Connecting Dots

 

Connecting Dots is both a New England double IPA and a cool collaboration between the Toronto location of Collective Arts Brewing and the Ontario College of Craft & Design University. This beer, an 8.5% bruiser, comes in 500mL bottles wrapped in attractive labels. The beer inside is a milky orange and it pours with a very fluffy and durable white head. Connecting Dots is brewed with Azacca, Citra, and Lotus hops, as well as wheat and oats.

The nose on this DIPA is unexpectedly mild, with muted notes of orange and lime. The flavour features juicy citrus and the texture is incredibly smooth. I’d have liked it to be a lit
tle more assertive and a little less sweet, but I quite liked the burst of boozy heat at the back end.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

IPA No. 20: Citra Four Ways

 I love a beer with a subtitle! Collective Arts Brewing’s IPA No. 20: Citra Four Ways is a 6.5% ale brewed with Citra, Citra Cryo, Citra Incognito, and Citra Spectrum. Sold in 473mL cans, the 20th iteration of CA’s IPA series is a hazy pale gold ale with a light covering of white foam.

Citra Four Ways has, predictably, a citrus aroma, with mandarin orange notes. The flavour is sweet and juicy, with orange and floral elements. There’s not a lot of bitterness here and the texture is extremely smooth.

IPA No. 20 isn’t as memorable as some, but I like the innovative theme and it definitely tasted pretty good.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Cookie Thief

 At 6%, Cookie Thief is a quirky little stout from Toronto’s Bandit Brewery. It’s an oatmeal cookie stout that, according to the Bandit website, is brewed with lactose, cocoa nibs and oatmeal, conditioned on graham crackers. The beer comes in 355mL cans that have a raccoon scheming for a plate of cookies.

Cookie Thief has has a powerfully sweet aroma, with loads of chocolate, brown sugar, and, sure enough, a little touch of graham crackers. The beer has saccharine notes to a silly degree, with chocolate and vanilla. There are some roasty malt notes and just a slight touch of cocoa bitterness.

All told, this beer ain’t really for me. But, to be fair, it delivers what it says on the tin. It’s too sweet by far, though there is an agreeably smooth texture. I’d be willing to bet it’d taste really nice over ice cream.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Chmelová Brigáda

 Another entry from the Pivovar Godspeed series of Czech-style beers comes Chmelová Brigáda, a “hoppy Czech lager”. At 6.2%, this sassy pale lager has some heft. The beer comes in 355mL cans from Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery. The copy on the can is in Czech, but according to the Godspeed website, the beer is double double dry-hopped with Saaz Shine hops.

Chmelová Brigáda is strikingly clear gold and pours with a modest plume of white suds. It has aromatics that waft between citrus and floral. As for flavour, the lager is initially lemony, but takes a turn toward grittiness and floral hops through its dry and crisp finish.

This hoppy Czech lager from Godspeed (which often seems like a little enclave of Bohemia in Toronto) is exactly what its name promises: a bitter, Czech-style pale lager with ample ballast and a lovely flavour.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Muddy York's Brave Noise

 My first taste of the Brave Noise project came from Toronto’s Muddy York Brewing Co. Their Brave Noise Pale Ale is a collab with VQH Farms. It’s a 5.6% brew sold in 355mL cans that feature a QR code that links to the Toronto brewery’s code of conduct. A portion of the sales from this beer go to support the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.

This version of Brave Noise is a strikingly clear amber beer with limited off-white head and a gorgeous pine, caramel, and grapefruit aroma. The beer has a decent amount of caramel-minded malt, but the real driver is a lovely pine bitterness.

Close to a not-so-potent West Coast IPA, Muddy York’s Brave Noise tastes big and tastes great! I’d love to see this as a year round initiative. To be clear, I don’t know if this is a standard recipe or one that can be tweaked, but what was in the can slaps, and it is in service of an improved beerscape more friendly to, and less harmful to, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ communities. It’s a damn fined cause and a tasty product.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Border Crossing

 An international collaboration between Hamilton, ON’s Collective Arts Brewing and Buffalo, NY’s Thin Man Brewing, Border Crossing is an aptly named IPA. The beer checks in at 6% and it’s brewed with the engaging trio of Cascade, Simcoe, and Vic Secret hops. Border Crossing is a hazy bastard, with a slightly milky yellow-gold colour, white head, and loads of attractive lace. It comes in 473mL cans that feature a cool hockey illustration.

