Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier

Okay, so this is clearly the hardest to pronounce beer that I have reviewed thus far! Also, wait till I tell you what it supposedly tastes like... bacon! Yeah, gross eh? I had one beer expert buddy tell me it tastes like bacon and another tell me it tastes like a ham sandwich. Although, to me a sandwich would have veggies, mayo and bread involved so I was a bit confused by that and I pray to God (or Santa (or Satan)) that this beer does not have a hint of mayo or else my toilet may have a hint of mayo as well if you catch my drift. So to be perfectly honest my curiosity is similar to a car accident on the side of the road. I just have to see what this tastes like even though I might regret it. So I already have pretty low expectations in terms of the enjoyment factor. However, I will say that so far I am impressed by the fact that there is a beer out there like this and my beer buddy who said it tastes like bacon was in the midst of recommending it on it being a great beer not just a fucking weird one!

Now, there is a lot to read on the website for Schlenkerla. This beer is the original, the Marzen, as they also offer an Urbock, a Wheat, a Lager, a Lentbeer and an Oak Smoke. Sounds legit! This brewery produces smokebeers. It achieves a smoky flavour by exposing the malts to the smoke burning beech-wood logs. This is explained in more detail on the site but it does sound interesting. It does also warn that if it tastes strange on first swallow to keep at it and it'll become better. I'm nervous.

I've just opened the bottle and took a whiff and it definitely smells smoky. It pours out pretty smooth and dark but not nearly as dark as most stouts and porters I've had. The smoky smell is quite strong and I can instantly see what my friend was saying about a bacon quality and I haven't even taken a sip yet.
First sip, the taste is basically what you'd expect from the smell but it has a light aftertaste which makes it easier to drink. The smoky flavour hits you at first and then the flavour descends into more a bitter lager flavour with an almost metallic quality that is not really all that great. It is getting better with each gulp, but really I almost feel like that is due to the smoky taste disappearing and more of a stout-like flavour evolving out of it.

I'm now trying the beer with some savoury crackers. Already the cracker tastes amazing after the beer, lets see if it goes both ways. Hmmm, it's not so much that the taste of the beer is altered all that much but I found that I enjoyed the beer a bit more. Maybe this beer works best with food? Although I could only recommend salty, savoury, kind of food.

I will say that it is true that the beer gets better with each sip. I'm definitely enjoying it more than I thought would. However, I'm still not sure if I would get this again or even recommend it unless you just want to try a beer that tastes smoky.

70% : Decent beer, interesting smoky bacon-like flavour and scent. The aftertaste is more of a bitter lager though which is not amazing. Goes well with salty and savoury food. Only recommend trying this if you are interested in a more bizarre type of beer drinking experience.

Muskoka Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout

(Written this past Sunday)
This weekend has been really weird. Friday night I chipped my tooth somehow on a bottle of Great Lakes Winter Ale! Luckily the chip is so damn tiny, you can barely see it at all, but it's left my front tooth feeling jagged against my tongue and so annoying so dentist here I come! Then saturday I was harassed by some random homeless woman. She swore at me because I was actually in a rush and told her that as politely as I could saving me from hearing her entire (fictional) life story that brought her to Union Station broke and homeless. It's okay though. I went to the LCBO to get some Christmas presents and thought I deserved a treat to review later tonight. Luckily I stumbled upon this giant bottle. I've been really into stouts and porters lately (blame the winter) and I saw 'double' and 'chocolate' and my eyes lit up. I thought to myself: I deserve this.

I've had some Muskoka beers before. They make a really great lager actually, which I normally am not a huge fan of, but this one I could tell was probably one of the best lagers out there. I also had the Harvest Ale which was pretty decent. Their website shows all the different kinds of beers. Unfortunately it doesn't have anything about the Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout! Oh well, the title is long and specific enough to really encapsulate what you are going to experience. I am stoked!

Pours dark, thick and black like a stout should. Maybe it's just because it says it has Cranberry in it that I feel like the head has a tinge of pink amongst the dark brown. First few sips are delicious. It's kind of light in texture and the chocolate really kicks you in the aftertaste. The initial flavour is a subtle cranberry sweetness that mixes with the dark stout taste. I think making it 8% alcohol was a great idea because it's strong enough to add to the flavour but not too strong to make it overly bitter or sickly. I am really impressed by this. It's a truly chocolaty and sweet affair while still remaining bitter and dark. Some sips I almost feel like I'm drinking a dark cocoa gone cold. I know that may turn a lot of beer drinkers off, but you know what, it's the holidays and you need to embrace flavoured beers like this. Winter ales and Chocolate stouts are what Christmas is all about. This is a great beer to sip while sitting by a fireplace, an old man tapping away on the piano, an old woman baking you cookies in the next room, and an elf massaging your feet.

