Mystery Beer D

 Rounding out my Mystery Pack experience was Nickel Brook Brewing Co.’s Beer D, a 4.3% session IPA brewed with wheat and oats. The beer is dull orange under a durable sudsy head. The beer does, however, have a bit more sediment than I’d have liked—it’s not chunky or anything, but it’s not perfect.

D has sweet and fruity aromatics, with mango and apricot notes. Those notes continue into the flavour, which is quite juicy, with an almost candied sweetness. There is also a whisper of pine bitterness in the finish.

While Beer D wasn’t bad, I’d say it was probably my least favourite of the Mystery Pack. Decent flavour, but I’d have liked it to have less sediment and less sweetness.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Mystery Beer C

 Nickel Brook Brewing Co.’s Mystery Beer C is a light beer, at just 3.5%—I’d call it a micro IPA—brewed with oats and wheat. C is a hazy pale golden beer with a fluffy white head that comes in 473mL cans. The beer hails from Burlington, Ontario.

C has a bright, citrus aroma with a pineapple subtext. The flavour actually really surprised me, with much more tropical notes than the aroma led me to expect. These are highlighted by passion fruit, melon, pineapple, and a dusting of coconut. Also worth mentioning is that, for just 3.5%, the beer has a pretty notable texture—smooth, but not thin.

I don’t typically love micro IPAs, so I cracked C fully expecting to be underwhelmed. And I was way wrong. This session-friendly brew has considerable flavour and decent texture, behind a decent aroma. I’d most definitely buy a case of this stuff for summer chores or all day drinking.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Very Nice IPA

 Very Nice IPA is a wildly carbonated session brew from Burlington, Ontario’s Nickel Brook Brewing Co. It’s a 4.2% ale with a punchy 69 IBUs (nice!). Brewed with HS-1228, Idaho 7, Sabro, and Sultana hops, Very Nice also features flaked oats and flakes wheat in its ingredients list. It comes in 473mL cans with a chill daisy on the label.

As mentioned, Very Nice is extremely carbonated, to the extent that it actually took a while to get the stuff into the glass due to the bloom of loose white suds. The beer is hazy, pale gold. It has a citrus fruit aroma, accented with dry yeast. The flavour is yeasty, fruity, and a bit floral. The copy on the can promised pineapple, tropical fruit, and citrus, though I found citrus to be by far the most evident note. The beer is notably dry, and a bit thin; however, the flavour doesn’t suffer at all for that thinness.

I thought Very Nice IPA was a decent brew, but not quite up to the lofty standards set by some of Nickel Brook’s outstanding pale ales and IPAs. Also, I’d have liked a bit less lively carbonation.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

F**K Dry Jan IPA

 Brewed to poke fun at the practice of Dry January, F**K Dry Jan IPA is made in Burlington, Ontario by Nickel Brook Brewing Co. This session IPA (just 4% and 35 IBUs) showcases Citra, Eclipse, and Ella hops, as well as flaked oats and Laerdal Kveik yeast. Sold in 473mL cans, FDJ is an extremely cloudy yellow-orange colour and it pours with a modest white head.

FDJ has a pleasant citrus stank, accented with a funky yeast tang. The flavour starts a bit thin, but picks up steam, building to a corking grapefruit finish. The mouthfeel is a bit watery, but also quite crisp, which is an unexpectedly pleasant combo.

FDJ is a quirky and enjoyable session IPA. I’d definitely buy it again.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Deece Petite IPA

 Bloomfield, Ontario is the home of Matron Fine Beer and of Deece Petite IPA. Deece is a 4% session IPA sold in 355mL cans. The beer is hazy and golden, with a loose off-white head.

 

Deece has a mild, fruit forward aroma, with primarily pineapple notes. Given the modest aromatics and low booze bill, the flavour is surprisingly punchy, with tropical fruit, decent yeastiness, and some floral bitterness.

