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.

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.

Collective Arts IPA No. 19

I’ve fallen a bit behind on Collective Arts Brewing’s numbered IPA series during the pandemic, but I was eager to pick up a can of their IPA No. 19 when I saw it. No. 19 is a beefy 10.5% triple IPA brewed with a trio of hops: Azacca, Citra, and Nelson Sauvin. The beer comes in 473mL cans and is definitely best enjoyed on a full stomach. It’s a hazy dull gold and pours with an off-white head.

#19 has aromatics that mingle sweet citrus, dank resin, and a boatload of booze heat. The flavour isn’t actually as gargantuan as I was expecting. It’s got lots of fruit and warm booze, but to me, it’s far too sweet and lacks bitterness.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

3-4 More-Than-Triple, Less-Than-Quad IPA

 After watching my Raiders get absolutely upended by the hated team from Kansas City, I needed some strong medicine, so I reached for a 355mL can of 3-4 More-Than-Triple, Less-Than-Quad IPA. The beer, easily the most hyphenated I have ever reviewed, is an 11% bruiser from Toronto’s Great Lakes Brewery; a celebration of GLB’s 34th anniversary. The big beer is brewed with both oats and wheat.

I expected 3-4 to be hazy and was surprised when it poured a nearly clear copper colour with a thin but durable off-white foam. The beer had a potent sweet peach and citrus nose. The flavour was extremely sweet, with peach and caramel notes early on and a still-sweet, candied grapefruit finish. Not a lot of evident bitterness, though I suspect that the IBU number is fairly significant—it’s just dwarfed by strength and sugars. The beer is undeniably boozy and is best sipped slow.

This a fun celebration beer, but not one that I’d be particularly inclined to crack open on a school night. It’s too strong and too saccharine for more than occasional sipping and, having enjoyed one and purchased three more, I’m not certain that I’ll be in a rush to load up on any more. Liked it, but didn’t love it.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Apex

 A beefy triple IPA from Baysville, Ontario, Apex is a 10% bomb from Lake of Bays Brewing Co. Sold in 473mL cans, Apex contains Amarillo and Simcoe hops, is dry-hopped with Barbe Rouge and Galaxy, and is supplemented with pineapple juice concentrate. The near clear beer has an orange-amber colour, pours with a thinnish off-white head, and clocks in at 55 IBUs.

Unsurprisingly, pineapple notes are a big part of the aroma, but there are also tart peach and sticky resin notes. The beer bounces from sweet to tangy, with tropical fruit notes throughout. As for bitterness, it’s there in a citrus and resin configuration, but those elements play second fiddle to juice and booze.

Truthfully, I wasn’t wild about Apex. I found the juice and tang were over-emphasized, making it a bit overwhelming. I’d probably buy this again, but I don’t see myself seeking it out.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Nova IPA

 

Bandit Brewery’s Nova IPA had me worried. I bought four cans of the 10.1% brew and immediately set one aside for review purposes, as is my usual practice when buying a new beer. Drank the others over the Christmas holidays. When I decided to type up my thoughts on Nova, my review beer was nowhere to be found. Woe! Dismay! Had I lost it? Drank it? As I say, 10.1%, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that I got drunk, sucked it back, and forgot. And then, one day, like a miracle, I found the missing 355mL can of Torontonian ale in a corner of my fridge—what joy! Still relatively fresh, too.

Nova is a hazy orange-gold grog. It pours with a thin cap of white suds and packs a bombastic citrus and tropical aroma. The beer is extremely sweet and considerably boozy, though there is a layer of resin and citrus bitterness at the back end.

Don’t get me wrong—this is not a timid beer. Still, for an ale stronger than 10%, it is a pretty approachable potion. A bit too sweet for me, but otherwise agreeably flavoured, Nova is a party in a can.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Sparklepuff: Galaxy Starfighter, Defender of the Universe

Probably the most written about, ranted about, and complained about beer to come out of Ontario in recent years is Flying Monkeys’ Sparklepuff: Galaxy Starfighter, Defender of the Universe. The ‘Puff proponents love this juicy, 10.2% alcohol triple IPA; Sparkle haters are critical of the beer’s chunky, sediment-heavy appearance and texture. I’m way late to the game, but it’s time for the Stout Man to weigh in.

Born in Barrie, Ontario and housed in wacky 473mL cans, Sparklepuff’s packaging features a kitty with rainbow laser eyes and loads of attitude. The effusive copy on the can mentions that the beer is unfiltered—which is an understatement. The beer has more sediment than I’ve ever seen in a beer—more than any Belgian-style beer on lees or weissbier by a wide margin. The hazy, golden ale is, in a word, chunky. Not does it pour with a whole lot of head—just a thin measure of off-white suds.

 

Sparklepuff has a fruity, peachy nose that looms over a bitter base note. The flavour is undeniably potent, with sweet and tangy peach elements, assertive citrus hops, and a powerful booze blast. 

A lot of my fellow beer reviewers have been highly critical of the amount of sediment on display in this beer and I’d be remiss if I didn’t discuss it, too. To be fair, I’ve heard that this beer is a bit of a lottery and that some cans pour smooth and hazy, while others are full of floaties. But this “to be fair” isn’t a positive, when consistency is a hallmark of quality brewing. The (admittedly hearsay) can-to-can variation of Sparklepuff is evidence of an issue or a flaw. I’m typically partial to Flying Monkeys, so I’m willing to grant them some leeway, but this beer is imperfect. I’m not about to pretend to know what the problem is, since I’m a critic and not a creator, but something is wrong with this beer—that degree of sediment just can’t be okay. However, it does taste pretty grand, though the strength is perhaps unprincipled. Unlike some of my fellow beer bloggers and reviewers, I decided that I wouldn’t dump the back end of mine down the sink—I went for it, and found that the chucks were visible, but not nearly as tactile as I expected. Not exactly smooth, but certainly not evidently chunky if consumed blindfolded. Still, I’d be embarrassed to pour a beer like that for a guest or a pal without providing an awful lot of context.

So there: lots of ink spilled on an unattractive, wildly strong ale that I found to be flawed, but nonetheless enjoyable. If the Flying Monkeys can get their act together and clean this stuff up and ensure consistency, it could be a real winner. Until then, it has potential, but can’t score highly.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Life Sentence

Life Sentence is the progeny of a collaboration between two of the kingpins of Toronto, Ontario's craft brewing scene, Amsterdam Brewing Co. and Great Lakes Brewery. It's a big, bad triple IPA that packs a punch at a liver-wrinkling 10.5% alcohol. I had a 13oz. draught at one of my favourite beer joints, Bar Hop.

This swampy orange ale arrived a thin covering of off-white head. It had a tart, vaguely sweet aroma where satsuma and grapefruit mingle. This beer was wildly flavourful, but tasted hazardously less potent than its 10.5%. There was some alcohol heat, but this was hidden behind jumbo hops and citrus stank. There were a lot of sweet elements that played pretty nicely with the hops, though by the end of my glass, things were getting a touch cloying.

Life Sentence is a fine collaboration from GLB-sterdam, a brewing partnership that I definitely encourage.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.