Beer of the Week - Riflemans Ration 1810-1819

Beer has been brewed in Canada from about the first moment that explorers from Europe first set foot here. Captain James Cook brewed a spruce beer that helped keep his sailors scurvy-free and the armies who were stationed and went to war here marched with bellies full of beer.

Today I am pretty excited about the Beer of the Week. Black Creek Brewery, up at Jane and Steeles in the very northern part of Toronto, has come out with a new beer, Riflemans Ration to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. There are a few Ontario breweries that doing the same thing,  brewing beers using only local ingredients as they would have back in 1812, but Black Creek has a difference.

The brewery was set up in 2009 to brew beer using the tools and methods used back in the 1860s. Teena and I did a tour of it that same year and I featured their IPA as my Beer of the Week.  The brewery is 99% authentic, the only difference being that they use a gas fire and not wood for heat consistency, and they filter their beer through cheesecloth and not through straw. Don't need to picks chunks of straw out of this beer.

Soldiers from 1810 to 1819 were given an extra paycheck strictly for the purchase of beer. British commanders felt that not only would it keep the soldiers happy, but also helped to sustain the local economy by the sale of hops, grains and even the beer itself.

Until I saw this on the shelf of the LCBO, I thought I wouldn't get a chance to try this beer but there are thee sitting in my fridge. I am going to try a cold one first, and then one that I have left on the counter for the afternoon to warm up. I thought having one beer brewed using local ingredients and using the original brewery methods should be tasted the way those soldiers would have drank and tasted it back in the day, at room temperature.

Riflemans Ration is a brown ale, a popular English style ale of the period so it was no surprise when the beer poured a cloudy brown colour. Being filtered using cheesecloth is not as clean as modern cold filtering. There is little carbonation in this as again, there was no CO2 back then, so the beer is a little flat looking. It is full of aroma, though. I smell caramel and when Teena pointed out there were also coffee tones, I noticed them too.

The beer is full of flavour, with a heavy mouth feel. It starts as a sweet malt forward beer but with a little hop bitterness is in the finish. Even though it has the regular 5% APV, it is not a sessionable ale due to its heaviness. It is a very good beer, though, and I am glad I bought three bottles instead of the usual two.

Next up, the bottle that has been sitting on my kitchen counter for the afternoon.

The room temperature beer has a little more action to it and pours with a brownish head that quickly goes away. Going in I thought the flavours would be more pronounced but instead I find it a smoother beer from beginning to end. Where the cold started sweet and ended a little bitter, the warmed version seems to keep the same flavour, a nice flavour all the way through.

I'm glad I bought three so I can finish with a cold Riflemans Ration. It is a very nice beer that I would have no trouble buying again.

Beer of the Week Stats 

Beers Profiled 170 
Countries 34 
Breweries 147 
Provinces 8 
Territories 1

Beer of the Week - Barley Days Yuletide Cherry Porter

Prince Edward County lies south of Belleville. Ironically my family lives north of Belleville so that's the direction I head when down that way, so have never visited. The county has become very well known for being the newest wine region in Ontario but there also is a craft brewery there, Barley Days Brewery.

The brewery is aptly named, as I was just reading last week in "Art and Mystery of Brewing in Ontario" about the region's "Barley Days" which ran from 1860-1890. There were there several breweries in the area which sat on a well-protected harbour, as the U.S. was very thirsty, and their industry concentrated on the civil war and not brewing. So to Prince Edward County they came for beer to drink and barley for food stuffs. When the U.S. government decided to protect their own farmers by placing a huge tariff on barley, prices in the region crashed overnight and the Barley Days were done.

Barley Days Brewery was opened in August 2007 by Christopher and Norah Rogers. For the first year, according to a Queens School of Business case study, "employed an ‘academic’ brewmaster who cared little about the quality and consistency of the product that he was brewing." They then hired an experienced head brewer from Germany who made flavourful and consistent tasting beers.

In 2009, they hired Alex Nichols who "has a Bachelors of Science in Microbiology from University of Guelph and a Master of Science in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland."

Pretty good credentials!

The same people who own the brewery also own a restaurant and inn close by called the Waring House. Bet I know who's brews they have on tap!

And the Yuletide Cherry Porter?

