signing off for a few days

I will be traveling tomorrow and will be back on line as soon as possible but I will still be having my nightly brew. I will update the sight as soon as I have access to the internet again.

Day 329-Beer 329 Niagara College Rauchbier, Niagara College, Niagara on the Lake

Another brew from the Niagara College Brewing Program, this on is Rauchbier or smoke bier and this one is just that. It poured a murky amber copper colour with lots of head that left some nice sticky lacing. The aroma is molasses and campfire smoke. The flavour is smoke heavy with a sweet background and just a hint of spicy hops. An okay brew 3.4 out of 5.

Day 328 - Beer 328 Arctic Circle Ale , Malmgardin Pamimo, Malmgard, Finland

Tonight's brew my first from Finland and my first brewed with dark rye and juniper twigs. This is also a first for it is listed as a Sahti. It is said to be one of the only primitive beers to survive in Western Europe, Sahti is a farmhouse ale with roots in Finland. First brewed by peasants in the 1500s, mashing (steeping of grains) went down in wooden barrels, and then that mash would be scooped into a hand-carved wooden trough (a kuurna) with a bed of juniper twigs that acted as a filter. The bung at the bottom of the kuurna would be pulled to allow the sweet wort (liquid infusion from the mash) to pass through the twig filter, followed by wort recirculation and a hot water sparge (rinsing of the grains), all of which created a juniper infusion of sorts.

Sahti is also referred to as being turbid, because the wort isn’t boiled after lautering (separation of spent grain and liquid), leaving loads of proteins behind, thus providing tremendous body. A low-flocculating Finnish baker’s yeast creates a cloudy unfiltered beer, with an abundance of sediment. Traditional Sahti is not typically hopped, so the task of balancing is left up to the juniper twigs, which impart an unusual resiny character and also act as a preservative.

Arctic Circle, only available in the winter season pours a murky/muddy dark brown with two fingers of head that settle to leave almost no surface lacing yet it sticks to the sides much like a heavily laced beer. The aroma  is big on caramel malts with a milk chocolate background and a hint of pine. The flavour is quite malty with a caramel and honey sweetness and a nice spicy background of rye and juniper. This is my first beer of this style and my first comment to my wife was this is a really good brew. It is very drinkable with a nice balance of malts, the alcohol is not overpowering although it is 7.3%ABV and it has some great fruit and yeast characteristics. 4 out of 5.

Day 327-Beer 327 Hatachino Nest Espresso Stout, Kiuchi Brewery, Ibaraki-ken Naka-gun, Japan

Tonight's brew is a double or American stout, unlike last nights this one is a strong brew at 7%ABV. It poured black in colour with very little head and only a very tiny amount of lacing. The aroma was very malt forward with lots of sweet caramel, molasses and toasted malts along with coffee with a metallic background and a hint of something sour. The flavour was similar, dark roasted malts, espresso coffee, molasses and caramel, very little hop bitterness. Overall an okay brew. 3.4 out of 5

Day 326-Beer 326 O'Hara's Irish Stout, Carlow Brewing , Bagenalstown, County Carlow, Ireland

Ooh a beer by CARLow, the name some of my Italian Friends call me. This one is an Irish Dry Stout, the big three of which are Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish. It poured a dark brown almost black colour with on finger of tan coloured head that left some blotchy but very sticky lacing. The aroma is dark roast cappuccino with milk chocolate. The flavour abounds with roasted malts and hints of milk chocolate in an espresso. In the background just a hint of spicy hops with a very dry finish. This is a great tasting stout especially for one so light in alcohol 4.3%ABV. This one should be a hit with any stout lover. 3.8 out of 5

Day 325-Beer 325 Autumn Hop Harvest Ale, Amsterdam Brewery Toronto Ontario

Tonight's brew is listed as an APA.  It pours a cloudy golden orange colour with nice white head that leaves some nice lacing. The aroma has hints of caramel and grainy malts along with some floral and citrus hops. The taste has a sweet caramel malt background with a very nice balance of floral and citrus hops giving a nice pine resin and grapefruit bitterness. A very good brew that has a very fresh feel on your palate,
it's easy drinking with a nice dry finish 3.8 out of 5

