Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Clocktower Brew Pub Wishart's ESB

Clocktower Brew Pub are a prominent chain of Brew Pubs in Ottawa, as a matter of fact there are 4 of them around town.  Readers may wonder why I have yet to review any of their beers given that they are so prominent here in Ottawa.  The answer is that every time I have tried their beers I have found that the quality has ranged from bad to average so I struggle to bring myself to one of their pubs.  Regardless of my lukewarm opinion of their beers I found myself in the Westboro location with my girlfriend.  Of their 5 beers the ESB seemed the most appealing as ESB is my favourite beer type and unfortunately their beer still needs work.

Wishart's ESB is indeed a standard ESB style beer.  The pour looked a very promising malty brown with very little in the way of head.  Unfortunately the opening of the beer lets down the side a bit, it starts of being way to watery for a proper ESB.  This does progress into a pretty decent malty middle bit that is punctuated with a bitter punch that is quite surprising given the rest of the beer.  Unfortunately this bitter punch makes the beer seem really unbalanced, the watery beginning and bitter end makes it hard to appreciate.  Most ESB's are fairly complicated but this one is pretty simple, which was a bit disappointing.  Regardless of the balance issues this is actually a decent beer.  It is not pretentious and it is nice and drinkable, I just feel as though it needs refinement. 

It's available at the 4 Ottawa brewpubs in the Glebe, Byward Market, New Edinburgh and Westboro. 

Rating: 3 Steins

What you need to know
Website:
http://clocktower.ca/

Twitter:
@The_clocktower




 

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Whitewater Brewery Midnight Stout

One great thing about the rise of microbrew is that you often stumble across breweries that you had never heard of who brew in towns that you have also never heard of.   This is the case with Whitewater Brewery out of Forester's Falls, Ontario.  According to google maps Foresters Falls is on the Ottawa river, somewhere between Renfrew and Pembroke, and seemingly not really near anything other than rocks, trees, and good places to Kayak, which explains the presence of a lot of kayak and tree imagery on their website.  Remote brewing location aside, I happened to stumble across their beer at the Black Tomato restaurant in Ottawa and so had to give their Midnight Stout, an Oatmeal Milk stout a try.

People who read this blog regularly will know that I love a good stout, particularly a good oatmeal stout so I was really excited to give this one a try.  I had it on draught and it pours a nice black colour with a good balanced head.  My first impression was of how creamy it is, you really get a sense of the thick, milky flavour to it.  A lot of stouts can be a bit bitter but this one is not like that at all, it is one of the smoothest and creamiest stouts I have had.  When you first take a sip you get a slight smoky intro, which is subtle but really nice.  This smokiness leads into a brilliant smooth and chocolaty middle section that trails off into that excellent creamy finish.  To say that I was impressed was an understatement.  Stout is a tricky beer type to master and it often ends up being quite watery, but Whitewater have done a great job here.  If you like stout I would strongly recommend it.

It is available at a selection of pubs and restaurants in the Ottawa valley, including a few in Ottawa itself as well as at the brewery. They also do home delivery to folks in the following towns: Beachburg, Burnstown, Chalk River, Cobden, Deep River, Eganville, Foresters Falls, Pembroke, Petawawa, or Renfew but when I met their owner at the Winterbrewed festival in Ottawa last weekend they mentioned that they are hoping to be able to expand their range soon.  

Rating: 4.5 Steins. 

What you need to know:

Brewery:
22 Fletcher Road
Foresters Falls, ON
K0J 1V0

Website: 
whitewaterbeer.com/ 

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

Twitter
@Whitewaterbrew

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Benelux: Hutchison ESB

As someone who is from Quebec but lives in Ontario, it is always neat to return and try the microbrew in my native province.  Traditionally la belle province has been a place that to find a lot of interesting Belgian style beers but recently we have seen a rise in the popularity of English style beers coming from Quebec.  Benelux (as the name suggests) is a brewpub that specializes in beer styles of the low countries, so I was surprised to see an English style ESB on tap when I popped in there to kill some time.  In terms of brewpubs in Montreal, Benelux is one of the best so I was very interested to see how they would handle the art of English beer.

As the name suggests Hutchison is an ESB.  For the uninitiated ESB, or Extra Special Bitter, is traditionally the strongest and hoppiest of the bitters with the commercial gold standard being Fuller's ESB from England.  I will start by saying that Hutchison is a good example of an English style ESB, but one that could use some work.  It has a very nice balance with a decent amount of maltiness.  Interestingly for an ESB it starts with a slightly sweet taste before progressing to the malty and bitter middle.  This middle maltiness is actually a bit tame compared to most ESB's, I was expecting more to be honest.  The sip finishes with a very smooth and enjoyable finish, a sort nice little touch down from the bitter high's of the sip's middle.  Unfortunately though it doesn't quite have the complexity and flavour of a top ESB such as Propeller or Fuller's but it is still a very nice beer.  If the maltiness was more pronouced then I think that this could be an excellent beer but as it stands now it is not quite as good as it could be.  Still a very good beer though.

It's available at their two brewpubs in Montreal, the first one is on Sherbrooke St. W near Place des Arts and the second is in Verdun. 

Rating: 3.5 Steins

What you need to know
Brewpubs
245 Sherbrooke St. West
Montreal Qc,
H2X 1X7

4026 Wellington St.
Verdun Qc,
H4G 1V3

Website:
http://www.brasseriebenelux.com/

Facebook:
http://www.brasseriebenelux.com/

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Flying Monkeys Amber Ale

Flying Monkeys are an ecelctic brewery.  Awesome name aside they tend to make brews that are loaded up with hops and have a million percent alcohol so I was surprised when I popped into the beer store to see that they have made a beer that is more geared towards the masses of beer drinkers as opposed to fans of uber hoppy beers.  As this was a new beer I hadn't tried I felt it was my moral obligation to pick up a six pack and give it a try, and it was a very interesting experience. 

Given flying monkeys history with hops I was expecting a very malty and hoppy amber ale but it really isn't.  It's actually quite sweet and floral with only a light dusting of hops, although true to flying monkey form this is quite a unique brew.   When you take a sip the first thing you notice is how sweet the opening is.  This intro is where the fruity floral taste comes in, as the sip progresses it mellos out into a smooth and slightly bland middle before finishing with a slightyly sour and hoppy finish.  This sour finish is very odd for an amber, it is something that would be more at home in a wheat beer than an amber.  Unfortunately this sourness seems a bit out of place and the fruity floral intro seems out of tune with the rest of the beer.  It seems as though Flying Monkey's amber is a mishmash of styles that makes it hard to fully enjoy.   It is smooth enough to be a good session beer, and it is has the complexities of a wheat beer, but the colour and consistency of a traditional amber ale.  As a result I wasn't overly convinced by it.  It is certainly complex, but it could benfit a bit from the old KISS theory (Keep It Simple Stupid).  I salute Flying Monkey's for giving this a go, but I feel as though they need to work on this in order to make into my regular rotation.

It is available at the beer store and LCBO in Ontario as well as at their brewery store in Barrie.  Their website was unavailable at the time of writing, so I am not able to tell you if and where it is available on draught, but Flying Monkey's are often seen at pubs throughout Ontario, especially the  GTA.

Rating: 3 Steins

What you need to know
Website:
http://www.theflyingmonkeys.ca/

Brewery Address:
107 Dunlop St E 
Barrie, ON, L4M 1A6

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Flying-Monkeys-Craft-Brewery/108949405799023 

Twitter:
@flyingmonkeys