The concept of a harvest ale is often misunderstood by beer drinkers. Many people equate harvest ale to pumpkin flavoured beers, or other autumnal flavoured beers, but in fact harvest ale refers to beer made with freshly harvested hops, as opposed to most beers being made with dried hops. The result is often a cleaner and crisper tasting beer, but it can take on many forms.
Muskoka's Harvest Ale is of the American Pale Ale style, meaning it is actually darker in colour and quite strong. I had it on cask at the Rochester Pub, it has a very rich and thick malty flavour with a significant amount of hops. When you take a sip it is quite clean and malty at first but the hops really kick in giving you a very bitter finish. It is a tasty but a bit overwhelming so I am still unsure of what to make of it. I like the maltiness of it but found that the extreme difference between the tame beginning of the sip to the really hoppy finish a bit difficult to appreciate. Fans of APA's in general would probably appreciate this harvest ale more than I did but it is still a pretty tasty brew, although I am not sure I would go out of my way to find it. At 7% alcohol it is quite strong, but I would not consider it to be too dangerous as I would be hard pressed to have more than 1 or 2 pints in a sitting.
It's available on draught throughout Ontario as well as at the Beer Store and LCBO, you can also get it at their brewery but it is only sold from September to November each year.
Rating: 3 Steins
What you need to know
Brewery
1964 Muskoka Beach Road
Bracebridge, ON
P1L1V4
Website
http://www.muskokabrewery.com
Twitter
@MuskokaBrewery
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/muskokabrewery?fref=ts
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