Absacker Helles Lager

 Apparently Absacker is the German word for a nightcap, but despite that late night etymology, I enjoyed an early evening can of Absacker Helles Lager. Brewed in Toronto at Great Lakes Brewery, Absacker is a 5% pale lager brewed in conjunction with Brauerei Rittmayer in Hallendorf, Germany. The beer is sold in 355mL cans. It possesses a clear, straw gold colour and pours with a thin layer of bright white suds.

Absacker has a lovely grain and malt aroma reminiscent of baking bread. The flavour kicks off sweet and malty, and those elements remain throughout, though the back end is accented with a lilt of floral hops.

Light and sweet, with subtle a flavour, Absacker is a well-executed helles. I bought eight and I’m glad I did, because they kept me happy during a late-summer heatwave. Just too sweet, but otherwise grand.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Call & Response

 A 6% IPA from Toronto’s Rainhard Brewing, Call & Response is made with El Dorado, Mosaic, and Sabro hops. The beer comes in 473mL cans with simple labels. The beer inside is a hazy orange grog with a nimbus of fluffy white foam.

Tropical and citrus fruits drive an enjoyable aroma. It has a juicy, orange-y profile, though the flavour is a little on the thin side. There is a little bit of bitterness, which manifests as floral and citrus.

Something about this beer put me in mind of Orangina, which ain’t all bad. I’d have liked more booze and volume, but the flavour was agreeable.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Hooked Up

Hooked Up is an interesting concept—two double IPAs with a common name brewed by two breweries in two cities—one a West Coast classic and the other described as “a more modern DIPA.” The Hooked Up collaboration is the work of Toronto’s Henderson Brewing Co. and Ottawa’s Broadhead Brewery.

First up I decided to tackle Broadhead’s version of Hooked Up. Sold in 473mL cans, the beer has 7.5% alcohol, which is a tad under strength compared to my preferred Double IPAs, but still strong enough to have some snap. The beer is bronze in colour and pours with a touch of ecru head. To my nose, there is a medley of tropical fruit notes, a touch of pine, and a slightly metallic tinkle. The flavour is quite sweet, particularly initially, with floral, honey, and fruit elements. There is some bitterness, but it is restrained. And there is a notable absence of boozy burn.

It’s not a bad beer, but there are definitely some tweaks that could make it sing—more booze and a heartier texture.

Rating 7.0 out of 10.

The West Coast leaning Henderson Brewing Co. edition of Hooked Up is an 8.5% brew. It’s copper coloured and clear, with a dense and creamy  off-white head. The beer has mild but agreeable aroma focused around a roasty malt foundation and accents of pine and grapefruit. The flavour is considerably more assertive, with citrus and evergreen driving the bus. The beer is fairly malty, but the balance is mixed in favour of hops and bitterness. The booze is apparent, without being dominant.

This was a really enjoyable double IPA—strong and brassy, with a nice, old school flavour profile.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Karma El Dorado

The third and final installment of Great Lake Brewery’s Karma Citra variants is Karma El Dorado. This 6.6% American IPA is born in Toronto and brewed using El Dorado hops and, interestingly, it is the only one in the series that doesn’t list oats among its ingredients. The beer comes in extremely attractive 473mL cans. It’s a golden brew with faint haziness and a fluffy white foam.

Karma El Dorado has a sweet waft of tropical fruit on the nose. Its flavour is relatively mild, moving from sweet to bitter, tropical to citrus. The texture of this beer is a bit thin, but pleasantly effervescent.

Another good offering from GLB’s 7 Barrel Series, Karma El Dorado has a grand flavour profile and little not to like.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Karma Simcoe

Karma Simcoe is my second foray into Great Lakes Brewery’s world of Yakima Valley-inspired Karma Citra variants. The 6.6% brew comes is lovely 473mL cans. The Toronto-born ale is a gently hazy golden grog and it pours with a fluffy and durable white foam.

Karma Simcoe has a mellow, juicy nose, accented with a touch of piquant pine. The beer has an agreeable flavour with some citrus notes backed by an evergreen hook.

The beer isn’t quite as quarrelsome as a classic West Coast IPA, but it does feature some of those pine/citrus elements, and it’s executed with some subtle flair.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Karma Sabro

Karma Sabro is Great Lakes Brewery’s Karma Citra variant featuring Sabro hops. For what it’s worth, Sabro is possibly the hop I enjoy least, so this beer had an uphill climb right off the jump. It’s a lightly hazy, pale golden brew. It emerges from its gorgeous 473mL cans under a wispy white head. 

Karma Sabro has a pineapple and coconut aromatic profile—sweet and juicy. The flavour is similarly constructed, with piña colada elements, lots of sweetness, and a back end with citrus bitterness.

My beef with Sabro is the coconut flavour tends to dominate a beer and I found that same thing happened with Karma Sabro. It’s just a little too sweet and tropical for me. But that isn’t really a reflection of the quality of the beer—just my own preferences.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Karma Styles

Karma Citra is one of my fave IPA offerings from Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery. An homage to the Citra hop, the beer seems to me to have evolved a bit since I first tasted it, but it remains an enjoyable brew.

Since I’m enthusiastic about Karma Citra, you can imagine that I was pretty excited when I saw that GLB had released three variants of the beer, each showcasing a different hop from Washington’s Yakima Valley: El Dorado, Sabro, and Simcoe.

Stay tuned to the Bitter World for my thoughts on this trio of Karmic brews.

Cautionary Tale IPA w/Sabro, Citra & HBC 472 Hops

Brewed in Collective Arts Brewing’s new Toronto facility, Cautionary Tale IPA w/Sabro, Citra & HBC 472 Hops is a hazy 7% ale. The beer comes in 473mL cans that feature a lovely “stormy seas of the mind” design. CT has a dull gold appearance, lots of haze, and a fluffy white head.

CT has aromatics that are reminiscent of piña colada—lots of coconut and a bit of juicy pineapple. The flavour tends toward sweetness, with coconut in the spotlight, and also just a touch of vanilla. The back end has a slight degree of bitterness, with a citrus twang.

This brew has a nice texture and great strength, but I don’t love it. There isn’t a thing wrong with Cautionary Tale—I just happen to have a disinclination to the Sabro hop and beers that taste a little too much like coconut. But if that’s your jam, this beer is bound to tickle you pink.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Bear Hug IPA

Hailing from Newmarket, Ontario, comes Bear Hug IPA, a 7%, 55 IBU IPA from Market Brewing Co. The beer is brewed with a quintet of hops—Amarillo, Cascade, Columbus, El Dorado, and Nugget—as well as flaked oats and a pair of malts (Golden Promise and pale ale malt).

Bear Hug is dull gold in colour, under a vibrant off white foam. It’s a hazy brew with a surprisingly mild aromatic profile—a little bit of tropical fruit, some citrus, and some earthiness. The flavour is a bit rowdier, with more earth, floral elements, and a little bit of citrus. There is also a definite oat profile, which I don’t often encounter.

The beer is definitely bitter, but not pine/evergreen like a West Coaster, nor is it heartily juicy like a NEIPA. And it ain’t malt-forward like an English-style IPA. It has its own vibe, and that’s cool with me. I’d have liked it to have a more substantial aroma and a bit more definition in the flavour, but the strength is great and the oat vibes are neat.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.