Day 324-Beer 324 Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen, Brauerei Heller-Trum, Bamberg, Germany

The original smokebeer or so the label states. The brewery dates it origin back to 1405 and apparently has been run by six generations of the same family. The Rauchbier (Smokebeer)style is an old German beer style, its origins go back to the 1500's and to the district of Franconia and the town of Bamberg. It's typically of dark colour and has similarities of the Oktoberfestbier. Green malts are literally dried over an open fire of beech wood giving it a strong smoky flavour they say almost that of smoked meat.


It pours a very dark coppery black colour with a couple fingers of head that leave a sticky layer of lacing.  The aroma is definitely smoky like the smell in your clothes after sitting around a campfire with lots of sweet malts scents in the background. The brew  as the style states has a very smoky taste like that first bite of home hickory smoked bacon with a nice dark fruit and malt background and just a hint of spicy hops and a dry crisp finish that leaves a hint of that campfire smoke on your palate. It not a beer that I could drink five or six of in an evening but it is a wonderfully flavoured brew. I may have to look for some recipes to use this one in to add the wood smoke flavour and aromas to. 3.8 out of 5.

Day 323-Beer 323 Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel, Brasserie D'Achouffe, Achouffe Belgium

This brew is listed as a Belgium IPA. This is a relatively new style that Belgium Brewers have developed to compete with APA's in the export market as Belgium's do not drink very much of the hoppy style of beers.  It is seemingly a take off of American IPA's and Double IPA's. They tend to be very hoppy pale coloured ales that range in the 6 to 12%ABV range. They are usually bottle conditioned with Belgian yeast strains. Although they use American hops they tend to be dryer and as is the case with tonight's brew crossed with a Belgian Trippel. The brews are usually quite cloudy with long lasting  billowy heads that give way to lots of sticky lacing.


So here goes, the bottle exploded with a bubbly head as I opened it. It had an abundance of head when poured in the glass. The head left behind a frothy lacing that stuck to the sides of the glass as I drank this brew. The colour is a cloudy pale yellow with lots of floaties and lots of carbonation and at 9% it is a strong brew. The aroma has a bread yeast base with some sweet toffee hints and some floral and grassy hops. The flavour starts with some floral hops with a creamy sweetness of honey in the background. Your are left with both a sweet taste on your tongue and a hop bitterness, grapefruit and orange zest on your palate. Overall a very flavourful brew 3.9 out of 5.

Day 322-Beer 322 St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout, Brasserie McAuslan, Montreal Quebec

Stopped at the LCBO at Rymal Road today, they must have 25 new beers on the shelf that were not there on my last visit a couple of week ago, this journey could go on for a long time. Tonight's brew poured almost black with one finger of cream tan head that left some spotty and very sticky lacing. the aroma has lots of caramel, roasted malts and espresso with a hint of chocolate and vanilla. The flavour is very malty up front
with hints of bitter chocolate and some peppery spice.  A good stout that one could share with there best beer recipes, 3/4 for me 1/4 for the recipe or better yet open a couple of them. 3.8 out of 5

Day 321-Beer 321 Iceberg Beer, Quidi Vidi, St. Johns Newfoundland

I have to thank Norm for this one. He's graciously donated a few to the cause and this one is from his trip to NFLD. It has a special ingredient, Iceberg water. They say it takes about a year for an iceberg to float past St John's Harbour from when it breaks away from a northern ice shelf.  During its journey the outer layers melt away leaving crystal clear ice from water that thousands of years old. It is this absolutely pure water that they use to brew this beer.  It is a light lager, it pours a clear golden with very little head and no lacing.  The aroma although faint has hints of floral hops and some bready malts. The flavour has some caramel malts with just a touch of hops. The overall brew is very refreshing and a nice easy drinking beer. Quidi Vidi has done a very good job producing an above average light beer if light beer is your thing. 3.4 out of 5

