For this review I reached deep into the depths of the cellar and pulled out the oldest beer I’ve ever tasted, McAuslan Brewing’s St. Ambroise Vintage Ale 2011.
For some perspective, when this bottle was produced: planking was a thing, people said “winning” a lot and Donald Trump was on TV bossing around Jose Conseco, La Toya Jackson and Gary Busey.
St-Ambroise Vintage Ale 2011
At that time I was still blissfully ignorant of craft beer, quenching my thirst with macro swill and gin and tonics.
I picked up this bottle in 2013 when the Montreal brewery released a gift pack through the LCBO for the Christmas season. The box contained a bottle each of from 2011, 2012 and 2013 vintages. I intended to buy a new bottle each year, and one day do a side-by-side tasting to study how age affects the beer.
However, the 2014 and 2015 vintages never made to Ontario, and the trio languished in my cellar for two more years before I finally cracked the 2011 bottle for this review.
This beer is classified as a barley wine, which is a very strong English-style ale, and is brewed just once a year. Characterized by high alcohol content, many prefer to let barley wine rest for a year or more to smooth it out and calm any boozy heat that may be present in a fresh batch. Some say barley wine can be stored almost indefinitely, in a cool, dark place.
As it comes out of the bottle the half-decade old liquid looks a lot like apricot nectar. Some chucks of sediment loosened from the bottom of the bottle and, despite best efforts, a couple globs sneak into the glass at the tail end of the pour.
The beer smells wonderful. It’s very malty with bright, fruity and floral esters. There are also strong notes of grains, wood, caramel and brown sugar. The 10% alcohol can be detected with a mild sting that hits the nostrils.
The flavour is a very smooth, well integrated malty blend of fruits like figs and apricots with brown sugar and grains. This is very sweet, as close as a beer can get to liquid candy. It has a thick, chewy consistency that leaves a sticky upper lip after each satisfying sip.
This is a potent and indulgent brew, best enjoyed when you have nowhere to be anytime soon.
Statistics
Brewer: McAuslan Brewing
Location: 5080 St-Ambroise, Montreal, Quebec
Beer: St-Ambroise Vintage Ale (2011)
Style: Barley wine
Alcohol: 10% abv
Availability
Very limited. This beer has not been available in Ontario since 2013. New batches may arrive in the future. It can be found in Quebec.
Do you cellar any beer? What’s the oldest beer you’ve tasted?
Even if you weren’t there, by now you’ve may have heard that the inaugural Toronto Winter Brewfest didn’t go off without a hitch.
If you attended, you felt the pain. It stung your wallet early and often. Tickets were a dollar each. Most four ounce samples cost four tickets.
A buck an ounce. What?
That works out to $20 a pint or about 65% more than a beer inside the Rogers Centre.
Price was by far the biggest sore spot, but there were plenty of others. Almost as soon as it kicked off on Friday, complaints began flowing out of the Enercare Centre via social media about crowding, service, lineups, glassware, the venue and beer availability.
Best in show. The Gainsbourg setup before the attendance swelled.
The complaints continued on Saturday, and the throughout rest of the weekend about what was dubbed “Winter Screwfest.” (More reading here, here, here and all over social media.)
As a ticket holder for the Saturday night session, I followed the drama with some anxiety. Event representatives thanked critics for the feedback (read: flak) and vowed to remedy the situation where possible. My suggestion was ignored. Instead organizers grew the event space by 25% for Saturday and provided free bottles of water.
An excited winner at Toronto Winter Brewfest.
From what I can gather, the Friday session was a bit of a disaster, with equipment breakdowns reducing the availability of beer, large lines and a cramped space. Add the high beer prices to the mix and people were understandably upset.
Personally my experience on Saturday was great. I arrived around 5:30 and there was plenty of space, all the beers I wanted were available with minimal waiting. A lesson I’ve learned more than once: the early bird gets the beer.
The DJ at work.
As the evening wore on it did get increasingly crowded and kegs began to tap out. Even with 25% more floor space, walking from one end to the other started to feel like I was in a packed nightclub. As the crowd grew it got a little sloppy and I heard a lot of glasses shattering. I decided to hit the toad around 10 after ensuring there were no glass shards in my shoe.
Thankfully, I already had my fill.If I had arrived at 10, as many did, I would have probably left unsatisfied and frustrated.
