Mantis IIPA

 Mantis IIPA is a 7.8% imperial IPA from the minds at Goose Island Brewhouse Toronto. Sold in 473mL cans, Mantis is a hazy orange ale crowned with a shock of fluffy white head.

Tropical and sweet, with a whiff of tartness, Mantis has a pleasant aroma. The beer has a silky texture and a relatively mild orange and apricot flavour. It has very little bitterness, nor does it possess much in terms of alcohol warmth.

Mantis is a bit under-strength for an imperial IPA, but the booze it does have is covert. The flavour is enjoyable, but not really all that memorable. This is definitely a personal preference, but I’m not wild about smoothness in an imperial IPA—I’d rather get a bit of grit and snarl. Still, there is much to like in this brew.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Etobichoker Double Belgian IPA

 Born in Toronto’s west end, Etobichoker Double Belgian IPA is named in honour of Great Lakes Brewery’s location. The 8.1% ale comes in 473mL cans with a lurid Frankenstein’s monster/Halloween motif. The beer itself is orange gold and pours with a fluffy eggshell head. It incorporates both oats and wheat into the brewing process.

For a strong beer, Etobichoker has a fairly mild aroma, highlighted with tangy apple, funky yeast, and evergreen. The flavour harmonizes Belgian-style yeastiness with loads of pine bitterness. There is lots of boozy sweetness, as well as some crisp orchard fruit elements.

Etobichoker was a quirky offering from GLB. A nice hybrid beer, with good strength and a nice flavour. It’s a little too sweet for me, but otherwise solid.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

F**K Dry Jan IPA

 Brewed to poke fun at the practice of Dry January, F**K Dry Jan IPA is made in Burlington, Ontario by Nickel Brook Brewing Co. This session IPA (just 4% and 35 IBUs) showcases Citra, Eclipse, and Ella hops, as well as flaked oats and Laerdal Kveik yeast. Sold in 473mL cans, FDJ is an extremely cloudy yellow-orange colour and it pours with a modest white head.

FDJ has a pleasant citrus stank, accented with a funky yeast tang. The flavour starts a bit thin, but picks up steam, building to a corking grapefruit finish. The mouthfeel is a bit watery, but also quite crisp, which is an unexpectedly pleasant combo.

FDJ is a quirky and enjoyable session IPA. I’d definitely buy it again.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Nova IPA

 

Bandit Brewery’s Nova IPA had me worried. I bought four cans of the 10.1% brew and immediately set one aside for review purposes, as is my usual practice when buying a new beer. Drank the others over the Christmas holidays. When I decided to type up my thoughts on Nova, my review beer was nowhere to be found. Woe! Dismay! Had I lost it? Drank it? As I say, 10.1%, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that I got drunk, sucked it back, and forgot. And then, one day, like a miracle, I found the missing 355mL can of Torontonian ale in a corner of my fridge—what joy! Still relatively fresh, too.

Nova is a hazy orange-gold grog. It pours with a thin cap of white suds and packs a bombastic citrus and tropical aroma. The beer is extremely sweet and considerably boozy, though there is a layer of resin and citrus bitterness at the back end.

Don’t get me wrong—this is not a timid beer. Still, for an ale stronger than 10%, it is a pretty approachable potion. A bit too sweet for me, but otherwise agreeably flavoured, Nova is a party in a can.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

BBB

 BBB is a Torontonian Imperial Black IPA with lactose. Apparently, BBB stands for Brian’s Big Black Beer, though the can rightly notes that there are actually four Bs. It’s a 7.5% Cascadian dark ale (though I think calling it “imperial” is a stretch at that percentage). Brewed by Great Lakes Brewery, BBB is sold in 473mL cans. It’s a near-black beer that pours with an extremely durable and pleasantly fluffy tan head.

BBB has aromatics that combine roasted malt and evergreen bitterness. The flavour kicks off with some mocha sweetness, but pivots to a robustly bitter finish accented with pine and espresso. The use of lactose gives the beer a very creamy texture, which is a bit of an odd contrast to the bitter flavours.

This is an unusual offering—very flavourful, with decent strength and a curious texture.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Eneg

Eneg is both a reference that goes completely over my head and a double dry hopped IPA brewed with Citra and Sultana hops. The beer comes in 355mL cans that reference some kind of video game that, again, goes right over my head. It’s a 6.5% brew built in Toronto by Bandit Brewery.

It’s a very hazy IPA that pours dull gold with a creamy white head. It has a sticky citrus aroma and a juiced up orange flavour, atop a very smooth, creamsicle texture. The closing act is a touch of citrus bitterness.

I really liked Bandit’s Eneg. They’re basically a double dry-hopped specialist, and this was, to my mind, one of their better ones.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Next Coast IPA

 Next Coast IPA is brewed by the Goose Island Beer Company, though the can doesn’t mention the Goose Island Brewhouse Toronto, so I don’t think this one is actually brewed there, but rather as a part of the lager Goose Island empire. It’s a 7% IPA brewed with Citra, Eureka, Mosaic, Nugget, and 06277 hops and it comes in a 473mL can. As far as I can surmise, the idea here is to bridge the gap between east/New England and west coast IPAs, with some hazy and tropical flavours à la New England and some of the citrus/pine and potency favoured by west coast fans. The result is a slightly hazy deep gold beer with a thick and durable white foam crown.

