Another #Beersaturday has come! This week I'll be reviewing two beers, a pumpkin Ale and a standard lager. I hope you enjoy.
Country Bumpkin Spiced Harvest Ale
Brewery: Oast House Brewers
Origin: Niagara on the Lake, ON Canada
Style: Spiced Ale
Abv: 5.3%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: The can has an orange and cream color scheme with bold lettering. The imagery is a large pumpkin, a barn, and the brewery's brand logo.
Its not an exciting design at all but it is very consistent and on theme with their other beer cans - their Stout and their Barn Raiser Ale look about the same but in different colors and different focal images. Its somewhat boring but it gets the job done, it recognizable on the shelf as an Oast Brewery beer.
Color: The beer poured a crystal clear orange / copper color with a tinted head of foam.
Nose: A sweet smell with a strong pumpkin spiced aroma. I noticed a strong cinnamon and vanilla bouquet coming through. The beer smells like liquid pumpkin pie. Strangely it didn't smell fake either. I actuslly liked the smell of the beer.
Taste: In the taste department it was sweet and tart in the begining but not sickly or overpowering. There wasn't a lot of bitterness in the finish to round it out. I got strong pumpkin spiced flavors as well, just like the nose. It was quite nice actually. Near the last 1/3 of the beer is found it to be a bit much for me but not enough to ruin the experience.
Texture: Small sharp bubbles. Light bodied mouthfeel.
Impression: For a flavored beer this one was actually a really good. I don't typically like pumpkin beers but this one was somehow very flavorful without being fake tasting. I hate beers with extracts in them. I would maybe buy this one again in the fall. Surprisingly I've had some okay luck on pumpkin beers this year. Usually I hate them but I actually liked a few i tried this year. I might even buy some again next year.
I decided to drink this beer because I was making butternut squash soup, which has a lot of the same flavors. I don't make the soup often but I think I have perfected my technique with this one.
I made this soup for a Christmas dinner one year and one of the guests said it was the best soup he ever had. He didn't tell me that but said it to someone else, so I think that makes it even more valid. They also informed me that he talked about it several times afterwards.
I think he has been disappointed that I've never made it again since.
Blood Brothers Mighty Lager
Brewery: Blood Brothers Brewing Co
Origin: Toronto ON Canada
Style: Lager
Abv: 4.5%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: The can is a matte black color with bold white lettering and an eagle in front of a Canadian Flag as a design image. The name of the brewery, Blood Brothers and the image, make me think that there is a connection between the US and Canada with this beer.
Maybe the owners/founders of the brewery are from opposite sides of the lake? The beer is marketed as a premium lager, which I don't know what that means really, but I'm guessing that it has something to do with the sparging process?? The marketing is bold and stands out. Its fine overall.
Color: The beer poured a pale yellow color with not much head to it. The liquid was actually quite hazy for a lager I thought. Lagers are typically crystal clear but this one was opaque to the point that you couldn't see the beer can through it even when it was placed directly behind the glass. Actually I should clarify (no pun intended), it started out clear but when I topped up the beer with the remainder from the can it went hazy. So there must have been some sediment at the bottom of the can??
Nose: It had a malty aroma with notes of grains and biscuits.
Taste: the taste was mildly sweet with quite a bit of tanginess and a strange bitter bite in the finish. There was kind of a dry quality to it as well, even though there was some sweetness. It was a bit of a conundrum to me. I got notes of grains, and a fruity note, like apricot or something that I couldn't place.
Texture: Sharp biting bubbles and a light bodied mouthfeel.
Impression: I didn't really care for this beer. I found it to be less fresh than other beers I've drank and the odd bitter bite in the finish was off putting to me. It had been sitting in my fridge about 3 weeks I'd say, which is no longer than some other beers I've reviewed recently. The pumpkin beer was probably bought three months ago. It wasn't a bad beer per se, but it wasn't a beer that I'd recommend or buy again.
I drank another Festbier that I had leftover as well, but I won't review it because I did that recently already. Enjoy the photo!