I admit I am a little nervous. I like cherries but find many times when they are put in something like yogurt, it makes it taste like cough syrup. Hopefully that is not the case here. Barley Days uses fresh cherries from the region and bottles the porter unfiltered.

It pours black in colour with no head. No lacings on the side either. I will have to clean another glass with a fresh pour.

OK, the beer in the picture up top is from the second pour. I definitely did not rinse the glass properly for the first one. . My fault, not the brewers. I write about this as it is a good reminder to myself to always ensure I do this right.

The beer has a nice brownish head and, yes, there is a sheet of lacing down the inside of the glass. There is a definite coffee presence in this which tails off quickly in the end. It has a smooth stout-like mouthfeel to it. I do not detect cherry in this but there is something, another taste that comes through at the end. It might be what removes the porter harshness at the end.

This is a good beer but not a great beer. Good enough that I would like to try some other offerings they have, maybe even on tap in the area.

I'm glad I tried this particular one but would not buy it again.

Beer of the Week Stats

Beers Profiled 139
Countries 27
Breweries 122
Provinces 8

Beer of the Week- Church-Key "The Grains of Wrath"

Teena and I were down in Eldorado to see my folks and on the way home today and dropped in to Church-Key Brewer just outside of Campbellford to pick up some beer and hopefully have a tour.

I have written about them before and Church-Key is now a regular stop every time we are down that way. I love their West Coast Pale Ale and cannot get it at the LCBO. Plus today we had some extra time to stop to do a tour.

Tour and tasting $5. Sounds good to me.

As it turns out, they were between brews and not much was going on but we were told we could just wander and have a look around.

So we did!

The brewery is set up inside the walls of an 1878 Methodist Church. What I loved was the beer bottle collection they had which really spans the years. In some spots the collection is 2 stories tall. There are rows and rows of shelves everywhere. Teena and I both found some old favorites.

It was lots of fun!

I came home with some West Coast Pale Ale as usual and 2 dinner bottles of a one-off brew, a double IPA they call "The Grains of Wrath"

And how is the Grains of Wrath?

It pours amber in colour with a white head. It was very clear, a lot more clearer than I had expected. In fact, I could see through it. The aroma I found to be very light, which could be due to allergies but I could sense the hops that were in it. There were lots of lacings left when I sipped.

Then I took a sip. Whoooooa! Very hoppy! Very very hoppy. From start to finish, there were definitely hops in this.

The next sip I did notice the malt flavours coming in to create a nice balance. I guess the light colour, clearness and little aroma had me expecting much less on my first sip which overpowered me. After the first sip, though, I found this a very enjoyable beer.

It weighs in a 8% APV so you could not have too many in an evening. Each bottle is 650 ml so one bottle is likely enough. If I have a complaint it is that the 650 ml dinner size bottles are expensive as each costs $10.25.

This is an excellent beer, though. Church-Key is always on my list of places to stop into when I am down visiting my folks.

Here are some shots from inside the brewery.


Beer of the Week Stats

Beers Profiled 133
Countries 25
Breweries 115
Provinces 8

The Centennial Beer of the Week- Samuel Adams Utpoias

A few years ago, I went to bed and when I woke up I found that Teena had a surprise for me. She had stayed up and set up this blog for me. It took a little while for me to find my direction on what I really wanted to write about, One of my very early ideas was to try a beer each week, that I had never had before.

Thus, the Beer of the Week was born!

As I tried more and more excellent brews, I found myself getting further and further away from the cheap "buck a beer" and more and more into quality craft brews. Now I border on being beer geek but still have a ways to go before I get there.

Over the past 100 weeks, I have tried 100 different beers from 89 different breweries and 21 different countries. It has been a world tour experienced mostly from the safety and comfort of my own living room.

For number 100, I wanted to try something special ... something very special. Then I heard that Samuel Adams Utopias was coming to Ontario. That would be perfect for my 100th BOTW!

Why is it so special?

At $115 per bottle it is a 27% APV barley wine made from a blend of several different strong beers that have been aged in various barrels that once held cognac, bourbon and port. Brewery founder and chairman Jim Koch says, "It’s really made by a completely different process than your typical beer. It’s not just ‘brew the beer, bottle the beer'. Really, it’s a lot like the blending they use to make a fine cognac, where they combine things from different barrels".

