Perth County Conspiracy North American Pale Ale

Brewed in Stratford, Ontario by Herald Haus Brewing Co., Perth County Conspiracy North American Pale Ale is a 5% brew sold in 473mL cans. According to the copy on the can, the Perth County Conspiracy was a folk-rock act formed in Stratford in 1969.

The ale proved to be clear and gold, with a durable white foam on top. It had a grainy, slightly floral aroma balanced with notes of brown sugar. The flavour is pretty mild, with malty caramel set off against citrus and floral notes.

Not a bad take on the American Pale Ale, Perth County Conspiracy delivered a beer that was pretty refreshing with a decent flavour. I kinda liked the quirky black and white can, also. I’d have liked a deeper flavour, though. And I know they were going for limited bitterness, but I missed the hoppy crackle that makes an APA sing.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Helles Island Unfiltered Lager

Toronto’s People’s Pint Brewing Company is the source of Helles Island Unfiltered Lager, a Munich-style lager named in honour of NYC’s famed/notorious immigration hub as “a celebration of American diversity and a tribute to our friends to the south.” The beer clocks in at 5%. It’s a slightly hazy golden lager sold in 473mL cans.

Helles Island has a substantial sweet and grainy nose, with a hint of back-end bitterness. Not crisp, exactly, but cracklin’ of mouthfeel, the beer has a malt-forward flavour that drips with cereal notes and a back end that bristles with dry, slightly floral hops.

This little lager would have been better still had it been crisper, but as a flavourful and full-bodied number, it was still pretty solid.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Glory & Gold

The 2019 entry from Nickel Brook Brewing Co.’s Reserve Series, Glory & Gold is a bourbon barrel-aged cuvée; a 9.5%, 37 IBU ale brewed in Burlington, Ontario. G&G comes in 500mL bottles, wax-dipped and boxed. [As an aside to any brewers who might be reading—I get it, waxed dipped bottles look great. They’re also a colossal pain in the ass for your customers. Either add an easy-tear tab like a bottle of Maker’s Mark or don’t do it.] Listed among the ingredients are Demerara sugar, orange peel, dried figs, raisins, vanilla beans, cardamom, allspice, cinnamon, black pepper, and lactobacillus. According to the copy, the beer is aged for two years in Kentucky bourbon barrels.

G&G is a murky, rusty ale with a modest cream head. Boozy and sweet to the nose, it has aromatics that are well spiced, heightened by dried fruit, and a wee bit funky. The flavour is equally complicated, with sweet and fruity notes up front, backed up by tangy mulled wine elements, and a surprisingly bitter, spice-rich finish. There are warm, woody notes throughout, though these are understated—or perhaps just lost in the noise of everything else going on.

An enjoyable wintry ale with lots of pop, Glory & Gold is ambitious, but a bit busy. To my mind, there is simply too much going on to make this beer the classic that I think Nickel Brook set out to create. Each sip has layers, and that’s commendable, but I feel too many of these were stepping on their fellows’ toes, with a somewhat muddled result. I was particularly fond of the peppery finish, though, as well as the mulled wine character. I think this beer had a lot of potential and showed a lot of promise. I liked it, but not enough to buy another to cellar (although I am curious about how it’d age).

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

3 Frogs

Second up from Barcelona’s La Cervesera Artesana was their smoked imperial stout: 3 Frogs. 3 Frogs was a bruiser, at 11.5% alcohol. My 330mL pour arrived looking black and bleak, with just a ring of tan suds. It had a wildly potent smokey aroma with scotch whisky peatiness leading the charge.

3 Frogs was smokey from front to back, but it transitioned from sweet to bitter along the way, with the top end incorporating treacle sweetness and the back tobacco and leather elements.

I have seldom sipped smokier beer, though 3 Frogs lacked balance—it was too heartily

smokey, at the expense of finesse. Additionally, the front end struck me as a touch too sweet, providing an unusual flavour profile. On the positive side, the strength was agreeable and the peatiness of the smoke didn’t seem at all artificial.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Iberian IPA

 

After gaping at Gaudí’s majestic Sagrada Família for a while, the Bitter Wife and I hopped on the subway and headed for La Cervesera Artesana, reputed to be Barcelona’s first brewpub—established in 1996. It has a pretty long list of outside beers, but I stuck with ordering a couple of their house brews. First up, the Iberian IPA (Estil Anglès)—that’s a 5.8% English-style IPA.