For a low octane “IPA”, Deece is extremely flavourful and well-crafted. It’s a solid exploration of what a session ale can do in terms of flavour and body. Really nice stuff, though a bit more bitterness would have fully sealed the deal.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Born This Way Nano IPA

A Pride Month offering from Muskoka Brewery, Born This Way Nano IPA is a 3.8% light beer. Sold in 473mL cans, the beer, a member of Muskoka’s Moonlight Kettle Series, comes from Bracebridge, Ontario. A portion of the proceeds from each can sold for to The Get REAL Movement.

Born This Way is a yellow-gold ale. It pours with a fluffy white head and has an aroma that walks a line between citrus and floral. For such a low alcohol offering, the flavour is pretty robust, but you’d never mistake it for a full-strength IPA. It has a taste profile that moves from faintly sweet to faintly bitter, with passion-fruit and orange notes. The back end is bitter, but only just. The finish is crackling dry though, and that really works.

Born This Way is a nice little IPA. It’d be extremely session-friendly, but flavourful enough to hold interest. Really, it delivers on almost exactly what It set out to do. I might ask for the flavour to be a bit more interesting, but if you’re looking for a low-octane ale with some verve, this might just be the ticket.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Evil Genius

Another entry from Skeleton Crew Brewing Company (brewed by Cameron’s Brewing in Oakville, Ontario) is Evil Genius, their 4.5% 34 IBU session IPA brewed with Crystal and Loral hops. The beer is handsome gold, with a thin layer of white head and an unfortunate concentration of tiny suspended chunks which give the appearance of an attempt at haze gone a bit askew.

Evil Genius has an agreeably juicy, slightly tangy aroma. The flavour is built on the same foundation, with citrus notes up from and a slightly perfumed bitterness in the back end.

 

My first thought on noticing the slight granularity in the beer is that it might be a bit old, but the absence of a date stamp on the can leaves that an open question. Additionally, I might have acquired a can from a flawed batch. Or it could be a brewing issue. Whatever the source, the version of Evil Genius that I cracked looked a bit off. However, it should be said that it had no impact on the flavour, which was perfectly pleasant, or on the mouthfeel, which was agreeably crisp.

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.

Gravel Run Session IPA

From Blyth, Ontario’s Cowbell Brewing Co. comes Gravel Run Session IPA, a 4.5% 40 IBU brewski named, apparently, in honour of historic, rural drunk driving escapades.

The beer is a reddish gold number with a fluffy nimbus of white head. There is a mild but bright citrus scent, supported by a much more enthusiastic flavour. Notes of grapefruit give way to a bitter, floral finish.

Really quite flavourful for a beer that weighs in at less than 5% alcohol, Gravel Run is a fairly enjoyable option. The finish is a bit muddled, but the overall effect is none too shabby.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

The Boss East Coast IPA

Syndicate Brewing Co. is, apparently, a mob-themed brewery from Niagara Falls, Ontario. I picked up a 473mL can of their The Boss East Coast IPA (it also says “Family Edition”, but I’m not sure if that’s a part of the name of the beer). The can features a shadowy mobster who happens to look a lot like Mr. Ackroyd from Blues Brothers.

The Boss is a 4.5%, 40 IBU session IPA. It’s a sunny golden brew with a wild amount of carbonation. As a result of the mighty fizz, the beer pours with a mountain of fluffy white foam. It has slightly metallic, floral aromatics and a flavour that is relatively punchy, with bitter perfume notes and a bit of evergreen.

Despite a theme that I found a bit cheesy, I found The Boss to be a decent enough session IPA. I’d have preferred that the front end had a bit more character and depth, and as a result, the beer might not really distinguish itself in a market where every brewery makes a session IPA. Still, it’s definitely good enough that I’d buy it again, and I’ll keep my eye out for other offerings from Syndicate.

Rating: 7.0 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.

