Delta IPA

 When I came to Belgium, I wasn’t expecting to drink a whole lot of IPAs, and certainly not many good ones, but one of the first beers that I tucked into was a Delta IPA from the Brussels Beer Project—though it certainly put a healthy Belgian spin on it. Called a “saison IPA”, the 6% brew is made with saison yeast and a quintet of Cascade, Challenger, Citra, Mosaic, and Smaragd hops. Sold in 33cL bottles, the beer pours a dull gold colour with a fluffy white head.

Delta has a bold aroma with notes of grapefruit, lemon, and a healthy dose of wild yeast. The flavour walks a similar path, intersecting farmyard funk and dry texture with classic IPA elements—a good marriage of yeast, citrus and tropical fruits, and bitterness.

Brussels Beer Project strikes me as an incredibly cool operation. They brew innovative and sometimes unusual beers each year and allow their community to vote between four prototypes—the annual winner is added to BBP’s all star roster and becomes a permanent member of their stable. Delta was apparently the first winner back in 2013 and it clearly struck a chord because it can be found all over Brussels. I’m no stranger to hybrid “Belgian-style IPAs”, but I found Delta to have its own unique charm—rooted in its saison pedigree.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

West Coast Swing

West Coast Swing is a bombastic 7.2% west coast IPA from the sluggers at Left Field Brewery in Toronto. Sold in 355mL cans, the beer comes out clear and gold with a thin white head.

WCS has classic west coast aromatics—grapefruit, resin, and a healthy touch of pine. The flavour is similarly configured, with citrus and evergreen notes. The back end is bitter and the beer is undeniably boozy from start to finish.

A throwback to my favourite era of IPAs, West Coast Swing is big and bold. With lots to like and little to critique, this is a strong offering from Left Field.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Piña Power

An homage to the former Blue Jays’ slugging outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Piña Power is a pineapple IPA from Toronto’s Left Field Brewery. The 6.0% ale comes in 355mL cans and its ingredients list includes wheat, oats, and pineapple purée. The beer is hazy and orange, with a thin covering of white suds.

Piña Power has a subtle pineapple aroma, backed with a bit of citrus bitterness. The flavour is mild, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, and fruity.

The beer is a little thin for my tastes, but it’s otherwise agreeable. The deft touch on the pineapple purée is commendable, as fruited IPAs can run a little too heavy.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Gakozing

So here’s a weird one. Gakozing is an IPA brewed with gummy bears. What?! The beer comes from Alexandria, Virginia’s Aslin Beer Co. It’s a 6.5% brew that comes in goofy and colourful 473mL cans. It’s a cloudy ale that looks like mango juice and pours with almost no head or carbonation.

This beer has a ridiculously sweet candy aroma—truly does have gummy bear notes, but also a dose of tartness. The flavour is full on candy, but also a bit tangy, with notes of cherry syrup. There is basically no bitterness, which doesn’t lend itself to IPA classification.

If I’m being honest, I wasn’t wild about this beer. The concept is innovative and I’m glad that I tried it, but I wouldn’t go back to the well for another, nor would I be eager to revisit it. Props to the glorious MM for hooking me up with this one.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10.

Transcendence West Coast IPA

 As a beer consumer, something that’ll get me every single time is the words “West Coast IPA”. So, when I saw 500mL bottles of Transcendence West Coast IPA at Toronto’s Collective Arts location, I was pretty quick to snap a couple up. The bottles have lovely labels with a birds and blooms theme and the beer inside is a slightly hazy dull gold, and pours with a fluffy white head. It’s a 6.9% ale brewed with Citra, Galaxy, and Mosaic hops.

Transcendence has a citrus peel aroma that tightropes sweet and bitter elements. The flavour is built with grapefruit in the spotlight, with a sweet streak and a brassy bitter vibe. It also has a fairly mellow texture, which made me think there might have been oats in the brew, but it wasn’t listed among the ingredients.

Like all of the bottles CA beers, Transcendence is quite pricey, but I’d buy this stuff again. It’s a delight. Good strength, too.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Cheat Code

 Born in Toronto’s Stockyards District, Cheat Code is a dry-hopped IPA from Rainhard Brewing. With a bit of heft at 6.5%, CC comes in nifty old school cans reminiscent of my earliest video game memories. The beer is brewed with a trio of hops: Citra, Galaxy, and Nelson Sauvin.

CC is hazy and gold, with a boisterous white foam. It has an agreeable citrus and berry aromatic blend and a flavour to match. Grapefruit, OJ, and strawberry form the nucleus of the flavour, with a dank and hoppy finish that follows closely.

