Autre Chose IPA à la Pêche

A new, canned offering from Chambly, Quebec’s Unibroue, Autre Chose IPA à la Pêche is a 6% ale, dry-hopped, and brewed with Cascade, Citra, Galaxy, and Lemondrop hops. The 50 IBU beer comes in a 473mL can with a slightly confusing image. Obviously, it’s really a demonic dude in a trilby mixing up a cauldron full of potion, but I can’t really look at it without seeing a demented Muppet-style monster with eyes where the horns should be. A real puzzler.

The beer is a hazy golden orange with a durable, sudsy white head. This peachy IPA doesn’t actually list peaches in the ingredients list, but the aromatics scream fuzzy fruit roundies, buttressed by significant yeastiness. The flavour is yeasty, bitter, and a little dank, but peachiness is definitely the dominant note.

 

I didn't rate this beer when I actually drank it, so in lieu of affixing an artificial one, I am just going to say that I recall enjoying the beer and would definitely buy it again.

Straight Up Sour w/ Peaches

From Toronto’s Radical Road Brewing Co. and their Funk & Sour Series comes Straight Up Sour w/ Peaches, a 6% sour ale brewed with Ontario peaches.

The beer is yellowy gold and pours with almost no head. It has an acidic nose with loads of peach notes. For flavour, we’re dealing with considerable tartness and a bit of fruity funk, although less peachy than I’d have liked. The mouthfeel was a touch thin, though the booze quotient was optimal.

This beer had promise and delivered with some good attributes, but I’d really have liked it if it’d hit the peach harder and featured a bit more carbonation.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Im-Peach-Ment Tart & Peachy Wit

Walking down the aisle of a Victoria, BC beer shop, I spotted a 473mL can of Im-Peach-Ment Tart & Peachy Wit and needed it to come home with me. The can was plain, but a name like that is worthy of a purchase every time. Brewed in Kamloops, BC, the 5%, 10 IBU wheat ale is made by Red Collar Brewing Co. The beer was strikingly clear, which seemed strange for a wheat bear. It had a sunny gold colour and poured with a thin layer of white suds.

Brewed using those fuzzy, juicy round guys, Im-Peach-Ment had a tangy nose that incorporated yeast, wheat and a wallop of peaches. The mouthfeel was initially thin, but picked up steam toward the peachy hind end. The flavour kicked off with the watery sweetness of a peach tea, but closed out with some unripened peach tartness.

Cute name aside, the beer was just pretty good. It was a bit short of body, and the flavour was agreeable, but a bit wispy.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Barn Owl No. 3

A "mixed fermentation farmhouse ale with Ontario peaches" comes from Toronto's Bellwoods Brewery. I picked up an owl-emblazoned 500mL bottle at the bottle shop, brought it home, and reviewed it with my lovely mother-in-law (who likes to try beers in 2oz. samples).

Here are her idiosyncratic thoughts:

Frothy, fruity, and sangria-esque. Light--the fuzzy navel of beer. Could drink it quite easily. Would dress it up and put fruit in it. Liked it a lot.

The beer was cloudy and orange. It poured with a thin and fluffy white head that faded extremely quickly down to nothing. It had a sharp and yeasty aroma, sitting boldly atop a slightly fruity base. I found the flavour to be a touch tart, particularly early on, with a lovely unripened peach vibe. It's yeasty and a bit funky.

 

Barn Owl was a pretty decent little farmhouse. It was a bit short of fizziness, which I found a tad disappointing, but packed a lot of flavour into its 6.5% alcohol frame.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.