Astrolabe Session IPA

Named on honour of the astrological/navigational instrument, Astrolabe Session IPA is a 5% brew from Fosters Falls, Ontario. Produced by Whitewater Brewing Co., Astrolabe comes in 473mL cans and it packs a 60-IBU wallop.

Hazy orange-gold in colour, Astrolabe pours with a layer of snowy white fluff. It has a juicy apricot and mango aroma and a comparable flavour, building to a fairly hefty, dank hops finish.

This flavourful session IPA packs a bunch of flavour into a relatively low alcohol package. I enjoyed my first can of the stuff while glued to the Blue Jays 2019 home opener, and it was a great accompaniment to a fast-paced pitcher’s duel. I’ll definitely buy this beer again—hopefully it continues to be available in Ontario’s state-run liquor stores.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Theoretikal Zero

A bit of an oddity in the hop-heavy world of craft beer collaborations, Theoretikal Zero is a double dry-hopped beer made with no hops in the boil. Brewed in Barrie, Ontario, TZ is a collab between Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery and L’Anjub out of Vinebre, Spain. The 4.8% session IPA is sold in 473mL cans. According to the copy, the beer has, at least in theory, 0 IBUs.

Whatever the IBU count, TZ is a beautiful looking beer: slightly hazy, orange-gold, and topped with a fluffy bright white foam. It has a juiced, perfumed, and slightly floral aroma, and a flavour rich in peach and tangerine notes up front and a light dose of citrus bitterness. The mouthfeel is light and breezy, though it is a bit more thin and less crisp than I’d have wished.

An interesting concept with a flavourful result, Theoretikal Zero is an enjoyable brew. Too thin and insufficiently crisp, but otherwise really well executed, I’d buy this stuff again for sure.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Lost Orbit Session IPA

Lost Orbit Session IPA is a little 4.5% alcohol, 16 IBU hops delivery system out of Burlington, Ontario. Brewed by Nickel Brook Brewing Co. using flaked oats, it comes in 473mL cans.

 

An extremely cloudy orange-gold, Lost Orbit pours with a lusty white head. It has a pulpy clementine orange nose and a parallel flavour. Somewhat citrus, somewhat tropical, and all juicy. The mouthfeel is a bit of a letdown though, as it is thinner and less crisp than I’d have liked—in this respect, I wish Nickel Brook would have taken a page out of their own session ale playbook, because their Naughty Neighbour has an admirably crisp character.

For the amount of flavour slammed into a low alcohol package, drinking a can or two of Lost Orbit is a good use of your time. Sure, it has a crispness deficiency, but it sure tastes good.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Session Seven

Brewed to showcase the Idaho 7 hop, Session Seven is a low-alcohol I.P.A. brewed by Side Launch Brewing Company out of Collingwood, Ontario. A 4.6% alcohol ale, S7 comes in 473mL cans. It’s a bright and clear golden beer that pours with a sudsy white head and a whole lot of lively carbonation.

S7 has a subtle, juicy aroma, with fruit notes both citrus and tropical. The flavour kicks off with papaya and a hint of melon, before transitioning into a slightly dry, modestly hoppy finish.

S7 is the kind of beer that I reach for when I’m craving a session friendly ale—it’s flavourful, decently hoppy, and fairly close to the five per cent threshold. All in all, a pretty decent little session I.P.A. out of ski resort country.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

8 Days a Week Single Hop Session IPA (Ekuanot)

The Ekuanot edition of Bandit Brewery’s 8 Days a Week Single Hop Session IPA is a low-alcohol number, at just 3.9%.  Sold in 500mL bottles, the beer proved to be a swampy gold colour with a loose white head. I know by now that Bandit has great labels, but this one might be my new fave.

The brew has a tangy fruit scent with a slight floral kicker. The flavour is similarly situated, if a bit understated (not surprising, given the sub-4 percentage), but it still had some tropical tang.