I purchased six cans of Cheat Code on a sweltering July Friday and found them all devoured at an almost unreasonable rate. This isn’t an innovative IPA, but it’s a delightful one.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

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.

Hop Damn American IPA

 During a short return visit to my birth province of New Brunswick, I picked up a handful of local lagers and ales to keep me feeling social. One such was Hop Damn American IPA. Brewed in Grand Falls, NB, Hop Dam is a 6.5% ale sold in rather minimalist 473mL cans. 

The beer is brewed by Grand Falls Brewing Co. It’s a hazy golden ale that pours with a lush white head that deflated rather speedily. Hop Dam has a punchy nose that screams hemp and citrus. The flavour is resinous and grapefruit leaning.

While this little guy looks like a NEIPA, the flavour profile is more West Coast: sticky and citrusy. Like the can, the beer is a wee bit understated, but I certainly enjoyed it.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Layback

When I picked up a duo of 473mL cans of Layback from Wellington Brewery in Guelph, Ontario, I didn’t realize that the 5.5% brew was made with guava and coconut flavour. I might not have bought ‘em had I known, but when I opened the fridge later that night, my curiosity got the better of me. The bright golden ale is brewed with Sabro hops, which are a critical darling, but probably my least favourite out there, as well as oats, and it contains a respectable 45 IBUs.

Through its bright white head, the beer has extremely sweet coconut aromatics—something akin to a drinkable sunscreen. The flavour has a tropical, piña colada kind of energy, with ample coconut and a less assertive fruitiness. The beer has a particularly agreeable smooth and juicy texture.

Layback isn’t really the kind of beer for me. In fact, it doesn’t really taste much like a beer at all, and certainly less like an IPA. But, it is undeniably refreshing, kinda fun, and rather beachy.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Smarch Weather

On thing that the Stout Man will always buy is a rye IPA. Every time. So, when I caught wind of Smarch Weather from Toronto’s Rainhard Brewing, I snapped up six of the 7.2% beauties post haste. Sold in 473mL cans, the beer’s name plays homage to a quality Simpsons bit. The beer, itself, is bright copper in colour and pours with a thin covering of off-white suds.

Smarch Weather has a lovely aroma that blends malty caramel notes with sticky pine and a dose of grapefruit rind. The flavour has a sweet, malty base, but it is the hoppy, citrus and evergreen elements that really drive things. Throw in a little bit of spicy rye and you’ve got something cooking.

Smarch Weather is a wee bit sweeter than I’d like, but it’s otherwise delightful. Great strength, bold flavour, and a 90s TV reference? Sign me up! Make it year round.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Beerly Deloved

Beerly Deloved is a big beer with a great name sold in gorgeous cans. It’s a 10% triple IPA from Toronto’s Bellwoods Brewery. The beer comes in 473mL vessels that feature a hop brooch and what looks like old-timey wallpaper. What emerges is a hazy dull-orange liquid under a modest off-white foam.

For such a large ale, BD has an unexpectedly mild aroma—notes of citrus and the suggestion of boozy warmth, but not much else. The flavour is considerably more robust, with notes of pineapple, peach, and orange peel atop a mountain of spirited heat—the booze in this big guy is unsubtle. The back end is sweet with some citrus hoppiness.

Love the art design, love the name, but the actual beer is just fine. At least in my opinion, a beer this strong should have a significantly more complex flavour. This one tastes like an unremarkable New England IPA, brewed stronger.

Rating: 6.0 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.

IPA No. 20: Citra Four Ways

 I love a beer with a subtitle! Collective Arts Brewing’s IPA No. 20: Citra Four Ways is a 6.5% ale brewed with Citra, Citra Cryo, Citra Incognito, and Citra Spectrum. Sold in 473mL cans, the 20th iteration of CA’s IPA series is a hazy pale gold ale with a light covering of white foam.

Citra Four Ways has, predictably, a citrus aroma, with mandarin orange notes. The flavour is sweet and juicy, with orange and floral elements. There’s not a lot of bitterness here and the texture is extremely smooth.

IPA No. 20 isn’t as memorable as some, but I like the innovative theme and it definitely tasted pretty good.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Muddy York's Brave Noise

 My first taste of the Brave Noise project came from Toronto’s Muddy York Brewing Co. Their Brave Noise Pale Ale is a collab with VQH Farms. It’s a 5.6% brew sold in 355mL cans that feature a QR code that links to the Toronto brewery’s code of conduct. A portion of the sales from this beer go to support the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.

This version of Brave Noise is a strikingly clear amber beer with limited off-white head and a gorgeous pine, caramel, and grapefruit aroma. The beer has a decent amount of caramel-minded malt, but the real driver is a lovely pine bitterness.

