For a couple of days last week, one alternative for the hopped-out tippler was Sierra Nevada's Unrivaled, a one-off smoked ale with added rye. I loved the smell of it: that sherbety balance of fruity hops and sweet malt that you get in the most delicious medium-strength pale and amber ales from the US. Surprisingly it doesn't taste like this at all. The foretaste is quite harsh and rather kippery: the smokiness made extra sharp by the grassy rye. This doesn't last long, though, fading quickly to let the lightly citric hops make a more mellow finish. An odd beer, but one I kept coming back to, for the aroma more than anything.
Last Thursday's meeting of Irish Craft Brewer in the pub featured some canned beers left to us by ex-pat member Garthicus, now stationed in Toronto. First open was the Creemore Springs Kellerbier, a cloudy orange affair. It tastes, as I believe Mark observed, like kit beer gone wrong. Even though it was only slightly past the best-before there was a marked stale and musty vibe to it, with very little sign of the quality lager it purports to be.
We fared better with Denison's Weissbier: properly cloudy, though remarkably pale. It lacked the big soft fluffy body and full-on bananas of good weissbier, but substituted with lightness and drinkability, plus a strangely pleasant acetone/pear sort of flavour. I could drink this happily, though was aware that it probably contains chemicals which, if ingested in sufficient quantity, are likely to make one's head feel like it's full of hyperactive racoons the next day. But half a litre between eight or nine of us did no harm at all.
The last can divided the table. The balance of opinion held that Hockley Dark is foul muck, another poorly constructed beer, oxidised and overly sweet. Me, I've had worse, as has Brian. It's thick and caramelly, and quite bitter with it. I've tasted homebrew, and the odd bottle of Whitewater's Belfast Ale, that have been along similar lines. It won't win too many awards (though the can claims at least one), but it's perfectly palatable to me.Still, after the commercial stuff it was nice to get stuck into the homebrew next. It always is.
I always find the furore that surrounds canned beer to be faintly daft and the "metallic" tinge that some people pick up on is likely to be subliminal given the lacquer between the can and the beer. I wonder if back when glass became a viable drinking vessel for the masses, there were a group of beer columnists (or whatever the equivalent of the beer blogger would have been) lamenting that the beer had a "glassy" tinge to it.
ReplyDeleteProbably.
ReplyDeleteI feel that I am somehow implicated in your disappointment even though I am only resident of the same massive province. Denison's on tap is lovely but you may have a sense now why I travel to stock the stash.
ReplyDeleteI spent two years in Toronto. I have to agree Hockley is muck, although it comes from a beautiful spot. The weissbier was a lot better. Their pale ales - Black Oak or Church Quay West Coast were rather better. The best beers though, were from Quebec - Unibroue's barley wine strength annivesary beers in particular
ReplyDeleteI've liked all the Unibroue beers I've had, especially the darker ones. That Dieu du Ciel Péché Mortel is a tasty drop too.
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