11-05

“Remember, remember the fifth of November”—I actually sat down with a 473mL can of 11-05 on November 5th. The beer, brewed in collaboration between Nickel Brook Brewing Co. from Hamilton, Ontario and Sawdust City Brewing Co. out of Gravenhurst, Ontario (where it was actually brewed), contains 11.05% alcohol. The can has three notable features: (1) the two collaborators involved in this brew share a common birthday—November 5; (2) there is an excerpt from the famed rhyme about the Gunpowder Treason and a Guy Fawkes mask; and (3) there is an indication that the beer was brewed in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Canada. A fourth element also caught my eye—the beer was brewed on August 31, 2016—over a year before I bought it.

The beer is billed as a Belgian-style tripel brewed with brettanomyces yeast. 11-05 is a sunny golden brew. It’s hazy, less carbonated than expected, and pours with a white head. It has a funky scent, with notes of sour cherries. The flavour is extremely sweet, with fruit elements. It isn’t as tart and yeasty as I expected, nor as lively and effervescent.

In truth, I suspect that this beer was in the fridge at Sawdust City for too long before I bought it. It likely lost a bit of its funk and punch over the 14 months between brewing and consumption. Still, it was a boozy and fairly interesting collaboration between two of my fave Ontario outfits. It was too sweet and not nearly as yeast-focused as a tripel should be, but it was brewed for a good cause and gave me a lot to write about.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.