Day 320-Beer320 Brutal India Pale Ale, Rouge Ales, Newport Oregon

Join the Rogue Nation, Dream, Dare, Risk. This one is listed by the brewer as an Imperial Bitter, a cross between an extra special bitter and an IPA. Well Rogue got this one right. It pours a cloudy golden tangerine colour with lots of off white head and tons of lacing. The aroma  is citrus and pine resin with a honey background. The flavour starts with a wonderful creamy feel  with honey, caramel malts and rubyy red grapefruit in a really nice balance just leaving enough of the grapefruit taste on your palate as you swallow your brew. If you like IPA's this is a must try, its well balance not overly hopped sweet yet a nice dry finish. 4 out of 5

Day 319-Beer 319 St Ambroise Pale Ale, Brasserie McAuslan , Montreal Quebec

Tonight's brew is an APA, it pours an amber/copper colour with minimal head that leaves only a spattering of lacing. The aroma has hints of fruits, caramel malts and grassy hops but it certainly isn't overpowering. The mouthful is sweet and creamy up front with hints of tropical fruits and it finishes with some spicy hop bitterness but not as much as you might expect from an APA. 3.5out of 5

Day 318-Beer 318 St. Ambroise Double IPA, Brasserie McAuslan, Montreal Quebec

I am sure glad my daughter loves to travel, this week she brought me back a few beers from Montreal. This one is a American Double or Imperial IPA, see 90 Minute IPA for a comparable. This style is supposed to be like an IPA on steroids, it should be an all out assault on your palate with lots of malts and hops and they generally have alcohol contents running between 7% and 14% ABV.
This one is 8%ABV and pours a golden orange colour, Very little head which leaves a very thin layer of lacing.  The aroma is very hoppy, citrus and pine resin with a syrupy, honey and maple background. The flavour is like the style is supposed to be, lots of fruity and sweet malts up front, tangerine, caramel, honey  and then a big bang of  citrus hops, orange zest and red grapefruit. It ends with a nice dry finish. Overall a very good brew 3.8 out of 5

Day 317-Beer 317 Little Norway, Sawdust City Brewing Co, Arendals Bryggeri, Arendal Norway

Sawdust City Little Norway Pale Lager  Only in Norway

Well this is an interesting brew, my Daughter was in a grocery store in Norway and saw picked up a beer for me because it had a red maple leaf on the label and its states that it is a Canadian Craft type beer. Well when you look closer is has the name of a brewery from Gravenhurst Ontario on it. Sine the rest of the label is in Norwegian it meant a little research had to be done and as it turns out it is possibly the first intercontinental brewing collaboration to feature a Canadian brewery, a beer co-created by Sawdust City and Arendals Bryggeri. The result is Little Norway Pale Lager, a beer that they describe as being inspired by Sawdust City Gateway Kölsch, but with a number of tweaks:

"We elected to make a hoppier version of the Kölsch, and being that Arendals is a lager brewery, we used lager yeast for simplicity. I worked with their Brewmaster and then sent them a recipe for the beer. It’s very similar to our Kölsch but with Saaz hops instead of Spalter and a lager yeast instead of an ale strain. "

And so they called it a pale lager and since it is brewed with 4.7%ABV it can be sold in the grocery stores in Norway as their limit for grocery sales is 4.8%ABV.


