Weiss/Wit/Wheat Week-Mill St. Brewery-Wit

Toronto's Mill St. Brewery's Wit beer is billed as a Belgian-style wit beer.  Sold in 341mL bottles, it contains 5% alcohol and, like most wheat-based brews, is highly carbonated.  The beer is cloudy and light coloured.  It features a slight white head and moderate lacing.  For a crisp beer, the Wit features a big aroma--yeasty and highlighted by citrus tones.

The flavour is bready and dominated by the undeniable taste of orange peel.  Additionaly, there is some gentle spiciness present.  Overall, the taste is good, but the beer is too thin to be elite.  My two cents is that this brew needs work on its beery foundation and place less emphasis on peripheral flavours.  The aftertaste is slightly sour and bready--quite pleasant.

Mill St. has a truly excellent lineup for a craft brewery.  It's Wit is a good addition, but hardly the top of the class.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Weiss/Wit/Wheat Week-Mother Pucker's Ginger Wheat Beer

At a local beer bar the other day, I had occasion to sample Mother Pucker's Ginger Wheat Beer.  I ordered a pint on tap.  According to the beer list, the MPGW measured in at 5.4%.  It is brewed on site at C'est What? in Toronto.  It poured clear and ruddy--really surprising for what is ostensibly a wheat ale.  The head was really thin, but dense.  There was moderate lace and almost no evidence of carbonation.

If I didn't know that this was a ginger flavoured beer, I would never have been able to identify it from the scent.  It smelled just faintly of ginger, and also slightly yeasty.  The flavour was extremely mild.  Only some mild ginger tones. and very little else to report.  This beer had a ridiculously thin mouthfeel.  So thin that I am concerned the keg I was served from might have gone flat.

Mother Pucker's Ginger Wheat Beer was interesting in theory, but not terribly well executed.  It was refreshing, but far too thin.  The ginger taste was good, but insufficient.  All in all, it was a bit of a disappointment.  C'est What? has so many excellent choices, I wish I'd gone with something else.

Rating: 5.0 out of 10--However, due to the chance that the keg was off, I will revisit this beer in the future and update my review if necessary.

Weiss/Wit/Wheat Week: Dennison's Weissbier

Recently, a dream of mine came true.  My partner and I have dated for a long time and throughout the majority of our relationship, she has insisted that she isn't interested in beer.  Recently, she has decided that perhaps beer isn't so bad.  Her taste runs to the lighter end of the spectrum, preferring lagers and other pale brews.  This week, she agreed to review a beer with me.  I'm pretty pumped about it.

Because Partner prefers lighter tasting beer, we opted for a wheat beer.  Denison's Weissbeer is billed as a Bavarian-style wheat beer.  Brewed by Denison's Brewing Company, the Weissbeer hails from Toronto.  It is sold in 473mL cans.  It weighs in at a respectable 5.3%.

D.W. poured pale and cloudy straw colour.  It was considerably fizzy.  Said Partner, "It's like a crazy carbonation party."  The aroma was a delightful blend of tart fruit notes--pear and apple.  As Partner evocatively put it, "It smells like walking through an orchard after a cold rain."

The flavour begins with a cider-like pear flavour that moves toward a sour, bready aftertaste.  Nestled somewhere in between is the typical weissbier orange peel flavour.  The slightly elevated alcohol content is fairly evident.  In fact, D.W. might actually taste stronger than it is.  For that reason, it isn't particularly sessionable, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.  The mouthfeel is medium and quite fizzy.

Both Partner and I enjoyed this brew and would drink it again.  We agreed that it'd be quite enjoyable with a meal.  As weissbeers go, Denison's was pretty good.  Nice aroma, inviting initial taste, and considerably refreshing.  The sour aftertaste was a touch unwieldy, which kept the rating from being higher, but still a solid pint.

Rating:  7.5 out of 10 (Partner said 7.0).

Also, Arlo thought it smelled good:

Weiss/Wit/Wheat Week--Rickard's White

One of the main reasons I started this blog was to learn more about beer.  There are so many distinct and interesting styles of beer, each with there own characteristics and attributes, that it sometimes seems a daunting task to delve any deeper than the peripheral understanding that I already possess.  But that's what I want to do.  To that end, I think it makes sense to occasionally choose a style of beer and focus on it for a series of reviews.

