Funky Fresh Kiwi Lime Sour

Funky Fresh Kiwi Lime Sour comes from Foresters Falls, Ontario and the Whitewater Brewing Co. The beer contains a crushable 4.6% and just 2 IBUs. Sold in 473mL cans, Funky Fresh is brewed with wheat, oats, lime purée, and kiwi purée. It’s a lightly hazy gold ale under a thin white head.

This li’l guy was a potent sweet and tart candy aroma, with (surprise, surprise) notes of kiwi and lime. For a low-alcohol brew, the flavour is massive. It weaves lime tartness and candied kiwi.

The only thing timid about this beer is the percentage, with jumbo tartness and punchy sweetness. The beer is certainly not subtle, and I found it to be a bit much, but it does deliver an intriguing flavour combo. And for a sour, it isn’t alienatingly tangy. Will I buy it again? Probably. Should you? I guess, I’m not your manager.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Limberlost Blonde

 My second taste of Sawdust City Brewing Co.’s Limberlost was Limberlost Blonde, a Belgian-style sour ale brewed to 7.2%. The beer, from Gravenhurst, Ontario, comes in 473mL cans. It’s a pale golden ale with a nimbus of white suds. The beer contains Saaz and Idaho 7 hops, a quartet of malts, and Belgian ale yeast as well as wild Limberlost yeast. The beer is a blend of a batched of the wild, aged in oak puncheons, and the Belgian, aged in stainless.

The beer has a sharp sour fruit and funk aroma, with a bit of oaken sweetness. The flavour is tart, with white grape and cranberry notes, some woodiness, and a dry winey finish. Under it all are funky yeast tones.

This was a lovely Belgian-style sour blonde that I was into right from the jump. Crisp, tangy, and strong. A solid brew.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Hamilton Haul--Dream Pop Dry Hopped Sour w/ Orange & Passionfruit

The label on the 500mL bottle of Dream Pop Dry Hopped Sour w/ Orange & Passionfruit bills it as “liquid light show”. It’s a 6.2% ale from Hamilton’s Fairweather Brewing Co. The beer is a hazy golden sour ale with a thin, but durable white head.

Dream Pop has a tangy, tart, and fruity aroma. The flavour is genuinely, zealously sour, with tropical and citrus elements. There is a sweet undercurrent, but it’s subtle, when compared to the tartness.

Unlike many Ontario sours, Dream Pop really does live up to the term—it is a mouth-puckering sour ale. And I liked it.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Half Remembered Dream

The label that adorns the 750mL bottles of Half Remembered Dream indicates that the “blend of golden sour beers aged in oak barrels with rose hips and hibiscus” contained within “ages gracefully”. So I did something that I thought myself unable to do—I let the stuff age. Nothing ridiculous. I didn’t cellar it for five years or anything. But I let the beer, brewed and bottled in August 2018, sit until January 2020. Not nothing when you consider both my small living space and the volume of beer I consume.

Half Remembered Dream comes from Small Pony Barrel Works out of Kanata, Ontario. It’s a 5% barrel-aged sour with a rose gold colour, just a touch of sediment, a short-lived off-white head, and a pretty decent constellation of carbonation. It has a tart, nectarine and berry nose accented with a floral hint. The tartness and not-quite-ripe nectarine elements are evident in the flavour as well. Barrel-aged woodiness is present, but not dominant. There is almost no bitterness to speak of, but the beer’s inherent sourness balances out what might otherwise be a too sweet offering.

Never having tasted it fresh, I can’t say if letting Half Remembered Dream marinate for over a year was worthwhile. However, I’ll say I really enjoyed what turned up in my glass. I’d have liked the alcohol content to have been a bit higher, but the delicate, slightly floral elements were able to shine as a result.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Straight Up Sour w/ Peaches

From Toronto’s Radical Road Brewing Co. and their Funk & Sour Series comes Straight Up Sour w/ Peaches, a 6% sour ale brewed with Ontario peaches.

The beer is yellowy gold and pours with almost no head. It has an acidic nose with loads of peach notes. For flavour, we’re dealing with considerable tartness and a bit of fruity funk, although less peachy than I’d have liked. The mouthfeel was a touch thin, though the booze quotient was optimal.

This beer had promise and delivered with some good attributes, but I’d really have liked it if it’d hit the peach harder and featured a bit more carbonation.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Zap! Sour IPA

 With a black and teal 473mL can that feels like an homage to Futurama, Zap! Sour IPA is a 5.5%, 28 IBU brew from Burlington, Ontario’s Nickel Brook Brewing Co. Brewed with flaked oats and a trio of popular IPA hops (Simcoe, Cascade, and Citra), the beer is yellow-gold in colour, under an effervescent white foam.