I know I said that Aphrodite was my favourite chocolate stout, but this may be it instead. I think it has a slightly better texture. Don't get me wrong though, Aphrodite is fucking amazing and you all need to try it!

90%: Fantastic beer! Delicious and has a great light texture to it. Initial flavours of cranberry are subtle and tasty then it finishes off with a lingering dark chocolate wash. All of this comes in the vehicle of a perfect stout. Perfect holiday beer! Sip this one with a loved one by the fireplace.

Meantime Coffee Porter

Okay, what really drew me into this beer was the bottle. I know the picture sucks, but you can still see that this bottle doesn't really look like it contains beer. However, it was in the beer section, and it wasn't really that expensive, so I was sold. Also, I tried a sip of the Mill Street Coffee Porter a week ago and thought it was amazing so now I really want to get more into coffee porters! The one thing that does worry me a bit though is the coffee factor because on occasion I can be a little sensitive to caffeine and coffee seems to have the greatest effect on me. I go through periods where I am drinking coffee 1-2 times a day but then I go through periods where I almost never drink it. These periods are a few months at a time and they are always due to me being overwhelmed by coffee and then curious of whether it really does effect me badly. Blah blah blah.

Now, Meantime Brewing has a website. Looks like they make a lot of interesting beers. It is in fact based out of London, so that will give me a bit of an idea of what to expect. Unfortunately they don't give a lot of information on the Coffee Porter itself but the site is kinda cool and they seem to have a pretty serious selection.

The smell is nice, just a hint of coffee, combined with the usual smell of a porter makes for almost a mocha-like scent. Initially it tastes great, the coffee is perfectly subtle against the smooth dark flavours of the porter. However the aftertaste is kind of metallic and unpleasant. I just tasted the foam of the porter on my mustache and it tasted like pure coffee. It's a bit fizzy tasting and it's expectedly bitter. What I really like is the balance of the coffee flavour, it really doesn't over-or-under-whelm you. The metallic aftertaste seemed to disappear after a few sips, so that is good, although that taste is really the only downside to the flavour of the beer.

Now I've just had a few bites of a tuna salad sandwich and then took a sip of the Coffee Porter. Hmmmm. The metallic aftertaste is back. I really don't know what that is but it's unpleasant. It's really a shame because the beer is almost amazing. It's a hard recommend.

70%: This beer almost rules but is turned down by the metallic aftertaste that arrives after the initial sips and any sip after food. Other than that, it has a perfect balance of coffee flavouring and a good scent. It's a shame about the aftertaste.

Dieu Du Ciel Solstice D'Hiver

That's Winter Solstice, for those of you who do not speak French, myself included. I did not even plan to do two Dieu Du Ciel reviews in a row but here we are. In that case, I will keep this one shorter and leave all the bits about the brewery and website out. However, if you are interested, here is the website. Click on St. Jerome for the brewery itself and that's how you can discover all their great beers that are usually available at the LCBO (including Corne Du Diable, which as I mentioned before, is a delicious hoppy IPA).

I will tell you a bit about this beer though. It is a Barley Wine. I have never tried a Barley Wine. I like wine, it's okay though, definitely not in love with it. Barley? Sure! Barley Wine? I don't know, but okay, let's try it. The website's description of this beer is actually amazing and I don't want to copy and paste but just mention that it's brown, bitter, hoppy, high alcohol (9% ABV!) and has flavours reminiscent of red fruit. There's way more described here and it makes me feel like I'm reading something by Lord Byron. Great! I am very impressed by this brewery. That Aphrodite beer I reviewed last week was the most chocolaty 'chocolate stout' ever. Now from reading the description, I don't think this is going to be like other winter ales that are out now. I love winter ales and I really should review one soon. If you're interested in trying one: the St. Peter's Winter Ale is my personal favourite and has the strongest/darkest flavour; the Great Lakes' Winter Ale is also fantastic, more of a balance in darkness and comes in a big bottle; and Samuel Adams' Winter Welcome is a good choice for value and is pleasant but a bit lighter for a winter ale.

Wow, this pours out really thick and really brown. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a beer like this before because it's not exactly thick and black like a stout or porter. It does smell a bit like a winter ale, so maybe I should expect something along those lines. Woah, very strong flavour. Very sweet and the alcohol has a huge presence. It says it's very bitter and hoppy but I'm finding the bitterness is that of a vodka or rum and not of a hoppy type of bitterness that I usually love. This is quite intense but I'm not sure if I'm in love with it. It's really thick and syrupy too which seems to bring out more of the sweetness and high alcohol content. I feel like I'm almost drinking cough syrup. Maybe this is what barley wine tastes like? The bitterness lingers on this too. At this point I am leading more towards disliking this beer. I do have to give it points for being unique and it doesn't taste like a "shitty cheap beer" by any means but I just don't really find these flavours or the texture of the beer very pleasant.