There were some really good beers to be had. I was able to sample all of my top beer picks. My favorite of the night was Gainsboug’s Orange Tie Wrap. I sank 12 tickets into this complex saison-IPA hybrid to have my cup filled three times (including some generous pours from
Starting to get a little crowded.
the very knowledgeable server). It had a lot of lime and orange going on and a healthy dose of unmistakable Neslon Sauvin hops.
Another standout was Bilboquet’s MacKroken Flower, which is an indulgent 10.8% scotch ale brewed with wild flower honey. And Charelvoix’s Dominus Vobiscum Lupulus was a phenomenal blend of hops and fruity esters. I was lucky enough to get the last pour.
The good
Beer selection: From my experience, this was the biggest and best selection of Quebec and Ottawa brews ever offered on tap in Toronto.
Atmosphere: I like the venue, the interior/exterior brick wall on one side gives it an outdoorsy feel. I enjoyed the lighting, music and decor/fixtures. Also, having ample restrooms and drinking fountains is a big plus.
Pre-purchased tickets: I took the opportunity to buy food/drink tickets ahead of time online for a 20% discount. That means my overpriced beer samples only cost me just $3.20 apiece. This is a great idea I’d like to see at every beer event.
Roll-a-Ball: Anyone reeling from the prices could take a seat at this carnival game and try to turn a ticket into five.
Self-serve beer: This is a bit of a gimmick, although I do take much joy in pouring my own pint. The real value is that you could fill your 16 ounce glass up to the brim for 9 tickets. I didn’t try it, but that’s actually decent value.
Service: Specifically the generous server who — for a measly four tickets — dropped about 13 oz. of Beyond the Pale’s Govern Yourself Accordingly rye porter into my glass. It must have been my charm!
The bad
Beer selection: More stouts, big Belgians, barley wines, scotch ales please. This is Winter Brewfest. I could count the imperial stouts available on one hand.
Food: The wait for food was long and I wasn’t even there for the busiest hours. It cost $10 for a trio of two-bite fish tacos. They need more options and more quick-serve snack items. I should be able to get a soft pretzel with mustard at every beer event.
Service: On Friday there were reports of people getting stingy pours. I think this was remedied with some retraining for the Saturday session. Still, at these prices servers should have been instructed to be generous from the start.
The ugly
Prices: A buck an ounce! How dare you?
Crowding: The sheer amount of people there by around 10 hastened my exit. Had I arrived later, I wouldn’t have stayed long at all. Clearly, too many tickets were sold or maybe the event’s layout should have been designed better.
The takeaway
I think most shortcomings would have been forgiven if the beer prices weren’t so outrageous. Conversely if the event was executed better, people wouldn’t have complained about the price as much.
This was the first Toronto Winter Brewfest, so, I’ll give the organizers the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there were unforeseen circumstances that necessitated the high prices and/or overselling of tickets. That doesn’t make it right, but it is understandable. And for every complaint on social media, there are probably a dozen posts from people who had a blast at the event.
To me the beer selection alone made this worth attending. Such a wide selection of interesting brews from Quebec and Ottawa is hard to find in Toronto. Hopefully the people behind the event learn from this experience and return much improved in 2017.
Were you at the event? How was your experience? Would you attend again?
Toronto Winter Brewfest got my attention when I read that a bunch of Quebec breweries signed up to participate. Considering Quebec is our neighbour and home to some of Canada’s best microbrasseries, brews from the province are frustratingly hard to get in Ontario.
This will be the first time the organizers hold this event in Toronto, after operating in Ottawa and Gatineau.
Ahead of the event this weekend the organizers have released a list of the 130 beers available from about 50 Ontario and Quebec breweries.
There are a bunch of great beers available, but at events like this I always try to stick to beers that are hard to come by elsewhere.
Beer picks
After studying the beer list, these are the 5 beers I am most anxious to try for the first time. Lo and behold, they are all from la Belle Province.
Gainsbourg – Orange Tie-Wrap (Saison-IPA, 8%)
It’s hard to find any info about this beer, but from what I can tell this is a hybrid beer brewed with limes, fresh orange zest and Nelson Sauvin hops. I love Nelson Sauvin hops. This will surely be my first stop of the evening.