It comes out in very limited quantity. I heard that only 3,000 bottles were produced this year.

So 70 bottles ... that's right, just 70 bottles were coming to Ontario and the LCBO would use the lottery system to see who would win the right to purchase a bottle. 1675 people put their name in for auction. If it was found you entered twice, you were excluded. To make the odds better for me, Teena put her name in as did a friend of mine, Sara. In the end, sadly we all received emails to say we didn't win.

Damn it! This was becoming a quest for the Holy Grail of beer and it looked like I was not going to find it.

Then I heard that the beerbistro was getting an order! The beerbistro was one of my favorite beer places in the city and is now my very favorite! I called them Thursday and yes, the order had arrived! A one and a half ounce serving would be sold for $20.

So I sit here Saturday morning writing about the end of this quest, hoping that when Teena and I head over there this afternoon, that I actually really love this beer. Love it, like it or hate it, the anticipation of sampling this for my 100th Beer of the Week has been exciting.

---------------------------------------

So we walked in and found ourselves a place at the end of the bar. When just having a couple of drinks, I prefer sitting at a bar instead of a table, especially at a place like this where the staff really knows beer. When asked if we knew what we wanted, we told them we sure did and ordered 2 Utopias. A place like this has a glass for every type of beer so I was not surprised when the special engrave Utopias glass.

This beer, or properly called a barley wine, is served at room temperature. It is deep brown in colour and full in aroma. I thought I could smell multiple things but for some reason, butterscotch came to mind. Although 27% APV, it did not have any alcohol in the nose.

Now time for the moment I had been waiting for ... the first sip.

Wow! It was very sweet, something I did not expect. There were so many layers of flavour in this. I could sense cognac, sometimes butterscotch and caramel. It had a very syrupy texture, which clung to the sides of the glass when sipped. The finish lasted on the tongue and sides of the mouth for a very long time.

Yes, this was worth the hunt!

Although made with all the ingredients that beer is made from, I would describe this as a liqueur more than a beer. As sweet as it is, it does contain a variety of hops. I cannot believe how much more sweeter this might be with with out them.

Teena loved it too. She also found it very sweet. She found it very flavourful and said it reminded her of cognac without the harshness. She said that if she had not been told beforehand, she would not have guessed this was a beer.

This is a very tasty beautiful sipping drink.

The bottle is beautiful too. Shaped like a brew kettle, the kettles doors slide open to reveal a portrait of Samuel Adams hoisting a beer. Very cool.

In the end, 3 things upset me. The first was when my glass finally emptied. I knew Teena was enjoying hers too much to share. The second thing was now I was very truly disappointed that I did not have a bottle of my own. The third was now the event and the anticipation preceding it was gone. I think I enjoyed the anticipation as much as I did the beer.

Teena and I plan to return in March for another sample. Next year again I will be putting my name in the LCBO hat for another chance at a bottle of my own. Even at $115 a bottle, it is very worth it!

It was a great way to celebrate my 100th Beer of the Week!

Beer of the Week - Church-Key Scarlett Pilsner and Black IPA

This past weekend I was in a fencing tournament in Kingston, and afterwards went for a visit and stayed the night at my sister's place. Judy and Doug made sure I was well looked after. Thanks guys!

The next morning I got up to head home but Church-Key Brewery was just a slight detour out of the way. After many years, I stopped in for the first time. I had written about Church-Key before at Christmas as Doug and Judy had given me a six pack of their Northumberland Ale, which I enjoyed. Now I had a chance to drop into the brewery and find something different.

The brewery is indeed inside an old church on top of a hill. Very scenic and quaint. The store was very small but really is all that is needed. Teeshirts, glasses, and. of course, beer were for sale. I had hoped to get some of their West Coast Pale Ale but it would not be ready 'til Tuesday. Hopefully they have some on my next visit.

Some beer they sell in six packs, others in 650 ml bottles which they call a "dinner bottle" and. of course, the growler. Their six packs were a little costly at $13.25 but I found the dinner bottles way overpriced costing $10.25 a bottle. At $16.25, the growlers look costly but that includes deposit. Still I walked out with 2 Dinner bottles, one a Black IPA and a Scarlett Pilsner. Hmmm, both sound interesting.