I'm going to try a sip after eating a cracker to see if the taste changes even though I feel like this might be a waste of time. Well, I think I tasted a bit more of the hops that time. Now that I'm getting more into the beer, it tastes a bit like a Trippel Belgian trappist style beer, like a Chimay or something. More bitter though, heavier, and more like cough syrup. I am pretty surprised by my reaction to this beer because the description made it sound like it was going to be a real treat and while it is definitely an interesting beer it's not a very pleasant one. It's hard to recommend this beer, I really could only do it if I knew someone who wanted a harsh cough-syrupy-like beer.

65 %: It's not a bad beer and I know Dieu Du Ciel is a strong brewery but this is really unpleasant. It really hits you like a swig of cough syrup with it's thick texture, high alcohol bitterness, and strange sweetness. Almost like a winter ale gone bad and mixed with rum. I can't really recommend this but I also can't slag it for poor quality - it doesn't taste like a 'shitty cheap beer' but it also doesn't taste good.

Dieu Du Ciel's Aphrodite

In august my girlfriend and I went to Montreal for a few days as a little affordable vacation. It was pretty cool. I've been there a few times but the last couple of times I went were for just playing a show and left no time to explore what the city had to offer. Also, it really wasn't until 2 or 3 years ago that I really started to take an active interest in beer so this time I was going to make it a priority to see what Montreal was brewing. The Unibrou brand is way popular, you can get their giant bottles anywhere/everywhere, and while the beer is good it's not really my cup of tea. One of my buddies at work (and fellow beer snob) Bart informed me of a few great pubs to check out. One in particular - Le Saint Bock - floored me. It was a few blocks away from the hotel we stayed at so we ended up going there every night. My first visit there I asked for a Corne Du Diablo, one of the beers produced by Dieu Du Ciel, and the waitress warned me: "It's very strong, do you like IPAs?" I grinned and said yes. She brought out a pint of one of the best IPAs I've ever had. It was beautiful, bitter, and full of flavour. I think I'll take that as a good sign if the bartender gives me a warning before trying a beer: "Are you certain that you want to corrode your mouth with so much flavour that your tongue will turn black and your eyes will roll back in your head?" (The answer will always be: yes, very much so.)

I noticed a few months back that Dieu Du Ciel beers started popping up in the LCBOs around here. Surely enough I picked up 3 bottles of Corne Du Diablo but I hadn't ventured into any other kinds of beer. I kept getting recommendations but it wasn't until tonight that I decided that I really need to try another one. I picked up this interesting looking bottle of Aphrodite. The little description card at LCBO described flavours such as vanilla and cocoa and it is a strong stout. Sounds pretty out there, but I am very much stoked to try it!

The website for Dieu De Ciel is a bit confusing because they have a couple locations and also brewpubs too. I do recommend navigating till you get a selection of the beers they carry because they all sound very complex. The Aphrodite is said to have won a bunch of awards in back in 2003. It also goes on to describe the flavours of vanilla, dark chocolate, bourbon and roasted malt being present. Despite its colouring, they claim it's accessible enough for most beer drinkers. Aw, I thought this was the beer for the elite? Well, either way it still sounds pretty interesting.

It pours out pretty thick and dark with dark foam as well. It smells like any stout, but maybe a bit weaker. First sip, very nice. Initially I taste the coffee-like bitterness but then my tongue is coated with dark chocolate. The vanilla bean flavouring is very subtle. Maybe I'd want just a bit more vanilla flavouring to come forward to make this beer stand out more but it still is very delicious. I'm guessing that what the vanilla bean does is strengthen the cocoa flavouring because for a beer that is not called a Chocolate Stout it may in fact be the most chocolaty tasting stout I've ever had. It's also not overly smoky tasting too. The only downside is that it's $3.50 for a 341 mL bottle. If this was a bit cheaper I'd probably pick this up more often.

I just ate a few crackers and now am taking a sip. It basically tasted the way I figured it would. I know crackers aren't considered a good pairing food, but essentially I just wanted something to cleanse the palette and make way for a bolder taste which is exactly what it did.

87% : A tasty chocolaty stout. The vanilla flavour really just boosts the chocolaty flavour. Coats your tongue in chocolate and coffee. Quite delicious and intense. I say try anything by Dieu Du Ciel and you'll be in for a treat - especially the Corne Du Diable!

Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout

Chocolate stouts. Ouch. These are dark demonic beers. I've only tried one or two in the past and may I say that the Chocolate factor is definitely misleading. Don't get me wrong, it's Chocolate, but it's DARK Chocolate, and the darkest at that. A dark flavour made even darker by the chocolate.