BC has a juicy, slightly floral nose built around citrus. Likewise, the flavour has a sweet and fruity nature that spotlights orange and grapefruit. And it comes with a smooth and silky texture that makes sipping a treat.

Border Crossing is a good IPA. It’s a lot like a number of others on the market and it doesn’t have much to distinguish itself, though I had few complaints. I’d have liked more booze (naturally!) and a bit more emphasis on the grapefruit side of the citrus equation. I’d definitely buy this one again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Play Dead IPA

Port Moody, BC is the home of Yellow Dog Brewing Co., makers of Play Dead IPA. The beer, a classic West Coast IPA, comes in 473mL cans. It’s a 6.8% ale with a hearty 75 IBUs. The beer is orange-gold and nearly clear, under a creamy foam. I picked up a four-pack of these guys for social drinking, but ended up enjoying them so much I held on in reserve to review.

PD has a nose that blends citrus and pine notes. The flavour is assertively bitter, but balanced against a nice sweet element, paling around with evergreen, satsuma, and dank hemp.

Compared to past visits to BC, I did less beer drinking on my most recent trip. Of the 3-4 WCIPAs I tried, Play Dead was one of the standouts—not so much because it was innovative or unique—I just found it to be a well-made, enjoyable beer.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Slow Hand West Coast Pale Ale

Slow Hand Beer Company’s West Coast Pale Ale is made in Vancouver. The beer clocks in at 5% and comes in 473mL cans. According to the copy, the clear, pale gold ale is a “crisp, bright, & juicy dry-hopped pale ale.”

The beer has a punchy citrus aroma with a bit of supplemental pine. The flavour is a bit on the mild side, with lemon and evergreen elements and a light, resinous finish. Though the flavour is a bit weak, the texture is spot on—crisp and refreshing.

Not a beer that I’d be likely to revisit, but decent enough all the same.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Coastality Pale Ale

I enjoyed a flight of beer at Victoria’s Whistle Buoy Brewing Company with my father-in-law and came home with a couple of cans of my faves, including a 473mL can of Coastality Pale Ale. The 5% brew comes in at a modest 33 IBUs and pours with a bright copper colour.

The beer has a nice pine and citrus melange on the nose and through the flavour, with a solid, effervescent texture. My complaint with the beer on tap was that was a touch thin, but the canned version had considerably more oomph.

Not a tremendously memorable pale ale, but it’s a well-made and enjoyable one.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Gladstone Czech Dark Lager

During a long weekend trip to Victoria, I purchased a smattering of local/British Columbia beers—mostly west coast IPAs, but I also came home with a 473mL can of Gladstone Brewing Company’s Czech Dark Lager. At 6% and somewhere around 24 IBUs, the beer has some heft. It’s a handsome brown lager with ruby highlights and it pours with a thin layer of cream head.

Gladstone’s CDL has a lush roasted malt aroma with a lightly metallic sweetness. The flavour is similarly constituted, though a bit less sweet, with a roasted malt foundation and an agreeable ferric element. Bitterness manifests as mild, dark chocolate and a touch of coffee. The beer has a soft and smooth mouthfeel that wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for when I purchased the beer but which really worked quite well.

From Courtenay, BC, Gladstone’s Czech Dark Lager was a welcome breath of fresh, mellow air in a weekend filled with piney citrus-heavy IPAs.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Retronym I.P.A.

A retronym is defined as “a term coined in modification of an original term that was used alone (as acoustic guitar instead of guitar) to distinguish it from a term referring to a later development (as electric guitar). Other examples of retronyms are snail mail and analog watch.” It’s also the name of an IPA from the team at Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery. Note: I write an “IPA” and not an “English IPA”—In the copy on the 473mL cans, GLB adamantly opposes that name (at least as far as this beer is concerned) and so I’ll try to avoid it too.

Retronym I.P.A. is a 6% beer brewed with oats. It’s a cloudy copper ale that pours with a generous off-white foam. The beer offers mild aromatics, with lots of malt, some caramel, and a suggestion of floral hops. The flavour is malt-forward, with a streak of brown sugar sweetness. The back end is floral and bitter, with some pleasant metallic elements.

