For this tasting, I enlisted the help of some of my fellow Turf students: Steve, Duncan, and Jeff. Their experience with craft beer ranges from none to very little, although one of them does like to do wine tastings (I'm sure there are transferrable skills, right?). It'll be interesting to see what they think of these beers, and what kind of aromas and flavours they're able to pick out. Most importantly, I hope I sway them over to the world of craft beers! Without further ado, let's move onto ...
Pale Ales
Most ales that were brewed before the mid-1600s ranged from either red to black in colour. The reason for this was that the process they used to kiln the malt before this point resulted in a more roasted, darker malt, and thus the colour and taste of the beer reflected that. Once they started using coke as a heat source to kiln the malt, they were able to produce a much lighter kilned malt, and thus: a "pale ale" (at least in comparison to the ales they had been brewing before). In actuality, most pale ples are light to dark copper in colour, as a result of the slightly toasty, nutty, and caramelly malts used to give them their signature malty flavours. But when it comes to pale ales, toasty sweet malts are only half of the story. Hops are featured fairly prominently in this style. They generally either completely balance or slightly outweigh the sweet malt with their bitterness, and also add a whole range of aromas and flavours including spicy, herbal, floral, citrus rinds (grapefruit / oranges), and even notes of pine resin. Traditional British pale ales (or "Bitters") are generally crisp and nutty, with a good dose of spicy and / or herbal hops. American pale ales - on the other hand - come from a country who loves to put the spotlight on hops in their beers. As a result, our pale ales are normally heavier and bolder in terms of hop flavours and aromas, with big citrusy and pine-like hops, as well as some floral hops as well. The malt profile is also slightly different from their British brethren, usually with more caramel and toffee in the flavour, and hints of raisin as well.
Tasting
Beer #1: Wellington S.P.A. (Special Pale Ale)
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| Wellington S.P.A. |
Being brewed by Wellington Brewery, this
Special Pale Ale is likely to be more of a traditional British style pale ale, as most of their main beers are in the style of traditional British beers. Upon pouring the beer, your nose is right away greeted with spicy, floral aromas, with a light note of citrus drifting somewhere in the background. Taking a sip, the flavour is of a nice toasty caramel maltiness, with a hint of spicy hop and a light bitterness on the palate briefly, but ends fairly clean and sweet. Among the four of us tasting the beer, we all agreed that it is a very smooth, enjoyable, tasty beer that's easy to drink (yes, even the guys who drink nothing but macro-brewed lagers quite enjoyed it!). Good, classic representation of the style, and a great beer overall.
Beer #2: Alexander Keith's Cascade Hop Ale
In an attempt to do something a little more "craft-like" than usual,
Alexander Keith's (owned by Anheuser-Busch) out of Halifax, Nova Scotia decided in 2013 to brew a "Hop Series" of ales, which are pale ales brewed with a single kind of hop. The idea behind these "single hop" ales is to help consumers to understand the different aromas and flavours that different kinds of hops bring to a beer. For a macro-brewery, this is a commendable move, as most big brand breweries are content just pumping out the same old watered down lagers for all eternity. This Cascade Hop Ale is brewed with - you guessed it - Cascade hops, which generally have floral, spicy, and citrusy characteristics.
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| Alexander Keith's Cascade Hop Ale |
Smelling the just-poured beer, the first thing you smell is grapefruit, with a slight note of pine resin in the background. As it sits in the glass a little bit, it starts to reveal a hint of dankness, as well as a tiny bit of an alcoholic smell. Despite the fairly big aromas, this beer is very lacking in the flavour department. It starts off almost slightly tart (like a tart apple juice), and then transitions to a light bready taste with a TINY bit of citrus and pine flavour in the background, almost non-existent. It ends very slightly bitter, and then quickly fades to a flavourless aftertaste. Overall, we all agreed that this beer smelled good, but didn't deliver in the flavour. It tasted generic and lacked any real hop flavour, or any real malt flavour to be honest.
Beer #3: Nickel Brook Ontario 'Wet Hop' Pale Ale
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| Freshly picked Guelph Bertwell Hops - Fall 2013 |
This next beer is brewed by
Nickel Brook Brewery, who started up in Burlington, Ontario in 2005, and have since grown to become a very well-respected craft brewery with a lot of great craft beers, including a Gluten Free Pale Ale. But the beer we'll be tasting is not gluten free. It is, however, brewed with 100% Ontario ingredients, including barley malt from
Canada Malting and Bertwell hops, which are Ontario's only native growing hops and are grown at Ignatius Farm in Guelph (
This is an interesting posting from a fellow blogger that talks about Bertwell hops). What makes this a "Wet Hop" pale ale is that the hops are taken fresh off of the vine and put immediately into the beer during brewing, whereas a lot of brewers use dried, pelletized hops. Although more hops have to be used to achieve the same amount of bitterness, flavour, and aroma, it is generally thought that you get a much fresher, brighter hop character to the beer by using this method. However "wet hopped" beers like this one are limited time only, and are only out at the harvest time for hops (end of the summer / early fall), so if you're intrigued by what you read about this beer ahead, run out to your local LCBO as quickly as possible and buy a bottle while it's still on the shelf.
