Blackfriars Bridge Stout

Brewed in honour of a London, Ontario landmark, Blackfriars Bridge Stout is a 6% ale, built by the Toboggan Brewing Company. The beer is sold in 473mL cans festooned with its namesake bridge. Inside resides a near-black liquid that pours with a hearty tan head. This brew came to me via my ol’ pal WFM—thanks lad!

Blackfriars has a sweet, malty aroma with notes, with elements of cocoa, coffee, and bitter molasses. The beer has a thick mouthfeel and a rich flavour, with notes that start sweetly and swing to bitterness. Roasted malt kicks things off along with chocolatey elements. The back end gets a bit grittier, with decent hops presence and a java hue.

A fairly strong, copiously flavourful stout, Blackfriars was a nice introduction for me to Toboggan Brewing. I’ve got another of their beers, a double IPA, queues up to review, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for more of their offerings.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Margarita Gose

The ingredients list in the side of 473mL cans of Side Launch Brewing Company’s Margarita Gose reads a little more exotic than many beers, featuring organic agave nectar, lime purée, and Himalayan sea salt alongside the usual suspects. The beer, a 4.2% gose from Collingwood, Ontario, is a hazy ale with a dull, pinkish gold colour that  gives an impression of grapefruit juice. It pours with a thin but durable white head.

MG has tangy aromatics that do suggest the classic Mexican cocktail—salty brine and tart citrus are the leading lights. The flavour is unusual and yet familiar, with lime at the fore, built above a sharp, saline foundation. As well, there is a vague suggestion of tequila that doubtlessly comes from the agave nectar.

Side Launch’s Margarita Gose is undeniably a novelty beer, but it’s one that is compellingly well-executed. It really does have the essence of a decent marg, tendered in beer form, and in a low-alcohol format that would lend itself to afternoon sipping. I quaffed my first can of the stuff in early March, and it was a bit too chilly for the summer style, but it certainly made me wistful for warmer, sunnier days. The downside of this beer is that, despite its mathematical crushability, is that I’d be unlikely to reach for a second (much less a third) in a session.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Canatara!

A Berlinerweisse brewed with passion fruit, Canatara! comes from Sarnia, Ontario and the Refined Fool Brewing Co. The beer comes in 473mL cans and contains 4.7% alcohol.

Canatara! is a slightly hazy golden brew that pours under a thin but durable white head. It has a tart, yet juicy passion fruit nose. The flavour is really quite mild, with a bit of tartness, some tropical fruit notes, and a quick, dry finish.

If I’m being honest, I found this beer to be a bit of a disappointment. It is nowhere near as tart as I wanted it to be, nor is the passion fruit flavour as robust. On this flip side, I did enjoy the dry, champagne-like mouthfeel.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

As Far Back As I Can Remember New England IPA

As Far Back As I Can Remember New England IPA is an ode to hipsterdom and a 6.4% alcohol ale from Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery. A hazy, almost milky gold brew, AFBAICR is from GLB’s Tank Ten Series. It comes in 473mL cans and pours with a frothy eggshell head. The ingredients list oats and wheat, along with the standard malted barley, hops, water, and yeast.

AFBAICR has a sweet and fruity nose, with some OJ elements. The flavour, too, has orange notes, along with some floral hops. The back end is modestly bitter (40 IBUs), in a juicy, citrusy sort of way.

As NEIPAs go, this one is better than average, with the right boxes checked: hazy look, low-ish bitterness, and modest alcohol content on top of a juicy, fruit flavour.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Nordic Lager

A collaboration between Toronto’s Henderson Brewing Co. and Jacobsen, a Carlsberg-owned Danish brewery situated in Copenhagen, Nordic Lager is a 5.2% alcohol lager brewed with Scandinavian Angelica root. The beer is brewed in Toronto and it’s sold in snazzy, textured 473mL cans.

The lager is a ruddy gold, streaked with modest carbonation and covered with a thin layer of off-white suds. It has a metallic and malty nose buttressed with an unusual spicy scent that I imagine has to be from the Angelica root. The flavour is grainy and slightly sweet, with that same spicy Angelica root element that I find particularly difficult to describe—a little earthy, a little metallic, and a little bitter.

Nordic Lager is a quirky li’l number. It has an odd but agreeable flavour, pretty decent booze presence, and it’s balanced between sweet and crisp.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Foxtail Zwickelbier

Foxtail Zwickelbier is Avling’s take on the classic German kellerbier derivative. This Toronto lager is a 5.1% brew sold in 355mL cans. I picked up a can at the brewery during my first visit and I held onto it for a couple of months before cracking it.

The beer is a ruddy brown with a thinnish cream head. It has a malty, toasty, and sweet nose. The flavour is pretty large, with some peat smokiness, ample malt, nutty elements, and a decent hops back end.

Zwickelbier isn’t a style I have loads of familiarity with, but if Foxtail is any indication, I could get behind trying more. Foxtail was darker than I expected. It was flavourful, with some best bitter characteristics blended with big, traditional German lager vibes.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Hazy Susan IPA

Langton, Ontario is the birthplace of Hometown Brew Co. and Hometown Brew Co. is the source of Hazy Susan IPA, a 6% west coast-style IPA. Sold in 473mL cans with a simple but effective mountain and sky motif, the beer is actually not all that hazy despite the moniker. Really, it’s only slightly hazy but considerably carbonated. It has a bright golden aspect and pours with a vivid white foam.

Hazy Susan has juicy, tropical aromatics with a nice subtext of satsuma, leading to a nice blend of sweet ‘n’ bitter to the nose. The flavour tends more toward tropical fruit than citrus, with a sweet to bitter pathway. The finish has a hoppy upswing, but not on the level I’d have liked.

