Small Fortunes

 

Small Fortunes is a session-friendly pale ale from Toronto’s outpost of Collective Arts. Brewed with Nectaron hops, the beer is just 4.5% and comes in 500mL bottles. Hazy and golden, the beer pours with a sudsy white fog.

SF has a mild but enticing fruit-forward nose. The flavour is still quite mild, but it shows a bit more depth, with notes of peach and apricot. The finish has a faint touch of bitterness.

What I really like about this beer is that it is peachy (apricot-y?) without being over-sweet. That really ups the refreshment quotient to a healthy level. The texture is a bit thin and the price point was a little steep, but otherwise a really solid li’l ale.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Granite Summer Ale

 According the copy on the 473mL cans, Summer Ale is the oldest seasonal beer from The Granite Brewery & Tied House, an august Toronto institution celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2021. 

Summer Ale is a session-friendly 4% ale. It’s a clear golden beer with a respectable covering of white suds. SA has agreeable malt-forward aromatics with sweet grain and grass notes and a touch of apple. Based on the aroma, I expected a fairly sweet flavour, and though there is a decent dose of cereal sweetness, the beer also surprised with a decent amount of floral bitterness.

My only real complaint with Granite’s Summer Ale is the relatively thin texture. Though, for a beer with just 4%, thinness really should be expected. The balance on display in this brew is impressive and the crushability quotient is off the charts.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Days in Between

An oat pale ale from Toronto, Days in Between is a low-octane, high flavour brew. At just 4.2%, the beer is session-friendly. It’s sold in 500mL bottles and comes from Indie Alehouse.

Days in Between is a hazy buttery gold ale. It pours with a nimbus of white suds, but also with a bit more yeasty sediment than would have been ideal. It has a juiced up citrus aroma and a flavour that blends citrus and tropical fruit, as well as a decently bitter orange rind quality through the finish.

 

The use of oats gave this beer a nice smooth quality. For a low-alcohol beer, there was a nice amount of flavour. The amount of sediment in this beer was a bit worrying, though. The beer was in my possession for a bit under two months, so it wasn’t perfectly fresh, but certainly not stale either.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Revealed Constellations Smash IPA

I’m a man of many bad habits, and one of them is letting 355mL shorty cans get buried in the back of my fridge. One such can was Revealed Constellations, which, sadly, spent a sub-optimal number of months behind its taller brothers and sisters. Revealed Constellations Smash IPA is a session IPA from Toronto’s Eastbound Brewing Co. At just 4.4%, it’s a low voltage brew with carbonation to spare.

Slightly hazy and topped with a fluff of white suds, RC has a sticky bitterness and stone fruit elements through the nose. The flavour has nectarine notes in spades, and a slightly dank hops backing unit.

Fairly full-flavoured, but light-bodied and a little too thin thin, Revealed Constellations is a pretty agreeable low octane ale. It coulda been a bit crisper, but back of fridge venerability might well be responsible for that (on me).

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Sitting Pretty American Pale Ale

Billed as one of Black Lab Brewing’s flagship offerings, Sitting Pretty American Pale Ale leapt out at me because of the use of rye malt, alongside Citra and Barbe Rouge. Sold in attractive 500mL bottles, the 4.5% ale looks pretty good too—a hazy, dull gold brew under a layer of eggshell foam.

The Toronto-born APA has a bitter, tangy grapefruit nose. For flavour, Sitting Pretty pairs citrus with a slightly floral note to create a mellow yet crisp offering, with a hefty taste that belies its low alcohol stats.

Like a good flagship beer should, Sitting Pretty is uncomplicated, but it isn’t simple. An eminently quaffable APA, SP provides a plus amount of flavour while delivering a session-friendly experience, leaving the drinker eager for more, but not buffeted with tricks and flash. If I were holding the leash, I might have pulled this one up to 5% and given free rein to the rye elements, but what came in the bottle was perfectly agreeable.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

IPA No. 10

The tenth edition in Collective Arts Brewing's IPA series, IPA No. 10, is a low alcohol 3.2% “nano IPA”. Brewed in Hamilton, Ontario using Simcoe and Mosaic hops, the beer is sold in 473mL cans that feature a tank-driving panda. It’s a hazy, orange-creamsicle coloured ale with a short-lived cap of white head.