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| Nickel Brook Ontario 'Wet Hop' Pale Ale |
The aroma of this beer is totally unique (in my experience anyways). Given that this is the first time I've had a "wet hopped" beer, as well as the first time I've tried a beer using Bertwell hops, it's unsurprising that I'm smelling aromas I've never smelled from a beer before. It smells VERY herbal, almost orange pekoe tea-like, with background notes of both flowers and spruce, and a light hint of citrus. The aromas are very fresh, leading me to believe that there is some credence to the belief that "fresh hops = fresh aromas". Drinking the beer, it is very smooth, with mellow herbal and floral tastes. The first swallow brings with it a good kick of spruce-like bitterness to the back of the tongue and throat, but this quality seems to mellow out with subsequent mouthfuls. Other than the smooth, mellow hop flavours, there is a nice light sweetness from the malts, though not really identifiable as being any certain flavour. Overall I thought the beer was great tasting and unique, and despite my worries that my fellow tasters would find it too "different" from what they're used to, they also agreed that is was a great beer (albeit, "not a beer you could drink all night").
Beer #4: Hop City Big Mouth Pale Ale
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| Hop City Big Mouth Pale Ale |
This next one,
Big Mouth Pale Ale, is brewed by
Hop City Brewing Co. in Brampton, Ontario. Hop City is an independently run off-shoot of Moosehead Breweries, and started up with only two guys in mid-to-late 2009. I've personally never had a Hop City beer before, so this will be a first for me. Smelling the beer, I get a little bit of a raisin-like caramel malt sweetness, and then a fruitiness that is almost like pomegranate (probably an estery by-pruduct of the yeast). Other than that, there's not much going on in terms of aroma, with no identifiable hop aromas really. Unfortunately, the flavour mostly follows suit. There is a light, toasty toffee flavour, a somewhat strange, slightly tart / tangy flavour, and then it ends with a hint of slightly spicy, earthy hops. Overall it's just a fairly boring beer, which is unfortunate, as this was my first beer from Hop City, and now I'm less inclined to come back. Two of my co-tasters agreed with me, while the third thought it was moderately enjoyable (majority rules though, this beer is largely a dud)... Onto the final beer!
Beer #5: Alexander Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale
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| Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale |
This beer is the second (and final) beer in Keith's "Hop Series" of ales, the Hallertauer Hop Ale. Hallertauer hops are German noble hops, which have high aromatic qualities, and contribute spicy and herbal qualities to a beer. After pouring the beer for my co-tasters and I, I dive in to my trusty snifter for a smell of this final beer of the evening. The aroma is of a light bit of spice (almost clove-like) and herbs, and then a light nutty, toasty maltiness. Overall the aroma is very light and delicate, and nothing really "jumps out" at you. The taste starts off with a little bit of toasty grain flavour, then to a slightly spicy hop bitterness, and then drops off into a watery aftertaste. Having had both this and the Cascade Ale before, I remembered liking this one a lot more than the other. Tonight, though, I feel like the Cascade at least delivered what it promised, if not a true-to-style pale ale, whereas
this just felt lacking in all fronts. Overall, myself and two of my co-tasters were underwhelmed with this beer, while the third co-taster (that same "black sheep" from the last beer) actually really enjoyed it (again, majority rules... sorry Duncan).
Conclusions and Rankings:
Sid's Rankings:
Jeff's Rankings:
1. Nickel Brook Ontario Pale Ale 1. Wellington S.P.A.
2. Wellington S.P.A. 2. Nickel Brook Ontario Pale Ale
3. Keith's Cascade Hop Ale 3. Keith's Cascade Hop Ale
4. Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale 4. Hop City Big Mouth Pale Ale
5. Hop City Big Mouth Pale Ale 5. Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale
Steve's Rankings: Duncan's Rankings:
1. Wellington S.P.A 1. Nickel Brook Ontario Pale Ale
2. Nickel Brook Ontario Pale Ale 2. Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale
3. Keith's Cascade Hop Ale 3. Hop City Big Mouth Pale Ale
4. Keith's Hallertauer Hop Ale 4. Wellington S.P.A.
5. Hop City Big Mouth Pale Ale 5. Keith's Cascade Hop Ale
So there you have it, a number of different pale ales with a number of different flavours and aromas. Some were nice surprises, while others I could have easily done without. All that aside though, it was definitely a lot of fun and really interesting doing a tasting with several people, and I think I'll try to do this more in the future. It really helps when tasting beer to have other people to bounce aroma and flavour descriptions off of, and a lot of the time they will help you to taste / smell things in a beer that you couldn't on your own. In my case, I'm glad most of these beers were so well received by all of these "non-craft beer drinkers", and all of them have volunteered to come out to my next tasting. Maybe I'm already well on my way to converting them to craft beer!!! Until next time...
Enjoy a craft brew!!!
- Sid Ryzebol -
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