Joe

Simply called Joe, this DIPA from Toronto’s Bandit Brewery is brewed with Citra, Mosaic, and Strata hops. The beer comes in 355mL cans that appear to feature a chain gang motif with a hammer and a ball and chain. Joe is a milky pale gold with a fluffy and durable white foam.

Joe has sweet and sticky aromatics, with tropical fruit notes and a tang of resin stank. The flavour is juicy, fruity, and dank, with passionfruit and bitter citrus. The beer tastes punchy, but nowhere near as strong as the actual 8.2% listed on the can.

Bandit Brewery has become a bit of an IPA/DIPA factory, pumping out a series of very similar double dry-hopped offerings. While some of these can be indistinguishable, Joe is one of the standouts, with a nice, sharp flavour, big strength, and a great look.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

On Mute

Toronto’s Collective Arts outpost is the brains behind On Mute, a DIPA brewed with El Dorado and Strata hops. Sold in 500mL bottles, On Mute is a substantial 8.6% bruiser made with oats and wheat. The beer is hazy, orange-gold, and blanketed by a sudsy white head.

To my schnoz, O.M. Has massive fruit aromatics, specifically white grapefruit, orange, and a touch of lime. The flavour is equally citrusy, with OJ and grapefruit in the fore and an undercurrent of booziness throughout. The beer has a mellow, New England-style texture and a back end that is only slightly bitter, manifesting as citrus zest and light resin.

This brew was recommended to me highly by the dude at the Collective Arts bottle shop and I can see why. Might be a little strong for pre-dinner on a Wednesday, but it started off my evening with a bang. My only beef is that I’d have liked a bit more depth to the texture—this one manages to be a little to smooth and milky for me.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Travel Envy

A hazy double IPA from Toronto, Travel Envy is an 8.5% ale from Amsterdam Brewery. It comes in 473mL cans with really excellent labels. According to the copy, the beer is brewed with Nelson Sauvin hops. It’s a hazy gold-orange beer and with pours with a layer of fluffy suds.

For an eight-plus percenter, this beer has a really mild aroma, with some agreeable fruit notes. The flavour is considerably more assertive, with big tropical fruit notes and a slightly resinous finish.

I thought this was a really enjoyable ale—punchy, flavourful, and not too sweet. Really great packaging, too.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Tell Me Fortunes Double IPA

Enjoyed on a balmy New Year's Day whilst assembling a puzzle with the Bitter Wife, Tell Me Fortunes Double IPA is an 8% ale from the team at Rainhard Brewing in Toronto. Sold in 473mL cans with a crystal ball motif, the beer inside is dull orange-gold and pours with a lacy off-white head.

TMF has aromatics that wander from tropical fruit to resin, with a flash of booze. The flavour is a bit dank and a bunch boozy, with sweet tropical fruit throughout. The finish has a bit of sticky bitterness, but remains sweet.

Rainhard makes some good IPAs and DIPAs, but I don’t know that I’d count Tell Me Fortunes among my favourites. It’s frankly a bit too sweet for my tastes.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Hooked Up

Hooked Up is an interesting concept—two double IPAs with a common name brewed by two breweries in two cities—one a West Coast classic and the other described as “a more modern DIPA.” The Hooked Up collaboration is the work of Toronto’s Henderson Brewing Co. and Ottawa’s Broadhead Brewery.

First up I decided to tackle Broadhead’s version of Hooked Up. Sold in 473mL cans, the beer has 7.5% alcohol, which is a tad under strength compared to my preferred Double IPAs, but still strong enough to have some snap. The beer is bronze in colour and pours with a touch of ecru head. To my nose, there is a medley of tropical fruit notes, a touch of pine, and a slightly metallic tinkle. The flavour is quite sweet, particularly initially, with floral, honey, and fruit elements. There is some bitterness, but it is restrained. And there is a notable absence of boozy burn.

It’s not a bad beer, but there are definitely some tweaks that could make it sing—more booze and a heartier texture.

Rating 7.0 out of 10.