Gainsbourg – Côte Ouest – (IPA, 7%)
Several beers from this small Gatineau brewery look great. This is their west-coast IPA, triple dry hopped, can’t wait to give it a try.
Les Trois Mousquetaires – Sticke Alt (German Alt, 6%)
This established brewer from Brassard is great at putting a twist on classic styles. I’m expecting big things from their take on a German Alt, and I doubt I’ll be disappointed.
I love a scotch ale and this one sounds like a treat, as it’s brewed with wild flower honey. This might be a great one to have for dessert to end off the night.
Dieu du Ciel – Solstice d’Hiver (American Barley Wine, 10.5%)
I’ve heard great things about this beast from arguably the best brewery in Canada. At 10.5% this might be another candidate to cap off the night. Or maybe this will make a good second dessert.
Check back next week for a post about my experiences at the event.
Are you going this weekend? Which beers are you looking forward to tasting?
The first batch of this brew was released in 2014 and in the time since has risen to become the highest-rated beer Bellwoods has produced to date.
Bellwoods Brewery’s Skeleton Key
Weighing in at 12% alcohol this imperial stout is an ideal companion for a cold winter’s night. And as it happens, the second batch of Skeleton Key was released during the coldest week of the season, after spending a year resting inside rum barrels with some cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, all spice and peppercorns.
Having missed out on the initial batch, I would not be left out in the cold again and headed over to 124 Ossington Ave. to get my four-bottle allotment as temperatures dipped south of -25° C.
During my trip home the elements had naturally chilled both my bottles and bones, and as such, I got straight to work on this one.
Skeleton Key pours pitch black with a dense dark brown foam cap, reminiscent of a nice espresso.
I’d sum up the aroma like this: chocolate rum cake. Oak notes from the rum barrel are very present as are the spices, which evoke thoughts of some memorable encounters with spiced rum. You can also detect the alcohol content with a whiff.
Skeleton Key tastes like black forest cake with rum-soaked raisins instead of cherries. Lots of chocolate and dark fruit, such as figs and dates. And the alcohol provides a much needed warming sensation as it goes down. The spices are muted but give this beer a very unique, wintery character.
Physically the beer has a satisfyingly thick, heavy mouthfeel. It gets smoother as it warms and releases carbonation.
Skeleton Key has a long, lingering, rum-chocolate-spice finish that builds as I worked my way through the bottle.
This is a slow sipper that deserves to be savoured at your leisure. Here’s yet another standout and unique offering from Bellwoods Brewery.
I’ve heard that the first batch got a little smoother after year or so in the cellar, so I’ll probably drink one more this year and save the other two for next winter, if I can resist.
Very limited. A total of 1876 500 ml bottles released at the brewery’s bottle shop on Feb 12, 2016. You might find it on tap at a very select number of bars, including Bellwoods’ brewpub.
Lagers are usually the subject of ridicule among craft beer drinkers — often rightfully so — in a market so flooded with the bland, pale variety.
But a good lager can be refreshing, complex, satisfying and downright delicious.
The best ones traditionally come from Europe and often wash up on our shores well below their prime, after pasteurization and the long journey robs them of taste. Most North American lagers are mass produced with rice and other adjuncts to dilute the flavour of barley malt.
As such I am always on the lookout for local, fresh, unpasteurized lagers and had high hopes for Muddy York Brewing’s Gaslight Helles lager.
Since it was established 2013, Muddy York has focused classic beer styles. You won’t see coconut or cacao nibs listed on their ingredients lists. Muddy York boasts of taking a “less is more” approach to brewing. To me, that sounds like the perfect approach to make a great lager.
As I poured my bottle of Gaslight Helles into glass I knew this was going to be a winner as an appetizing aroma of sweet grassy malt wafted up to my nose and caught me off guard. This is no average lager.
Upon taking my first sip my enjoyment continued. The flavour follows the aroma with a delicately complex grainy malt presence dominating the palate with sweet grassy, almost lemony notes.
I did notice this beer is a little under carbonated. I think it would benefit from a few more bubbles, but it didn’t take away much from my enjoyment.
Gaslight Helles is seriously tasty and refreshing. It pairs well with just about any meal and would hit the spot on a summer afternoon, as a good lager should!
This will be the first time the organizers hold this event in Toronto, after operating in Ottawa and Gatineau.
beers to discover 