My pint showed up bronze-coloured and swampy, with a dense and creamy white head. The beer had an agreeable piney nose accented with caramel. Its flavour was evergreen and bready, with some caramel and malt sweetness at the outset. For mouthfeel, the stuff was hella creamy—almost with a cask ale consistency.

Too low in alcohol to truly wow as an IPA, this Iberian iteration managed a lovely flavour and a velvety mouthfeel all the same. Not a bad craft IPA at all.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Ch’ti Blonde

Another bière de garde from Brasserie Castelain in Bénifontaine, France that I sampled during my brief stay in Carcassonne was their Ch’ti Blonde. Ch’ti was a 6.4% golden farmhouse ale sold in a stubby 330mL bottle. It poured with a short-lived cover of off-white head and had an aroma that was sweet, metallic, and slightly earthy. The sweetness persisted in the flavour, which was malt-forward, a bit bready, and featured honey and fruit notes.

Unlike the other B de G from Castelain that I sampled during my travels (Blonde du Nord), Ch’ti was stronger and had a bit more bitterness at its back end, contributing a bit of balance. Again, I was expecting a bit more yeastiness, akin to a saison, but I think the problem was less with the beer than my own misconceptions about the style. A touch too sweet, perhaps, but nice and strong, Ch’ti featured an array of subtle flavours that emerged as the beer warmed.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Reflects de France Bière de Garde Artisanal Blonde du Nord

Reflects de France Bière de Garde Artisanal Blonde du Nord is a 6% effort from Brasserie Castelain in Bénifontaine, France. My father-in-law brought a corked and caged 750mL bottle back to our rental place in Carcassonne, and I decided to take it for a spin.

Blonde du Nord proved to be a clear, golden ale. It poured with a thin disc of white head and had a sweet, slightly yeasty aroma with notes of apple and green grape. The mouthfeel was very smooth and almost thin, with a timid flavour that was sweet, grainy, and faintly yeasty—not a lot of the farmhouse funk that I was hoping for. There was almost no bitterness and the finish was sweet and short.

I have a limited knowledge of bières de garde, and I know that Castelain is one of the reputed master makers of the style, but I found their Blonde du Nord to be a bit blinkered—perhaps a brew designed as an introduction, rather than a full-flavoured, full strength bière de garde.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Countdown Pale Ale

Sold in Sci-Fi-friendly 473mL cans, Countdown Pale Ale is a new offering from Vankleek Hill’s Beau’s Brewing Co. The certified organic pale ale is brewed to 5%. The beer pours dull gold under a considerable layer of eggshell head.

Countdown has a grainy, barnyard aroma, with a touch of sweetness and lots of floral hops. The flavour is fresh and earthy, with some hay sweetness preceding a dank, floral bitterness.

Sipping this beer and ruminating on it, I had to double-check the percentage, because it tastes considerably bigger than its 5%. This beer is fresh and fragrant, with a sticky bitter finish that adds a bit of balance—a really good effort from a prolific Ontario beer maker. If you like beers that remind you that they’re agricultural products, Countdown is a good place to look.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Half Remembered Dream

The label that adorns the 750mL bottles of Half Remembered Dream indicates that the “blend of golden sour beers aged in oak barrels with rose hips and hibiscus” contained within “ages gracefully”. So I did something that I thought myself unable to do—I let the stuff age. Nothing ridiculous. I didn’t cellar it for five years or anything. But I let the beer, brewed and bottled in August 2018, sit until January 2020. Not nothing when you consider both my small living space and the volume of beer I consume.

Half Remembered Dream comes from Small Pony Barrel Works out of Kanata, Ontario. It’s a 5% barrel-aged sour with a rose gold colour, just a touch of sediment, a short-lived off-white head, and a pretty decent constellation of carbonation. It has a tart, nectarine and berry nose accented with a floral hint. The tartness and not-quite-ripe nectarine elements are evident in the flavour as well. Barrel-aged woodiness is present, but not dominant. There is almost no bitterness to speak of, but the beer’s inherent sourness balances out what might otherwise be a too sweet offering.

