Whistle-stop Ottawa

Ottawa did not match my expectations of it. There's something about capital cities which aren't their nation's largest that makes me believe they're all humdrum administrative centres, devoid of local colour or nightlife. A weekend in Canada's capital proved this prejudice to be baseless. We didn't explore much further than the Byward Market area but on Friday and Saturday nights it was jumping.

The first port of call was Waller Street, a miniscule brewpub in the basement of a larger entertainment complex. I squeezed in next to a fermenter to try their Moonlight Porter, quite a strong one at 6.3% ABV with a chewy texture to match. There's a lot going on in this: normal flavours like dark chocolate and liquorice; more unusual ones like lavender and rosewater; and then a completely surprising spicy ginger and citric bergamot. It's a strange set of flavours but it all works together wonderfully.

The other half of the round was Scotch River Sour, made with birch sap and spruce tips. This was a rich clear golden colour and exceedingly fruity, in a slightly artificial way, like Jolly Rancher sweets. The forest flavour comes through as a kind of pime bitterness with a touch of zingy lime. While not powerfully sour, nor massively complex, it was interesting and fun to drink. Waller Street joins the list of places I wish I'd had more time to stay and drink at.

Instead, it was around the corner to Brothers Beer Bistro, seemingly the most high-end beer specialist in town. And that, inevitably, meant a Viognier-aged Brett-fermented saison. VIO is from Bench, a brewery in the heart of Niagara wine country. It's 6.2% ABV and bright yellow in colour with a slight haze. An enticing aroma of peaches and cedar starts us off, leading to a juicy and very grape-centric white wine flavour. Brett-borne apricot and a farmyard funk finish it off. I love these wild wine-barrel saisons in general, and this was a particularly good example of the style.

A Russian Imperial Stout goes with that, from Niagara Oast House Brewers in the same neighbourhood. This 9.2% ABV job gives off a strong and sticky Tia Maria aroma while it tastes of bitter sour cherry and toasty roast. There's an added kick of umami presumably resulting from in-bottle autolysis as it was a 2015 vintage, and the whole thing is a bit too severe and serious for my liking. I bet it was better fresh.

The final pub visited was Clocktower, part of a small chain with a production brewery at one of its sites but not this one. I picked Number Seven, the IPA. Copper in colour and 5.4% ABV, it's quite resinous and sweaty, showing dry husky grain up front, a burst of grapefruit in the middle and then an acridly bitter finish. Musty sackcloth and metallic aspirin. This was an unpleasant throwback to the 1990s school of American IPAs, where bitterness is all, coming at the expense of pleasant drinking.

Clocktower Stout was also brash and unsubtle but was a lot more enjoyable, exuding a big billowy mocha aroma, turning to sweet and creamy milk chocolate on tasting, balanced by an almost ashen bitterness. I can forgive the lack of subtlety here as it has bags of character instead.

My second Canadian hemp beer finishes us off. The Wrong Stuff was a seasonal, garnet-coloured and appearing flat. It was powerfully vinegary and I could be kind and say it tasted like a Flemish red as it has a similar sort of grain crunch behind the acetic, but there's no fun fruit notes and absolutely no peppery hemp so I deem this a failure. If it's the result of a hygiene disaster at least it was a clean one. Still aptly named, though.

It's time to get back on the train now and head for the Big Smoke. Next stop: Toronto!