Augustiin Blond

Country of Origin:  Belgium
Alcohol Content:  8%
Sequence:  First
Finished:  Yes
Vessel:  Glass by way of stubby

Back in December, the wife picked up this 6-pack of Belgian beers in stubby bottles. The lowest ABV of all of them was 8%! I decided that I should probably drink them and started with this one, and I’d work my way up over time.

There was absolutely NO English on the bottle, not even the word “beer”. That makes it kinda hard to judge what to expect before you open it.  I poured it out and it was a dark, cloudy yellow colour with a bit of junk in the bottom.  It smelled like sweet fruit and soap. Yes, another soap beer. It tasted much better. I’d put it somewhere between a strong blond and a weak saison. It still had a soap taste to it, but you get over that pretty quickly.

Good solid start to this pack, which took me forever to find on Untappd. Apparently it has been spelled 6 different ways.

Denison’s Weissbier

Country of Origin:  Canada
Alcohol Content:  5.4%
Sequence:  First
Finished:  Yes
Vessel:  Glass by way of can

Everything about this can screams German. The plain blue colour, the gold lettering, the font and the lack of logo. That’s what I thought when I grabbed it. I was shocked when I read the side and it said Brewed in Toronto. Say what?

Regardless, I wanted to drink it, so I poured it out into my wit bier glass. It came out a cloudy golden yellow and quite the head on it. It took a few minutes to settle, and when it did, there was lots of sediment on the bottom. I’ll take that as a good sign. It smelled sweet and wheaty.  It had a lot of grapefruit taste to it, which actually worked with the slight kick of hops you get in the booty.

This would be a great sippin’ beer on the patio or in the backyard in the middle of summer.

Hop City 8th Sin Dark Lager

Country of Origin: Canada
Alcohol Content:  5%
Sequence:  First
Finished:  Yes
Vessel:  Draught

One day last week, Pat and I met up at the Katana Kafe out by the airport to do some non-beer related business.  We sat, drank our beer, watched the planes take of and enjoyed a great lunch (I recommend the peameal and chicken club).

Pat was the first to arrive and was in the middle of watching his beer be poured. I remember seeing 8th Sin at Jack Astors over the summer, but they were out (I think) so I decided I wanted one too. It’s a good thing too, because the server had no idea how to pull beer from a tap. She sat the glass under the tap and opened it up. A geyser of head came flowing over the top of the glass. After I said I wanted one too, she said “Good, because this one won’t stop foaming. It’ll take a while to settle”. Huh? Whatever, just give me my beer sans head.

When it finally did settle, our food had just arrived. I started eating since I was more hungry than thirsty. But soon enough it was time for beer. It poured out very black with the aforementioned creamy head. It smelled sweet and malty, like a porter or a stout. It tasted fantastic; a little malty up front, but super smooth. It truly was a black lager, up there with Silversmith,  Walkerville and Forked River’s offerings.

Funny story… Mark was at a Knights game that same night and had dinner before and drank the exact same beer.  Spooky!

I did find it strange that it was from a brewery named HOP City, who has a number of very hoppy beers in their lineup. Strange, but wonderful. Can’t wait to get this in a can this weekend.

 

Nickel Brook Old Kentucky Bastard

Country of Origin:  Canada
Alcohol Content:  10%
Sequence:  Seventh
Finished:  Yes
Vessel:  Glass by way of bottle

It was a Saturday night and we had some fun drinking some beers, but there was time for one more. So what does Mark come upstairs with? a 10% imperial stout! Really? Before bed? After already drinking some big beers?

This poured out black with a small chocolate head and smelled harsh. Really harsh and boozy.  At first, it tasted pretty boozy too. As it warmed up, which I let it since I had slowed down a lot, it started to mellow out a bit. It took on more of a bourbon and vanilla flavour. And wood. It tasted like wood, if I can read my drunken notes correctly.

Mark thought it was a great beer from start to finish. It’s too bad that I had it after so many beers, I’m sure I would have liked it if I had it on its own. And that, my friends, is why I keep track of the sequence. Now I can go back if I want and try it again.   If Nickel Brook wants to hook me up with another bottle… that would be greatly appreciated!