It poured a clear golden colour with little head and little lacing, the aroma was fairly mute with a hint of caramel malt and some floral hops. The taste was an average lager with just a hint of extra hops giving it a spicy touch. Overall it might be a big cellar in Norway but I don't think it would be a hit in Canada. 3.2 out of 5

Day 316-Beer 316 Great White Hype, CAP Curious Audacious Products, Stockholm Sweden

A not so good night at the poker table so here's hoping the brew makes the evening. The label again says IPA but the brewers list is as an APA, . which should mean a little more hop bitterness and some higher alcohol content and add to the mix it is also a hefewiezen or unfiltered wheat beer. This should be interesting.  Well it is 5.6%ABV so that fits. It poured a cloudy golden yellow with lots of white head that takes a long time to settle. That fits a hefe. The aroma has hints of yeast, floral hops, lemon and citrus and some malt. The flavour has a sweet background with some spices, cloves and coriander, pepper and some citrus like hop bitterness and orange zest. Its hard to rate this one as the style is very mixed, somebody's idea of creating a new style of craft beer 3.6 out of 5

Day 315-Beer 315 Aergir India Pale Ale, Aegir Bryggeri, Flam, Norway

Well there is only 50 bottles of beer on the wall and if one of those beer should happen to be..... This one is also by Aergir but unlike the one a few days ago it is not peated. The colour is almost the same, a muddy amber orange with off white head that leaves a nice layer of very sticky lacing. The aroma is grapefruit and pine resin with a hint of caramel malts. The flavour starts with a creamy texture and a sweet caramel and some tropical fruit base with a nice hop mainly citrus background. A definite grapefruit aftertaste. A very good APA, not an IPA, and I think slightly better than the smoked version 3.7 out of  5. Thanks Kristal for another brew.

Day 314-Beer 314 Aass Fatol, Aass Brewery , Drammen, Norway

What to do you think aass means in Norwegian, well even better it is  a Poul's last name, wouldn't if have been great in school Hey Aass stand up or Mr. Ass quiet down.... I think I would have enjoyed being in his class. Back to the brew, it is a euro lager. It pours a golden yellow with very little head and almost no lacing. The aroma is very mild but typical euro lager, bready malts, corn and a hints of hops. The taste is very light with some malt flavours and a hint of hops and a metallic aftertaste. Certainly not in the top of the style but I love the name, 3.2 out of 5

Day 313-Beer 313 Lokka IPA, Grunerlokka Brygghus, Oslo Norway

Another of the brews from Norway, this one is actually an APA. It pours a cloudy golden tangerine colour with nice white head that settles to a thin covering of sticky lacing. The aroma has hints of tropical fruits, pine resin and citrus hops with a malty background. The flavour much the same with a nice balance blend of citrus ( grapefruit) and tropical fruits, hints of caramel malts but with no lingering sweetness for a brew of 7%ABV.  Overall a very good brew 3.8 out of 5.

Day 312-Beer312 Hyrrokkin India Peated Ale, Ægir Bryggeri, Flåm, Norway

Another beer from Kristal's last trip to Norway, this one is a India Peated Ale, It is listed as an APA but we will see what the peated means as the label is all in Norwegian. From Wikipedia Hyrrokin is from Norse Mythology (and it means fire smoked) , it is a giantess who is dark and has a shrivelled appearance in the pictures of her. It is also a moon of Saturn. Anyhow here goes. It poured a muddy amber/copper colour with some off white head that leave some sticky lacing around the edge of the glass. The aroma is citrus and pine resin with hints of caramel malts. The flavour consists of strong cirtrus (grapefruit) and pine resin hop bitterness with a touch of smoke and peat and some caramel malts. Overall a good APA that is not overly sweet and has the added touch of smoke and peat. 3.7 out of 5sweet.

Day 311-Beer 311 Piston Head Kustom Lager, Spendrups Bryggeri AB, Stockholm Sweden

Thanks again to my daughter this next week or so will include brews she brought home to me from her last trip to Norway. This one is an APA from Sweden. It poured a clear golden yellow with only a small head that disappears leaving no lacing. The aroma although light has hints of grassy hops, corn and some sweet malts. The flavour is not as hoppy as expected with some citrus and pine flavours, some mild fruits and some corn syrup. It not a bad brew but its closer to a pilsner than a real APA. Overall it is quite refreshing with a nice dry finish but no hop bitterness in the aftertaste 3.4 out of 5