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As I’ve stated many times, I like my IPAs to be potent. That said, this beer achieves its objective admirably—a low test, high flavour brew with an interesting IPA taste.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Too Wound Down Session IPA

Friday evening, work in the rear view mirror, and a brand new Budos Band album to spin—I needed a quality beer match and decided on a 473mL can of Too Wound Down Session IPA. TWD comes from Bell City Brewing Co. in Brantford, Ontario. It’s a 4.7% session sipper that pours with an agreeable clear copper colour—think new penny—and a hillock of off-white head.

The beer has IPA aromatics in miniature, with bitter pine leading the way. As one might expect from a session IPA, the beer has some sticky hops flavour, though this is less assertive than in a high octane alternative. Personally, I’d say the IPA elements are closer to the English style than the American, with a well balanced malt to hops ratio and a slightly honeyed character on the front end before deviating to a mildly bitter, softwood finish.

Bell City is a brewery that has long been on my list to check out, as their Cream Ale is a real treat (though apparently I’ve never reviewed it, which is an unconscionable oversight) and Lenoir Belgian Style Ale is also pretty good. TWD has given me yet another reason to be curious about this Brantford establishment. I suppose I’ll have to make the trek sometime soon. TWD is a well-executed session IPA in that it is fairly flavourful, clear, and pleasantly balanced. It is a bit thin on the mouthfeel, though I suspect this is a fairly hard-to-avoid sin when dealing with a low-alcohol IPA variant. Otherwise, it’s a grand li’l beer that I’ll happily revisit frequently as long as it remains available to me.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Gamelle Grisette

Grisette is, according to my quick google research, a traditional Belgian style of ale that was brewed for miners. It’s similar to a saison, but with significantly lower alcohol.

I needed to do a quick bit of reading so that I’d know what I should expect from Kensington Brewing Co.’s Gamelle Grisette. I got a (600mL?) bottle from the Toronto bottle shop and kind of forgot about it for a little while. I was nervous when I pried of the cap that the 4.6% ale might have lost a step, but it was bright and still highly carbonated. Gamelle is a clear, effervescent pale golden brew. It pours with a sudsy white froth and features a nose that is both funky and crisp. The flavour features some slightly tart Belgian-style yeast elements, as well as some peppercorn and spice notes. The finish is short and dry.

A refreshing low-alcohol brew, if perhaps a bit brittle, Gamelle Grisette tastes fresh, but lacks depth at the finish. A great warm weather beer, though, and a nice, lighter option for saison fans.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Death & Taxes Raspberry Radler

Happy fifth anniversary to my wonderful spouse! You challenge me, impress me, and inspire me everyday.

When I spotted the cool 473mL cans of Death & Taxes Raspberry Radler on the shelf at my local store, I immediately bought two--one for myself, because I love raspberries, and one for the Bitter Wife, because she's the Radler Queen.

Brewed in Gravenhurst, Ontario, by Sawdust City Brewing Co., this 4.3% alcohol brew is made raspberry purée and a very light ale. The beer has a hazy pinkish gold hue and pours with a fluffy off-white head.

Bitter Wife: Smells like beer--not as juicy as expected, and with only a faint raspberry note. The flavour tastes as though there are real berries in it--like raspberry juice. Like they've taken a lager and poured raspberry juice into it--but the tastes don't blend very well. It tastes as though there are two separate components. Drinkable, but it could use some additional boldness, crispness, and tartness. They're not really taking full advantage of raspberry. It's not a radler for people who like radlers craft beer. It's not flavour-focused. If you think of it as a beer, there is an appealing fruity edge, like a bear wearing a funny hat, but pointless as a radler.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

Stout Man: Unlike the missus, I found Death & Taxes to have a fairly assertive, sweet raspberry jam nose. There is a very thin mouthfeel that is not nearly as crisp and fizzy as I wanted and expected. The taste is mild, but has a nice, slight tinge of berry sweetness. Bitterness is nearly non-existent in this one, and there isn't abundant tartness either.

For me, D&T was a bit of a flop. It had some nice elements, including a refreshing quality, great strength for a radler, and a very pleasant scent, but overall it was too thin to hold my interest. It has a vitamin water quality that underwhelmed. I might have felt differently if it were 30 degrees out and I was sitting on a patio, but in my living room in early September, it didn't make a lot of waves.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.