The tours are a great deal. $5 for a tour, 4 samples and a take-away sample glass. I was late getting on the road, though, so just didn't have the time. Damn!

I did have a sample of their Holy Smoke. It was nice and malty with a very slight smoke aroma and flavour. It would be one I would enjoy one of, now and then.

Once home, I put the bottles in the fridge to give them a bit of a chill. After a few hours, it was time to taste.

First up was the Black IPA. I had not had one before. It definitely poured black in colour and the aroma was very stout like with tones of coffee coming through. It tasted like a more bitter stout. Where a stout will get its bitterness from the toasted malt, there was more here, which must have come from extra hops. The alcohol comes in at 7%. It was very nice, but to me was a stout and not worth the $10.25.

The Scarlett Pilsner was up next. This is a spiced, unfiltered pilsner which poured amber in colour. Its fragrance had slight hoppiness and spice. The spice is evident in the taste too but does not take over the flavour. It is very subtle and very nice. Something different and very well done.

I am looking forward to returning to the brewery next time I'm in the area. Their beer is quite good. I just would not get the overpriced Dinner bottle size again.

Beer of The Week- Samuel Adams Stony Brook Red

One of the very first things I did when I was in Boston was to jump onto the Orange line and make the trip to the Samuel Adams Brewery. I am a big fan of their Boston lager so was looking forward to this for weeks. It was a rainy Friday afternoon, but did not seem to dampen the crowds, and yes, there were many there to take the tour. The tour is free, but they suggest a donation to their charity which supports local organizations, so hey, not a problem.

Actually known as the Boston Beer Company, the brewery is 26 years old, being opened in 1984 by Jim Koch and is located in a century old set of buildings. It's first beer, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, came from an old family recipe made in 1960 by one of his descendants, Louis Koch who ran a brewery in St Louis. Three months after it's debut, it won the Great American Beer Festival, where 93 national and regional beers competed.

Named after one of America's founding fathers, who participated in the American revolution and Boston Tea party, and apparently was a brewer himself, Samuel Adams became a publicly listed company on the NYSE under the symbol SAM in 1995. Yet it still considered a craft beer brewery as under the rules for American Craft Brewer it
"has an annual production of beer exceeds 2 million barrels and the brewery was founded as a Craft Brewer and continues to satisfy the other Craft Brewer defining criteria and less than 25% of the Craft Brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a Craft Brewer."

The tour was fun. Mike was our tour guide and was quite animated and full of humour. We were shown the brewery and the process and got to sample different types of barley, and crushed hops in our hands to let loose the aroma. Then cam my favorite part, the sampling where we tasted 4 different styles of Samuel Adams beers.

They have a special barrel aged beer which they brew only a few times a years, which they call their Barrel Room Collection. They use a special yeast for this beer, one which is supposed to be close to the wild yeasts of Belgium. After brewing and adding this special yeast, they ferment the beer in oak barrels which were originally used for making brandy, then imported to the brewery.

The website describes the Stony Brook Red. "This unique brew defies traditional beer style definition. The rich, malty brew combines notes of tart fruit from the yeast with a toasty oak character from the barrel aging. The long dry finish is almost wine-like. This is a beer that is satisfying on its own and also pairs well with many foods such as braised or roasted meats, beef stews and strong salty cheeses"

OK. Time for me to pour and try it for myself.

The beer does pour a deep red colour. I thought I could sense the slight smell of brandy but think I was smelling just the alcohol, as this beer is a 9% APV brew. Something was familiar in the aroma. Teena unlocked the mystery. It smelled like many home brews her first husband had made. That was it. I had a few friends that tried to make their own beer at home and yes, this reminded me of them.

There was no head, nor any lacings along the inside of the glass.

The beer has a harsh taste and is very sour. I was not at all impressed and is not a beer which I would recommend.

I love their Boston lager and really enjoyed all the beers on the tour, especially the Kogen, which is only available if taking the brewery tour.

All in all I had a great time at the brewery. Next time I would not be leaving with this beer though.

Beer of the Week - Amsterdam Boneshaker IPA

I have done 72 beers of the week so far, allowing me to taste a research beers from around the world.

Then it occurred to me that I have not featured a beer from my own backyard.