The style I have chosen for my inaugural theme week is wit/wheat/weiss beers.  It's a style that I do not know much about, beyond the fact that these brews are united by the generous presence of wheat as a base ingredient, that they tend to be cloudy and that they are often paired with citrus wedges.  For an example of the level of my ignorance, I know that there is a distinction between Belgian-style witbiers and Germanic weissbiers, but what that distinction is eludes me.  What I do know is these wheaty brews seem to be becoming increasingly popular and are a summertime patio staple.

I had a pint of Rickard's White on tap at a neighbourhood sports bar.  At halftime of the Monday Night Football game, I borrowed a pen and wrote my thoughts on a napkin.  First off, RW almost always comes served with an orange wedge.  It's true that the orange goes well with the brew, but just once, I'd like a server to ask me if I want the orange, since the presence of an outside element tends to distort the flavour and make reviewing a challenge.

The beer is a very cloudy orange colour.  There is a thin white head and a little lace.  The aroma was muddled by the orange slice, but I could discern notes of bready yeast and citrus.  The taste is a blend of citrus and sourdough.  The finish is really just a continuation of the flavour.

These suds are quite thin, but mild and refreshing.  Rickard's White is a pretty solid summertime beer--it definitely tastes better on a patio.  It's really a pretty good offering for a large-scale producer.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Stonecutter Scotch Ale

Renaissance Brewing Company's Stonecutter Scotch Ale was a treat.  Hailing from Marlborough, New Zealand and sold in 500mL bottles, it boasts a meaty 7.0% alcohol content.  Stonecutter pours a muddy brown colour with rusty highlights and is barely transparent.  There is a thick tan head that persists like a frothy cap.  The ale is slightly carbonated but leaves behind lots of lace.

Stonecutter is a strong-smelling ale.  There are notes of caramel, brown sugar and raisins.  The taste starts bitter, but quickly becomes malty and sweet.  There are warm, comfortable flavours of caramel and raisin.  The mouthfeel is best described as buttery.  The aftertaste remains sweet, but is also a touch smokey.

I have mixed feelings about the Scotch Ale style.  I find many "wee heavies" too sweet, too malty.  However, Stonecutter was an extremely enjoyable pint.  It's certainly malty, but it features a rounder and more nuanced flavour than other Scotch ales I've tried.  Definitely worth a go.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

International Stout Day

Beer fans!  My beautiful fiancée informed me that today is International Stout Day.  This is exciting news. 

Readers, I encourage you to make yourself comfortable and pour a rich, luxurious mug of stout.  Take your time, sip it slowly and enjoy the majesty.  I know I will.

Stay tuned.  I've got a bunch of stout reviews queued up for the coming weeks. 

1715 Lvivske Premium Lager

When I picked up a bottle of Lvivske Premium Lager, the woman working the register at the liquor store informed me that she, like the beer, was Ukrainian.  I asked her for a tutorial on how to pronounce the name.  After several torturous attempts, she advised me that I should simply call it 1715.

1715 hails from Kleparivska, Ukraine, where it is brewed by the Lvivska Brewery.  This pale lager is sold in 500mL bottles and has 5% alcohol.  Ontario's liquor stores have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Eastern European pale lagers.  When making my selection, I look for things that set a particular brew apart.  For 1715, I was persuaded by the badass cap that featured a crowned lion hoisting a beer stein.  Simple things...

This Ukrainian brew is slightly darker in colour than a typical pale lager--a bit more golden than straw.  These suds are topped by a thin, white head.  There is a slight amount of lace and a moderate amount of carbonation.  The aroma is wheaty, with a touch of apple.  The mouthfeel is extremely thin.  Tastewise, 1715 is inoffensive, but unremarkable.  The flavour progresses from corny malt to slight bitterness.  Along the way, there really aren't any other taste notes to speak of.  There is barely any aftertaste at all.

1715 is an ordinary Eastern European pale lager.  It is extremely drinkable and refreshing--a good sunny day brew.  However, it is thin and lacking in distinctive character.  Lager fans will enjoy this one, but beer snobs might be less impressed.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.