Paradise Found Tropical Dark Ale

Paradise Found Tropical Dark Ale comes from Toronto’s Saulter Street Brewery—a place that I think has been flying beneath the radar for too long. Brewed using Demerara sugar, the beer contains 5.8% alcohol and is comes in 473mL cans that have a winter to summer beach look. The beer has a stout-like appearance, but didn’t pour with a whole lot of head—just a wisp of off-white head.

Paradise Found has an elegant aromatic profile, with considerably brown sugar sweetness, a whiff of coffee, and some dark chocolate. The beer has a creamy and entirely agreeable mouthfeel that supports a flavour rich in java and a golden rummy sweetness. The back end is bitter, with chocolate and coffee grit, and that provides excellent balance. There is also a very slight smokiness.

While I’d have liked to see a bit more suds atop mount Paradise Found, there isn’t all that much else to critique. It’s a really lovely, balanced and interesting little brew that walks a line between classic English ale flavours and some quirky new world elements. The strength to flavour ratio is good, and the total result is positive.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10.

Four on the Floor Pilsner

Four on the Floor Pilsner is a pale lager from the team at Toronto’s Rainhard Brewing. It’s a 4.9% grog with a slightly hazy yellow-gold colour and a thin cover of white foam. Perhaps my favourite thing about this beer is the last line of the copy on the 355mL cans, which cautions: “Please crush responsibly.”

FotF is brewed using Saaz and Saphir hops. It has a grassy, slightly metallic aroma with a faint banana note. The mouthfeel is both sparkling and a bit thin, which doesn’t give it quite the level of crispness that I was hoping for. It has a clean, pleasant flavour, though, with a grain to hops progression.

FotF is a pretty decent pilsner. It’d be better if it was a bit more crisp and a bit more assertive, but I enjoyed it and am glad to have a few more in the fridge.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Calm Sea Ontario Pale Ale

Born in Toronto’s East Side, Calm Sea Ontario Pale Ale comes from Avling Brewing. It’s a 5% alcohol ale sold in 355mL cans brewed using Ontario wheat, malt, barley, and hops. It’s a hazy golden ale that pours with a sudsy white head.

Calm Sea has a surprisingly yeasty nose, with banana and clove notes—honestly, if I hadn’t seen a label, I’d have called it a hefeweizen for sure. The beer’s flavour has a similar profile—bananas, spice, and hearty yeast. Not a lot of conventional pale ale hops or bitterness, though.

Calm Sea is an unusual pale ale—it hits a lot of wheat beer style elements, and it lacks the bitterness that typically characterizes the pale ale style. Not my cup, but it could absolutely be yours.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Salieri Vienna Lager

Salieri Vienna Lager is a 5% copper lager from Toronto’s Avling. Sold in 355mL cans, Salieri is a very attractive lager with a layer of cream coloured suds to top it off.

The beer has a malty and metallic aroma accented with a hint of caramel sweetness. Salieri is a sweet and smooth brew—perhaps a little too sweet. The flavour contains brown sugar and caramel elements, as well as roasted malt and just a touch of bitterness.

Vienna Lagers aren’t exactly over-represented in Ontario’s craft beer scene, so I was pretty excited to see Avling’s version available for mail order. And it proved to be a decent take—very attractive with a nice, if slightly too sweet flavour.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Eastern Promises Vermont Pale Ale

Eastern Promises Vermont Pale Ale is a 6.7% hazer from the gang at Bowmanville, Ontario’s Manantler Craft Brewing Company. Sold in 500mL bottles, the beer within is a cloudy orange grog that looks lovely, but for its very thin head. I’d like to have seen a bit more foam on this one—not sure how fresh the bottle I got was. But if sediment in the bottom of my glass, but nothing that troubled me one iota.

EP has a lovely orange blossom and creamsicle aroma. It’s got a delicate and enjoyable flavour—lots of orange notes, considerable sweetness deftly handled, and very little bitterness.

This stuff was quite enjoyable to me. A solid Vermont-style pale ale with great strength, little bitterness, and juiciness and sweetness in good balance. I’d have liked it to be a bit foamier on the pour, but it did deliver a smooth and inviting mouthfeel.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Fugg Life

Manantler Craft Brewing Co. makes an extra special bitter using Maris Otter malt and Fuggle hops that gives it a classic English feel. Fugg Life is a 4.6% ale from Bowmanville, Ontario. Sold in 500mL bottles with Manantler’s generic labels, the beer itself is a handsome, clear copper ale that pours with a modest layer of off-white suds.

Zevon doesn't usually express interest in brews, but she liked the vibe of this one.

Fugg Life has a sweet, malty aroma with rich brown sugar and sticky toffee notes. The flavour mimics the aroma, but amplified: it’s malt-driven, with caramel/toffee, and brown sugar, as well as a some orange pekoe tea notes. Based on this description, one might expect that Fugg Life is too sweet, but the beer is actually quite balanced—the Fuggle hops don’t generate overpowering bitterness, but they definitely offset the malty sweetness of the front end expertly.

Fugg Life is a beautiful beer with a dumb name. A great example of the ESB style from an under-the-radar Ontario brewery (Manantler deserves way more attention, at least based on my limited experience with their offerings), Fugg Life is a very satisfying brew. Low-ish alcohol, but full-flavoured, this beer is well-constructed and I highly recommend it.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.

Dark Prince Black IPA

Cooking up some din for the Bitter Wife and myself, listening to a podcast, we found ourselves with 12 minutes to spare, so I decided I had enough time to review Dark Prince Black IPA. This 6% Cascadian dark ale, made by the team at Manantler Craft Brewing Co., is literally the main reason that I decided on a beer mail order from this Bowmanville establishment—I love a black IPA and the art on the 500mL bottle is dark as hell. Had to have it.

Dark Prince has a dark colour, ruby highlights, and a sudsy cream head. It packs evergreen aromatics, floral bitterness, a whiff of spice, and roasted malts into a busy nose. The flavour is spicy and heartily piney. There are some understated sweet notes and roasted malt elements, but the bitter back half is the real story of this ale.

I thought this was a damned fine ale. I’d have liked it to be stronger—7% would have  changed the game and taken it to the next level. But otherwise, the beer ticked all of my black IPA boxes. The roasted caramel introduction sets the table, but doesn’t clutter the atmosphere and hang around too long. The back end is elite. This is good beer.

Rating: 9.0 out of 10.