I’m not usually one to quibble (actually, I quibble a lot—I just give a lot of 7s and 8s), but I had some qualms with billing this tasty IPA as “West Coast”. To me, it had more of the hallmarks of the East Coast take on the style, with considerable sweetness, not a whole lot of pine or citrus bitterness, and low-ish ABV. Categorical concerns aside, I thought Hazy Susan was a tasty little ale with lots of pluses.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Big Kahuna Imperial IPA

A beefy and bruising imperial IPA that I’ve been hoping to acquire for a while now, Spearhead Brewing Company’s Big Kahuna Imperial IPA is a 10%, 100 IBU ale from Kingston, Ontario. Brewed, like its li’l brudder Spearhead Hawaiian Style Pale Ale, with a measure of pineapple juice, Big Kahuna is a clear, bronze ale. It comes in 473mL cans, from which it emerges with a layer of creamy suds.

Big Kahuna has a sweet and juicy aroma backed with some feisty hops—Cascade, Cashmere, Hallertau Blanc, and Warrior are the quartet listed in the copy. It is an extremely flavourful beer, balanced between a sweet, candy-tinged pineapple juiciness on the front end and a raucous, commanding bitterness at the back end.

At 10%, this beer has lights-out potential. It also has oodles of agreeable flavour. It’s the polar opposite of subtle, but Big Kahuna is an unapologetically beastly imperial IPA. I liked it a whole lot.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Shinny Pants Session Stout

Shinny Pants Session Stout is a low-octane 4.3%, 8 IBU stout from Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery—a member of GLB’s Tank Ten Series. Sold in 473mL cans, the beer is a near-black ale topped with a thin cover of khaki head.

Sweet and malty, with chocolate notes, SPSS has a warm and full-bodied aroma. The flavour is surprisingly rich for a low-booze effort, with roasted malt, some slight smokiness, and a sweet-to-bitter progression. The finish is low IBU, but well-roasted and significant.

For a low alcohol stout, SPSS is a flavourful and fun ale. It packs brown sugar, chocolate, wee smoke, and roasted malt into a sessionable package.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Problem Bears Black IPA

A beer with one of my favourite names in the world of Ontario craft brewing, Problem Bears Black IPA is a 7.2% brew from Virgil, Ontario’s Silversmith Brewing Company. The beer comes in a 650mL bottle with a pair of snarling bruins on the label.

A dark brown ale with amber highlights and a layer of cream head, it has a sticky resin and pine nose. The flavour has loads of evergreen with some grapefruit elements and a whisper of brown sugar. The back end is gratifyingly bitter and admirably full.

Black IPAs aren’t over-represented in Ontario, so it’s great to find a solid one like Problem Bears. Flavourful, potent, and ably-named, this beer is rad. Really good stuff.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Peter, Pale and Mary Folk Pale Ale

Cutely named and packaged, Peter, Pale and Mary Folk Pale Ale comes to us from Mikkeller, the Danish brewer, and Toronto’s Brunswick Bierworks. Sold in bright and playful 473mL cans, the pale ale is a cloudy, orange-gold grog with a modest off-white head and a light-weight 4.6%.

PP&M has a perfume-rich, floral, and slightly citrus-tinged nose. The flavour packs a pretty interesting wallop, with a flowery-citrus blend holding the line and a hefty level of APA-style crisp/bitterness pincering the back end.

Really, PP&M is a solid beer with few complaints from this scribe. For a session-friendly ale, it has loads of flavour. The purchase price is a touch steep, but not outrageous. All told, this is a playful, flavour-rich beer that ticks a lot of my boxes. I liked it and I’d like another.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Grenadier Premium Lager

A strong lager sold in a 473mL can festooned with cherry blossoms and a grenade, Grenadier Premium Lager is a 6% pale lager from Toronto’s Grenadier Brewing Co. The beer is clear, with a rich golden colour and a quickly thinning white head.

Grainy and slightly gritty to the nose, GPL weds cereal sweetness with dry, slightly metallic aromatics. The flavour starts sweetly, with grain and floral elements, and moves into a realm of faint bitterness. I’m a rank hypocrite to complain about a beer’s strength getting in its way because I typically opine that they should be stronger, but reaching the 6% threshold hampers GPL’s crispness and 

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t love “premium” as a qualifier for a craft beer, as I find it is basically meaningless. I won’t rehash that argument except to say that this is another beer that falls into that christening trap. Issues with the name notwithstanding, the beer deserves some plaudits and earns some admonishment. Given the volume of breweries in the province, there really aren’t that many Ontario lagers that dare to exceed 5% and GPL should be praised for going strong. But its additional ballast also caused problems—namely too much sweetness and a crispness issue. While it doesn’t crackle, the finish does offer a nice amount of bitterness.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Triverse IPA

Freshness matters with craft beer, particularly (in my opinion) with IPAs, and that makes living across the park from a world class brewery such a treat. I said the very same thing when I bought a weeks-old can of Versaverse IPA and my most recent buy has that smoked. I bought a pair of cans for of Triverse IPA at Bellwoods Brewery for Super Bowl LIV—canned just days earlier on January 28, that’s about as fresh as it gets. The Torontonian IPA clocked in at a rowdy 7.2%. It’s a hazy, milky  pale gold grog with a thin cover of white head and some slight clusters of sediment.

 Brewed with a trio of hops (Citra, Mosaic, and Sabro), the beer has a tangy, grapefruit-heavy aroma. The flavour walks along a similar path, with bitter citrus leanings leading the way. The beer has an initially thin mouthfeel that grows gritty toward the back end, where the IBUs seem to be stashed.

 

Triverse is a dynamic effort from one of Toronto’s finest. A punchy and bold IPA, this is a strong addition to Bellwoods’ already reputable portfolio.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.