While my favourite IPAs tend to be the West Coast hop gobblers, I have a soft spot in my heart (my liver?) for this style—a “classic” IPA—and GLB’s take is really quite nicely executed. I had eight of these delivered and I’m thrilled I did, because one has yet to prove enough.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Trellis Pilsner

A pilsner? From Toronto? How simply delightful! Trellis Pilsner comes from Amsterdam Brewery. It’s a 5.3% pale lager brewed with Mandarina Bavaria hops that comes in 473mL cans with a slightly unfortunate font. The beer is an entry in Amsterdam’s Adventure Brews series.

Trellis is a crystal clear beer—highly carbonated with a fluffy white head and a nice golden colour. The pilsner has a dry, floral aroma with a slight orange subtext. The flavour is crisp, dry, and agreeable, with  a considerable bitterness and just a touch of citrus.

Trellis would be a delight at the end of a hot summer’s day, but it’s not too shabby on a wintery Saturday afternoon either.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Brick Maker Common

Brick Maker Common is a Toronto take on the California common/steam beer style. A 5% 35 IBU lager from Muddy York Brewing Co., the beer comes in 355mL cans. It’s a sparkling clear golden brew with an off white foam.

Brick Maker has a crisp, metallic and floral aroma. The flavour kicks off sweetly with lots of grain. The back end picks up a bit of metallic momentum and builds to a nice, floral hoppiness.

This is a rad little common—crisp and flavourful, with a healthy hops quotient. I enjoyed this in February, but it’d be a bad mother in hottest July.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Travel Envy

A hazy double IPA from Toronto, Travel Envy is an 8.5% ale from Amsterdam Brewery. It comes in 473mL cans with really excellent labels. According to the copy, the beer is brewed with Nelson Sauvin hops. It’s a hazy gold-orange beer and with pours with a layer of fluffy suds.

For an eight-plus percenter, this beer has a really mild aroma, with some agreeable fruit notes. The flavour is considerably more assertive, with big tropical fruit notes and a slightly resinous finish.

I thought this was a really enjoyable ale—punchy, flavourful, and not too sweet. Really great packaging, too.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

The Bridge Is Over

The Bridge Is Over is billed as a Bandit/Laylow Production—brewed by Bandit Brewery and Laylow Brewing in Toronto. The beer, a double dry-hopped Belgian New England IPA, is a 6.8% number sold in 355mL cans. The beer is a hazy orange-gold colour and it pours with a thick layer of white foam.

The Bridge Is Over has a yeasty, tart fruit nose. For just 6.8%, the beer tastes surprisingly potent, with a bit of funk, some floral elements, and a touch of tangy apple. The back end has a floral hoppiness, but it is quite mild and short.

A quirky little ale with a big flavour, The Bridge Is Over is a pretty enjoyable collab with some character.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Tasti

Watching the 2021/22 AFC Championship on a chilly Sunday afternoon (this seemingly endless backlog is wild! It's week 4 of the 2022 season as I post this!), I wanted something crisp and low-octane, so I opted for a 355mL can of Tasti, a kölsch-style beer from Toronto’s Eastbound Brewing Co. Tasti clocks in at just 4.5%. It’s a straw gold brew with a layer of white suds.

Tasti has a floral aroma with cracker and toast elements and just a hint of grain sweetness. The flavour is understated, but agreeable, with lots of grain, some sweetness, and a quick, dry finish.

Nice, refreshing, and light brewski.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Life Sentence

A burly ass collab from two Toronto heavyweights, Life Sentence is an 11% triple IPA. The beer is brewed by Amsterdam Brewery and Great Lakes Brewery. Sold in great-looking 473mL cans, Life Sentence is brewed with Centennial hops. Less hazy than I expected, it’s a dull gold ale with a fluffy off-white head. 

Aromatically, the beer has loads of citrus, some sweetness, and a healthy measure of booze. The flavour is boozy, sweet, and dank, with citrus and tropical notes.

