While waiting on a slab of beef to marinate before grilling, I reached for a cold can of Daywalker Micro IPA, a low-alcohol offering from Toronto’s fabulous Rainhard Brewing Company. I’m not always sold on the micro/session IPA as a style, as I prefer my hops to be backed with ballast, but I’ve always liked Rainhard and so I was prepared to give Daywalker a whirl.
Sold in 473mL cans, the beer
contains a slight 3.9% alcohol. It’s a slightly hazy pale golden ale
that poured with a thin layer of white foam that was down to a sudsy
ring before I was done smelling the stuff. Speaking of smelling, the
beer had respectable tropical fruit aromatics, accented with a whiff of
grapefruit. The can calls for “notes of white grape and citrus”, and I
thought both of those elements were equitably represented in the
moderately tart flavour, along with some melon sweetness. The finish had
a semblance of bitterness, but not much more.
The
make or break for micro or session IPAs, in my opinion at least, is the
mouthfeel. Too thin or watery and I won’t take the beer seriously. This
little offering, while certainly on the light and thin side, isn’t
watery. It manages a decent crispness that makes it a swell companion
for a sweltering afternoon. One of the better low-octane IPAs on the
Ontario market, if you trust my opinion.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10.
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