Month: March 2021

New Level Brewing Saisons In The Abyss Born of Fire #2 – Saison at 6.5% ABV (C$5.35 at Collective, 473 ml, packaged on 21-Sep-2020, acquired 26-Mar-2021, reviewed 28-Mar-2021)

Appearance: slightly hazy pale gold with one finger of loose white head, good retention and minimal spotty lacing. (3/5) Aroma: complex, vinous oak, pineapple, horse blanket, lemon zest, stone fruit. (8/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter, light tart. (8/10) Palate: medium body, moderate carbonation, drying funky lightly tart finish. (4/5)

Not gonna lie: I’m probably more impressed with the Bob’s Burgers punniness of the name than anything else, except maybe the Slayer reference itself, because, come on, motherfucking Slayer. That aside, this is interesting, with a lot (maybe a little too much?) going on, with distinct contributions from the oak, Brett, and adjunct fruits. (15/20)

7.5/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

Shoreline Brewing Co. Smoke Show Hazy IPA – American IPA at 6% ABV | 40 IBU (C$5.00 at Collective, 473 ml, no packaging date or best before, acquired 26-Mar-2021, reviewed 27-Mar-2021)

Appearance: hazy straw with a massive fluffy loose white head, good retention and moderate soapy lacing. (3/5) Aroma: tropical fruit, cereal grains, citrus. (7/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter. (7/10) Palate: medium body, moderate carbonation, off-dry medium duration finish. (4/5)

A perfectly serviceable example of the style, without any real negatives, aside from a slightly muddy appearance and unwieldy head. It’s also missing any particular positives, except perhaps for the way the lingering tropical fruit note becomes almost exactly pineapple. Damned with faint praise? Perhaps, but in all honesty not one that I’m likely to remember or seek out in future. By the same token, though, I’m not about to boycott the brewer, so we’ll see if any other offerings are more impressive. (12/20)

6.5/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

Île Sauvage Brewing Nordique – Rye IPA at 7.0% ABV (C$5.08 at Collective, 473 ml, no packaging date or best before, acquired 17-Mar-2021, reviewed 26-Mar-2021)

Appearance: hazy pale gold with a massive fluffy loose pale ivory head, good retention and moderate soapy lacing. (3/5) Aroma: spicy rye, juniper, caramel. (7/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate-high bitter, moderate peppery spice. (7/10) Palate: medium body, moderate carbonation, off-dry lingering bitter spicy finish. (3/5)

The brewer’s notes indicate this is their version of a Finnish Sahti, 30% Rye malt, fermented with Kveik Voss, and dry-hopped with Simcoe and Juniper berries. Hard to say how authentic it is, since by my notes I’ve had only one “actual” (supposed) Sahti and that one was from Ontario, so it might or might not have itself been a reasonable representation of the style. Guess I’m gonna have to make it to Finland at some point to be sure. However, this one certainly has more gin-like juniper character, so, maybe? Not bad overall, and I certainly don’t dislike it, but the combination of rye and juniper certainly makes it a little edgy, bordering on harsh. (14/20)

7/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

Offshoot Beer Co. Visions – American IPA at 6.9% ABV (C$5.80 at Collective, 473 ml, packaged on 29-Jan-2021, acquired 17-Mar-2021, reviewed 25-Mar-2021)

Appearance: hazy pale gold with two fat fingers of loose pale ivory head diminishing gradually to a thin ring, spotty lacing. (3/5) Aroma: juicy citrus, tropical fruit, resiny pine, oats, melon, herbal. (9/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter. (9/10) Palate: medium body, moderate-soft carbonation, off-dry medium duration finish. (4/5)

Brewer notes indicate it’s hopped with, well, everything: Citra, Mosaic, Amarillo, Centennial, Cashmere, El Dorado, and Simcoe. (What, nobody’s come up with a “Kitchen Sink” hop yet?) There’s also three malts: 2-Row, Flaked Oats, Carafoam. With all that, I’m a little surprised they limited themselves to just the single London III yeast! Not that I’m complaining: this little number is quite the juice bomb, and other than being a little bit fugly, pretty much nails the spec with big aroma, restrained and balanced sweet and bitter, and pleasant drinkability. As usual, The Bruery doesn’t disappoint. (Well, Offshoot doesn’t, anyway – I’ve had four of that cadet branch’s efforts so far, all solid eights, but I’ve known the mother brewery to have some pretty spectacular failures. On the other hand, they’ve also had some of my highest rated examples ever, so, risk big win big lose big I guess.) (16/20)

8/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

Campio Brewing Co. Tropical Pyramid – American IPA at 7.0% ABV (C$4.50 at Collective, 473 ml, packaged on 4-Mar-2021, acquired 17-Mar-2021, reviewed 25-Mar-2021)

Appearance: hazy pale gold with one fat finger of fine pale ivory head, good retention and spotty lacing. (4/5) Aroma: citrus, tropical fruit, resiny pine, cereal grains. (8/10) Taste: moderate-high sweet, moderate-high bitter. (7/10) Palate: smooth medium-full body, moderate-soft carbonation, sweetish building bitter slightly astringent finish. (3/5)

“Bringing the beach to the City of Champions”… uhhh… yeah. Didn’t they take that off the signs quite some time ago? And when was the last serious championship run, let alone win? Not that I can say much given the Flames’ behaviour lately… though the Stamps did win in Edmonton in 2018, so I guess technically there were champions there then! Anyway, the beer’s not bad, even if it is from The City of Mushrooms (Champignons, geddit?). It’s a bit too sweet and thick for my preference in the style, but generally drinkable despite the building bitterness and slight astringency in the finish. (14/20)

