Clifford Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter

Hey Stout Man! You know how Clifford Porter is potentially the best (or at least your favourite) porter in Ontario? Guess what! They bourbon barrel-aged it for 10 months and brewed that beautiful bastard up to 8.5%! And your pal WFM gave you a 500mL bottle! For free! Lucky shit.

This beer, from Clifford Brewing Co. out of Hamilton, Ontario, is a near-black ale with a thin layer of tan head. It clocks in at 39 IBUs and has a sweet, woody, boozy aroma. This ambitious take on the classic Clifford Porter tastes considerably more powerful, with a decidedly malty bent. It has notes of brown sugar, vanilla, and a little bit of brown liquor. The ale remains sweet through the finish, but it does close with a warm hit of bitterness.

This burly cousin of my sweet li’l Porter is a good take. The booziness and in-your-face woodiness are excellent characteristics of a grand ol’ BA imperial porter, though I’d have liked it more if the sweetness was dialed back a touch.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Green Goddess Imperial IPA

Green Goddess Imperial IPA is a take-no-prisoners 9% brute from Kingston, Ontario’s Stone City Ales. Sold in 500mL bottles, the beer is dull gold and hazy, with a slim but durable layer of off-white head. There is a dusting of sediment at the bottom of the glass, but this is acceptably minimal.

The beer, brewed with a trio of hops (Azacca, Citra, and Mosaic), has sweet and juicy aromatics. The scent has pineapple, melon, and citrus elements, as well as a heavy layer of boozy sweetness. The flavour is big on citrus, specifically clementine and orange juicy. It has some substantial hops presence, but also a load of warm booze heat that manifests as sweetness.

This is a stronger-than-average Imperial IPA, but one that exudes balance and juiciness. I thought it was a pretty solid rendition and I was glad my pal MZ shipped a bottle my way care of mutual mün WFM.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Hazy New England IPA with Clementine

The fourth collaboration between the Society of Beer Drinking Ladies and Toronto’s Henderson Brewing Co., Hazy New England IPA with Clementine gives you almost everything you need to know with its name. The beer, sold in 473mL cans, contains 6.5% alcohol. Along with clementine peel, the beer is brewed with flaked wheat and flaked oats. It’s a hazy golden orange brew and it pours with a durable white foam.

 

This hazy NEIPA has a bright, fruity aroma—juicy with some floral elements. The flavour has clementine to spare—it’s bursting with orange juiciness, supplemented with pith and peel bitterness.

The result is a cheery, summertime beer brewed with (in my mind anyway) a fruit synonymous with the holiday season.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Days in Between

An oat pale ale from Toronto, Days in Between is a low-octane, high flavour brew. At just 4.2%, the beer is session-friendly. It’s sold in 500mL bottles and comes from Indie Alehouse.

Days in Between is a hazy buttery gold ale. It pours with a nimbus of white suds, but also with a bit more yeasty sediment than would have been ideal. It has a juiced up citrus aroma and a flavour that blends citrus and tropical fruit, as well as a decently bitter orange rind quality through the finish.

 

The use of oats gave this beer a nice smooth quality. For a low-alcohol beer, there was a nice amount of flavour. The amount of sediment in this beer was a bit worrying, though. The beer was in my possession for a bit under two months, so it wasn’t perfectly fresh, but certainly not stale either.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Nothing Civil IPA

 The showpiece of  the impressively striking packaging of Nothing Civil IPA is a brilliant and powerful poem by Truth Is... The 473mL also features snarling dogs, handguns, batons and a broken chains. It ain’t subtle, but it is decidedly impactful. According to the copy, 100% of the profits of this 6.5% New England IPA go to Black Lives Matter Canada. When I saw Guelph’s Wellington Brewery tweet about this one, I immediately ordered a dozen.

Nothing Civil is a hazy dull-gold IPA. It pours with a sudsy off white head and boasts a sweet pineapple and citrus aroma. The beer kicks off with sweet and juicy vibes, packs in piña and tangerine notes, an apricot mid-range, and transitions into a dank and resinous hops finish.

