Good Beers Recently Tasted

[old faithful]

I had some beers lately that particularly pleased, I thought I would mention them here, and if people like maybe they could give their own list of beers tasted recently they liked.

Amsterdam Dutch Amber - I had this on draft at Shopsy's on Front Street. Wasn't expecting much (since I am not a fan in general of Amsterdam's beers) but it was excellent: clean yet rich with a good caramel malt flavour and hops that provided the right steely undertone but were not flowery or clashing in any way with the malt. An excellent session beer which defines a fresh, natural local draft beer. It reminded me of certain ales I've had in Northern France.

Okocim Lager. This is the regular-strength one. It had a fine, malty yet dry taste with again a good hop backing of the non-flowery sort. I thought this beer unusually good and only after did I check the bottle: it was produced within the last month. The freshness really made a difference. I find Polish food tends to have a residual sweet quality. The dryness of this beer would go perfectly with that. Also, the beer reminded me of a vodka, in a way, as if you added a shot of vodka to a fine local craft lager.

Tankhouse Ale. This was a bottle I had at Smokeless. Just superb, with a fresh expressive West Coast hop character against a rich malt background. The carbonation was lower than I recalled when the beer first came out. This made it even better, I thought.

Alexander Keith's IPA: From a 12 ounce can pulled from the singles basket at an LCBO. I wasn't expecting much since in the past, the canned beer seemed over-pasteurised or otherwise wrong in some way. (I did always like though the draft and most bottled ones I've had). This one though was really good, it has that keynote Keith's pineapple-like estery quality against a rich, clean backing of malt and perhaps some adjunct. The taste is Canadian macro too, a little sugary, but withal excellent due to its balance and, well, good taste. My point is, at its best, this kind of beer is very good and worthy of our attention.

St. Peter's English Ale. This one was not cloudy or veiled. It had a very fresh taste of good biscuity malt with a decisive, astringent hop character. Not as obviously English as, say the canned 6X or Abbot, but more natural-tasting, I thought. A bottled version of a good local cask bitter.

Faxe lager. This is the regular one in the white can. This time, I checked the expiry date before buying. The way I interpreted the markings, it seemed this was brewed in the last 4 weeks. The taste was full, fresh, complex. It was the first time I've had it when I really liked it. I think the freshness factor really makes a difference. Looking at this through the other end of the telescope, I recall having bottled commercial Canadian beer in England about 10 years ago, it was imported and sold in various pubs there. It was simply off, too old, "rubbery". I think in the past, too many imports to our shores were not fresh enough. But that is changing.

Gary

[runes]

i MUCH preferred sleeman's IPA to keiths, and if it were available regularly would even consider putting it into regular rotation.

[old faithful]

I like Sleeman's IPA a lot myself. Where Keith's gets it right, in my view, is its marked estery nose and taste.

Gary

[Stomp Brockmore]

...

[Torontoblue]

I had some beers lately that particularly pleased, I thought I would mention them here, and if people like maybe they could give their own list of beers tasted recently they liked.

Alexander Keith's IPA: From a 12 ounce can pulled from the singles basket at an LCBO. I wasn't expecting much since in the past, the canned beer seemed over-pasteurised or otherwise wrong in some way. (I did always like though the draft and most bottled ones I've had). This one though was really good, it has that keynote Keith's pineapple-like estery quality against a rich, clean backing of malt and perhaps some adjunct. The taste is Canadian macro too, a little sugary, but withal excellent due to its balance and, well, good taste. My point is, at its best, this kind of beer is very good and worthy of our attention.

Gary

Gary, you praise Keith's yet say it includes 'perhaps some adjunct'. I'm sure it does - you show me a single quality brewer who uses adjuncts and I'll show my arse off the roof . A-B use rice as an adjunct in their filth - enough said. You then say the taste is 'Canadian macro' and 'a little sugary' !!

So let's get this right - it uses adjuncts, is too sugary and tastes like Labatts, yet you still claims it's 'worthy of our attention'?!?!? Pray tell.

