What do you do when you have tried all the IPAs at the store? Catch up on a couple sours and weird beers!
Source: https://www.pinterest.pt/goldensaintbeer/ with a little Zeke design on top.
I have developed an appreciation for Sour beers over the last while. Not all of them though as there seem to be a more complicated dynamic in producing the right kind of sour taste for my palate. The KING of sours, in my opinion, is Last Hours on Earth brewery https://www.halfhoursonearth.com/ which is less than an hour down the road, in the middle of nowhere bumblescrew Ontario.
This week, I discover sours from breweries I have enjoyed before, but not their sours. Will it be solid or a few bullshit beers? Let's see...
Shorty of the Week!
The recently-popular Shorty of the Week relates to one of my favourite beer drinkin' tactics: to have a few short 355ml cans in the fridge along with the tall/pint cans. That way, when you can use another beer but it is too late to crush a full pint, you can crush a shorty! It is a great way for me to drink 5% less on an evening and sample some of the local playground beers.
This week, the 6th man in the fridge comes to you from local Black Swan Brewery https://blackswanbrewing.ca/ These last couple years have been highlighted by an amplified appreciation for alliterations and New England style IPAs. This one is especially local not only because it is from a local brewery, but features a fruit I had never heard of before which is uniquely native to this area. Paw Paw Fruit https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/ontario-paw-paw-1.4850247 does sound too mythical to be true and it is damn tasty!
This is a uniquely solid shorty though I am enjoying it in a growler this week just to be different.
Charged Up Sour
Signal Brewery https://signal.beer/ is a more recent discovery of mine through their surprisingly-tasty Wave Pale Ale and highlighted by their active engagement. I generally send a message to the brewery when I first review their product as it is a gift to be linking their page from #hive (for Search Engine Optimization alone) and a small business thrives on content related to their product to become legit. The owner of the company got back to me personally in messages and filled me in on the thought behind the design themes and thanked me for the attention. That is how it is done!
Volt https://signal.beer/products/volt-dry-hop-blackberry-vanilla is a dry-hopped sour that caught my eye primarily for the cool retro robot design. Knowing I had enjoyed the pale ale so much, and not seeing any new ones on the shelves, I might venture off the hoppy trail and get into some sour!
This sour is defined by its use of blackberry puree for the fruity flavour and nice juicy colour. What I love even more is that they have added oats and wheat to smooth out the texture and vanilla to take the edge off the sour a little.
The first few sips were made cautiously as I measured it against expectations and past sours. By the time I was half way into it, I was like a kid gulping my kool-aid on a summer day, celebrating the tart/sweet battle on my palate. Yummy!
Cherry Blaster
Next up is a Sour Cherry IPA from Muskoka Brewery https://muskokabrewery.com/ which holds a special place in my beer journey. This cottage country brewery has been around far longer than most of their craft brethren and is partly responsible for my slide into IPA obsession because of Mad Tom IPA. I occasionally have one of these for nostalgia and to gauge how different it tastes now because of my evolved palate. So why not give their latest Moonlight Kettle Series a try against the Signal.
The side label is generally reserved for a specific description of the beer behind the tin but Muskoka is using it here to hint at the story behind their playground brand. This one has a nice deep berry hue and immediately threw me back to my childhood and loving sour cherry candies. I wondered whether this would be more sour or more IPA and was treated to a healthy dose of each. The cherry fell nicely short of syrupy and the hops, while blasted a little by the sour, were nice enough to provide a tangy edge.
If I were to give an edge to either of these sours, I might choose this one by a narrow margin. Pretty damn good!
Botanicals?
While looking for a third new sour beer to make for a trilogy in this #beersaturday blog, I stumbled upon this wild looking one from Wellington Brewery https://www.wellingtonbrewery.ca/beers/year-round If Muskoka is old skool craft beer, then Wellington might be the god father. Lately, they haven't thrilled me with any of their brews and all I was hoping for with this monstrosity was not just another can of meh.
My thought process, upon feasting my eyes on this cacophony was something along the lines of, "designer is on a trip, hazy IPA good, gin botanicals wtf?" I spun the can a half rotation to read a little more and my eyes were accosted by a block of text warring with a stippled background. Why the hell not? Needless to say, I was not overly optimistic.
Big Chill IPA https://www.wellingtonbrewery.ca/beers/small-batch-seasonals/big-chill-ipa poured nice and hazy with cool golden hue. The first healthy draw on this pint was nowhere near as annoying as I thought it might be. My palate hardly had to adjust from the previous IPA and I found the standard comforting citrussy hop character. The gin botanicals were nice, modest, and gave a nice dry ending wave for the hops to ride out.
I am going to have to try this one again! For now, I love being proven wrong and hope this beer is as solid the next session.
#BEERSaturday!
Thanks again for this wonderful #hive #beer gift by
on Twitter! Join the Hive push with us.
It is week 190 of #beersaturday if you can imagine that! @Detlev started this that long ago and it is our love of beer that fuels us to this unheard-of level of suddsy consistency. Never did I ever consider being a beer blogger 'til decentralized media made it happen and I will never look back. I would suggest you get loaded, take a couple snaps and create your own #beersaturday post with some neat prizes and fellow piss-tanks here @detlev/show-us-your-beersaturday-activity-for-week-190
I invite a friend to the party every week and this week it is 
Cheers DOODS!
I am honoured to curate for:
