Samuel Smith Old Brewery Pale Ale

Today's beer: Old Brewery Pale Ale by Samuel Smith

As a result of yesterdays post, instead of grabbing a locally available brew, I grabbed this one, out of England. I have had a Samuel Smith beer before: their Oatmeal Stout, almost a direct opposite of a pale ale. This should be interesting.

This pale ale pours into the glass a dark amber. Not what I expected. I expected a very light coloured beer. A moderate head forms, but dissipates fairly quickly. My sniff reveals the smell of hops and apples. My first sip gives only a very faint taste of hops, but with all the bitterness of a well hopped beer. With further tasting I found the taste of hops along the sides of my tongue. There is also a faint taste of apples. This beer is very well balanced, with the malts perfectly counterpointing the hops so that neither one takes over. There is decent carbonation. While not always necessary in a beer, sometimes the carbonation adds that little something extra a beer may need. On a hot day like to day, I found this beer very crisp and refreshing. I would most definitely buy this beer again.

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May your glass always be full of good beer!

International beers

It has been brought to my attention that I have been reviewing beers that are mostly only available in Canada, and some only available in Western Canada. The reason for this is these are the beers available here. I may be able to get some international beers, and indeed I would love to try some regional beers from other parts of the world. If anyone can recommend any beers they think I should try, leave a comment and I will definitely try to find and try them. As I have said in my very first post, I like all  beers and I am always eager to expand beer repertoire. In fact, I am still looking for a beer recommended to me from my first post.

Phillips Ginger Beer

Today's beer: Ginger Beer by Phillips

Today is a hot day here, and I had been planing on doing a head-to-head comparison of Phillips Ginger Beer and Crabbies Ginger Beer. However, my local beer store hasn't had any Crabbies in stock for several months. As a result, I'm going to have to do the two reviews separately. Since they have Phillips in stock, and I had some Phillips in my fridge chilling nicely for just such an occasion, on with the review!

Phillips Ginger Beer pours into the glass a golden amber colour with a medium-large white head. My first whiff picks up smells of hops and a hint of ginger. My first sip reveals the hops up front with a taste of ginger with earthy overtones. While there is the taste of ginger, it isn't that strong, and the earthy overtones make the ginger less noticeable. It's kind of like pulling a carrot out of the garden and biting into it with out first rinsing it. Sure you get the carrot taste, but you also get the taste of the earth it was grown in. Perhaps if a different variety of ginger were to be used, it might make this Ginger Beer better. The beer does have a bit of a bite to it though, it just takes a while for it to kick in. As it stands, while a decent ginger beer, I'm sure that there are other ginger beers out there that are just as good, if not better than this one.

Rating:

May your glass always be full of good beer!

Dos Equis Amber

Today's beer: Dos Equis Amber by Dos Equis

Almost a month ago, my parents moved out of their old house to their new house for their retirement. They had what they were calling a 'house cooling' party, the opposite of a house warming party. It was a byob. Soft drinks were provided, but if you wanted some beer or something else, you had to bring it. This beer was brought by one of the family friends and what wasn't drunk, I got.

Amber pours into the glass a deep amber colour with a thin tan head. There is only the standard beer smell with a faint hint of corn. The taste is more or less that of a standard lager. It is fairly balanced malt and hops with just a bit more hops. There is nothing special about this beer, it is a standard lager. I wouldn't buy this beer, and quite frankly, I'm glad that I didn't have to spend money on this bottle.

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May your glass always be full of good beer!

Mississippi Brewing Company Mississippi Mud

Today's beer: Mississippi Mud by Mississippi Brewing Company

When I first picked up a bottle of this a year or so ago, I had been looking at it for several years. From my perspective at the time, it was too expensive to try and way too big (roughly 950ml). When I did eventually buy it, I discovered that it had a screw top cap, which meant that the bottle was resealable and therefore, it didn't need to all be drunk at the same time.

Mississippi Mud is a mix of porter and pilsner. It pours into the glass a dark brown. It smells rather like a pilsner a mix of malt and hops. There is the rich malt taste of the porter up front with slightly hoppy taste of the pilsner bringing up the rear. This beer has a lot of malt with virtually no hops. There is very little carbonation in the beer, which is a bit of a bad thing. It could use a bit more carbonation. The crispness of the pilsner hits the roof of your mouth just as you swallow.

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May your glass always be full of good beer!

Driftwood Driftwood Ale

Today's beer: Driftwood Ale by Driftwood

This is the last of the beers that I had on my vacation and was unable to post a review about. Again, I shared this beer with my dad on my birthday. Original review date: July 22, 2012.

In the glass Driftwood is a golden colour. There is a distinctive smell of hops. With my first sip I got a huge hit of hops. This beer is quite a bit more bitter than the Belgian White. It tastes more like an IPA than a standard ale. On the label it does say that it is a "Northwest Pale Ale", but I don't know what they mean by that. There really isn't anything that sets this beer apart from any other beer. It is remarkable only in the fact that it is unremarkable.

Both my dad and I are migraine sufferers. My dad being less susceptible to them than myself. However, after drinking this beer I had to lie down in a dark room to deal with the migraine that this beer gave me. Only after several hours in my darkened room did I find out that this beer also gave my dad a fairly bad headache too. I will never buy this beer again. It's unfortunate because the other beer of theirs that I have tried (and I will review it at a later date) called Farmhand, is a fantastic beer.

Rating:





May your glass always be full of good beer!

Lighthouse Belgian White

Today's beer: Belgian White by Lighthouse

As I said before, these next few reviews are being done several days after having the beer, do to having no internet access at the time of drinking. I shared this beer with my dad on my birthday. Original review date: July 22, 2012.

Because of the glass used, I don't really know what colour the beer is, but it's pretty safe to say that as a wheat beer it is a cloudy straw colour. Again, that's just a guess. When poured into the glass, Belgian White produces a fairly large and creamy head. The first thing I noticed with my first sip was the hops, right out in front. The beer is very hoppy. The hops that they used seems to be a very different strain of hops that what most other brewers use. As a result, they lend the beer a very distinctive and unique taste. I would like to see more brewers use this strain of hops as it gives the beer a different taste that is very good. Belgian White is a crisp beer with the faintest hint of citrus. I would definitely buy this beer again. Lighthouse also apparently released a Belgian Black, which if I could find it I would be most eager to try.

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May your glass always be full of good beer!