Strong and resinous, Life Sentence is an assertive take on the triple IPA. Not for the faint of heart, this beer will bruise your liver. Best thing about it? Sweet, but not too sweet, which is the plight of most triple IPAs that I’ve sampled.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Neon Haze

Neon Haze is, shockingly, a hazy IPA from the team at Amsterdam Brewery in Toronto. A bit under-proof at just 5.7%, the Ontario ale is sold in 473mL cans. It’s a hazy, dull-orange beer with a short-lived off-white head.

NH has an inviting citrus nose, with OJ and sugary citrus at the pole and a little something tropical lurking in the wings. The flavour tracks that pretty consistently, though less sweetly, with juicy fruit notes and a mild, yet agreeable vibe. The back end has a touch of grapefruit bitterness, but it is restrained.

When I caught my first whiff of this beer, my concern was that it’d be too sweet, but I was pleasantly surprised: there is some fruity sweetness, certainly—as there should be—but there is a nice balance with a bit of hops and a crisp, refreshing texture. The beer could be stronger, but it tastes great.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Hibernator 2021

Hibernator 2021 is a 10% bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout blend that includes cherries, ginger, orange peel, and vanilla beans. This bruiser comes from Toronto and the gang at Bandit Brewery. It’s sold in 750mL bottles which probably shouldn’t be consumed alone before dinner, but what are you, my mom? Back off! Sheesh.

The 2021 edition of Hibernator is a darkest black, with a dark brown head. The beer has a gargantuan aroma, built around sweet, wood, and booze. The fragrance is sorta like a boozy chocolate orange, supplemented with bourbon-y vanilla. The flavour is extremely sweet, with notes of orange, chocolate, and molasses. The barrel-aging gives the the beer a woody depth and some big bourbon heat. The vanilla comes through well, but I wasn’t able to really pick up much in the way of ginger and some cherry tartness might have taken some of the edge off.

I think I missed out on H:2020, but I definitely liked H:2021 better than H:2019, which I found to be too coconut-driven. Here, there was a bit better integration of the flavour elements, particularly the orange peel. In truth, though, I still found the 2021 iteration to be way too sweet.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Abbaye Des Sept Minutes IV

From an alcohol standpoint, IV is the strongest entry of the Abbaye Des Sept Minutes series from Tooth and Nail and Godspeed, weighing it at a robust 10%. The Ontarian take on the Belgian quadrupel comes in 355mL cans. The beer inside is handsome bronze, with a sudsy cream head.

AD7M 4 has a malty and sweet aroma, with treacle and raisin notes, with just a hint of licorice. The flavour is big on dried fruit with some sweetness in the early going and a shift to molasses bitterness in the back end. The beer tastes boozy as hell, but the flavours are still subtle.

In my opinion, IV is the highlight of the Abbaye Des Sept Minutes series—it’s the most true to style entry and it has the most complex flavour.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Abbaye Des Sept Minutes III

Another entry from the series brewed by Godspeed and Tooth and Nail, Abbaye Des Sept Minutes III is a Belgian-style tripel. It’s a 9% golden ale that pours clear, under a white, sudsy head. The beer comes in 355mL cans, which is plenty to get your heart started!

AD7M III has a yeasty and tart aroma that touches on cranberry and apple notes. The flavour kicks off sweetly, with loads of boozy warmth. Beyond that, there is a degree of Belgian-style yeast, apple, and spice. The back end is warm and strong.

This beer is, to me, an approachable take on the tripel style. It has the heat, and some of the funk, but it doesn’t have a lot of the charming quirks that characterize the best tripels.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Abbaye Des Sept Minutes II

Sold in simple and rusty 355mL cans, Abbaye Des Sept Minutes II is a Belgian-style dubbel. At 8%, the beer is a collaboration between Ottawa’s Tooth and Nail and Toronto’s Godspeed. It’s a dull ruby ale with a shock of cream-coloured suds.

Interestingly, AD7M II has an extremely mild aroma—subtle notes of brown sugar and a bit of yeasty tang. The flavour is a bit more boisterous, with notes of raisin, plum, and spice, underscored with a slight metallic jangle.