The West Coast leaning Henderson Brewing Co. edition of Hooked Up is an 8.5% brew. It’s copper coloured and clear, with a dense and creamy  off-white head. The beer has mild but agreeable aroma focused around a roasty malt foundation and accents of pine and grapefruit. The flavour is considerably more assertive, with citrus and evergreen driving the bus. The beer is fairly malty, but the balance is mixed in favour of hops and bitterness. The booze is apparent, without being dominant.

This was a really enjoyable double IPA—strong and brassy, with a nice, old school flavour profile.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Nachmeleny Czech Double IPA

From the Pivovar Godspeed series of Czech-style beers comes Nachmeleny Czech Double IPA. The 8% beer from Toronto’s Godspeed Brewery is sold in 355mL cans with the majority of the copy written in Czech, but the Godspeed website explains the historical importance of hop-picking under communism and how it remains a “popular summer gig in Bohemia.” The beer is made using Saaz and Kazbeck hops. It’s a clear, bright copper ale with a modest cap of off-white head.

Nachmeleny has, for a strong beer, a refined and restrained aromatic profile. To my nose, there were floral notes as well as a whiff of cranberry. However, where I might have expected a tart flavour, instead I found a quirky blend of earthiness, pepper, white wine, and a touch of baked apple. The beer proved quite hoppy and the floral bitterness really lingered on the palate.

Beers like Nachmeleny make me a happy lad—I love the double IPA strength and format, but I can sometimes get a bit tired of the same, familiar flavour profiles: pine, citrus, and tropical fruit (I love ‘em all, but a departure is a treat). This beer was strong and well made, but offered something a bit different. The aroma could have been a bit more robust, but otherwise, these were some quality suds.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

A DIPA

 A DIPA, from Toronto’s Bellwoods Brewery, is an 8.8% brute made with a quintet of hops: Galaxy, Loral, Mosaic, Motueka, and Vic Secret. The brew is almost impossibly hazy, with a milky orange colour and a modest crown of white suds. And it's a relative of An IPA.

The aromatics are less robust than I expected, with citrus and tropical notes. The flavour is sweet, juicy, and and a little dank, with orange juice and floral elements, and a resinous final note. For a strong beer, this one has an extremely smooth texture.

A DIPA is a pleasing mélange of hops and fruit. I’d have liked for there to have been a bit more bitterness, but it should be said that the hefty booziness is deviously well-cloaked.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Rumblecat Double IPA

 From Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery, Rumblecat Double IPA is a 7.5% ale that comes in neon 355mL cans. Described as “vicious and delicious” in the copy, the beer is brewed with wheat and oats. It has a hazy, dull-gold colour and pours with an impressive peak of off-white foam.

Rumblecat has a rowdy aroma, fortified with  booze, and featuring berry and stone fruit notes, a whisper of tartness, and a bit of dank bitterness. Likewise, the flavour is a bit of a slightly tart, yeasty fruit salad followed up with a resinous finish.

Not quite as strong as I tend to like my double IPAs, but Rumblecat has an interesting flavour profile that game me some thrills.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Brain Space

 An 8.4% double IPA from Whitby, Ontario, Brain Space comes from Town Brewery. It’s an orange-gold hazer with a sprinkling of off-white suds that comes in colourful 473mL cans. It’s made using Citra, El Dorado, and Huell Melon hops.

Brain Space has aromatics that sing with orange and floral notes, along with a wallop of boozy heat. The flavour, too, packs a lot of OJ characteristics, with considerable sweetness up front, and a faint floral bitterness toward the finish line. Underlying the whole shebang is an unsubtle booziness. It also has a pleasant, velvety texture.

This beer tastes strong, but it isn’t overly sweet. That makes it a lovely choice for after dinner sipping. I’d guess there might be some oats in there somewhere to explain the smooth texture, but it isn’t listed on the can or the website, so I might be mistaken. More assertive hops would have clicked for me.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Orage Double IPA

 Another hazy hopster from the team at Bandit Brewing in Toronto, Orage Double IPA is an 8.2% beaut. It’s a cloudy orange brew made with the terrific trio of Citra, Galaxy, and Mosaic hops. The beer, sold in 355mL cans, pours with a fluffy white head. It does, however, also pour with a bit more sediment than I’d have liked. This doesn’t manifest in the mouthfeel, but it isn’t visually appealing. According to Bandit’s website, the name is a nod to the French term for thunderstorm, which was a little vocab nugget that I’d completely forgotten.