Zap! has a tart, citrus nose and a turbo-charged lemony flavour. There is a nod toward a citrus bitterness at the back end, but this beer’s primary focus is its sour sizzle. I’m no math wizard, but it seems to me that the ratio of sour:ipa in this sour IPA is a lot closer to 3:1 that 1:1.

Tasty, refreshing stuff with a tangy kick, Nickel Brook’s Zap! is a tart treat. I’d like it to be a touch stronger, with a bit more IPA stank, and less zeal for lemon sour, but the result is a memorable beer that I’ll buy again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Brown Derby Barrel Aged Oud Bruin

Brewed to honour an historic Toronto tavern, Brown Derby Barrel Aged Oud Bruin is brewed by that city’s excellent Henderson Brewing Company. Clocking in at 6% alcohol and sold in 650mL bottles, the beer is a handsome teak colour and pours with a creamy head.

Brown Derby has a nose both earthy and fruity, yet imbued with a tart, coppery tang. The flavour kicks off with a squeak of cranberry that persists from end to end, and it is supplemented with a dose of kinky yeast for a result that is funky and sour.

Not a lot to complain about with this beer: good strength and assertive flavour make for a grand combo. My bottle came straight from the source and tasted as cracklin’ fresh as an “old brown” could.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Heist Sour Pale Ale

With my beloved Raptors looking to steal game one of the NBA Finals against the heavily favoured Warriors, I reached for a can of Heist Sour Pale Ale (worked out great, BTW!) from Toronto’s Folly Brewing. A golden brew made using Kveik yeast and flaked wheat, Heist pours with a thin layer of white head.

Heist has a tart citrus and yeast nose. The flavour has notes of orange, alongside a clamber of yeasty funk. Heist is a tasty little piece of work, and at just 5%, it goes down easy. A bit more prominent bitterness might have made a good beer better, but it’s definitely a good beer. Also worthy of praise is the beautiful design on the 473mL can featuring the beer’s name as a stylized burglar—just awesome.

 

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Western Suds: Sea Maiden

According to the copy on the cute teal and pink cans of Sea Maiden, this sour watermelon ale occupies the space where “watermelon meets pink Himalayan sea salt”. The 4.5% alcohol number comes from Richmond, BC, where it’s brewed by Britannia Brewing Company.

The beer is cloudy, with a pale orange gold colour and a whole lot of carbonation. It pours with a huge amount of loose white head, though the suds weren’t around for the long haul. Sea Mermaid has a tart, briny aroma that doesn’t really scream watermelon; however, a subtle hint of pink melon is woven throughout the flavour, and is particularly evident towards the finish. Along for the finish are gose-like notes that are both salty and sour.

Billed as a watermelon sour, I’d class this beer as a gose. It’s playful and quirky, with an unusual flavour topography. The concept is quite well executed, though the beer is sufficiently tart that sour beer neophytes might be put off. Personally, I enjoyed my dance with the Sea Maiden, though I’m unlikely to be requesting a second in the near future.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Bellwoods' Sour IPA w/Lactose

As yet too new to be properly named and labeled, I just picked up a 500mL bottle of “Sour IPA w/Lactose” from the industrious brewers at Toronto’s Bellwoods Brewery. I’m already nearly through with the “lactose/milkshake IPA” trend, but Bellwoods seldom delivers a bad batch of anything, so I figured I should investigate their take.

The beer I bought was an opaque, milky orange-gold. A 7% alcohol offering, it poured with a rapidly vanishing layer of sudsy white head. The beer had a compellingly tangy fragrance; tart with exotic fruit notes and a liberal dose of funky yeast. Acidic orange and mango notes were vividly represented in the front end, alongside some boozy sweetness, while the finish was fruity and tart, with a slightly underdeveloped bitterness closing the door.

All things considered, Bellwoods’ Sour IPA w/Lactose was a pretty enjoyable ale, but one that could have benefitted from a heavier mittful of hops, and a slightly less sweet opening salvo. At 7%, the strength is perfect, and the sourness of this beer was rowdy without being raucous.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Auko

Auko comes from Burdock, out of Toronto. It’s a busy little brew—a sour dark ale aged with raspberries, sour cherries and cab franc skins for a year in cab franc barrels. It clocks in at a boisterous 9.1% alcohol and comes in 375mL bottles with simple and elegant labels.

The beer is a dark number with faint ruby highlights and almost no head. It has a very tart scent that is both fruity and funky, with a punchy cherry blast. It has a disappointingly thin and flat, but the flavour is quite lovely, with sharp winey notes and lots of tart fruit.