7/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

Strathcona Beer Company Head Banger – Triple IPA at 9.5% ABV | 30 IBU (C$5.08 at Collective, 473 ml, no packaging date or best before, acquired 17-Mar-2021, reviewed 24-Mar-2021)

Appearance: slightly hazy pale gold with two fat fingers of rocky pale ivory head, good retention and moderate chunky lacing. (4/5) Aroma: citrus, resiny pine, cereal grains, tropical fruit. (8/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter. (8/10) Palate: medium-full slightly slick body, moderate carbonation, medium duration warming finish. (4/5)

Citra, Mosaic, pilsner malt, flaked wheat, and oats? There’s not a darned thing there I can disagree with. I hadn’t seen any of the prior iterations of this one (which might be the tenth revision of that name?) but it would appear that they’ve spent some time figuring it out, because this one rocks pretty hard. And, despite the emphatic juicy flavours and enthusiastic ABV, the bitterness and sweetness are both restrained and balanced. No complaints here, rock on! (16/20)

8/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

Hoyne Brewing Co. Carte Blanche – White IPA at 6% ABV (C$4.65 at Collective, 473 ml, no packaging date or best before, acquired 17-Mar-2021, reviewed 23-Mar-2021)

Appearance: hazy pale gold with one finger of pillowy pale ivory head, excellent retention and well-defined soapy lacing. (5/5) Aroma: complex, Belgian esters, lime, green pepper, melon, herbal, white pepper. (7/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter, mild peppery spice. (7/10) Palate: medium body, moderate-soft carbonation, medium duration lightly spicy finish. (4/5)

It’s been a while since I had a Belgian White, and even longer since I had a really good one. This… is a pretty good one. It’s not really “authentic”, whatever that word means, not least of which due to the hopping with Cashmere and Ekuanot(/Equinox/HBC 366), but the German wheat malt is on-spec, as is the Belgian yeast. (I also really like the “young lions” concept – train ‘em up and turn ‘em loose is definitely my philosophy when it comes to the whippersnappers.) There are at least a couple of reasons I might be over-rating this one, including the fact that I miss Belgium (Hell, travelling in general!) like a motherfucker, but also because I might have been overdoing the AIPA/NEIPA range of the spectrum for the past few months (comfort beer?) and need to move on to other things – but even if I am being generous it’s not by a whole lot. (16/20)

8/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

District Brewing Co. Hazy For You – American IPA at 6.7% ABV | 50 IBU (C$4.27 at Collective, 473 ml, packaged on 10-Feb-2021, acquired 17-Mar-2021, reviewed 23-Mar-2021)

Appearance: hazy deep gold with two fingers of rocky ivory head, good retention and chunky lacing. (4/5) Aroma: mixed stewed fruit, caramel, mild pine, herbal. (7/10) Taste: moderate-high sweet, moderate bitter. (6/10) Palate: medium slightly creamy body, moderate carbonation, sweetish medium duration finish. (3/5)

A bit muddled, with malt playing too emphatic a role in the aroma, but even more so on the tongue. Not much more to say here – it’ll do, but that’s about it. (13/20)

6.5/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

Twin Sails Brewing Slam Dank – American IPA at 7.5% ABV | 55 IBU (C$5.31 at Collective, 473 ml, no packaging date or best before, acquired 17-Mar-2021, reviewed 22-Mar-2021)

Appearance: clear pale gold with two fingers of fluffy white head, good retention and moderate soapy lacing. (4/5) Aroma: dank resiny pine, biscuity malt, citrus peel, tropical fruit. (8/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter. (8/10) Palate: medium body, moderate carbonation, off-dry lingering bitter mildly spicy finish. (4/5)

I was looking forward to this one since I bought it – hey, I’d previously tried 14 beers from Twin Sails, with a mean score of 7.8 and a standard deviation of 0.4, so I think that’s what you call a “safe bet”, sight unseen. Add to that the allure of Mosaic and a new (to me anyway) hop: Apollo, a “super high-alpha variety” with “an intense, pungent citrus peel aroma”, and, well, yeah, I’ve been looking forward to it. Does it live up to the anticipation? Well… almost. It’s certainly got what the label promises: dank resin on the front end, and sufficient restraint that a guy could slam it if he wanted to. (Mind you, given the emphatic ABV, you could get away with that a limited number of times before you’d be the one who ended up slamming… to the floor…) I guess if I had to express a complaint, it would be that I would have liked more dank, but other than that, nope, I’m good. (16/20)

8/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze

Illuminated Brew Works Dagger Flute – American IPA at 6% ABV (C$7.95 at Collective, 473 ml, packaged on 9-Nov-2020, acquired 17-Mar-2021, reviewed 22-Mar-2021)

Appearance: slightly hazy medium gold with one finger of loose white head diminishing rapidly  to a thin skim, minimal spotty lacing. (3/5) Aroma: tropical fruit, caramel, pine, grass, herbal. (6/10) Taste: moderate sweet, moderate bitter. (7/10) Palate: medium body, moderate carbonation, off-dry mildly spicy finish. (4/5)

Dunno what in the hell the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers (and/or psychedelic KIϟϟ knockoffs?) have to do with beer, but, sure, fine, whatever. Their blog calls it “An old school IPA that you can stare at your cat through” – which, though technically true, is both a bit strange and not particularly helpful. (That statement probably applies to their whole blog and, for that matter, their web site in general – let’s just say I don’t think alcohol is their only intoxicant, and maybe not even their preferred one.) The label says it’s a Citra India Pale Ale, so it might (or might not) be single-hopped, but either way it’s not giving me anything unexpected. All editorializing aside, it’s an OK, somewhat old-fashioned non-hazy (mostly) IPA. (13/20)

6.5/10 ryansbooze.com #ryansbooze