Icebreaker Brut IPA

According to the copy on the 473mL can of Icebreaker Brut IPA, “[e]very spring when the weather starts to warm, brave and eager paddlers head out to break ice on the river.” The namesake paddlers and I have nothing in common. As the weather starts to warm, my own impulse [same as when the weather is chilly] is to reach for a beer, and in this case, I grabbed a can of the 5%, 46 IBU brew from Fosters Falls, Ontario. 

 

Brewed by the folks at Whitewater Brewing Co., who recently impressed me with their Astrolabe Session IPA, I approached Icebreaker with quite a bit of enthusiasm. The beer, billed as a “very dry” offering, is a hazy, dull gold grog under a loose, off-white head. It has a pretty hefty perfumed hops nose and a flavour built around floral bitterness. As indicated on the can, the beer is kindling dry, though it  lacks the champagne effervescence that characterizes the Brut IPA style. 

On the whole, I thought Icebreaker was a good effort, though it was undeniably under-strength. A bit more fizz would have been style-appropriate, too, though the dryness was well-executed and the bitterness was on point for a lower alcohol IPA variant.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Bandit Brut

Bandit Brut is a Torontonian example of that trendiest of 2018 beer styles, the brut IPA. From Bandit Brewery, Brut comes in 500mL bottles and contains just 5.6%. It’s a hazy orange-gold ale with a boatload of carbonation and peaks and valleys of dense white head.

Zevon says in "smells interesting"

The beer has a sweet, almost peachy aroma, as well as a whisper of bitterness. The flavour here was delicate, with perfume-y stone fruit and yeast doing yeomen duty and a bright, effervescent mouthfeel occupying the starring role.

Admittedly, this was my first dance with a brut IPA, so I won’t paint the whole subtype with the same brush, but I wasn’t blown away by Bandit’s Brut. The flavour was understated but too thin, and the mouthfeel was pleasant, but hardly captivating. I have a hard time classing this 5.6% ale as any sort of IPA. All criticism aside, though, the peach notes, while thin on the ground, were enjoyable. I know the Bard’s cliché about a rose smelling as sweet, but call this a pale ale and I feel like I’d have been more receptive. That failing is mine and not Bandit’s, especially since there was actually a lot to like about their Brut, so I can’t take it out on them in the ratings. What I will say, though, is that the flavour was too sparse and the percentage too low, whatever you call the thing.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Gerard Comeau Brut IPA

The intersection of beer and the law is a place that interests me greatly. That’s why, when I heard about an interprovincial collaboration between the Québécois Brasserie du Bas Canada out of Gatineau and Ottawa’s Flora Hall Brewing Co., I put out an APB for a bottle of Gerard Comeau Brut IPA. Luckily for me, my old pal KC was in Ottawa and obliged by purchasing not one but three 500mL bottles of the 7.2% alcohol grog.

For those not in the know, Gerard Comeau is a gent from my home province, Nouveau Brunswick, who dared to travel to Quebec in search of cheaper beer and booze. Cited by the RCMP and fined $240 plus fees and surcharge,  Comeau decided to fight. Successful at first instance and at the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, it looked like Gerard would prevail, but the province’s appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was allowed and his fine was restored. The reasoning is high-falutin’ constitutional law dealing with interprovincial trade and tariffs, and is better dealt with in a legal forum. For my purposes, Gerard Comeau is a dude who fought to freely bring beer across provincial lines and regardless of his ultimate defeat, I think he’s a folk hero worthy of a beer named in his honour.

On to the beer.

GC is a brut IPA, meaning it is effervescent like a sparkling wine and extremely low on sugar. The beer I got was a fizzy golden number; clear beer under a sudsy white cap. It had a dry, yeasty aroma with some faintly floral bitterness. Crisp and extremely dry, the beer wasn’t overly flavourful, though there were some perfumed bitter elements, particularly at the finish, and even more particularly as the beer warmed.

Incredibly easy-drinking for a 7.2% beer, GC was a well-brewed collaboration between two breweries I’d never before encountered. Even without its legal/historical significance, I’d have called this a quality beer, but the context is definitely worth an extra half-point in my personal scale. Brut IPAs, while all be rage, are still pretty new to me, but this one really clicked. I’d have liked for the amplifiers to be turned up a bit, flavour-wise, particularly in the early going, but that won’t stop me from enjoying the other two bottles I’ve got left.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.