Now, according to the Brooklyn Brewery website this beer is best paired with a strong cheese, such as a Stilton. That is a harsh blue cheese, it's super delicious, but if you're not ready it will fuck you up. That just gives me an impression that this beer is going to be as equally unfuckwithable. Not to mention that it is 10% ABV! A few of these will leave you in the dirt. Dirt in your mouth, dirt in your soul, rock and roll. I am stoked!

Okay so this stuff practically oozes out of the bottle. The head looks like brown sugar. Super dark. I just put my nose in to take in a whiff and it smells awesome. Total coffee-chocolate-smoked goodness! Wow, what a great taste. The alcohol content is quite high, giving a slight impression of a liquer but it's not as thick and way more fizzy and easy to drink. The chocolate flavour is present but not prevalent, I feel like I can taste more of the alcohol. I'd say that my tongue can't figure out if it's enjoying it like a good beer or enjoying it like a delicious liquer that I only drink at Christmas in small doses. Also what I am loving is that even though it is a bitter hellacious stout it is actually not THAT bitter. I could see a lot of non-stout drinkers enjoying this slightly. It's not coating my tongue with absolute pitch black darkness either.

I cut a couple slices of some strong cheese to try with this. Now I have no idea what kind of cheese this is but I do know that it smells really strong like a mix of parmesan and blue and that it came from my girlfriend's parent's neighbour/close friend/"aunt" Irene who is Portugese. Ate a slice, took a sip, and you know what - it's pretty good! I'd say that the flavours have not changed - neither the cheese nor the beer tastes any different. However, they just compliment each other, one is more refreshing by the other. If that makes sense? So it's not that it tastes different, you just want it and enjoy it more. I think strong beer plus strong food will always go together well. One will overwhelm, then the other will take over and overwhelm with a new experience. It's a rush to the senses and to the palette. A wild ripping ride.

85%: Delicious! Such a kick of alcohol and flavours of chocolate, coffee, and smoky stout goodness that don't overwhelm as much as slide in. Great with strong cheese, and probably strong food! Great winter ale. Warms you up with its thick dark goo. It might sometimes seem a bit too much like a liqeur because of the chocolaty flavour and high alcohol content but take that at as an interesting angle of the beer and let it warm your belly and tongue on a cold wintry night!

Southern Tier IPA

Today was one of those "kill me now" stressful days where you go on your lunch break to buy a 6 pack and justify it with "Oh it's for my blog" and then the cashier IDs you for the first time since you've moved to Toronto and then since he is new because it is a new LCBO store you then have to instruct him on how to do his job because he doesn't understand that scanning the bar code of one beer bottle will give you the price of the entire 6 pack and almost charges $77 for his stupidity. Don't worry, I didn't take my stress out on the poor guy, I helped him out, because in the end he is giving me my beer and in the end he is only doing his job by IDing me. Life goes on.

So, this new LCBO that opened up at the Royal Bank Plaza (200 Bay Street, underground) is medium sized and really bright looking. Unfortunately their selection leaves much to be desired. However, I did come across a couple of 6 pack only beer that I have never tried before. Specifically this beer that I am about to try - Southern Tier IPA. I've had some Southern Tier beers in the past and I remember them being pretty interesting. I think I had a Creme Brulee Stout a year ago that they put out and while it was a bit too sweet and high in alcohol to make me feel safe after already having 5 beers I still will give props where it's due for it being such a fucking weird and well made beer.

According to the Southern Tier website they have a really nice selection of beers. I highly recommend perusing the descriptions of what looks like over 20 beers. All interesting and delicious sounding. There's at least 10 here that I need to track down and also try not to obsess over. (Iniquity Imperial Black Ale! 2xIPA!) So, I think that I am in for a treat with this IPA, even though by the looks of it it may be one of their more tamer beers. The brewery is based in Lakewood, NY, and it may be worth checking out if I do get to go to NY in the near future!

It pours light with a slightly brownish-reddish-yellowish colour. I can smell the hops even as I pour - good sign! Lots of super fluffy head too. First sip, very delicious. Great hoppiness that almost inches towards a sharp bitterness but steps back just before you are overwhelmed. A warm pleasant aftertaste too. The beer seems to have a very pleasant 'lightness' to it, even though it still has a caramelly hoppy taste. 4 varieties of hops and 4 types of malts makes for a vey delicious beer! It reminds me a bit of the Imperial IPA I tried awhile back with it's caramel hoppy flavour that really overwhelmed you except this is a lighter version.

After taking a bite of a grilled cheese and then a sip of the Southern Tier IPA, I am instantly rewarded by it's fluffy content and bite of hops. Works well with food, which is not a surprise.

80 % : Great hoppy and malty IPA! Sort of like a soft-core version of the Imperial IPA that I tried out a few weeks ago and was blown away by. So, this is a great beer, but it will not blow you away. Sweet, hoppy, and kinda fluffy.