Tarana-Saurus Toronto Pale Ale

 Billed as an “old-school pale ale from the center of the universe” (note the American spelling of “centre”), Tarana-Saurus Toronto Pale Ale comes from T.O., where it’s brewed by Indie Alehouse. The beer comes in very cool 355mL cans with a dino skeleton with its bottom teeth forming the Toronto skyline. The beer clocks in at 5% and has a dull orange-gold colour. It pours with a quickly thinning layer of off-white suds.

Tarana-Saurus has an extremely juicy tropical and citrus fruit scent, with a whiff of vanilla sweetness. The flavour isn’t quite as sweet as the aroma. It kicks off with some orange juice tang and drifts into a sticky and resinous hops finish. In the background, there are vanilla and floral notes.

Tarana-Saurus is billed as an old-school ale, but I found it to be fairly complex and reflective of the New England style. Still, it was extremely pleasant, well-packaged, and well-made. I’d have liked a bit less sweetness, but otherwise? Bring it on.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Quinquennial Robust Porter

 

I love a beer that teaches me a new word. “Quinquennial” apparently refers to a fifth anniversary. Good to know. In this case Quinquennial Robust Porter is brewed in honour of Henderson Brewing Company’s fifth anniversary. The Toronto beer is a 6% dark ale sold in 473mL cans. The beer is near black with amber highlights and pours with a thin tan head.

Quinquennial has a rich roasted malty aroma with burnt sugar and coffee notes. The flavour is substantial, with roasty, toasty maltiness. It touches on dark chocolate, brown sugar, and, at the finish, French roast coffee. It has a fairly full body, but isn’t particularly thick.

Henderson has been doing some excellent English-style dark ales recently. While Quinquennial isn’t as elegant as their Export Stout, but it is a more than fair porter. I’d definitely be glad to buy it again.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Tmavý Ležák 12º Czech Premium Dark Lager

 Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery gets my vote as the makers of Ontario’s finest lagers. Tmavý Ležák 12º Czech Premium Dark Lager is other high quality lager from Godspeed. The 4.7% dark lager comes in 355mL cans and pours near black with a sudsy tan head.

To my sniffer, T.L.12 has malty and sweet aroma. It features a complex flavour with roasted malt, copper, coffee, and grain elements, supported by the faintest lilt of blueberry—that last one was something I noticed initially and it is deep in the weeds. The finish has floral bitterness and is quite dry.

I don’t buy a ton of dark lagers, but T.L.12 made me feel like I should. It was a highly enjoyable and well built beer.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Mystery Beer D

 Rounding out my Mystery Pack experience was Nickel Brook Brewing Co.’s Beer D, a 4.3% session IPA brewed with wheat and oats. The beer is dull orange under a durable sudsy head. The beer does, however, have a bit more sediment than I’d have liked—it’s not chunky or anything, but it’s not perfect.

D has sweet and fruity aromatics, with mango and apricot notes. Those notes continue into the flavour, which is quite juicy, with an almost candied sweetness. There is also a whisper of pine bitterness in the finish.

While Beer D wasn’t bad, I’d say it was probably my least favourite of the Mystery Pack. Decent flavour, but I’d have liked it to have less sediment and less sweetness.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Mystery Beer C

 Nickel Brook Brewing Co.’s Mystery Beer C is a light beer, at just 3.5%—I’d call it a micro IPA—brewed with oats and wheat. C is a hazy pale golden beer with a fluffy white head that comes in 473mL cans. The beer hails from Burlington, Ontario.

C has a bright, citrus aroma with a pineapple subtext. The flavour actually really surprised me, with much more tropical notes than the aroma led me to expect. These are highlighted by passion fruit, melon, pineapple, and a dusting of coconut. Also worth mentioning is that, for just 3.5%, the beer has a pretty notable texture—smooth, but not thin.

I don’t typically love micro IPAs, so I cracked C fully expecting to be underwhelmed. And I was way wrong. This session-friendly brew has considerable flavour and decent texture, behind a decent aroma. I’d most definitely buy a case of this stuff for summer chores or all day drinking.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Mystery Beer B

 Mystery Beer B from Burlington, Ontario’s Nickel Brook Brewing Co. checks in at 6.5%—making it the strongest entry in the pack, though still a bit under strength for a classic IPA. Brewed with oats and wheat, the beer comes in 473mL cans. It’s a heartily carbonated orange-gold grog with a lush and fluffy white head.

B has loads of citrus aromatics—grapefruit and orange—along with a sweet streak. The flavour is sweeter than I expected, but it also packs a bit of tangerine tang, a vague floral quality, and some apricot, too. There is some bitterness, but it is limited. The beer has a smooth and elegant mouthfeel, though, that is worth noting.

Mystery Beer B is a pretty solid offering. If Nickel Brook didn’t already have Wicked Awesome IPA, this beer would most likely get my vote; however, I don’t know that it offers much to differentiate from WA. Still, tastes pretty good, particularly the note of tangerine.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Mystery Beer A

Mystery Pack Volume 2 is a cool little promo from the gang at Nickel Brook Brewing Co. out of Burlington, Ontario. The idea is that they created four hoppy beers and asked their customers to vote on their faves.

Nickel Brook’s Mystery Beer A is a 5.5% IPA brewed with wheat and oats. It’s a hazy orange beer with a fluffy white head and a wee bit of sediment.

Beer A has a juicy aroma—it’s citrusy with a bit of vanilla and a lot of sweetness. The flavour has tangerine, orange blossom, and vanilla up front. The back end has some citrus bitterness, but not a whole lot.