A nicely-constructed low-octane ale, the Ekuanot edition of 8 Days has some character and style. Truly sessionable and quite pleasant. A more generous hopping would have been nice, though.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Panache Session I.P.A.

The northern Ontario town of Sudbury is the birthplace of Panache Session I.P.A. Built by Stack Brewing, Panache is a 4.5% alcohol session sipper. The beer comes in 473mL cans that feature a lakeside image in homage of the namesake Lake Panache. It’s a cloudy, sunny pale gold bräu topped with peaks and valleys of fluffy white head.

Panache has a mild nose—it’s slightly hoppy with juicy citrus notes. The flavour starts promisingly, with a panoply of fruity and hoppy notes. Unfortunately, after the front end, the flavour really tails off into a somewhat thin and watery melange. 

Compared to other, more assertive session IPAs, Panache falls down after the initial taste. It feels a bit hollow after a hopeful beginning. I’ll likely buy this beer again once or twice, but it isn’t nearly as rad as some of the other excellent Stack ales that have visited my gullet in the past.

Rating: 6.0 out of 10.

Bent Spoke Sessionable IPA

Hanover, Ontario is the source of Bent Spoke Sessionable IPA. At 3.9% alcohol, this brew, from MacLean’s Ales, is a clean and clear ale with lots of carbonation and a thick, white head. It’s counted in MacLean’s’ Low Gear Session Series. It comes in 473mL cans.

Given the low alcohol content, Bent Spoke has a pretty jumbo aroma, rich in tart grapefruit and dry hops notes. Crisp, yet flavourful, BS has a perfume-heavy flavour, with some citrus notes and a pretty decent level of bitterness and a brittily dry finish.

For a low alcohol beer, this Session IPA is a remarkably flavourful offering. The taste is less robust than I’d seek out for a typical session IPA, but it really is potent for the strength. This light ale is wildly crushable, but still tastes bigger than it ought to. MacLean’s Ales has been quietly putting out some underrated beers over the last few years, and Broken Spoke is no exception. It’s unassuming, but punches above its weight.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

The Starter

The Starter is billed as a "light IPA with notes of citrus fruits". The 4.8% alcohol brew comes from Rockwood, Ontario, where it is nurtured by Four Fathers Brewing Co. It's sold in 473mL cans that uses a cute sports analogy to describe the liquid within. That liquid proved to be an attractive auburn brew with a dense off-white helmet of head. Much darker and richer looking than I expected.

With a modest bouquet that suggests citric bitterness, I found myself salivating at the prospect of trying this stuff. Its got a nice, sizable flavour for its size, well outstripping the aroma with notes of grapefruit riding high atop a roasted malt podium. It finishes dryly, with a hoppy crackle.

Having never sampled anything from Four Fathers, I had no idea what to expect from The Starter. Turns out, it was really quite good. A beer I'll doubtlessly be adding to my repertoire in the months to come.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Half-Truth

Half-Truth is a session IPA from Toronto's Halo Brewery. I bought a 500mL bottle from the west-end brewery during a post-Christmas visit with a couple of pals. At only 4.5% alcohol, this hazy, pale golden grog is a true session beer. It poured with a lush ecru foam, through which emerged a modestly tangy citrus nose.

In terms of flavour, Half-Truth is moderate, just. It lacks the bursting fruitiness or arid dryness of some of Ontario's finest sessions. However, in that subtleness, there are some good qualities worth crowing about. For instance, for the style, Half-Truth has a degree of balance that is uncommon--typically session IPAs tend to go full bore to achieve maximum hoppiness with a minimum of alcohol. This stuff plays its bitterness a bit closer to its vest, which makes for a slightly rounder low-velocity ale than the average session India.

While I'd have liked Half-Truth to arm itself with a bit more of a hops arsenal, I definitely respect the moderation exercised by the brewers at Halo. This is a tasty beer that, while not a hop bomb in micro, is mindful and carefully built. Plus, it does still have a bit of the short, dry finish that I wanted to find.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.