Close to a not-so-potent West Coast IPA, Muddy York’s Brave Noise tastes big and tastes great! I’d love to see this as a year round initiative. To be clear, I don’t know if this is a standard recipe or one that can be tweaked, but what was in the can slaps, and it is in service of an improved beerscape more friendly to, and less harmful to, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ communities. It’s a damn fined cause and a tasty product.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Border Crossing

 An international collaboration between Hamilton, ON’s Collective Arts Brewing and Buffalo, NY’s Thin Man Brewing, Border Crossing is an aptly named IPA. The beer checks in at 6% and it’s brewed with the engaging trio of Cascade, Simcoe, and Vic Secret hops. Border Crossing is a hazy bastard, with a slightly milky yellow-gold colour, white head, and loads of attractive lace. It comes in 473mL cans that feature a cool hockey illustration.

BC has a juicy, slightly floral nose built around citrus. Likewise, the flavour has a sweet and fruity nature that spotlights orange and grapefruit. And it comes with a smooth and silky texture that makes sipping a treat.

Border Crossing is a good IPA. It’s a lot like a number of others on the market and it doesn’t have much to distinguish itself, though I had few complaints. I’d have liked more booze (naturally!) and a bit more emphasis on the grapefruit side of the citrus equation. I’d definitely buy this one again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Play Dead IPA

Port Moody, BC is the home of Yellow Dog Brewing Co., makers of Play Dead IPA. The beer, a classic West Coast IPA, comes in 473mL cans. It’s a 6.8% ale with a hearty 75 IBUs. The beer is orange-gold and nearly clear, under a creamy foam. I picked up a four-pack of these guys for social drinking, but ended up enjoying them so much I held on in reserve to review.

PD has a nose that blends citrus and pine notes. The flavour is assertively bitter, but balanced against a nice sweet element, paling around with evergreen, satsuma, and dank hemp.

Compared to past visits to BC, I did less beer drinking on my most recent trip. Of the 3-4 WCIPAs I tried, Play Dead was one of the standouts—not so much because it was innovative or unique—I just found it to be a well-made, enjoyable beer.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Retronym I.P.A.

A retronym is defined as “a term coined in modification of an original term that was used alone (as acoustic guitar instead of guitar) to distinguish it from a term referring to a later development (as electric guitar). Other examples of retronyms are snail mail and analog watch.” It’s also the name of an IPA from the team at Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery. Note: I write an “IPA” and not an “English IPA”—In the copy on the 473mL cans, GLB adamantly opposes that name (at least as far as this beer is concerned) and so I’ll try to avoid it too.

Retronym I.P.A. is a 6% beer brewed with oats. It’s a cloudy copper ale that pours with a generous off-white foam. The beer offers mild aromatics, with lots of malt, some caramel, and a suggestion of floral hops. The flavour is malt-forward, with a streak of brown sugar sweetness. The back end is floral and bitter, with some pleasant metallic elements.

While my favourite IPAs tend to be the West Coast hop gobblers, I have a soft spot in my heart (my liver?) for this style—a “classic” IPA—and GLB’s take is really quite nicely executed. I had eight of these delivered and I’m thrilled I did, because one has yet to prove enough.

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.

The Bridge Is Over

The Bridge Is Over is billed as a Bandit/Laylow Production—brewed by Bandit Brewery and Laylow Brewing in Toronto. The beer, a double dry-hopped Belgian New England IPA, is a 6.8% number sold in 355mL cans. The beer is a hazy orange-gold colour and it pours with a thick layer of white foam.

The Bridge Is Over has a yeasty, tart fruit nose. For just 6.8%, the beer tastes surprisingly potent, with a bit of funk, some floral elements, and a touch of tangy apple. The back end has a floral hoppiness, but it is quite mild and short.

A quirky little ale with a big flavour, The Bridge Is Over is a pretty enjoyable collab with some character.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Life Sentence

A burly ass collab from two Toronto heavyweights, Life Sentence is an 11% triple IPA. The beer is brewed by Amsterdam Brewery and Great Lakes Brewery. Sold in great-looking 473mL cans, Life Sentence is brewed with Centennial hops. Less hazy than I expected, it’s a dull gold ale with a fluffy off-white head. 

Aromatically, the beer has loads of citrus, some sweetness, and a healthy measure of booze. The flavour is boozy, sweet, and dank, with citrus and tropical notes.

Strong and resinous, Life Sentence is an assertive take on the triple IPA. Not for the faint of heart, this beer will bruise your liver. Best thing about it? Sweet, but not too sweet, which is the plight of most triple IPAs that I’ve sampled.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.