What AD7M II lacks in aromatics, it makes up for in subtle depth of flavour. This beer has a flavour that seems finely tuned and meticulous. The strength and appearance are perfectly to style, too. I’d have liked a richer bouquet, but otherwise, the beer met and slightly exceeded my expectations.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Abbey Des Sept Minutes I

Abbey Des Sept Minutes I is a 6% blonde ale from the teams at Godspeed and Tooth and Nail. The beer comes in a simple orange 355mL can. The beer inside is an opaque orange-gold with a bloom of off-white suds.

AD7M I has fruity, yeasty aromatics, with notes of bake apple and clove. For flavour, I has a sweet and yeast-driven profile dusted with spice and fall fruits. The back end features a lilt of tart tanginess and a foray into floral bitterness.

The front end of this Belgian-style blonde is really well executed, but the finish doesn’t quite live up to my expectations—it’s nice enough, but not quite as on point as the initial burst of fruit and funk.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Abbaye Des Sept Minutes

Abbaye Des Sept Minutes is an innovative four-beer collaboration between two of Ontario’s standout breweries: Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery and Ottawa’s Tooth and Nail Brewing Co. The collab resulted in a series of four Belgian-inspired ales, each assigned a Roman numeral. There’s a blonde, a dubbel, a tripel, and a no-nonsense quadrupel.

Stay tuned to the Bitter World this week for my thoughts on this quartet of abbey-style ales.

Werecat

Werecat, from Toronto’s Blood Brothers Brewing, is a barrel-aged sour brown ale. The beer, which comes in 500mL bottles with spooky and gorgeous labels, weighs in at a robust 8.7%. It’s a dark brown ale with ruddy highlights, and it pours with a fast-receding off-white head.

Werecat has tart, winey aromatics, buttressed with woody sweetness. The flavour incorporates notes of molasses and muscovado sugar, tart cherries, wood, and booze.

This was an extremely enjoyable ale. I think that brown ales barrel age very well generally, and this one was executed nicely. And the sour elements were deftly balanced—present and pleasant, but not overpowering.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Collective Arts IPA No. 19

I’ve fallen a bit behind on Collective Arts Brewing’s numbered IPA series during the pandemic, but I was eager to pick up a can of their IPA No. 19 when I saw it. No. 19 is a beefy 10.5% triple IPA brewed with a trio of hops: Azacca, Citra, and Nelson Sauvin. The beer comes in 473mL cans and is definitely best enjoyed on a full stomach. It’s a hazy dull gold and pours with an off-white head.

#19 has aromatics that mingle sweet citrus, dank resin, and a boatload of booze heat. The flavour isn’t actually as gargantuan as I was expecting. It’s got lots of fruit and warm booze, but to me, it’s far too sweet and lacks bitterness.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Stone Skipper Dry Hopped Saison

Stone Skipper Dry Hopped Saison is a cheeky little six percenter from the team at Eastbound Brewing Co. The Torontonian saison comes in 355mL cans. It’s a golden ale with some carbonation, though not quite as effervescent as I like in a saison. The beer pours with a sudsy white head.

To my nose, there are apple and baking spice notes and to my tongue, yeasty, floral elements and a sprinkling of ground pepper. The back end is dry, yeasty, and short.

Sometimes new world saisons get a little too ambitious for me, incorporating complicated herb/fruit/botanical combos. What I like about Stone Skipper is that it is a dry-hopped saison, full stop. The yeast and booze are balanced and provide classic saison elements, while the dry-hopping adds a floral character that is quite agreeable.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Fine Art Sour IPA

Sold in be-flamingoed 473mL cans, Fine Art Sour IPA is a brew from Whitby, Ontario’s Town Brewery. The beer is hazy gold with a thin layer of white foam. It’s a 6.2% sour IPA with a sharp, tart aroma. There are notes of lemon and cranberry in both the nose and the flavour. The finish is quite dry, short, and remains tart.

This beer has good strength and it delivers a tangy, sour flavour. Other than being above 6%, there isn’t a lot of IPA to this one, though.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Houndstooth Irish Red Ale

It’d been a while since I placed an order from the folks at Eastbound Brewing Co., but checking their website in December showed a couple of new offerings that I wanted to try, including Houndstooth Irish Red Ale. The 5.1% ale comes in 355mL cans. The beer is bronze and pours with a decent covering of creamy head.

Houndstooth has an aroma that touches on caramel, copper, and roasted malt. The flavour starts sweet and bready and ends with caramel and ferrous notes.

