The Bar Towel

I tried this the other day at Cafe Volo. It is an excellent effort. The beer is light gold in colour and has a rich clean malt taste with some drying hop, it isn't sweetish or very spicy as some gardes are but is balanced. There is a "dry cereal" aftertaste which I find in a number of Ontario beers. Biere de garde is somewhat amorphous as a style, i.e., one finds them in all colours, filtered and non- (or lightly) and strengths. The Church Key version reminds me of the Trois Monts style: a strong filtered golden ale in the 7%+ abv range but not estery.

Well done, Church Key, and it it is good to see this style take root in Ontario.

Gary

Although Bière de Garde allows for some variation in colour and to some extent, strength, it does have a form (not amorphous). The main points that should be present in the beer is higher than average alcohol stregth, a malt driven flavour with a graininess often present, with a cellared quality. It should be malt forward as opposed to hop forward and be relatively clean in terms of the fermentation qualities - low esters, no diacetyl, low to moderate spiciness (phenolics).

I'm looking forward to having Churchkey's rendition. This is a first as far as I know in terms of commercial Bière de Garde in Ontario.

Although I have a personal bias for any Church Key creation, I want to say how much I enjoyed it.

And I supppose I am not the only one. While at Smokless on Friday (April 7, 2006) I ordered my second pint only to be told the keg had blown. That's one of those good and bad things. Nice to see people embracing new tatses, but bad because it was at my expense.

Also, before I made it in the door I found out that they had also run out of the 'Hop Addict'.

Finally tried this beer on the weekend at Beer Bistro. I didn't know what to expect but was pleasantly surprised. It is very subtle, yet very satisfying at the same time. Proves that a beer does not need to be bold to be good. I will definitely have this again, assuming it will be offered regularly.

p.s. followed up the Church Key with a Mill St. Helles Bock and finally a Scotch Irish Plain Porter. A great night to say the least.