Face of Toronto was brewed by Toronto's Henderson Brewery in honour of the City's 183rd birthday. A dark saison, this
tricky little number brings several unconventional ingredients to the
traditional Belgian/French farmhouse style: cardamom, orange rind, and
chocolate. The beer was a low-alcohol effort, at just 4.5%, and came in a
650mL bottle with a "waving out the streetcar-themed" label. It was Henderson's "Ides of ..." entry for March 2017.
The
beer poured stout-dark, which would have been jarring had I not seen MT
enjoy one of these guys a day earlier at the brewery. It had a sudsy
tan head and a substantially chocolatey aroma. Quite unlike any saison
that I've ever tried, Face of Toronto was light on the traditional yeast
and spice elements. Its flavours were built largely around chocolate
and coffee, with an agreeable dip of the toe into orange. Of the
cardamom, I detected very little--only a whisper of spice at the finish
of each sip.
If Face of Toronto didn't say
"saison" right on the bottle, I'd have called this a spiced stout.
However, it does. I must take its saison-itude at "Face" value (puns!),
but whatever it's called, I found it to be a largely agreeable dark ale.
I'd have liked a bit more spiciness, but the chocolate was nicely
represented and the orange peel suitably restrained.
Rating: 8.0 out of 10.
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