Eastbound’s take on the classic Irish style is a pretty solid effort.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Dark Side Black IPA

A generous 7% number from Toronto’s Granite Brewery, Dark Side Black IPA is sold in noir 473mL cans. The beer is handsome and dark with a plume of creamy head.

Dark Side has a cracking aroma that balances pine and roasted malt. The flavour parades from bitter to sweet; initial evergreen gives way to roasted malt and a touch of licorice.

I love a good black IPA, and Granite’s version delivers satisfying suds. Good strength and a nice flavour make this a solid offering.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Funk Fuzz

 Funk Fuzz begins life in Whitby, Ontario; nurtured into existence at Town Brewery. It’s a 6.8% hazy IPA that comes in playfully ugly 473mL cans. The beer is an almost milky pale gold, under a silky white head. Bit of sediment, but nothing alarming.

FF has a smooth, tropical fruit aroma—mango and passionfruit, along with some OJ. The flavour has a mellow and sweet initial character, with tropical notes. It picks up a bit of steam at the back end, where citrus bitterness meets a dash of boozy heat.

The beer is almost certainly brewed with oats, since it is incredibly smooth. It tastes pretty good, but there isn’t much to distinguish this hazy IPA in an over-crowded marketplace. The finish is nice, but I’d have liked a more boisterous front end.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Three Philosophers

 My ol’ pal HW brought me a bottle of Three Philosophers from Brewery Ommegang when he returned from a trip to Rochester. The beer, from Cooperstown, NY, is a blend of Belgian-style beers; specifically a quad and a cherry kriek. At 9.7%, the beer has some big heft, and packs a punch even in 12 oz bottles. The beer itself is gorgeous—ruddy copper with a lush off-white head.

The beer has aromatics that are both woody and tart—cherry comes through in spades, but there is also some heat and a dose of lively yeast. The flavour has a lot of the characteristics of a young, tart red wine—interestingly tannic—but with a mellow and almost buttery texture. The beer is deceptively boozy, but it really sneaks up on you. The quad elements are understated—it isn’t particularly yeasty nor over-sweet—but it contributes great ballast. The beer is less sour than I anticipated, with cherry manifesting as syrup rather than tart.

I love it when a much-loved and hyped beer lives up to expectations. I have had more interesting Belgian blends, but this one was deftly balanced and tasted great. It’s the texture that really spoke to me—mellow and mild—an unusual vehicle for a beer approaching 10%.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Tell Me Fortunes Double IPA

Enjoyed on a balmy New Year's Day whilst assembling a puzzle with the Bitter Wife, Tell Me Fortunes Double IPA is an 8% ale from the team at Rainhard Brewing in Toronto. Sold in 473mL cans with a crystal ball motif, the beer inside is dull orange-gold and pours with a lacy off-white head.

TMF has aromatics that wander from tropical fruit to resin, with a flash of booze. The flavour is a bit dank and a bunch boozy, with sweet tropical fruit throughout. The finish has a bit of sticky bitterness, but remains sweet.

Rainhard makes some good IPAs and DIPAs, but I don’t know that I’d count Tell Me Fortunes among my favourites. It’s frankly a bit too sweet for my tastes.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

3-4 More-Than-Triple, Less-Than-Quad IPA

 After watching my Raiders get absolutely upended by the hated team from Kansas City, I needed some strong medicine, so I reached for a 355mL can of 3-4 More-Than-Triple, Less-Than-Quad IPA. The beer, easily the most hyphenated I have ever reviewed, is an 11% bruiser from Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery; a celebration of GLB’s 34th anniversary. The big beer is brewed with both oats and wheat.

I expected 3-4 to be hazy and was surprised when it poured a nearly clear copper colour with a thin but durable off-white foam. The beer had a potent sweet peach and citrus nose. The flavour was extremely sweet, with peach and caramel notes early on and a still-sweet, candied grapefruit finish. Not a lot of evident bitterness, though I suspect that the IBU number is fairly significant—it’s just dwarfed by strength and sugars. The beer is undeniably boozy and is best sipped slow.