Amsterdam Brewery is located at the foot of Bathurst St, one I can drive to in 5 minutes or walk to in 15. So to start our vacation, Teena and I walked on over to do the tour.

Only it wasn't a tour. Turns out that the brewery cannot do tours in the summer due to the number of people wearing open-toed shoes or sandals. It becomes a safety issue as being a brewery, there can be glass shards on the floor. No matter, instead of a tour, we received a tasting of several of their brews.

Amsterdam Brewery opened in 1986, when Roel Bramer decided to open Toronto's first brewpub on King St. Being from the Netherlands, he decide to name the brewpub after the city where he was born calling it The Amsterdam Brasserie and Brewpub. In 1993, he moved to King and Portland continuing to run the brewpub, but in 1993, decided to sell off the brewpub and concentrate on brewing beer only, and called his brewery The Amsterdam Brewing Company. In 2002, Bramer sold the company to Jeff Carefoote, who decided a year or two later to move to a larger space at it's present location.

Amsterdam Blonde and Big Wheel Amber are their biggest sellers. The Blonde is a little too sweet for me. Big Wheel Amber is a good tasting beer. I was really excited to hear that they had recently brewed a hoppy 7.1% IPA, so stopped on in and picked up some.

The beer comes in a brown 500ml bottle, with a fun label, a skeleton riding a bike.

It pours a cloudy brown colour, due to this being an unfiltered ale. I twice poured the beer with a two-finger slightly tanned head which dissipated fairly rapidly to about a half finger. The head held both times at that point. Nice lacings did remain along the inside of the glass, showing the quality of the malt. I do note the hops in the aroma.

Citrus comes through on the first taste and rapidly the ale becomes bitter with a long, beautiful hoppy bitter finish. This IPA is reminiscent of the West Coast Style IPA, highlighting the hops throughout, but always maintaining an excellent balance with the malt.

This is a fabulous beer! Hopheads will love this one and I am a hophead.

It has been awhile since I have paid my local brewery a visit but now that this is in their fridge, Amsterdam brewery is going to see me around more often.

Note: During the tasting, Teena enjoyed the Amsterdam Framboise, made with real B.C. raspberries and came home with a four pack of this. I returned home with four Boneshaker IPA.

It was an enjoyable afternoon at the brewery.

Here I am by the fermenters.

A few of the tasters. Brent in the black shirt is manning the taps for us.

See the frost. This is where they cold filter the beer.

The bottling machine.

Picaroons Winter Warmer

In my post about Yippee IPA, I had mentioned how a couple of months ago, I had asked Jim and Wendy to bring me some Yippee IPA up from Fredericton for me to try. They did this and, knowing how much I love trying new beers, also brought me six of Picaroons Winter Warmer.

Picaroons Traditional Ales, also know as the Northampton Brewing Company Ltd., is located in Fredericton, New Brunswick. It opened in 1995 and is doing well, selling everything that they brew and selling only in New Brunswick. The pictures of the staff on the website is humorous as even Hamish, the brewery dog (shown below to the right) is listed as staff. Wonder if he gets a T4 at the end of the year.

Picaroons website says that "This strong ale is our interpretation of a classic English barley wine." Barley wine, according to The Beer Hunter website, is "An English term for an extra-strong ale (implied to be as potent as wine). Usually more than 6 percent by volume and classically closer to 11." This Winter Warmer has an alcohol content of 7.5%, which definitely makes it a beer to sip slowly, rather than gulp.

The beer pours a very dark brown colour, with a nice brownish head and leaves nice lacings on the side of the glass when sipped. Many winter seasonals are spiced but this is not. There is a strong, excellent, roasted malty taste to this, which reminded me more of a porter than an ale. My wife, Teena, tried it and felt there was a celery taste to it. I thought it hinted at bitter chocolate. In taste, there is no right or wrong answers, only opinions.

As the ale sat and warmed, the flavours became fuller, smoother and more pronounced. The Winter Warmer is definitely a style that needs to be sipped at warmer temperatures than regular chilled beer. A very nice ale to be enjoyed on a cold winter night.

Thanks Jim! Thanks Wendy! The Winter Warmer was a nice surprise. I'm going to enjoy all six!

Beer of the Week - Nov 14 - Black Oak Oaktoberfest Organic

This week there was a lot of excitement on The Bar Towel website when Ken Woods, President of Black Oak Brewery, announced that he has come out with a brand new seasonal beer for fall called Black Oak Oaktoberfest Organic.