Do you work for Keith's? I fear that all the adjuncts in these beers you've been trying have addled you brain and taste buds!

[SteelbackGuy]

Ok, I'll bite.

Gary, I read all of your reviews here, and found them all to be well written and informative. Well done.

But I do wonder about the Keith's review. I'm not questioning your palate or knowledge of beer, rather, I am wondering if it tastes any different than last time I tried it. It has been a while.

I get hazy where you say that it has perhaps some adjunct (which isn't always bad because a lot of good additions are considered adjuncts too), but the adjuncts in Keith's are probably rice/corn, which aren't good. Then you go on to say that it is worthy of our attention.

So I went out and bought a can today, and I am going to taste it this afternoon before I start hitting my belgians. I will post my thoughts here.

[old faithful]

I always feel I have to be honest in my assessments. This is a group of beers I've enjoyed lately. I don't include any to be provocative. Having enjoyed beer, and read up on it too, for many years, I feel I know what is good - for me, and I make comments based on that.

There may be some adjunct in Keith's, I am not sure. Not all macro beers use adjunct, Labatt's Classic does not, for example.

Many well-reputed beers around the world use some adjunct. Many Belgian beers do, beers that have the respect of many beer fans. Cask ales in the U.K. often have brewing sugars added, in the kettle or in the cask to add a final sparkle in the secondary.

Guinness uses unmalted barley, which is an adjunct.

I really feel that adjunct alone cannot invalidate a beer. I started drinking Canadian beer before the micro era started. I enjoy the Canadian (macro-style) taste at its best, but that extends to about 3 beers in the country, today. Keith's is one of them. I used to like Labatt IPA but it isn't made anymore. I like Labatt 50 too (on draft in this case) when very fresh, it suits some occasions.

Keith's has a true tang of top-fermented beer - many micro ales are in my opinion less authentic since they lack that estery feature that all good ales should have. It has a good, natural grainy taste and is a well-made product that deserves (I will reformulate ) my attention but I would suggest, with respect to all, that people not dismiss it out of hand, at least if you haven't tried it, or not for a while.

I can't see any contradiction in saying I enjoy Keith's IPA and, say, Tankhouse Ale equally: both achieve an excellent result in beer in different ways, just as, say a vinho verde is something rather different than a Mersault. Both are wine and both are (at their best) excellent, and ditto for the beer equivalents.

(I have no connection to the brewing industry in any way, I am a consumer of beer pure and simple).

Gary

[viggo]

Keith's tastes like a lager. Theres no way they're using a proper ale yeast.

[old faithful]

All Canadian ales are cold-conditioned, so they have hybrid characteristics of an ale and lager.

If Keith's uses a lager yeast (and I don't know), I am quite sure it ferments at ale-brewing temperatures.

No (traditional) lager I know has the kind of exotic, pineapple-like fruitiness Keith's has.

Gary

[Torontoblue]

All Canadian ales are cold-conditioned, so they have hybrid characteristics of an ale and lager.

If Keith's uses a lager yeast (and I don't know), I am quite sure it ferments at ale-brewing temperatures.

No (traditional) lager I know has the kind of exotic, pineapple-like fruitiness Keith's has.

Gary

So now Keith's is a lager and not an ale? AFAIK, Keith's is made with Saaz hops, that's the nose I got the one time I mistakenly drank it, hence the lager-lie qualities. And there was never a taste of Pineapples in there. Jeez, it's just a very poor lager to put along side Carling and Heinekin. Are you sure it was Keith's? Anyway, it's as far from an IPA as the Leafs are from winning the Stanley Cup.

[Derek]

I use to enjoy the John Labatt Classic, but unfortunately they discontinued it a little over a year ago. It was a fine product from a big macro. I'm not sure if there's any left?