Day 310-Beer 310 Sofie, Goose Island Beer Co. Chicago Illinois

This one is a Belgian style saison/farmhouse ale. It ours a slightly cloudy golden yellow colour with lots of bubbly head that dissipates quickly leaving very little lacing. It almost appears champagne like. The aroma is fruity, pear and grape with some floral hops. The taste is made up of tropical fruits with hints of lemon and orange cloves and pepper and a hoppy background. The 20% of the brew is aged in wine barrels with orange peel which accounts for some of the champagne like tastes. Overall not the best saison that I have had, the wine barrel thing doesn't seem to help with the overall product. 3.2 out of

Day 309-Beer 309 Night Marzen Octoberfest Lager, Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. Vankleek Hill, Ontario

Another Beau's was hiding in the fridge, this one a Marzen or Oktoberfest Lager. It poured a copper colour with lots of head that settles to a thin  layer of foam. The aroma is has hints of caramel, bread malts and some grassy hops. The taste is much like the aroma caramel and toffee, bready malts with some grassy hops. Overall a good marzen 3.5 out of 5.

Day 308-Beer 308 Big Mouth Tap Room Pale Ale, Hop City Brewing Co. Brampton Ontario

This one is posted late as I was unable to log on last night. It poured a golden/orange colour with  white head that left some lacing. The aroma was citrus/orange and caramel. The flavour was quite unique, with some sweet fruit flavour, citrus and very floral hops with a nice dry finish. 3.4 out of 5

Day 307-Beer 307 Happy Pilsner Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. Vankleek Hill Ontario

The last of a variety four back from beau's, this one a Bohemian/German  style pils. It poured a cloudy golden yellow colour with lots of sudsy white head that settles to a thin layer of sticky foam across the surface. The aroma is mainly grainy malts, cereals, grass but nothing overpowering. The taste similar to it aroma and typical of the style, malt and bready notes with a mild grassy hops. Overall easy drinking with a nice dry finish 3.4 out of 5

Day 306-Beer 306 Zwickelbier, Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. Vankleek Hill Ontario

Zwickelbier is similar Kellerbier, They both are a very old style of brewing lagers dating back to the 1500's, they are unpasteurized and unfiltered and matured in open or unbunged kegs originally in deep vaults. The beers are naturally cloudy and yeasty, often with a high hop bitterness.
This one poured a murky amber orange colour with some off white head that left no lacing at all. The aroma has hints of bread yeast, sweet malts and some earthy hops. The flavour is fairly sweet up front with a fruity background and a mild hop finish that leaves a malt and yeast aftertaste on the lips. An okay brew certainly better than the Kellerbier I tried earlier in the year but still not great, 3.4 out of 5

Day 305-Beer305 Dark Helmut, Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. Vankleek Hill Ontario

This one is an Imperious Schwarzbier, I am not sure what the imperious means in terms of the brew but Schwarzbier in German means simply means black beer and this one is just that as it pours black in colour with tons of tan coloured head that lasts a long time but eventually settles to leaving some very sticky froth.   Aroma of chocolate and dark roasted coffee and roasted malts prevail. The taste is more like dark bakers chocolate and toffee with a hint of a creamy sweetness that settles on your palate with just a touch of bitterness in the background and a nice dry finish. Its 7.3%ABV but it is not noticeable in the taste. Overall a very good brew that goes does well and would make a great addition to your best gravy recipes. 3.7 out of 5

Day 304-Beer 304 Rauchstack, Beau's All Natural Brewing Co. Vankleek Hill, Ontario

Tonight's brew is a smoked dunkel. It pours like a dunkel, dark brown with a mahogany hue, some nice tan coloured head that leave some spotty lacing  with a small ring around the glass of sticky lacing.  Its aroma definitely has a smokey campfire background with hints of roasted malts and caramel. The taste is smoked malts with a sweet caramel and peppery background that leaves a sweet taste on the lips and a slightly bitter hop residual in the throat. Overall a good brew 3.6 out of 5