More bitter than a typical NEIPA, Nothing Civil offers a big flavour profile alongside a philanthropic contribution to an important cause. I chose this beer to be my 4th Q good luck charm in the Raptors’ game three playoff matchup against the Celtics and it delivered a mighty miracle win!

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Ice Cold Beer 100% Ontario Ale

 

 Ice Cold Beer 100% Ontario Ale is a crushable, crisp blonde ale from the team at Toronto’s Left Field Brewery. The beer comes in cute 355mL cans and contains just 4.5% alcohol.

Simple and sessionable, Ice Cold Beer is a slightly hazy blonde ale with a thin layer of white suds. It has a sweet, corny nose. The flavour is crisp and balanced, with sweet, grain and malt out front and a faintly bitter back end.

ICB is an approachable, people pleasing ale that one might irresponsibly destroy while watching a ballgame or otherwise wiling away an unproductive weekend afternoon. It is both unremarkable and notable in its simplicity and sip-ability.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Black is Beautiful--Merit Brewing Co.

 

My first taste of a beer from the Black is Beautiful initiative came from Hamilton, Ontario’s Merit Brewing Co. According to the label on the 500mL bottle, the proceeds of Merit’s version of BiB support the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion’s Black Youth Mentorship Program.

Their take is an 8.7% imperial stout. It’s a very dark beer with a long-lasting tan head. The brew has a sweet, chocolaty aroma with sticky molasses notes. The flavour is decadently sweet and strong, with chocolate, leather, and and dried fruit notes, and a bitter/acidic French roast coffee finish. It is also conspicuously boozy, which gave me some joy.

If Merit’s BiB is any indication, I’m going to have a lot of fun tracking down as many variations of this beer as I can. Their take is boozy, bold, and balance—a terrific after-dinner ale.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Black is Beautiful

Black is Beautiful is a brilliant, large scale collaboration developed by San Antonio, Texas’ Weathered Souls Brewing Co. The idea is that they developed a high-alcohol stout recipe and made it available to be brewed and modified by breweries worldwide, with three requests: (1) that 100% of the proceeds be donated local organizations that support reforms targeted at police brutality or legal defense funds; (2) that breweries “[c]hoose their own entity to donate to local organizations that support equality and inclusion”; and (3) that a commitment be made to “the long-term work of equality.”

According to the stats on the website, as of September 7, 2020, Black is Beautiful was being made by 1,140 breweries across all 50 states, as well as in 21 countries.

This is a genuinely amazing initiative and one well worth supporting.

Replicant Haze New England IPA

A juicy 6.2% brew, Replicant Haze New England IPA comes from People’s Pint Brewing Co. The Torontonian beer is sold in 500mL bottles. It’s a hazy orange-gold brew with a sudsy white head. According to the People’s Pint website, the beer is brewed with oats, as well as a quartet of hops: Amarillo, Centennial, Mosaic, and Prince Edward County Cluster.

 

Replicant Haze has tropical fruit aromatics, a nice sweet-bitter balance, and a smooth texture. The flavour has pineapple, mango, and peach elements, with a floral hoppiness.

This is a pretty enjoyable NEIPA from a great little brewery. It’s not PP’s best offering, but it tastes pretty good all the same. I’d have liked a bit more booze, but the mellow texture is definitely a solid attribute.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

 

Artificial Paradise India Pale Ale

A recently released offering from the 2019 Canadian Brewery of the Year, Hamilton’s Clifford Brewing Co., Artificial Paradise India Pale Ale is a 6.8% ale. Sold in 473mL cans, AP is brewed with oats and a trio of hops: Citra, Galaxy, and Simcoe. It’s a hazy, dull gold ale that pours with an extremely sudsy white head.

AP has a mild nose, with some tropical notes. The beer has mango and pineapple flavour notes, some solid sweetness, and a back end that tends toward some resinous bitterness.

