Voodoo HazeMama New England IPA

I had a marvelous beer mail delivery from the friendly team at Great Lakes Brewery. Included were eight cans of Octopus Wants To Fight, eight of Meanwhile ... Down in Moxee, and eight of the only one that was new to me, Voodoo HazeMama New England IPA.

Voodoo HazeMama (dumb name IMHO--in fact, in the weeks since I wrote this review, the beer has been re-branded and re-christened as HazeMama NEIPA) is a 7% ale sold in 473mL cans that have a sticker that declares “may contain strawberry”.  The crazy hazy beer has a rosy gold hue and pours with a fluff of off-white head. The beer has a juicy, slightly bitter nose with notes of orange, peach, and (maybe I was influenced by the sticker on the can) strawberry. The flavour continues the fruit cocktail vibe, with lots of sweetness up front, a tinge of bitterness at the back end, and a pretty creamy mouthfeel throughout.

Compared to some of the other beautiful IPA efforts from the crew at GLB, Voodoo HazeMama is a second tier effort. It has great strength and a beautiful, hazy look. It’s too sweet and it lacks the crackling back end that puts the IPA in NEIPAs.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Godspeed Goodies--Irori Peated Scotch Lager

Of the seven different beers that I ordered from Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery, the one I was most excited about was easily their Irori Peated Scotch Lager. The brew, a hefty 8% lager, is sold in 355mL cans. According to the copy, the beer was brewed in tribute to a former mentor. It’s a ruby-hued lager that pours with a thin layer of off-white head.

Irori has a surprisingly mild nose—it has a peaty, malt-driven aroma, but for a beer so strong, it isn’t overpowering. The flavour, however, is pretty dang rowdy—smoky, malty, boozy, and slightly sweet, with a bitter back end.

A peated lager is an interesting conception, and this innovative, high gravity brew worked it out compellingly. It’s a truly unusual beer and one I found extremely enjoyable.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Godspeed Goodies--Mine American-Style Pale Ale

Godspeed Brewery’s take on the APA is called Mine American-Style Pale Ale, a 5.6% brew sold in great-looking 355mL cans. The beer is a slightly hazy copper-gold ale that pours with a brief layer of fluff that quickly recedes into an off-white circlet.

Mine has a faint toasted malt aroma with some biscuit and metallic notes. The flavour kicks off with grain and sweetness, and it culminates with a gentle, underwhelming floral bitterness.

Toronto’s Godspeed thrives on creating subtle, soft-spoken ales and lagers, and I prefer my APAs to be assertive and boisterous. In fairness, Mine’s delicate flavour is interesting and well-executed; it just isn’t really to my own taste. Of all of the beers I’ve enjoyed from Godspeed, Mine struck me as a lesser offering. To be clear, though: still pretty good.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Godspeed Goodies--Kiri Belgian Witbier

Kiri Belgian Witbier, from Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery, is a 5.1% Belgian-style wheater sold in 355mL cans. It’s an enthusiastically carbonated and slight hazy beer that pours with a crown of white suds.

Kiri has a yeasty nose, supplemented by notes of orange peel and clove—classic witbier aromatics. The flavour follows the same pattern: yeasty top note, with subtle orange rind and spice elements, as well as some banana esters. The mouthfeel benefits from ample carbonation, giving it an extra refreshing quality.

I’m not a huge witbier guy, so I approached Kiri with some trepidation; however, what I ended up with was four cans of a delightful, bright summery ale. I’d have liked it a bit more if it hit the citrus note a little louder.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Godspeed Goodies--Svētlÿ Ležak 12’ Czech Premium Pale Lager

My darling readers, if you’re a fan of pilsners and other crisp pale lagers and a resident of Toronto, then listen to your ol’ pal the Stout Man and get a-hold of some 355mL cans of Svētlÿ Ležak 12’ Czech Premium Pale Lager from Godspeed Brewery. Run! Don’t walk.

