Craft Beer Reviews Canada

Name: Entropy Series No. 11: Whiskey Sour Brewery: Dageraad Brewing Style: Saison Alc/vol: 5.0% OG: Unknown FG: Unknown IBU: Unknown Malt: Unknown Hops: Unknown Yeast: Unknown Appearance: This beer arrives in a beautiful champagne style bottle with a regular beer cap on top rather than a cage and cork. It features a classic label design that makes a bold commitment: this is a beer-based interpretation of the classic whiskey sour cocktail. I happen to love both beer and whiskey sours so expectations are high. The beer pours pretty clear—looks like a Kolsch or something similar. Aroma: It smells like farmland. Like hay and even manure. And a touch of sour milk or yoghurt. Yeah, it's complicated. Flavour: Mmm. This is something special. First, it comes across as a straight up citrus bomb with strong lemon and lime characteristics. But then it finishes with more complexity—sour, funky and smoky with hints of whisky-like flavours. This is something special. Mouthfeel: I find saison...

The core purpose of this blog is ostensibly the review of Canadian-made craft beer. But I will veer off-course from time-to-time. This review of an American-style beer brewed in Belgium by a Danish brewer is one of those times. There's a lot to like about Mikkeller . The homebrewer in me loves the story behind the company, from its homebrew roots, to its establishment as a virtual brewery, to its evolution into a global craft beer brand. The marketing professional in me loves the brewery's branding, focused as it is on the illustrative style of their talented art director, Keith Shore . And most importantly, as a fan of craft beer, I love that their output is universally pretty good. Mikkeller's beers are typically sold as singles, at least in Alberta. In fact, I don't believe I've ever come across a four- or six-pack of Mikkeller beer. Do Stuff Together is no different. This is a premium beer with a premium price of just under $10 for a single 473mL can. It is...

Appearance: This beer comes in an attractive 473mL can, typical of Eighty-Eight Brewing's packaging. The colour palette is appealing with contrasting colours of purple, yellow and navy. The can was marked with the date it was packaged: March 20, 2020. I reviewed this beer on April 18, 2020—so it was relatively fresh. I poured this beer into a Spiegalau IPA glass. The colour was golden verging on orange. The beer was relatively clear but not crystal. After pouring, the beer featured a medium head of foam that dissipated somewhat quickly. The beer laced the glass nicely as I sampled it. Aroma: A vegetal smell, somewhere between grass (wet) and hay (dry). A slight resinous odour. I couldn't place it but my wife said it reminded her of marijuana. To be honest, there's not much in the way of fruit—and definitely no hint of tropical fruit like the brewery suggests. Taste: I'm just not feeling this one. A vegetal taste aligns unfortunately with the aroma. As the beer warme...

The vast majority of beer is made with just four simple ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. Everything from lagers to stouts, saisons and IPAs are derived from the same combination of basic brewing elements. Of course, there are an almost unlimited array of options for malt, hops and yeast—not to mention all of the books written on the science of adjusting the mineral content of water for different styles and effects. Brewers typically use more than one kind of malt and hops in their recipes. But sometimes simplicity is king. There is a different kind of recipe, popular among the homebrewing community, called Single Malt and Single Hop beer—or a SMaSH. There are many benefits in brewing a SMaSH. A desire for simplicity in brewing is one. Understanding and appreciating the flavour contributions made by a specific set of ingredients is another. Perfecting your process by reducing recipe variables is yet one more. I've been brewing for over nine years and during that time I...

I've been brewing for nine years. My brewing evolved from propane-fired BIAB to a 10-gallon RIMS and last year I decided I wanted to simplify my life plus brew indoors so I bought a Grainfather. (I'm pretty happy with it, too.) My cold-side process evolved other years, too. Got a freezer and temperature controller. Started cold-crashing and using gelatin. Bought Fermonsters and added spigots. Moved from bottling to kegging. But over the past couple of years, I was really disappointed with my beers. Hops just weren't showing up as expected. And beers were sweeter or maltier than expected. NEIPAs with 8oz hopstands and 8oz dryhops were just meh. I couldn't figure it out. More hops didn't help. I made so many batches that didn't meet my expectations and I even dumped a few. I tried all kinds of water adjustments and other techniques to improve my beers but nothing worked. Late last year I kegged another New England IPA. It was loaded with Citra and it tasted ...

