Yamayama

 Yamayama is the latest American-style IPA from Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery. The beer comes in 355mL cans. It’s a 6.9% ale with a rich copper colour and a goodish layer of off-white head.

The beer has a refined evergreen aroma. Its flavour ticks a lot of West Coast IPA boxes—it’s resinous, piney, and a bit dank. The beer has a sticky, stanky finish that I quite enjoyed.

I found this beer to be quite similar to another Godspeed offering: Shizumu. It’s an enjoyable ale and I’d gladly buy it again.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Karma El Dorado

The third and final installment of Great Lake Brewery’s Karma Citra variants is Karma El Dorado. This 6.6% American IPA is born in Toronto and brewed using El Dorado hops and, interestingly, it is the only one in the series that doesn’t list oats among its ingredients. The beer comes in extremely attractive 473mL cans. It’s a golden brew with faint haziness and a fluffy white foam.

Karma El Dorado has a sweet waft of tropical fruit on the nose. Its flavour is relatively mild, moving from sweet to bitter, tropical to citrus. The texture of this beer is a bit thin, but pleasantly effervescent.

Another good offering from GLB’s 7 Barrel Series, Karma El Dorado has a grand flavour profile and little not to like.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Karma Simcoe

Karma Simcoe is my second foray into Great Lakes Brewery’s world of Yakima Valley-inspired Karma Citra variants. The 6.6% brew comes is lovely 473mL cans. The Toronto-born ale is a gently hazy golden grog and it pours with a fluffy and durable white foam.

Karma Simcoe has a mellow, juicy nose, accented with a touch of piquant pine. The beer has an agreeable flavour with some citrus notes backed by an evergreen hook.

The beer isn’t quite as quarrelsome as a classic West Coast IPA, but it does feature some of those pine/citrus elements, and it’s executed with some subtle flair.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Karma Sabro

Karma Sabro is Great Lakes Brewery’s Karma Citra variant featuring Sabro hops. For what it’s worth, Sabro is possibly the hop I enjoy least, so this beer had an uphill climb right off the jump. It’s a lightly hazy, pale golden brew. It emerges from its gorgeous 473mL cans under a wispy white head. 

Karma Sabro has a pineapple and coconut aromatic profile—sweet and juicy. The flavour is similarly constructed, with piña colada elements, lots of sweetness, and a back end with citrus bitterness.

My beef with Sabro is the coconut flavour tends to dominate a beer and I found that same thing happened with Karma Sabro. It’s just a little too sweet and tropical for me. But that isn’t really a reflection of the quality of the beer—just my own preferences.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Voodoo Ranger IPA

Clear and bright with a fluffy white head, Voodoo Ranger IPA looks almost irresistible. From Fort Collins, Colorado/Asheville, North Carolina, VR is brewed by New Belgium Brewing. According to the label, this beer is “brewed with spice”, though there is no indication just why those spices might be, though it does note that the hops are Mosaic and Amarillo. I ended up with a sextet of 12oz bottles of the 7% ale when the Bitter Wife returned from a work event in the US—she’s so sweet!

VR has a murky and resinous nose, underscored with a suggestion of tropical fruit. Tropical fruit ain’t no suggestion in the flavour, though! It’s a juicy and assertive statement—notes of mango are all over this one. The finish has a dank, resin-heavy tone with a slightly floral element.

I’m not sure what spices are involved in the brewing of VR, but the end result is a burly but juicy IPA with a pretty compelling finish. I’m definitely glad to have another five of these bad boys at my disposal.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Meanwhile ... Down in Moxee

Meanwhile ... Down in Moxee is an American IPA—billed as a Vermont-style IPA on the tap list at Bar Hop—from Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery. At 6.4%, the strength of this clear golden ale is a decent, but toward the base of the IPA booziness spectrum. My 15oz draught arrived with a pretty lush white head and a fruity nose that tended toward fresh melon and berries.

Though it’s extremely light-bodied for an IPA, Moxee doesn’t sacrifice one ounce of flavour, with juicy melon and  a cornucopia of other subtle and enticing fruit notes. Not particularly bitter, Moxee still manages to have a pretty dynamic hop profile with a bit of stickiness at the finish.

Vermont-style IPAs are a pretty new addition to the Ontario craft beer palate, and GLB’s take is definitely one of the best that I’ve tried so far. The body is thin, but the flavour has compelling depth. At 6.4%, this beer is either a bit too mild for the style, or dangerously too strong for a session ale. Either way, it’s a juicy, subtle creation from one of Toronto’s finest. I typically flavour bold, bludgeoning IPAs, but this one has a fragility that makes you take is seriously.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.