This is a 5% pale lager. It’s a clear, amply carbonated golden ale that pours with a thin layer of white suds. It’s got a sharp, grainy, hoppy nose, with understated mown grass sweetness for balance. Big for a 5% pale lager, the flavour has a fast-moving sweet to hoppy flow. It goes from cereal sweet to noble hop bitterness in a near instant, and the transition is precise and admirable.

The vibe of this classic, Euro-style lager is crisp and flavourful, with a cracklin’ dry, hoppy finish. This isn’t really a session-friendly pale lager, despite its average stats—the beer has too much oomph to bust into more than two in a row. However, as Ontario pale lager a go, it’s a thing of damn beauty.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.

Goodspeed Goodies--Otsukaresama

There aren’t a whole lot of dortmunders brewed in Ontario, so when I saw that Godspeed Brewery had one, called Otsukaresama, I was pretty pumped. Otsukaresama is a 4.8% pale lager sold in 355mL cans. The Torontonian brew is a clear, copper gold potion with a short-lived eggshell head.

Otsukaresama has a grainy, dry, noble hop aroma. The flavour has an agreeable touch of toastiness, a slightly metallic vibe, and a pretty robust hop character that gives it a nice, dry finish.

My limited understanding is that “otsukaresama” translates into “thank you for your hard work”, so I think Otsukaresama makes for a solid after-work beer—crisp and crushable, with great flavour, but not overpowering. Solid.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Godspeed Goodies--Oi!

Oi! is an extra special bitter from the team at Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery. It’s a 5.1% alcohol ale sold in snazzy, peaceful 355mL cans. Oi! has a beautiful bronze colour and it pours with a thin, short-lived off-white head.

Oi! has sweet, malty aromatics, with caramel and toasty notes. The flavour is l, in its time, biscuity, malty, sweet, and toasty. The movement is from sweet to modestly bitter, and the balance is commendable.

My favourite ESBs typically have a bit more in terms of coppery notes than Oi! does, but the balance is strong, the strength is respectable, and overall impression is really enjoyable. Oi! is reflective of Godspeed’s commitment to subtle, well-made ales. It’s a good ESB that demonstrates a laudable attention to detail.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Godspeed Goodies--Kemuri

Billed as a “Godspeed Style Porter”, Kemuri is a 4.7% dark ale brewed in Toronto by the gang at Godspeed Brewery and sold in smoky 355mL cans. Those details are slightly supplemented on the Godspeed website, which classes this as a smoked porter.

The beer is onyx with a tan head. It features a slightly peaty aromatic note, along with a whiff of sweet roasted malt. The flavour mimics the nose, but bigger: it’s quite smoky, rich in maltiness, and, at the back end, has an acrid tang of burnt espresso (but pleasant). 

Godspeed’s take on the smoked porter is basically as you’d expect from a brewery that (in my opinion, at least) thrives by focusing on attention to detail and subtlety. Unlike some smoked porters that bring the campfire energy to 11, this one has a malty, smoky character that is understated. And unlike some other SPs that supplement their flavour with big booziness, this one dazzles with a complicated and complex profile, at a low-alcohol rate. Truth be told, I typically enjoy a smoked porter with a bit more heft, but this offering from one of Toronto’s finest is a real winner at 4.7%. A bit more emphasis on bitterness to drive balance would have been my only note.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Godspeed Goodies

Beer mail at its finest brought be a selection of beers from Toronto's excellent Godspeed Brewery--one of Ontario's best and, in my opinion, most underrated breweries. My experience with Godspeed has been that their beer is subtle, nuanced, and well-crafted.

Stay tuned to the Bitter World over the next fortnight for my thoughts on a septet of brews from a fine establishment, and some of the most aesthetically beautiful beers in the province.

Voodoo HazeMama New England IPA

I had a marvelous beer mail delivery from the friendly team at Great Lakes Brewery. Included were eight cans of Octopus Wants To Fight (for which I have a newfound appreciation), eight of the excellent Meanwhile ... Down in Moxee, and eight of the only one that was new to me, Voodoo HazeMama New England IPA.