Canada's best beer comes from British Columbia. I'm pretty confident of that. Some of my favourite Canadian breweries can be found there, like Superflux , Twin Sails and Boombox . The subject of this review is one of the latter's limited releases: Synthwave. I missed this beer the first time it was brewed and released but managed to pick up a four-pack recently. I believe it was brewed in December 2019 so it's not 100% fresh but not old enough yet that a review would be inappropriate. Information on the brewery's website is sparse at best—this beer does not appear there at all. A rough grain bill is printed on the side of the can and I found a list of hops at the beer blog Bring Your Porter to the Slaughter . This beer features a combination of Citra, Mosaic and Motueka hops. Citra and Mosaic are par for the course when it comes to contemporary IPAs, especially ones that are influenced by the hazy, fruit-forward beers popularized by certain New England brewerie...

There are many different beer styles but the majority are well-established and well-known to brewers. Their characteristics and the ingredients that comprise them are generally understood and accepted. That said, the craft beer explosion over the past decade or two has led to an evolution and expansion of traditional beer canon. New styles have emerged. Some have trended then waned—take white IPAs or India Pale Lagers for instance—while others seem to have completely redefined the brewing industry. (Yes, I'm talking about hazy or New England-style IPAs and pale ales.) New Zealand (NZ) Pilsner is a relatively new and seemingly only loosely defined style. Most articles on the style have been written in the past three years. Popular primarily in its country of origin and among homebrewers, its defining features seem to be that it is brewed mostly with Pilsner malt and NZ-grown hops. Much has been written about hops from NZ, especially Nelson Sauvin , a particularly standout vari...

Eighty-Eight Brewing Co. is one of a newer generation of Calgary breweries. I think they opened in 2018—the same year as Cabin and Annex Ale Project . (I think. Correct me if I am wrong, please.) Overall, I've been quite impressed with their branding, package design and—most importantly—their beer. There's a reason I mentioned Eighty-Eight in the same sentence as Cabin and Annex Ale Project and that is simply that I think the three breweries are exceptional representations of the Calgary brewing scene. As an Edmontonian, it pains me to say it but I have to give credit where credit is due: Calgary is making better beer. I've tasted most of Eighty-Eight's lineup—at least what is available in Edmonton—but this is my first proper review. Name: Duotang Brewery: Eighty-Eight Brewing Co. Style: (Dry-hopped) Sour Alc/vol: 5% OG: unknown FG: unknown IBU: 8 Malt: unknown Hops: Amarillo Yeast: Lactobacillus Appearance: As always, the packaging is exceptional...

I didn't start drinking craft beer until 2008, when a friend introduced me to Hop Head by Tree Brewing . And it took another year or two before I had my first craft stout: Shakespeare Stout by Rogue , which is in my mind the quintessential American Stout and still one of my top ten beers after all these years. Stouts have seen a lot of change over the past decade. Brewers are adding all kinds of flavours to stouts: coffee, fruit, peanut butter, salted caramel and more. Easy Bake by Eighty-Eight Brewing Co. is an entry in to the sweet or dessert stout category, brewed in collaboration with Pretty Sweet , a Calgary bakeshop. The objective behind this beer was to replicate the flavours of Pretty Sweet's Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake. Name: Easy Bake Brewery: Eighty-Eight Brewing Co. (with Pretty Sweet) Style: (Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake) Stout Alc/vol: 8.5% OG: unknown FG: unknown IBU: 35 Malt: Chocolate, Caramel, Demerara sugar Hops: Unknown Yeast: Unknown...