Friday, August 16, 2013

Hogsback: Alohog Coconut Pale Ale

As many of you may know, I tend to pop by Ottawa's Rochester Pub (on Rochester street) for lunch and sometimes to acquire new material for this blog.  They have a dozen or so taps of microbrew as well as one rotating tap that often provides some surprises, either good or bad.  Recently the feature was Hogsback's Alohog Coconut Pale Ale. 

Before going into the review, I will have to put my hand up and say that I am in the anti-coconut camp.  Coconut is one of those things that you either love or hate and I find that it tends to ruin perfectly good desserts with it's overpowering flavour and macaroons are better off as hockey pucks than cookies, so I was more than a little skeptical about the concept of a coconut pale ale.  Despite my trepidations, after a few sips I realized that my fears were groundless.   Alohog is a traditional pale ale in a lot of ways, it goes down smooth with a hoppy taste to it.  The coconut flavour is very slight, it adds a little bit of sweetness to it but doesn't overwhelm the palate.  It took a few sips for me to even notice it was there but it adds an interesting dynamic that you don't normally get in a beer.  The result is a really tasty and refreshing brew that I enjoyed a lot.   It's a seasonal beer so I don't know how long it will be around (it still isn't listed on their website yet) but I will definitely be trying to find it again, as it is no longer available at the Rochester.

The website still doesn't have much information, but there was a press release floating around the internet saying that it will be available at select pubs in Ottawa, Kingston, and Toronto so if you do happen to see it you should give it a try, also please let me know where you found it as for the moment the only place I know of you can get it is the Rochester, and even then it is only available sporadically.   

Rating: 4 steins

What you need to know
 Unfortunately they don't list their address on their website so I don't think they have a brewery tour our outlet. 

Website
http://hogsback.ca/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/HogsBackBrewingCompany

Twitter
@Hogsbackbrewing


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