True, Auko was in my fridge for a few weeks before I uncapped it, but it really was thinner than it ought to have been in spite of that. Still, great flavour and potency made for a fairly enjoyable beer.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity is an unusual ale: it’s a sour ale brewed with coffee cherry (also known as cascara), as well as cinnamon and ginger. Brewed in Cornelius, North Carolina, EV is the progeny of District 9 Brewing. It’s a powerful ale, with 14.2% alcohol. Sold in 355mL bottles, this beer is basically three-in-one.

EV has a dry, tart nose, but there is also a genuine undercurrent of aromatic spices. It has a unique flavour—primarily sour, with cherry and cranberry notes, but also with an unusual spice profile. According to the copy on the label, this beer is a “new-fashioned spin on the fragrant Ethiopian libation Hashara”. I’m not familiar with Hashara, this beer undeniably incorporates some exotic flavours into a sour and boozy base.

This beer came my way from the tremendously tremendous MM, a true friend of the Bitter World. I liked it a lot, though I unwisely uncapped it before looking at the percentage, resulting in a very unproductive Sunday afternoon. I was suspicious of a heavily spiced sour, but this beer gave me a lot to think about. I don’t say this often, but it might actually have been too strong for the style, but it was undeniably a one-of-a-kind brew—one I was pleased to try.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Gose-Zilla

Cooking dinner on a Tuesday evening, I delved into Gose-Zilla, a 4.7% salty sour from Northern Maverick Brewing Co. in Toronto. Sold in 500mL bottles featuring NM's polar bear mascot in an I ️ Tokyo shirt, the beer was dull gold and poured with a blanket of white head.

My nose caught a lot of subtle notes in this beer. While primarily sour and briny, I also noticed tart strawberry and cherry elements. As for flavour, this beer was way less tart than I expected, and displayed very little of a gose's characteristic salinity. While the flavour wasn't strictly up to style, I did enjoy notes of ripening fruit--berry and cherry again--as well as a sharp, quick finish that quenched my thirst admirably.

 

 

While not a strong exemplar of a gose, Gose-Zila still managed to be a pretty tasty little brew. Heightened tartness and a more detectable salt presence would have helped this ale. Still, for a very young brewery attempting a pretty finicky style, I think this stuff was pretty well executed and it's likely to improve in the future.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Heart of Tartness

From Toronto's newest brewery (at least as of September 2017), Northern Maverick Brewing Co., comes Heart of Tartness. HoT is a 5.2% alcohol dry hopped sour beer, brewed, according to the 500mL bottle, with oats to add balance.

The beer is a milky, pale yellow-gold number. It's crowned with a thick layer of pearly white head and has an aroma that vacillates between pungent brine and juicy fruit notes. The flavour is moderately tart, with some sour fruit elements--unripe peach and cranberry to this amateur aficionado--though the label promises pineapple, cherry, apricot, and orange. I can see where they're coming from with cherry, but the others elude me. The finish is quite dry and short, providing the beer with a nice crispness that cut right through a hot late-summer day to provide serious refreshment.

Heart of Tartness is a tame but thoroughly enjoyable sour ale. The strength is pretty good, there is depth of flavour, and it finishes with a commendable crispness. Perhaps not as sour as I'd have liked, nor as hop-focused, but this was a nice beer and I'll gladly revisit it before to long.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Mellifera

Mellifera comes from Le Trou du Diable in Shawinigan, Quebec. Sold in 500mL bottles with beautiful luchador/Catholic imagery, the beer has 5.8% alcohol. According to the label, this lil brew is built using local honey and lactic fermentation.

The beer is a dull gold offering, with a fairly thin covering of off-white head. It's hazy and packs a tart aroma, running parallel with a sweet, honeyed note. The flavour is considerably sour, with citrus and acidic notes. However, thanks to the use of honey, there is also a scintilla of apiary sweetness.

Tart and tangy, Mellifera has some bittersweet elements that make it an interesting beer. Not quite a sour, but nearly as acidic, it's an ale with a honeyed tongue. Very thought provoking stuff from an extremely strong Quebec brewery; however, not to be messed around with if you don't dig your beers sharp and assertive.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Citra Grove

Since I see no reason to doubt the copy on the 750mL bottle, Citra Grove is a dry hopped sour ale brewed in the [Niagara] escarpment. The product of Bench Brewing Company out of Beamsville, Ontario, Citra Grove is a cloudy brew. It had the greenish-yellow tint that I associate with a cheaply made whiskey sour, and a tartness of aroma to match. Under a pudgy and loose white head, the scent of this 6% alcohol, 14 IBU beer has a pronounced citrus sharpness, as well as a modest saline brininess. Its taste is a mish-mash of tart fruit and fragrant yeast (both lactobacillus and brettanomyces are listed on the label).