Voodoo HazeMama (dumb name IMHO) is a 7% ale sold in 473mL cans that have a sticker that declares “may contain strawberry”.  The crazy hazy beer has a rosy gold hue and pours with a fluff of off-white head. The beer has a juicy, slightly bitter nose with notes of orange, peach, and (maybe I was influenced by the sticker on the can) strawberry. The flavour continues the fruit cocktail vibe, with lots of sweetness up front, a tinge of bitterness at the back end, and a pretty creamy mouthfeel throughout.

Compared to some of the other beautiful IPA efforts from the crew at GLB, Voodoo HazeMama is a second tier effort. It has great strength and a beautiful, hazy look. It’s too sweet and it lacks the crackling back end that puts the IPA in NEIPAs.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Dominion Delivery--Giants of the North

An imperial stout brewed with almonds, vanilla, milk sugar, cacao nibs from Hummingbird Chocolate, and maple syrup from Cheslock’s Sugar Bush, Giants of the North comes from Dominion City Brewing Co. in Ottawa. Sold in 355mL cans, GotN contains a ribald 10% alcohol. It’s a hella dark ale that pours with a thin tan head.

GotN has a rich, sweet aroma with malty, chocolatey notes. While there isn’t a lot of maple in the nose, the flavour makes up for it with verve—maple sweetness is evident from the second the beer touches your tongue. Alongside are chocolate and vanilla notes. The mouthfeel of this robust stout is syrupy and sweet. Other than a bit of dark chocolate, there is very little bitterness.

The sweetness and booziness combine to make Giants of the North Imperial Stout a hefty ale—a choice after supper sipper and, I would theorize, one that would be excellent with vanilla ice cream (I have a second can of this stuff and I may test this theory out). It’s too sweet and strong to even imagine a second can, and I might have liked a bit more bitterness to add some balance, but I really enjoyed this strong ass sweet stuff from Dominion City.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Dominion Delivery--Friends & Neighbours DIPA

A collab between Ottawa’s Dominion City Brewing Co. and Lost Nation Brewery out of Vermont, Friends & Neighbours DIPA is an 8% double IPA. It’s sold in 355mL cans that explain the beer is made with a trio of hops (Citra, Galaxy, and Simcoe) and Lost Nation’s house yeast.

F&N is a hazy beaut with a dull orange-gold colour and a sudsy off-white head. It has an engaging aroma profile with smooth notes of citrus and passionfruit. The mouthfeel is pleasantly smooth and, for a strong ale, extremely mellow. The flavour is understated—clementine and grapefruit, juicy and sweet—with a floral, just slightly bitter back end.

Friends & Neighbours is treacherously easy-drinking for a strong ale. Its flavour is nice and subtle, but it lacks the hoppiness and grit that I like to see in my favourite DIPAs. Still, pretty good stuff and a great option if you dig hazy, New England-style IPAs, but want a bigger, stronger alternative.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Dominion Delivery--Provincial IPA with Cascade and Chinook

Ottawa, Ontario’s Dominion City Brewing Co. is the source of Provincial IPA with Cascade and Chinook, a 6.5% ale. Sold in 355mL cans, Provincial is a hazy IPA. It’s got a golden orange colour and pours with an extremely durable layer of white foam.

This version of Provincial (apparently there are other versions that play with different hops) has an affable orange juice aroma, supplemented with some light bitterness and a faint floral lilt. The flavour is quite mild, but enjoyable, with an OJ orientation, a smooth mouthfeel, and mellow bitterness in the back end.

Provincial IPA with Cascade and Chinook is a fair, agreeable, and inoffensive offering from an excellent brewery. It’s not overly compelling, but that isn’t to say it isn’t enjoyable; it’s just a pretty good beer. DCBC has some truly memorable ales and this one isn’t in that category.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.