Orage has a an extremely inviting aroma, blending notes of orange juice, hemp, and some tropical elements. The flavour shows citrus and mango, initially, and then veers into sticky resin, while still remaining sweet. The texture is quite smooth for a beer north of 8%, and the booze is cleverly concealed.

Orage is one of my favourite offerings from Bandit—strong, but graceful; sweet, but not syrupy. I’d have liked a bit less “texture”, but otherwise a great beer.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Etobichoker Double Belgian IPA

 Born in Toronto’s west end, Etobichoker Double Belgian IPA is named in honour of Great Lakes Brewery’s location. The 8.1% ale comes in 473mL cans with a lurid Frankenstein’s monster/Halloween motif. The beer itself is orange gold and pours with a fluffy eggshell head. It incorporates both oats and wheat into the brewing process.

For a strong beer, Etobichoker has a fairly mild aroma, highlighted with tangy apple, funky yeast, and evergreen. The flavour harmonizes Belgian-style yeastiness with loads of pine bitterness. There is lots of boozy sweetness, as well as some crisp orchard fruit elements.

Etobichoker was a quirky offering from GLB. A nice hybrid beer, with good strength and a nice flavour. It’s a little too sweet for me, but otherwise solid.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Cut & Run

Rainhard Brewing in Toronto does up a swell double IPA brewed with El Dorado and Galaxy hops that they call Cut & Run. It’s an 8% ale sold in 355mL cans. The beer is a hazy orange-gold number and it pours with a sudsy white foam topper.

Mango is the chief aromatic note and it’s quite lovely. The flavour is quite sweet, with tropical fruit and a touch of citrus. Not a lot of bitterness, here, and the relatively punchy booze content is deviously well cloaked.

I’d have liked this beer to be a bit more assertively bitter, but the mango element was well played and the booze bit was subtle. Too sweet, perhaps, but not by much.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

10¢ Beer Night Double IPA

 

Named after one of the most ridiculous promotion disasters in Major League Baseball history (do yourself a favour and read about it, or else listen to the hilarious episode of the Hall of Shame podcast on the subject), 10¢ Beer Night Double IPA is a 7.8% beer brewed with wheat and oats. From Toronto, this stuff comes from the excellent Left Field Brewery. It’s sold in 355mL cans. 10¢ is a hazy pale golden ale and it pours with a shock of durable white foam.

10¢ has citrus aromatics that split the difference between sweet and bitter. This brew has a sweet, fruity front end, with notes of both melon and grapefruit. The finish has mini jolt of bitterness and some considerable warmth.

While 10¢ Beer Night is a bit undersized for a double IPA, it doesn’t want for flavour and the melon notes are extremely pleasant. I’d have liked a few more IBUs and a bit more heft through the back end, but otherwise, this was a very nice ale.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Continuum NEIPA

 Continuum NEIPA is a hella juicy and strong ale—one that I’d class as a hazy double IPA. It’s an 8% ale brewed in Kingston, Ontario by Stone City Ales. It’s made with Citra, Enigma, Galaxy, and Mosaic hops and it comes in 500mL bottles.

The beer is dull orange in colour and it pours with a fluffy white cloud. Continuum has sweet tropical fruit aromatics, supplemented with a whiff of bitter citrus. The flavour has tropical leanings, a faint coconut element, and a fairly bitter, grapefruit-driven back end. The beer doesn’t taste nearly as strong as its 8% pedigree, but you can certainly detect some heat.

Continuum is another enjoyable entry from Stone City—it’s a punchy hazer with a balanced flavour. Not a lot to complain about.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Reverie Hawaiian Punch Dreamsicle Double IPA

At 8.5%, Rorschach Brewing Co.’s Reverie Hawaiian Punch Dreamsicle Double IPA, is a hefty ale—a novelty that’ll get your ass drunk. Sold in 355mL cans, this Torontonian brew is made with apricot purée, guava purée, orange purée, passionfruit purée, pineapple purée, lactose sugar, oats, wheat, and vanilla. The beer is a cloudy, slightly sludgy dull orange colour with a white head.

