Harlequin Brown Ale

 Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery is the source of Harlequin Brown Ale, a 5.5% brown sold in 473mL cans. The beer is brewed with Harlequin hops which provide, according to the copy, “a shot of tropical fruit flavours and aromas”. The burnished copper ale pours with a lasting layer of beige suds.

To my schnoz, the beer has roasted malt, iron, bread, and burnt sugar aromatics. The flavour kicks of maltily and drifts hopward, touching on metallic, nutty, and piney. Despite the paragraph on the can, I can’t say I picked up on tropical fruit elements, though. The only new world hop note I really picked out was in the evergreen bitterness of the finish.

Harlequin Brown Ale is an enjoyable American-style brown. Although I didn’t personally detect any tropical aromas/flavours, that doesn’t mean they aren’t there, and it doesn’t really matter, since the beer tastes quite good.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.