This week we met at The Rhino for a session on American-style beers, put on Harbourfront Centre and taught by Mirella Amato from Beerology
We learned about the large American breweries and their takeover of the marketplace with mainstream lagers, but the main focus was the American craft beer industry. The first North American craft brewery opened in B.C. in 1982. Many soon followed. In the U.S., there are now more than 1500 craft brewers and I have become a fan.
I never knew what a cream ale was but Mirella explained the beer and the concept of it to us as we sampled one made by an Ontario brewer. Lagers take longer to make so more storage is required and more time needed before it goes to market. So small breweries will make an ale and tweak the process so it ends up close to a mainstream lager. I forgot to write d
We also had a post prohibition style lager, Mill Street Organic, which is Ontario's first certified organic beer. I love many Mill Street products. Not this one though.
Then came the three incredible beers. The first was a Rouge Brutal Bitter which I have written about before. With a name like that, you would expect a brutal smack of hops in the taste and finish but the hops are very well balanced with the malt, with a rather carmel-like taste coming from the style malt they use and ends up to be a very nicely balanced brew.
Next up was an
Finally came a new release from Brooklyn Brewery called Brooklyn Local 1, which they class as an unfiltered golden ale. They use regular yeast and finish with champagne yeast so the beer is very carbonated. It was light, champagne-like in taste with an earthiness to it. It was an excellent and very different style beer. I like it so much that the next night I took Teena back to the Rhino, which is not far away for us, to have a bottle ourselves.
It was another very enjoyable class. Only one more to go. I'll be sad when this class is over but we are discussing having a "homework" week.
Extra Curricular Activities
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