Ken stated, "We only made a half batch just to test the beer and see what people think."

It was shipped in kegs to only five bars in the city ... Beer Bistro, C'est What, The Embassy, Twisted Kilt and The Rhino. On Thursday, Ken announced that the beer was bottled, labeled and ready for sale. Being a limited production, only 40 cases were bottled and could only be purchased at the brewery.

Black Oak has a great reputation amongst craft beer drinkers and the comments rolled in from the beer geeks saying they were on the way. I am not a beer geek ... yet. But this morning Teena and I were in the car heading westbound on the QEW on our way to get some for myself before it sold out.

I have written about Black Oak before and love all their offerings, so had no reservations about buying a dozen of the Oaktoberfest without having tried a sip. I also walked out with a dozen Pale Ales which were bottled fresh from the tank just yesterday and six of the Summer Saison.

Did I mention I love this brewery?

And the Oaktoberfest? It is an unfiltered organic Oktoberfest beer using all German ingredients and pours a coppery colour with a good head which remains. After taking a few sips, I found the lacing stayed nicely on the sides of the glass.

There is a nice maltiness in the taste and a pleasant bitterness with a long lasting enjoyable finish. I quite enjoyed this and am glad I bought a dozen.

I also went over to The Rhino to try a pint from the keg. I found myself once again sipping on a very enjoyable pint.

Can hardly wait for next year when this is more readily available!

Beer of the Week - Great Lakes Pumkin Ale

650 mL bottle
Price: $ 4.95
5.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : 2
Made in: Ontario, Canada
By: Great Lakes Brewing Co. Inc.

I had never had a pumpkin ale before and figured this was the year to give it a try. So I headed down to the LCBO for a large 650 ml bottle of Great Lakes Pumpkin Ale.

Located in Toronto's west end, this is the third year the brewery has been making this seasonal. Last year it was so popular that it sold out before Thanksgiving. This year they are brewing more.

Keeping it very local, the brewery uses pumpkins specially grown in the summer to be ready for early fall brewing by a farm in Aylmer, Ontario. They add the pumpkin directly into the brew along with specialty malts, hops, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and allspice.

The beer pours with a slight orangy tinge to the colour. The aroma of nutmeg is very apparent.

I admit I was apprehensive in trying this, which likely is why I waited three years, but I enjoyed the taste. The pumpkin flavour is there along with the flavouring of the spices. These do not overpower the taste of the beer but compliments it.

This was an ale which I would have again and has made we want to go out and try others.

Beer of the Week - July 26 - Black Oak Summer Saison

Saturday was a rainy day so Teena and I set off to Black Oak Brewing Company in Etobicoke.

I had heard many good things about Black Oak Summer Saison and wanted to give it a try.

The problem is it is only available at the brewery. But I am a fan of Black Oak products so visiting the brewery where it is all made would not be a hardship.

The first time I tried a Black Oak Beer was at this year's Superbowl party and beer tasting at Craig's where we all sampled 10 different beers. Black Oak Nut Brown Ale won the day against some strong competition. Since then, I tried and loved their Black Oak Pale Ale which is now a staple in our fridge.

When Teena and I walked in, we were greeted by Black Oaks' President, Ken Woods, who asked us if we wanted a tour, a quick lesson in how they make their beer or was looking to buy. "All the above," I replied.

Ken is a very nice and extremely knowledgeable person. He showed us around, explained the pieces of equipment and the various ingredients they use in brewing. It was very insightful and he never rushed us.

Then we were treated to samples of Black Oak's three ales. It was my first taste of Summer Saison (pronounced say-uh, which admittedly I am having trouble with). I certainly enjoyed its refreshing taste and was anxious to get some home to try it on its own as my first beer, before my taste buds were influenced by other flavours. So with a 12 pack in hand, we thanked Ken and left.

As Ken explained, Summer Saison is named after Saison Style Ales traditionally brewed in the French-speaking part of Belgium years before to provide refreshment to workers during the late summer harvest. It is light in alcohol (Summer Saison being 4.1% alc.vol) so the workers can continue to work.

