Craft Beer Reviews Canada

Odd Company operates two taphouses in Edmonton, the original one centrally located in Oliver not too far from my home and the other, newer location situated in the Ritchie neighbourhood on the southside of our city. I had a half hour of free time south of the river this afternoon so I took it upon myself to stop into the Ritchie taphouse and try this beer. Odd Company's menu advises that Strate is "juicy and crushable." It purports to have "a citrus backbone with strawberry aromas." Does the brewery's description hold up? Let's find out. Appearance: Odd Company has a nice logo and I like the shape of their glassware. The beer itself is slightly hazy. The head settles quickly but leaves heavy lacing. Aroma: There's a slightly husky, grainy smell to this beer and a very, very subtle hint of rubber or BAND-AID that is often characteristic of chlorophenols. These undesirable phenolic compounds typically occur in beer when water with chlorine or chlorami...

The classics never go out of style. Naughty Hildegard ESB is not a new beer to me. Instead, it's an old favourite from earlier days of my foray into craft beer. A friend recommended it to me over a decade ago, advising that it was a decidedly North American take on English Special Bitter. And that it is! Appearance: Naughty Hildegard pours a beautiful copper color that brings to mind classic American craft beers like strong pale ales, red ales and IPAs. I drank this from a classic Spiegelau PA glass. White foam pours thick but ebbs as you drink, leaving just a touch of lacing. Aroma: It smells like fruitcake. In a good way! There's a touch of dessert-like sweetness coupled with the scent of dried fruit. Underneath all of that is a subtle hint of resinous pine. Taste: This beer is sublimely balanced in the old school way with a solid malt foundation and decidedly West Coast hop profile. Caramel malt adds colour and sweetness without overpowering the bitterness and fruit flavour...

I recently found out this blog ranks highly in search engine results for craft beer reviews so it seems the onus is on me to revive it. To that end, I'm going to start adding new reviews and looking for another contributor or two. Today I'm reviewing ESB by Sea Change , a local Edmonton brewery. I purchased this as part of six pack of singles I assembled myself at Sip Liquor Market , a great little beer-focused shop not far from my home. Is this an authentic attempt at an ESB or English Special Bitter? Read on and find out. Appearance: ESB comes in a 473mL can. The packaging features a custom illustration very much in line with Sea Change's highly consistent design language. Once poured, I can see that this beer is much darker than I expected. I anticipated copper or amber and what I got is brown. Visually it reminds me of a British brown ale more akin to Newcastle than a quintessential English bitter. Head retention was little to none and there was no lacing left on the gl...

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...