 

While I enjoyed this beer quite a bit, if I'm being completely honest with myself, 750mL of the stuff is a bit more than I needed in one go. I'd have been better off sharing the stuff--I suspect there are some really interesting cheese pairings that would make a body hear angels. As sour ales go, Bench's Citra Grove is a fairly accessible one. I'd have liked a bit more pop from the Citra hops with which this brew was dry hopped, I did enjoy the crispness and tart fruitiness that this beer had in spades. Add about ten more IBUs and I'd have been really happy.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Burlington Funk: Ceres Cucumber & Lime Gose

According to the copy on the 375mL bottle of Ceres Cucumber & Lime Gose, the name honours the Roman goddess of agriculture. Billed as a "soured light beer", Ceres comes from Burlington, Ontario's Nickel Brook Brewing Co. It contains a feather weight 4% alcohol and a preposterous 0 IBUs; however, despite those numbers, Ceres manages to pack in a significant amount of flavour.

Brewed with Himalayan sea salt, lime juice, cucumber juice, coriander, citra hops, and wheat, Ceres has a foolish amount of things going on. It has a nose that initially smacks of fresh cuke, but ends up encompassing some pretty substantial lime tartness as well. The flavour has the same elements, but reversed: the lime juice comes to the fore, while the crisp cuke-iness manifests as a a subtle presence. Ceres is tart, but not sour; briny but not salty. It can boast a genuinely unique flavour.

Billed as "thirst-quenching", I actually didn't find this gose to be all that refreshing. While the lime and cucumber juices lended a certain crispness, Ceres didn't strike me as particularly quaffable. At 4%, the beer is, on paper, easily sessioned; however, the powerful and unusual flavour combo would stall me at just one bottle. While this cucumber lime potion wasn't totally to my taste, it was innovative and odd, which made for a memorable sip. I might buy it again, but not for myself--this is a beer I'd enjoy running past someone else.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Jelly King

A dry hopped sour ale, Jelly King comes from Toronto, Ontario, where it's brewed by Bellwoods Brewery. At 5.6%, the milky yellow brew has a bit of heft, but not too much. It's sold in 500mL bottles with a spiffy kaleidoscope label. It pours with a decent layer of white head.

Jelly King has a playful and tart aroma with a nice lemon burst and the suggestion of some hoppy dryness. The flavour blends lemon and grapefruit into a tangy melange, built atop a faintly hoppy finish. 

The weak spot of this beer is its mouthfeel--a bit on the brittle side. However, with a genuinely sour flavour and quality fruit elements, there is a lot to appreciate. I'd definitely buy it again.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Nectarous

It was a family effort to get me a bottle of Nectarous, a dry-hopped sour ale from Delta, British Columbia. Spearheaded by my ol' pal KF, who enlisted her step brother to complete the delivery, it took a few weeks for me to get my bottle, but the beer was well worth the wait.

Nectarous is a member of the Zephyrus Series of brews done up by Delta's Four Winds Brewing Co. I was provided with a 650mL bottle of the stuff, listed at 5.5% alcohol and just 6 IBUs, which I thought must have been a misprint but confirmed on the FWBC website. It poured with a hazy dull golden aspect and a layer of lusty white head. The aroma was positively mouthwatering, with juicy tropical fruits and the suggestion of some serious tartness. Not quite mouth puckeringly sour, Nectarous' flavour managed to be more than simply tart, while retaining a devious blast of almost ripe fruit. Nor was it particularly yeasty. Funky, sure, but not all that yeasty.

This sour beer wasn't what I was expecting when I read "dry-hopped sour". Not at all hoppy is usually a bad thing for me when I'm reviewing an ale, but this beer somehow utterly failed to disappoint. It was big, bold, well-made, and delicious. Too tart to drink a second in a sitting, perhaps, but each sip demanded attention. This was a unique and special sour.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Les Trois Mousquetaires Gose

Gose is a style of beer that I'm quick to buy when I see it, but often hesitant to actually drink. I had a bottle of Les Trois Mousquetaires Gose in my fridge for months before I got around to uncapping the snazzy 375mL bottle and sampling the cloudy orange liquid within. Brewed in Brossard, Quebec by Les Trois Mousquetaires Microbrasseurs, the gose contained just 3.8% alcohol and 9 IBUs. It's a part of LTM's "Hors Series". It poured with only a slight covering of off white head.

Aromatically, the most obvious note is oceanic brine. There are also tart elements. Flavour-wise, salty and sour continue to be the dominant factors. According to the label, coriander is used in the brewing process, though I was unable to catch much spice flavour. Unsurprisingly, given the low percentage, LTM Gose has a thin mouthfeel, which wasn't entirely to my liking.

All told, LTM Gose was a fine sour ale, but not one that I'd be eager to fill my fridge with. Gose isn't my favourite style anyway, but a light ale in gose clothing won't bring me back to the well frequently. Still, I'm glad to have tried it.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.