Never having tasted it fresh, I can’t say if letting Half Remembered Dream marinate for over a year was worthwhile. However, I’ll say I really enjoyed what turned up in my glass. I’d have liked the alcohol content to have been a bit higher, but the delicate, slightly floral elements were able to shine as a result.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Hibernator 2019

During the last Sunday of the NFL regular season, I was looking forward to watching my Raiders battle the hated Broncos. The game was listed on the TV schedule. I sat down to root ... and found my game had been preempted by the Titans and Texans! Steaming mad, I reached for something strong: Hibernator 2019 from Toronto’s Bandit Brewery. H:2019 is a 10% alcohol, bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout brewed with coconut. Sold in 750mL bombers, the labels feature a ghoulish raccoon skeleton gripping a chalice. It comes from Toronto's Bandit Brewery. I received this beer as a birthday gift courtesy of the always thoughtful and thoroughly rad S&G. Thanks buddies!

Tar black and capped with tan foam, H:2019 has a sweet, roasted malt nose accented with a splash of baked coconut. Extremely sweet through the flavour, the beer packs strong, woody elements, considerable booze warmth, and a crunch of toasted coconut. Given its strength, the beer is drinkably smooth, and it only has limited bitterness, manifested as dark chocolate and espresso at the back end.

If I’m being honest, this beer didn’t have the imperial stout depth that I hoped for. It was too sweet and the coconut was used as a primary note rather than an accent. It’d be a great digestif, and would probably go well over vanilla ice cream; however, as a stand-alone beefy stout, it’s got a bit too much of the peripherals and not enough of the meat and taters.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Petitcoudiac Rye IPA

Listening to Alan Maitland's rendition of Frederick Forsyth's short story “The Shepherd” on Christmas Eve, I wanted something with a little heft. Petitcoudiac Rye IPA is a bit low in alcohol for the style (6%), but it’s got a robust 60 IBUs and that’s what I was after. It’s a slightly hazy, bronze ale that pours with a thin layer of creamy head that comes from Dieppe, New Brunswick’s Cavok Brewing Co. The beer is sold in 473mL cans that have a pretty spiffy texture.

Petitcoudiac has substantial piney aromatics, as well as a whiff of caramel sweetness. The flavour combines a sweet, biscuity front end with caramel notes, and a rich, evergreen finish. Some rye spiciness adds a bit of subtext. 

Other than a lower than ideal percentage, there wasn’t much not to like about this li’l rye IPA. I’d eagerly down another can of this stuff.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Into the Woods

Christmas Day afternoon drinking calls for brown ale—this time Into the Woods from Fredericton, NB’s Graystone Brewing. ITW is a 5% ale sold in 473mL cans that have a pretty river scene on them.

ITW is a clear copper ale. It pours with a short-lived off-white head and has a metallic and roasted malt nose. Those notes are mirrored in the flavour, along with molasses and some breadiness. The back end sees nuttiness enter the equation, along with some coffee-tinted bitterness.

If I’m being honest, I didn’t love this beer when I first cracked it—I found the aromatics to be a touch too sweet and coppery, and that put me in a bad headspace. However, as I got to tasting it and found the sweetness to be largely confined to the front end, my enthusiasm grew considerably. By the end, I was pretty satisfied.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Do Good-er American Pale Ale

Do Good-er American Pale Ale comes from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and its Upstreet Craft Brewing (a certified B-Corp). The beer is sold in cheesy 355mL cans that feature a cheery super-nerd who appears to be rescuing a cat. The beer contains 5.5% alcohol. It’s a brassy ale that pours with a thin cover of cream-hued head.

Do Good-er has a sharp, piney scent with some sweet, citrus elements. Crisp and pretty crushable, the beer still packs some decent flavour, with orange, grapefruit and pine leading the charge and caramel and biscuit duking it out on the undercard.

Unremarkable, but with good bones, Upstreet’s Do Good-er is a decent take on the APA. When on Canada’s East Coast, it’s not a bad option at all.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.