This a fun celebration beer, but not one that I’d be particularly inclined to crack open on a school night. It’s too strong and too saccharine for more than occasional sipping and, having enjoyed one and purchased three more, I’m not certain that I’ll be in a rush to load up on any more. Liked it, but didn’t love it.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Astro Ever After

 

Over the course of the Pandemonium, I’ve had the opportunity to place a few mail orders from Town Brewery, but when I found myself driving home via Whitby, Ontario, I decided to stop in to the source to pick up a mixed two-four and a beautiful stemmed glass. 

One of my purchases was an IPA called Astro Ever After, a 7.2% brew made to feature Mosaic hops. This stuff comes in 473mL cans adorned with space-themed labels. The beer is hazy and dull-orange, with a foamy off-white head. My schnozz encountered a bounteous, juicy aroma, with notes of citrus, mango, and peach. The flavour is dank and juicy, with a sweet to bitter progression, and a decent boozy hit. The finish has some hemp, but it’s mostly about citrus bitterness.

I love a full-strength IPA, and at 7.2%, Astro Ever After hits the mark. The flavour is quite nice, too.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Outstanding Pub Ale

 Outstanding Pub Ale comes from the baseball-mad team at Toronto’s Left Field Brewery. I’d probably class it as a British-style pale ale or a blonde ale. It’s a clear golden ale, at 4.1%, that comes in 355mL cans emblazoned with the 17 names of the 2021 indictees into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. According to the can, 25¢ goes to support the work of the Hall. Cheers!

The beer has a toasty, malt-focused aroma with a little bit of sticky toffee. The flavour is  impressively robust for a low-alcohol ale, with ample malt, caramel, and toast notes. There is also an agreeable copper streak running through this one. As for bitterness, there is just a tickle, localized in the back end in a floral/nutty configuration.

This was a really good little beer: enjoyable, huge flavour for the strength, and in service of a good cause. This beer went down beautifully on a crisp November eve.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Havana Affair

 Havana Affair (great name!) is a 5% rum punch sour from the folks at Rainhard Brewing in Toronto. The 355mL can lists a veritable fruit salad: cherry, lime, mango, pineapple, and tangerine. The beer itself is bronze-orange, with a fluffy off-white head that dissipated quickly.

HA has a tangy, fruit zip right off the nose, with lime and cherry leading the way. The flavour is a medley of fruit elements with a zing of quite respectable sourness. No bitterness here, just sweet and sour.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Verse The World

 

Rainhard Brewing in Toronto has been pumping out a slew of pretty nice IPAs and pale ales and Verse The World is another example. The 5.8% pale ale is brewed with Barbe Rouge, Citra, Columbus, and Vic Secret hops. It’s sold in 473mL cans.

The beer is near clear with a handsome gold colour and a decent layer of off-white head. VTW has tangerine and grapefruit aromatics. The flavour is a little underwhelming—it has citrus elements, but they aren’t as well developed at the nose led me to expect. The beer isn’t too sweet, which is nice, and the finish has a middling grapefruit bitterness.

I wanted to like this more than I did, but it wasn’t disappointing or anything. It’s just a decent pale ale.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Radicle Red IPA

 

This beer lived in my fridge for a bit too long, but it still tasted great! Radicle Red IPA is the July 2021 "Ides of ..." entry from Toronto’s Henderson Brewing Company. It’s a 6.5% ale that comes in 473mL cans. The beer is dark bronze in colour and pours under a creamy head.

Radicle Red has an assertive pine and caramel aroma, with a slight metallic tinkle. The flavour matches from malty to bitter—it kicks off with coppery grains and drifts into a hearty evergreen bitterness.

This brew tasted bigger than its 6.5% due to its dank, piney bitterness. It’s an enjoyable, brassy beer—one I liked quite a lot.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Prost! ... an Oktoberfest Märzen

 Much of what you need to know about Prost! ... an Oktoberfest Märzen is right there in the name. It’s a clear, caramel-hued lager from the team at Great Lakes Brewery in Toronto. The beer, sold in 473mL cans, pours with a lush and creamy head.

Prost! has a malty, bready nose. The flavour is sweet, malty, and toasty, with a back end that tastes boozier than its 5.6%. True to style, the beer leans toward the maltier end of the spectrum, but there is a little nod to floral bitterness in the finish.

Not a bad little Ontario take on the classic Oktoberfest style.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.