 

As should come to absolutely no one’s surprise, this brew is extremely juicy, both in its nose and its flavour. The aroma is sweet and tropical, with little bitterness. The flavour is extremely sweet, with a bit of tartness lurking, and a touch of bitterness. Moreover, there’s a lot of booziness in this odd ale.

I appreciate the quirkiness of this big and complicated ale; however, the truth is that I didn’t love it. I liked the strength and the smooth lactose texture, but I found it too sweet and there was a bit of misplaced funk at the back end that gave the beet an “over-ripe” vibe.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

Town Brewery Trove--Close Talker Double IPA

Close Talker Double IPA comes from Whitby, Ontario and the team at Town Brewery. Sold in flashy 473mL cans, the beer is a fairly robust 8.1% alcohol ale. It’s an extremely hazy yellow-gold ale with a thin, yet fluffy white head.

CTDIPA has citrus-heavy aroma with both tart and sweet elements. The flavour has an orange juice vibe, with a sweet to bitter transition and a faint tanginess. The back end is citrusy and really quite mild.

At 8.1%, this isn’t the world’s strongest DIPA, but I really appreciate that it isn’t overly sweet and the booziness is admirably subtle. I found it to be a quality offering, though I’d have liked it to be a bit more overtly bitter.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Metalhead Double IPA

Burlington’s Nickel Brook Brewing Co. makes some of Ontario’s premier IPAs—Wicked Awesome IPA lives pretty close to its brazen moniker and Headstock IPA is truly a gem (not to mention the excellent Naughty Neighbour APA, which is a Stout Man fridge staple)—so when I saw 473mL cans of Metalhead Double IPA, I couldn’t get it into my cart fast enough. Brewed with a trio of hops—Citra, Eukanot, and Simcoe—the beer contains a punishing 9% alcohol and 85 IBUs. The beer, made with flaked wheat, has a hazy dull-orange colour and pours with a fairly thin off-white head.

Metalhead has a bold citrus nose, with a sweet and boozy tropical subtext. The beer kicks off with a snare crack of West Coast-style grapefruit. Behind that, there is a sweet and sassy fruit medley, and a driving boozy bassline.

If I wanted to be picky, I’d suggest that Metalhead is a bit too sweet and I’d allege that the bitterness could be a bit more assertive. But that’s it for complaints, because otherwise, this is a pretty slammin’ double IPA. Big and loud, with great strength and compelling flavours, this is a damn fine ale that’ll knock your ass down if you let it.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Hive Double IPA w/Honey

Built in Toronto by Bandit Brewery, Hive Double IPA w/Honey is a burly 8.5% ale sold in 500mL bottles. The apiary-infused brew is a cloudy golden ale and it pours with a fluffy eggshell head.

The beer has an extremely sweet nose—honeyed, and also pretty boozy. The flavour is similarly sweet, packing lots of honey notes along side an alcohol-heavy warmth. The Double IPA part of this beer is more of a booze platform than it is a true-to-style element, as there really isn’t a whole lot of bitterness, other than a bit at the back end.

All in all, Hive is a decent after dinner ale. It’s strong and sweet, but it’s missing the bitterness that I was hoping would hold my interest. Not the best offering from Bandit, but it’s not bad.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Double Lunatic Fridge

A gift from the wily WFM, Double Lunatic Fridge comes to my via the gang at Toboggan Brewing Company in London, Ontario. Ostensibly a double IPA, this stuff actually only contains 7% alcohol, which makes me question its categorization. However, I know that there is a less potent ale called Lunatic Fridge in the Toboggan catalogue, so I can see why they named it as they did.

Sold in 473mL cans, DLF is a beautiful looking beer—slightly hazy, golden, and blanketed in a durable layer of white suds. Citrus and metallic notes characterize the aroma. Classic West Coast stylings drive the flavour, with bright citrus and just a whisper of pine leading a pleasant bitter charge.

As I’ve already mentioned, my biggest beef with DLF is misclassification, because this ain’t no double IPA. But it’s not a bad IPA, by any stretch. Perhaps a bit forgettable, but Double Lunatic Fridge doesn’t suffer from any notable defects and it benefits from a crisp, agreeable flavour.

Rating: 7.0 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.