I drank WAY too much Keiths IPA during University. I've never had the IPA from a can (only their red... and people think the IPA is bad!). On draft, the IPA isn't much different than 50. By the bottle, it does seem to have a little hop character. They're not continental noble hops though... a local North American blend (including cluster) would be my guess. They probably originally used hops from up-state New York (which was the largest hop region). I assume they use some adjuct sugar (as the age-old recipe would have used 6-row barley). That's all speculation though.

[JerCraigs]

...you show me a single quality brewer who uses adjuncts and I'll show my arse off the roof.

I hope its a low roof

Adjunct Using Examples:
Hooegarden (spice, curacao)
Rochefort, Westvleteren, Abbaye de Rocs (Candi sugar is technically an adjunct depending on how you define it)
Three Floyds - Dark Lord contains molasses
Southampton - uses white sugar/invert sugar in some of their British styles
Cest What Rye, Terrapin Rye - anything using grains that are not barley or wheat

From wikipedia (ok not the best source but its late and im tired okay!)
"Under the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot purity law it would be considered that an adjunct is any beer ingredient other than water, barley and hops; this, however, is an extreme view and is not standard."

Ok so you probably *meant* corn and rice.
Dogfishead (Liquor de Malt uses corn. OK so its actually gourmet maize)

Whats my point? aside from being a bit of dick arguing over semantics it was mostly that broad generalizations are ... well, too broad.

[old faithful]

I meant that the fruity esteriness of Keith's IPA is an ale trait. The beer also has the roundness of a lager, but I'd point out that many micro ales do too which are aged at cold temperatures and fermented in conical fermenters in which top-yeasts can behave like bottom ones. I am not a brewer but I understand that the temperature of a fermentation is the main element of whether it will have a fruity, ale-like taste. I don't know what kind of hops are used in it. Saaz is a classic Pilsener hop, no question. Saaz is also used in some ales, e.g. Westmalle Triple (with other hops). The ale vs. lager thing is not really where I meant to go with this. I just felt the beer was a satisfying, traditional taste of beer in the class it represents (Canadian sparkling ale - as for the IPA term, we have discussed that before, but even if its use is a stretch, I don't mind the designation, so many beer designations are used loosely or in a relative sense...).

Gary

[PRMason]

Every Unibroue beer has adjunct in it too. Its in keeping with the style of Belgian strong ales. Many U.K. brewers also use "brewing sugars" to make their ales, especially the strong ones. They also use caramel, know locally as "gravy browning" to adjust the colour of their pale ales. Fuller's for example uses this alll the time to ensure consistent colour.

[Bobbyok]

According to the brew tour (or so I've heard, I've never gone) Keith's is made with Goldings hops. The person who told me this, a local homebrewer, probed for further info by asking if they were East Kent Goldings and the person doing the tour promptly curled up into the fetal position. That or they said they didn't know. If the hops are coming across as Saaz perhaps it's Styrian Goldings they use.

It's widely rumoured that Keith's uses a lager yeast fermented warm. Given the predominant flavour (at least the one I pick up) in it, DMS, which typically comes across as cooked vegetables like corn, is typical of pale lagers, it would make sense that Keith's would be using a lager yeast. But, given that it's supposed to be an Ale (it does bear the IPA moniker), DMS is a flaw.

The other flavour that I pick up, a cidery/appley flavour, I would attribute to acetaldehyde, not pineapple esters that you describe. Acetaldehyde is an off-flavour that often shows up in beers that haven't been conditioned long enough, and can be diminished by more lagering time. Given that, as you also say Gary, Canadian Ales are cold-conditioned (lagered), if Keith's was conditioned long enough, this flavour wouldn't show up. The cidery flavour can also show up with the use of too much corn or cane sugar, so that's another potential source of it in Keith's, but again, it can be reduced by longer conditioning time. In any case, another flaw, whether lager, Canadian Ale, or IPA.

Feel free to like the stuff, but every flavour that shows up in Keith's I would attribute to brewing flaws, no matter what style you call it. If you like, fine, but given it's serious flaws, it's far from good and far from worthy of attention - even all the negative attention I give it when I respond like this. Which is more reason why I hate the stuff.