and its flavour largely matches. The beer has sweet and malty notes in the early stages and grows into a fairly healthy bitter and dry finish. In the background, there are pleasant metallic notes and grainy elements.

Festbiers aren’t something I have a lot of experience with, but I can say that I enjoyed this punch little lager a fair bit. It was quite flavourful, yet still relatively refreshing. I wouldn’t call it particularly memorable, but it was plainly well-made.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Sinodaur IPA

From the Hops Series at Toronto’s Radical Road Brewing Co., Sinodaur IPA is a 6.7% brew. Sold in 355mL cans, the beer is a hazy, light gold, with lots of carbonation and a fluffy layer of white suds.

Sinodaur has a sweet and juicy mango nose. The flavour, too, features some mango notes and considerable sweetness. These are (mostly) balanced against a dose of citrus bitterness. And for mouthfeel? Smooth and silky.

A bit too much sweetness and too little bitterness than would have been ideal for the ol’ Stout Man, but the juicy mango notes in both the flavour and aroma of Sinodaur IPA left me fairly impressed. I’d definitely advise any juicy IPA fan in Toronto to check this bad boy out.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Charming Rival Double IPA

Charming Rival Double IPA was highly recommended to me by the chap working reception at Toronto’s Avling.https://www.avling.ca/ The beer packs a pretty decent wallop at 8% alcohol. Sold in 355mL cans, the dull gold ale is brewed with Ontario wheat, has a lot of carbonation, and pours under a persistent cylinder of white suds.

Sweet and juicy to the nose, Charming Rival has loads of fruity aromatics. The flavour continues to be sweet, and, though still present, the fruit notes (guava and grapefruit) are dialed back a bit. In their place, citric, resinous bitterness amps up and boozy warmth enters the frame. As well, there is a decent display of malt.

A double IPA with a nice flavour and one that isn’t overpoweringly sweet, Charming Rival has lots in its corner. I wouldn’t complain if it were a bit more bitter, but this stuff gets the job done.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Hedonism Guava Sorbet Sour IPA

My first ever sorbet IPA was Hedonism Guava Sorbet Sour IPA, a quirky ale from Toronto’s Rorschach Brewing Co. The 6.9% ale comes in 500mL bottles that claim to “strive to balance the base elements of sourness, bitterness, and sweetness to lay the foundation for an abundant fruit character, with a matching fluffy texture, to come as close as possible to juice in beer form.” Well.

Hedonism Guava is a cloudy, golden orange  grog that definitely does have a juicy appearance. The nose has considerable sourness and lots of guava. The flavour kicks off with a creamy sweetness, though this is followed quickly by a shock of tangy guava sourness. As you’d expect, the mouthfeel of this juicy brew is extremely creamy.

As advertised, this beer is a conflagration if sweet, sour, and bitter, though I’d have liked more of the bitterness element and less of the sweetness. Guava flavour was wielded effectively, though, and the beer had good strength. This quirky ale promised a lot and delivered much, but I’m not convinced that I’d reach for a second if I had one in the fridge.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Go For Broke Kellerbier

Go For Broke Kellerbier is a 5.7% brew from Radical Road Brewing out of Toronto. The beer, a hazy, champagne-hued number, comes in 355mL cans and pours with a short-lived white head.

 

RR’s take on this old world German-style lager has a sweet, yeasty nose with banana aromatics. The flavour is quite full-bodied, with a sweet to bitter progression. There are yeast and banana notes up front and a toasty bitterness at the back end.

Kellerbier is not a style that I see everyday, and I haven’t been lucky enough to try for than a handful. Therefore, I don’t know how this brew stacks up compared to the world’s finest Kellerbiers. That said, I know that I really liked this one. It was rich and bursting with interesting flavours.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Serenity

Serenity is a hoppy lager brewed in Toronto by Rorschach Brewing Co. It’s a sessionable 4.5% lager sold in 473mL cans. The beer within is a sunny straw colour with loads of carbonation and a thin layer of white suds.

This pale lager has a gritty, earthy hops nose, with a faint whiff of gym shoe. The flavour, too, is extremely bitter, with floral and earthy hops notes that I’d usually associate with an English IPA. The mouthfeel is crisp and crackling, making this a very refreshing lager.

This is an enjoyable lager with an odd and agreeable flavour profile. It’s session-friendly but packed with bitterness. The only drawback is that touch of feet in the nose.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Strawberry Rhubarb Kennel Sour

On a lovely sunny fall afternoon, I selected a 500mL bottle from Black Lab Brewing’s Kennel Sour Series—the Strawberry Rhubarb edition. Born in Toronto, the Strawberry Rhubarb Kennel Sour contains 4% alcohol. It has the pinkish colour of a ruby red grapefruit juice and pours with a very thin layer of white suds.

The Strawberry Rhubarb Kennel Sour has a tangy, tart nose, backed with a measure of dessert sweetness. The flavour debuts with considerable sourness, built around tart rhubarb notes. There is a bit of strawberry, too, though it is a secondary element.

A nice sour ale, Black Lab’s strawberry rhubarb effort has a ratio that is agreeable in a beer; however, if you served me a pie that skewed this heavily toward rhubarb tartness, I might be less than impressed. The beer has a thin mouthfeel, but a jolt of sourness helps to overcome it.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.