I thought Artificial Paradise was an elegant hazy IPA. A bit stronger than the mean for the style, the beer is has a grand balance of sweet and bitter, and almost nothing to be critical of.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Wallflower

Sold as a “farmbier”, Wallflower, from Matron Fine Beer, is a low-alcohol farmhouse/saison. At just 4.4%, the beer is session-friendly. It comes from Bloomfield, Ontario in 355mL cans. The beer is a bright and cloudy gold colour, with a shock of white suds.

The beer has a spicy, yeasty aroma, accented with a lemony lilt. The beer has a softly effervescent, dry texture. The flavour is non-insubstantial for a low-octane beer, with farmhouse yeast, citrus, floral, and spice elements.

Wallflower is an enjoyable little saison with more flavour than I expected to find. It’s a fine bit of brewing.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

West Coast Classic IPA

West Coast Classic IPA appears to be a dual homage: both to a wildly popular video game and to a now-classic beer style. A true west coast IPA, WCC is a clear, copper brew with 7% alcohol and a durable, sudsy head. The beer comes from Toronto, where it’s made by Henderson Brewing Company. The beer comes in 473mL cans that are instantly recognizable to video game fans. It’s brewed with a quintet of hops: Centennial, Citra, Columbus, Magnum, and Simcoe.

The beer has powerful twin aromatic elements in evergreen and citrus. The flavour contains some caramel malt notes, but it’s pine and grapefruit that really make the wheels turn.

I enjoyed WCC quite a bit. It’s a flavourful beer in one of my all time favourite styles. The packaging is quirky and the beer itself looks perfect. The strength is good, too. The only complaint I’ve got is that the mouthfeel is a bit too creamy for a style that calls for something a bit more assertive.

 

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Chanan

A “dry hopped saison with orange zest and Indian coriander”, Chanan comes from Hamilton, Ontario’s Merit Brewing Co. It’s a 5.3% concoction sold in 500mL bottles with  beautiful, peaceful labels. It’s an extremely cloudy brew—pale orange with a sudsy white foam.

Chanan has a spicy, yeasty aroma with a whiff of orange peel. The beer has a delicate texture and agreeable, if mild, flavour. It’s got a farmhouse yeast base, with some spice and an extremely dry finish.

This little Hamiltonian saison is pretty solid stuff. I’d have liked it to be a bit more effervescent, but otherwise it’s swell swill.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Bell Weiser Pink Grapefruit Pilsner

A quirky spin on Bellwoods Brewery’s excellent Bell Weiser is the Toronto brewery’s Bell Weiser Pink Grapefruit Pilsner. The beer, a 4.2% pale lager, is a pink hued and hazy concoction sold in 473mL cans. 

The beer, which pours with a thin layer of white suds, delivers a grapefruit blast to the sniffer. The crisp little beer has a potent pink grapefruit juice flavour that dominates the underlying pilsner flavour, though there is a pretty healthy dose of noble hop grapefruit at the back end to remind you of its pedigree.

Bell Weiser Pink Grapefruit Pilsner drinks like a fairly high alcohol shandy or radler. It’s a juicy lager with lots of grapefruit heft in a low-octane format. The beer isn’t subtle, but it’s fun. A compelling summer Saturday beer for sure.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Crispy Forever! Double Dry-Hopped Helles Lager

 

Crispy Forever! Double Dry-Hopped Helles Lager comes from Guelph, Ontario and the Wellington Brewery. Sold in 473mL cans, the 4.5%, 20 IBU lager has a hazy, dull gold appearance and some off white suds.

CF has a rich, perfume-y fragrance, with some sticky hops elements. The flavour kicks off sweetly, with hay, cereal, and corn notes, before a substantial floral hops heel turn.

This a lovely, sweet-to-hops Helles lager. It’s an even better than solid offering from one of Ontario’s most venerable and reliable breweries, and an exciting dry-hopped take on Wellington’s already quite good Helles lager.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.