Beer A was a good entry to Nickel Brook’s Mystery Pack Volume 2. It has a nice, mild flavour, perhaps a bit too sweet, but certainly approachable. The booze level is not my fave—I’d have preferred sessionability or else strength—but it’s a decent entry.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Pure West

As the name would suggest, Pure West is a Weat Coast IPA. Brewed in Toronto at Rainhard Brewing, PW is a touch underpowered at 6%. It comes in simple yet stylish 355mL cans. The beer is dull gold, a bit hazy, and pours with a puff of white suds.

PW has aromatics that blend roasted malt with resin, citrus, and pine. For just 6%, the flavour is pretty substantial, with a malty, caramel opening note and a quick swing to twin bitternesses of citrus and evergreen.

For its West Coast pedigree, Pure West should be in the 7% range, a bit darker, and clear. However, I’m not about to quibble to hard with taxonomies when it comes to an enjoyable beer with a pleasantly satisfying flavour.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Obey the Rules West Coast IPA

 Obey the Rules West Coast IPA is a collab between Beer. Diversity and People’s Pint Brewing Company out of Toronto. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this 6% ale go to support the Black Health Alliance. The beer comes in 500mL bottles. It’s a hazy, dull gold grog with a thin cover of off-white suds.

Piney aromatics are accented with some resin stickiness. The flavour, too, is resinous, dank, and evergreen focused, with a detour into citrus toward the finish. There is also a hint of mulled apple cider in there somewhere, too.

For a West Coast IPA, Obey the Rules doesn’t really follow its own eponymous suggestion—it is a bit under strength and I’d have expected clarity over haze. However, the flavour is highly agreeable, and that’s the main thing.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Hardly Working Pale Ale

 A counterpart to Muddy York Brewing Co.’s Working Hard NEIPA, Hardly Working Pale Ale is a 5.7%, 20 IBU offering from the Toronto establishment. Hardly Working comes in 355mL cans. The hazy orange-gold ale is brewed with Azacca, Citra, and Mosaic hops and it pours under a fluffy cloud of white head.

Hardly Working has soft and sweet aromatics, with pineapple stealing the spotlight. The beer has a thin, yet creamy texture. For flavour, sweet tropical fruitiness is the most prominent feature, though there is a slight dankness in the finish that, in my opinion, doesn’t entirely suit the vibe of this beer.

I love Muddy York, and nearly everything of theirs that I have tried has been enjoyable. They might be a victim of their own success, because my expectations were sky high for Hardly Working, but I found it a bit underwhelming. A bit too sweet and a quirky final note left me a bit disappointed.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

Winter Wizard Magical IPA

 Brewed in Burlington, Ontario, by Nickel Brook Brewing Co., Winter Wizard Magical IPA is intended to be a link between West and East coast IPAs. It’s a 6.25% ale with 68 IBUs brewed with flaked wheat and El Dorado, Idaho 7, Magnum, and Zythos hops.

Winter Wizard is a hazy IPA. It’s orange-gold, with a modest crown of off-white suds. It has mild aromatics with notes of sweet fruit and citrus. The flavour is similarly mild, though the configuration is a bit different—with elements of tropical fruit and evergreen. Though the flavour is quite mild, there is a pretty healthy measure of bitterness.

If the goal of this ale was to bridge the gap between East and West Coast IPAs, I’m not sure this was a total success. It’s under strength, and really comes off as an East Coast-style hazer with a bit of pine. Not bad, but not at all special.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Off Season Lager

 Off Season Lager is appropriately named, in that it’s a märzen brewed, not in the autumn as is traditional, but in the winter. Brewed by Goose Island Brewhouse Toronto, this Oktoberfest-style lager clocks in at 6.2% and comes in 473mL cans. It’s a clear, bronze brew that pours with a thin blanket of off-white head.

Malty and sweet to the nose, Off Season has toast, copper, and brown sugar elements. The flavour treads a similar path, with toasty malts, sweet grains, and caramel, with a slightly metallic subtext.

I love a märzen, and this take from Goose Island wasn’t half bad. I’d have liked it to be a bit toastier, and considerably less sweet, but I’d buy it again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Very Nice IPA

 Very Nice IPA is a wildly carbonated session brew from Burlington, Ontario’s Nickel Brook Brewing Co. It’s a 4.2% ale with a punchy 69 IBUs (nice!). Brewed with HS-1228, Idaho 7, Sabro, and Sultana hops, Very Nice also features flaked oats and flakes wheat in its ingredients list. It comes in 473mL cans with a chill daisy on the label.

As mentioned, Very Nice is extremely carbonated, to the extent that it actually took a while to get the stuff into the glass due to the bloom of loose white suds. The beer is hazy, pale gold. It has a citrus fruit aroma, accented with dry yeast. The flavour is yeasty, fruity, and a bit floral. The copy on the can promised pineapple, tropical fruit, and citrus, though I found citrus to be by far the most evident note. The beer is notably dry, and a bit thin; however, the flavour doesn’t suffer at all for that thinness.

I thought Very Nice IPA was a decent brew, but not quite up to the lofty standards set by some of Nickel Brook’s outstanding pale ales and IPAs. Also, I’d have liked a bit less lively carbonation.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Civic Pilsner

 Civic Pilsner hails from Ottawa. The 4.5% German-style pale lager is brewed by Dominion City Brewing Co. Sold in 355mL cans, the beer is golden, a bit hazy, and pours with a sudsy off-white head.

CP boasts a dry, grainy aroma with a healthy dose of noble hops. It has a crisp, floral flavour that weds sweet cereals with an arid bitter finish.

When I think of Ottawa’s Dominion, I think of expertly crafted IPAs and wildly strong, sweet imperial stouts. With Civic Pilsner, they proved their range extends to well-tuned lagers as well. I’d have preferred clarity in the appearance, but otherwise, CP proved a flavourful little lager.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.