Craft Beer Reviews Canada

Apparently inspired by a cannabis strain, Blue Dream is a hazy IPA infused with plant terpenes designed to give this beer the smell of marijuana. Appearance: The can is visually distinct from all other Four Winds releases that I have seen. (The Four Winds brand doesn’t seem to have a strong design language. There's like four or five different design templates for their cans.) Blue Dream is hazy and yellow gold with a head that settles quickly and then dissapears completely, leaving almost no lacing. (I assume the additional terpenes inhibit foam formation.) Aroma: Does it smell like pot? I’m not an expert, but I think not really. I do get a sort of vegetal smell, maybe a little spice and not too much fruit. Flavour: Tough to pinpoint but I think there is some stonefruit in there. Some hops make beer taste fuzzy and I don’t know yet how to explain or elaborate on that any better. But this beer is fuzzy. There is a really strong ginger component to the flavour which is actually kind ...

I really like single hop beers for their educational value—there’s no better way to familiarize yourself with the characteristics of different hops. Mikkeller, one of my favourite breweries of all time, had a wonderful series of single hop IPAs a decade or so ago that was instrumental to my understanding of classic North American hop varieties like Cascade, Centennial, Amarillo, Simcoe and many more. So I was happy to see that Four Winds has a newer series of single hop releases with more contemporary hops coming out under the name Monocle. This was my first sampling of this series. Aroma: Smells like yard and garden clippings—in a good way. I personally get that from a lot of modern IPAs with new hop varieties. Taste: Very strong stone fruit finish, like peach or apricot. Bit of dank and a touch of grain which I like. (Maybe some blueberry notes as it warms—gets a little more sour too.) Mouthfeel: Pretty nice. Doesn’t fully achieve the fluffy cloud-like feeling I associate with an ou...