Next Coast is built around evergreen aromatics, but also some fruit elements—both grapefruit and something a bit more tropical. If I were trying to place this beer on a spectrum between east and west, it’d be closer to west than the centre, with citrus and bold pine notes taking prominence, though there is definitely a playful and sweet tropical subtext.

This is an undeniably well-made beer and it doesn’t give me much to complain about. At 7%, it has some gravitas, but at just 40 IBUs, it isn’t assertively bitter. I think it strikes a nice balance between the prevailing hazy and juicy IPAs of today and the more bombastic hops bombs that ruled the seas ten years ago.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Cut & Run

Rainhard Brewing in Toronto does up a swell double IPA brewed with El Dorado and Galaxy hops that they call Cut & Run. It’s an 8% ale sold in 355mL cans. The beer is a hazy orange-gold number and it pours with a sudsy white foam topper.

Mango is the chief aromatic note and it’s quite lovely. The flavour is quite sweet, with tropical fruit and a touch of citrus. Not a lot of bitterness, here, and the relatively punchy booze content is deviously well cloaked.

I’d have liked this beer to be a bit more assertively bitter, but the mango element was well played and the booze bit was subtle. Too sweet, perhaps, but not by much.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Black Opal Schwarzbier

Black Opal Schwarzbier is a collab brewed by Muddy York Brewing Co. and advanced Cicerone @beergirlca. The 4.6%, 22 IBU dark lager is whipped up in Toronto and comes in elegant and vaguely occult 355mL cans.

Black Opal is extremely dark brown in colour and pours with a modest circlet of eggshell head. It has a graceful roasted malt and brown sugar aroma. For flavour, there are some porter-like elements—roasted malt and molasses, but the crisp and feather-light mouthfeel is all lager. The finish mingles sweet and bitter in a harmonious melange.

Dark lagers are few in Ontario, and while there are some good ones, I’d be hard-pressed to think of one that I enjoyed more than Black Opal. It’s (sorry!) a gem.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

10¢ Beer Night Double IPA

 

Named after one of the most ridiculous promotion disasters in Major League Baseball history (do yourself a favour and read about it, or else listen to the hilarious episode of the Hall of Shame podcast on the subject), 10¢ Beer Night Double IPA is a 7.8% beer brewed with wheat and oats. From Toronto, this stuff comes from the excellent Left Field Brewery. It’s sold in 355mL cans. 10¢ is a hazy pale golden ale and it pours with a shock of durable white foam.

10¢ has citrus aromatics that split the difference between sweet and bitter. This brew has a sweet, fruity front end, with notes of both melon and grapefruit. The finish has mini jolt of bitterness and some considerable warmth.

While 10¢ Beer Night is a bit undersized for a double IPA, it doesn’t want for flavour and the melon notes are extremely pleasant. I’d have liked a few more IBUs and a bit more heft through the back end, but otherwise, this was a very nice ale.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Sunsplit IPA

 A beer that gets a lot of positive ink from Ontario’s beer geeks is Sunsplit IPA from Ottawa’s Dominion City Brewing Co. I’ve had it a few times on tap around Toronto (pre-pandemic), but I hadn’t had a chance to review it until I picked up a recent mail order from DCBC. The beer comes in bright 473mL cans and contains a respectable 6.5% alcohol. Sunsplit is hazy, orange-gold in colour, and pours with a foamy white crown.

To my schnoz, Sunsplit is pleasantly juicy, with a tendency toward citrus. It tastes fruity and sweet, with orange juicy and a bit of peaches and cream. There is very little bitterness in this hazer—just a little uptick at the finish. It also has an extremely agreeable texture—very smooth.

I agree with the gang on Beer Twitter that Sunsplit is a very good IPA; however, I wouldn’t go so far as to call it one of Ontario’s best, if only because I found it a touch too sweet. Otherwise, though, it’s a top tier ale.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Glorioso Italian Pilsner

 According to the 355mL can, the Glorioso Italian Pilsner that showed up by delivery on December 16th was canned just two days earlier, on December 14th—talk about fresh! The 5.5% beer comes from Toronto’s Left Field Brewery. It’s a crystalline gold lager with a thin white head.

Glorioso has a spritely floral hop aroma, accented with some cereal sweetness. The flavour, too, is quite floral, with a bit of soapiness and a metallic clink. The structure of the beer also features some sweet graininess. The mouthfeel is a little soft for a pilsner, but not wildly so.

I’m not totally sold on the Italian pilsner sub-type—I find they tend towards soap or perfume, though I do like the robustness of their flavour. That said, Glorioso was a pretty enjoyable pale lager.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Crash Space

 Crash Space is a hazy IPA from the team at Halo Brewery in Toronto. It’s a 6.3% ale with, according to Halo’s website, “no theoretical IBUs”. The beer is dry-hopped with Azacca, El Dorado, and Vic Secret. It’s sold in 473mL cans.

The beer is a hazy, dull gold individual and it pours with a long-lasting white fog. Crash Space has a stone fruit bouquet, with a citrus bitter back. The flavour is quite delicate, but still lively, with a sweet and juicy tangerine and peach vibe. The beer finishes with citrus, and it has a smooth texture.

Crash Space is a subtle and deep hazy IPA. It’s a flavourful, low-bitterness beer brewed with some skill.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.