This was kind of a weird experience. Weird, but pleasant. I was sitting at home, minding my own business, watching a ball game, when I got a phone call from my dad. Mum and dad were in Vancouver, British Columbia, enjoying some well deserved R&R. He'd decided to call me, because their hosts, being excellent hosts indeed, had provided an array of local craft beers for them to sample. My pops doesn't drink much or often, but he knows a thing or two about beer (he is my dad, after all) and he knows what he likes.
Dad was wondering whether he might dictate a telephone review. Since there was a lull in the baseball action, I said "why not?".
Remember, I'm trying to describe a beer that I have never actually sampled. My father is a good talker and a regular reader of the Bitter World, but he doesn't always have a beery vocabulary, so I've had to take some liberties with the review.
Of the beers he was offered, dad opted for Howe Sound Brewing Co.'s Rail Ale Nut Brown. Howe brews out of Squamish, British Columbia. Sold in 1L swing top bottles, Rail contains the classic 5% alcohol and has 19 IBUs. Apparently, the label declares that there are "three glasses of glory in every bottle". It was described to me as a hearty dark brown ale. It poured with a thick, light brown head that thinned quickly but refused to quit.
As for the nose, the adjective that Dad kept throwing around was chocolatey. Pushed for more detail, he revealed that it smelled like dark chocolate, with cocoa leanings. He described a full-bodied brew with a flavour that doesn't stick around too long. When asked for final impressions, the simple but poignant reply was that it was "a good beer to sit and sip".
Sounded to me like pretty good stuff. I'll have to try it when I'm out in B.C. and see how my impressions contrast with my ol' man's.
Photo credit to the incomparable J.A., who I remember as a plucky seven-year-old, but who is now apparently in his 20s and has clearly developed pretty rad taste in beer.
Rating: 8.0 out of 10.