Summer Saison is flavored with orange zest and Coriander. I have found that orange zest can provide a bitterness that matches well with the bitterness of the hops but was unsure about coriander. Coriander seeds "have a lemony citrus flavour when crushed. It is described as warm, nutty, spicy, and orange-flavored."

The label says the ale is unfiltered but still pours a clear golden colour.

The taste is very refreshing.

I thought I could taste the orange, yet Teena thought she could only taste the coriander. The flavours are very well-balanced, creating a beautiful, refreshing delicious beer that would be very enjoyable while sitting out on a warm summer's afternoon.

My hope is that this becomes popular enough that I will be able to buy it at the beer store or LCBO. Instead I will be making another run out to Black Oak to purchase some more.

And it will be more than 12.

Ken Woods and Me

Beer of the Week - June 9 - Orange Peel Ale

650 mL bottle
SEASONAL/LIMITED QUANTITIES
Price: $ 4.95
5.3% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : 3
Made in: Ontario, Canada
By: Great Lakes Brewing Co. Inc.

I was hesitant to try this one and have picked it up each week, held it in my hand, then placed it back onto the shelf and grabbed something else. Putting orange in beer just doesn't sound right. Sounds more like a beer cooler than a beer.

Having enjoyed another seasonal offering from Great Lakes Brewery, last December, their Great Lakes Winter Ale, I decided to finally give this one a try.

Glad I did. The beer is more a golden colour and has a good head. There is a hint of orange or citrus in the aroma, but just a hint. It was not sweet as I expected as they use orange rinds in the mash which adds a pleasant, slight, orange bitterness to the bitterness of the hops. The aftertaste lingers refreshingly asking me to take another sip.

In 2008 this brewery won many awards at the Ontario Brewing Awards, including a peoples choice for this beer.

I can see why.

There will be more coming home with me this summer.

Beer of the Week - December 13 - Great Lakes Winter Ale

750 mL bottle
Price: $ 6.95
6.2% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : 3
Made in: Ontario, Canada
By: Great Lakes Brewing Co. Inc.

Inspired by the long, cold and seemingly endless Canadian winter, our 6.2% alcohol Winter Ale is a true winter warmer. Handcrafted with specialty hops and malts, combined with generous amounts of cinnamon, honey, ginger and orange peel, this unique beer is brimming with flavour. Available only for a limited time.

Great Lakes Brewery is Toronto's oldest craft brewery, started in 1987. They are located in the Toronto area at 30 Queen Elizabeth Boulevard, just north of the Gardiner Expressway, between Royal York and Islington.

They are unique in that they firebrew their beers in small batches using an open fire copper brew house which was built in Germany in the early 1900s, instead of stainless steel kettles. The idea is that one of the properties of copper is that it is a tremendous nutrient for yeast, which helps its growth during the fermentation period. To watch a video where Vice President Peter Bulut explains the process, click here

In 2007, they started brewing seasonal ales, the Orange Peel Ale for summer, Pumpkin Ale for the fall , and Winter Ale for, well, the winter.

In the spirit of the season, they are helping to assist the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank:

"Great Lakes is proud to partner with the Toronto Daily Bread Food Bank to help those in need. From December 1-22, only at our retail store, we'll donate a portion of the weight of your beer purchase in food. For example, buy a bottle of Winter Ale and we'll donate 1.5 lbs of food. The heavier your purchase, the more food we donate. It's as easy as that. Help us reach our goal of 2000 pounds! "

Now to the beer.

Great Lakes Winter Ale is an award winning brew having won the:
2008: Gold Medal, Canadian Brewing Awards, Honey/Maple Lager or Ale (Winter Ale)
2008: Gold Medal, Ontario Brewing Awards, Specialty Beer (Winter Ale)
2007: Silver Medal, Ontario Brewing Awards, Specialty/Flavoured Beer (Winter Ale)

I tried it and quite enjoyed it. As the picture shows, it pours a deep amber colour and holds a good head. It has a strong but wonderful spiciness to it. The cinnamon really came through nicely in this. This ale does have a higher alcohol content but not the bad kick that some higher alcohol have.

The last couple of weeks were my first foray in the world of spiced beer and, much to my delight, I am enjoying them and feel they work well in our cold winters. I plan to sample more and to pick up more of this to take the edge off on a cold winters night.