Rickard's White

I tasted and commented on it last weekend with a few of my friends after an afternoon of touch-football and soccer. Coming back from work today on my bike my chain broke and I had to walk to the repair shop. The repairs who set me back 100$ left me with an hour to kill. On this beautiful sunny but chilly Friday afternoon I decided to walk in to a convenience store a get myself a nice beer to pass the time. Brewed with orange peels and coriander, this 5.4% beer is very perfumed both to the taste and smell. The orange taste is very light but the coriander is very flavorful. You can even see tiny pieces of it in the beer. The collar falls extremely quickly witch says a lot about the texture. The big punch comes with the aftertaste that ends with a little bit of sweet citrus. Ideal to be enjoyed between breakfast and lunch or brunch as we call it!

2.50$ for a 473ml in Québec

G: 8/10

Q: 7.7/10

M: 6.9/10

Smithwick's draught 5%

Montréal hosts the longest running St-Patrick's day parade in Canada and controversy roams around witch city between Boston and New York holds the title in North America or even the world. Always great fun, I put this celebration up with Christmas and the Superbowl to be my favorites! I've been attending for the last 5 years. Tons of stories and memories are made on the Sunday following St-Patrick's day. In the morning I enjoy a few beers, special coffee and sometimes an Irish Car Bomb. Smithwick's is an Irish ale, reddish brown in color, this particular batch was brewed in Dublin in July 2011(we are now in march). The importation process seem to be very unkind for these European beers because the ones I have tasted in London where better by far. I can taste these red beers close to my scapulas and my spine. I don't know if its the enthusiasm around this festivity or the fact that I’m drinking beer in the morning but I really enjoyed this beer in its category. Not too bitter and a short tasty aftertaste comes following a light bitterness.

2.25$ for a 500ml in Québec

7.6/10

Harp's Lager 5%

This morning while at the grocery store I picked up a few packs of Irish beer recently arrived and marketed for St-Patrick's day. After a Jameson coffee I walked with my brother to some middle eastern butcher shop in order to buy lamb for an Irish stew. I am now ready to enjoy. This is a nice lager from the makers of Guiness. Its brewed in Dundalk Ireland so it can be considered a genuine import. Sometime the imports we get here are brewed here following the recipe. Tasted like the actual beer you can drink at a real brew pub. Nothing really overwhelms you while tasting it witch is good but also makes it hard to comment on. You either like it or you don't! Its a generic lager from a country that doesn't brew alot of lagers. Seems harder at first than it actually is. Goes down like a charm. There is a light bitterness to it at the end that can be quite enjoyable. Nice yellowish color. Coppery?

2.25$ for a 500ml in Québec

7.8/10

Navigator of Holland

Since 1275 strong 8.4% beer. 1275, that's a really long time ago, the first documented time they cited Amsterdam instead of Amstelland. Beers are often better when packaged in a can. This strong beer is typical, a smooth beginning bitter in the middle with a sweet flavorful citrus like ending that doesn't linger. It seems to have a feminine side to it. Light,fresh smelling with a syrupy texture and golden color. Not very carbonated obviously therefore the collar quickly goes down. Excellent match with my spicy chili con carne. Sort of, rather than specially, recommended for strong beer ''connaisseurs'' might scare away a few Coors Light aficionados. Looks good, cool can but easy to bash, because you gotta be in the mood to enjoy fully! In its category I would give it a 6/10. At least it doesn't smell like sewer water and tastes like skunk ass! I remember seeing it in 10% also, I wonder if they still make it.

500ml for 2.69$ in Québec

Wernesgrüner

German pilsener, I find that pilseners are a type of beer that don't varie very much in taste. They are a sure shot. A little heavier in content and taste than blonde ales but they have a powerful and distinctive kick. Their bitterness is subtle and stays in the back of the pallet. This one was fairly old, I bought it a few months ago when I went up to the cottage to work with the chainsaw. It obviously kept well because its in a can and also because its a pilsener. The smell is surprisingly fresh almost fruity, but hard to identify. I might have to retake the taste test since I just shovelled the whole driveway and got pretty, thirsty pretty fast. Very generic large batch beer just like I love. I do recommend! 4.9% Brewed according to the German Purity Law*.

*This law was created in 1516 and dictated that the only ingredients used to brew beer must be barley, hops and water and only of premium quality in order to prevent people from drinking poor standard and potentially lethal beverages. Remember that the water supplys back then where often tainted.

www.wernesgruener.com

Let's get this thing back on track!

I realise I haven't written at all in the last year or so but i'm back and i'm here to stay I hope. I'm going to transform this blog into a beer blog but will keep on posting on physical activity. A little contradictory you might think but to my eyes complementary. I've recently bought the new encyclopedia of modern bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger to enhance my training. Recently I have been doing a 3x a week full body regiment to get back into it accompanied by 2-3x a week yoga. For extra motivation I subscribed myself and 18 of my friends to the Spartan Sprint in Mont Tremblant in june. Not that i'm going to run it as fast as I can, but just to make it easier on me. A few fine brews before start time will probably make my run more enjoyable! Alot has happened since i've written on here, a senior football season with no victorys, an undefeated season and championship in the arena football league, a concussion, a half marathon under two hours, new fishing spots, a well accomplished Movember fundraiser, a bachelors degree and many more events have kept me occupied. Enough said lets keep in touch from now on!

Mahalo!

Mr. Hyde 6.7%

A few weeks ago on a sunny allstar sunday with nothing to do, I decided to go to Vankleek Hill Ontario with my brother, my girlfriend and one of my attorneys and his wife. We sped down the highway with only one highwayside bathroom break (snowbank) to finally arrive in a small town where people nod at you at the gas station. We bursted in to the brewry, unexpected out of towners, an hour or so before closing time. After two tiny samplers, we started to hoard the counter with our order. Next thing you know we find 2$ underfills of lug thread (their blond beer) so we crack a few open for the 3 minute tour of the factory only to learn shortly after that it wasn't allowed to do so. After an evening @the Winsor Tavern and supper @the Blueberry pub we went back home with a few litres of beer. This morning as I woke up I had in mind of buying a rye bread for some toast and what better way to accompany it but with rye beer? Mr. Hyde is a very bitter organic rye beer (30%). The best compliment I can give it is its creaminess, or maybe its label or even its bottle witch is very typical of the Beau's brewerie. Tastes are very individual, but personally this wasn't my favourite. Damn beautiful bottles tough but the redemption on them range from 0.80$ to 4.00$ and you can't sell em anywhere. Its so hard to recycle and bring back your emptys nowadays even if its the law, but lets not get me started on that! Back to Mr. Hyde, this bronze or copper colored beer has a very long lasting aftertaste that stays with you like the pain of a punch in the mouth, its almost chocking. The alcohol content is 6.7% witch is rare in a beer. Anyways I'll be back there someday to bring back my bottles and probably will try the Dr. Jekyll.

BEAU'S ALL NATURAL BREWING CO.

10 TERRY FOX DR.

VANKLEEK HILL, ONTARIO, CANADA