Heineken

Brewed by: Heineken Brouwerijen
Brewed at: Amsterdam, Holland
Type: Lager
5% A/V

First Impression
Heineken brews beer too! I thought Heineken was an international sports sponsorship group... But beer eh? Let's have a go! The container looks nice. I was right! There's a "Munich Final 2012" logo on the back of the can.

First Sip
A true easy drinking lager from Holland! Gentle malt sweetness with a touch of bitterness to keep it honest. This is turning out to be a novel and delicious way to promote international soccer!

Halfway
Tastes a heck of a lot like beer, no doubt it's a popular one, might even be as popular as soccer with any luck!

Bottoms Up
Aside from my four-year old on a saturday morning I won't be watching soccer any time soon. But I'd certainly welcome the offer of a Heineken any day! Easy drinking, great on a hot day, ticks all the boxes for a nice enjoyable beer!

77/100

Stella Artois

Brewed by: InBev Belgium
Brewed at: Brussels, Belgium
Type: Lager
5.0% A/V

First Impression
Stella Artois. Brewed in Belgium since 1366! A very appealing presentation, bottled in green glass with a regal looking paper label. In a clear glass drinking vessel this beer is every milliliter a classic European lager. Golden hued, bond white head and a crisp effervescence.

First Sip
As cold as this one was, the fragrance of a true Belgian lager was yet unmistakeable. Precisely balanced hop bitterness and malt sweetness combined lightly, almost delicately to make a really refreshing beer.

Halfway
Solidly reliable, good overall quality, just not terribly adventurous. Which depending on what your tastes are, this might be a good or bad thing.

Bottoms Up
Not adventurous, but that is not to say dull necessarily... Stella Artois is pleasant enough. Satisfying and refreshing, it is a very popular beer for good reason.

79/100

Crazy Canuck

Brewed by: Great Lakes Brewery
Brewed at: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Pale Ale
5.2% A/V

First Impression
Crazy Canuck couldn't appear more cheezy if it came with a pair of snowshoes. The label has maple leaves, a loon and the quintessential Canadian winter headdress; a toque.
Despite the caricature label Crazy Canuck brings its "Eh-Game" once opened! Terrific floral hop aroma, luxuriant head and a bold haze indicate this pale ale is done fooling around...

First Sip
An incredible presentation of hops, and a strong clean bitterness make this a truly entertaining pale ale! Deeply delicious and somehow still refreshing!

Halfway
A quality product always maintains a high level of performance. This is no different! Crazy Canuck is definitely good stuff!

Bottoms Up
Crazy Canuck is one of those beers that rather than calling on hops to add something to the beer, itself becomes an homage to the brilliant palate of flavor hops can produce. Crazy Canuck is not one for those who prefer their beer to come with a t-shirt or tasting like lime or iced tea. Crazy Canuck is for those hale and hearty souls who appreciate hand-crafted quality ale.
91/100

Faxe Premium Lager

Brewed by: Royal Unibrew
Brewed at: Faxe, Denmark
Type: Lager
5% A/V

First Impression
A handsome enough can. No mistaking it for anything else. The graphics are pure "beer label". A great gold colored beer, with a head that seemed to disappear as fast as the girls I went to high school with used to...

First Sip
The typical sort of German or Pilsner hoppiness only better! A satisfying concoction of malted barley and hops.

Halfway
The sharp hop bitterness characteristic of other European lagers is making an appearance halfway through this beverage. A nice sweet undertone. As good as about any of a dozen or so other lagers from Germany, Czech Republic, et al. Not terribly inspired.

Bottoms Up
A reasonably decent beer. Definitely not awful. Not really distinctive either however. Faxe just Sort of blended in with the European crowd without making too much of a fuss. Not that that's a bad thing for a beer to do...

77/100

Mill Street Organic Lager

Brewed by: Mill Street Brewery
Brewed at: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Lager
4.2% A/V

First Impression
Snazzy! Clear glass with a minimalist label and classic lift-top. Very yellow...

First Sip
Just a tad sweet, light malt and hops combine for a very enjoyable opening act.

Halfway
This is a terrific organic beer! Really refreshing, Mill Street Organic is a wonderfully grounded, everyday beer.

Bottoms Up
Give this one a try! Even if "organic" isn't your thing, yet you enjoy beer there really isn't much to complain about with this one. Every bit as drinkable as your favorite light lager, the slightly lower alcohol content and laid back attitude of Mill Street Organic make it an all around winner.
92/100

Kaiser

Brewed by: Brau Union Österreich AG
Brewed at: Linz, Austria
Type: Lager I suppose...
5%A/V

First Impression
A proud looking can. Abundant with what presume to be Austrian text, my hopes for a razor sharp Euro-style lager are piqued.

First Sip
Bitter? Yep. Hoppy? Indeed. Disappointing somehow? Oddly yes but I can't really put my finger on why...

Halfway
My earlier disappointment has faded. This is looking very much like a reliable pilsner style beer. Think multipurpose...

Bottoms Up
This review was conducted at my top-secret lager assessment facility located deep in the Ontario cottage country. The beer itself went very well with the bright sunshine, the gentle breeze and the sounds of floating golf balls been driven into a lake from a dock.

71/100

Muskoka Craft Lager

Brewed by: Muskoka Brewery
Brewed at: Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada
Type: Lager
5% A/V

First Impression
Muskoka is one of those breweries that I've come to expect good things from. Craft Lager eh? Let's have a go...

First Sip
Fantastic! Craft Lager has that fresh bread quality that is occasionally found in the best, freshest beer available.

Halfway
Great balance, hops, malts, everyone pulling together for a fantastic outcome.

Bottoms Up
Muskoka Brewery does indeed craft a wonderful Craft Lager. Malty, with just the right level of hop accompaniment, Craft Lager manages to be refreshing, flavour forward and easy drinking.

87/100

Dead Elephant India Pale Ale

Brewed by: Railway City Brewing Co.
Brewed at: St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada
Type: India Pale Ale
6.5% A/V

First Impression
Named due to the infamous death of P.T. Barnum's famed Jumbo in the same town where this beer is brewed. A cool looking can.

First Sip
Whoa! Hoppy times ahead! Full hop flavours, nice clean bitterness. Giddy up Jumbo!

Halfway
Loaded with flavour. This beer is living up to it's namesake.

Bottoms Up
A full bodied, powerfully hopped brew , Dead Elephant will please beer drinkers who prefer the big burly beers. The name is more than a local coincidence.

79/100

Ambre de la Chaudière

Brewed by: Mill Street Brewery
Brewed at: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Traditional French Style Ale
7% A/V

First Impressions
Looks like Mill Street might be stepping out of their element with this one. A strong, Farmhouse style originating from northern France...
This could be very interesting!

First Sip
Oh yeah! Me likey! Low effervescence, yet rich with a complexity of flavours. Dried peaches come to mind! Fun, fun!

Halfway
A wonderful traditional style, executed just on the friendly side of perfect.

Bottoms Up
Mill Street Brewery must be staffed strictly by Mensa members. This beer and so many others are amazing. But this one is very good a far as I'm concerned and since this is strictly an exercise in me pronouncing my opinion; this is a great beer. Not at all like most main stream beers, Ambre de la Chaudière is flat and tastes unlike anything which might be sold in more than two countries. What it represents though is a centuries old technique of turning grain and water into something more marvellous than bread.

99/100

Paulaner Hefe-Weizen

Brewed by: Paulaner Brauerei GmbH
Brewed at: München, Germany
Type: Wheat Beer
5.5% A/V

First Impression
I've never seen so many people on a beer label. Quick head count... 18 human likenesses on this bottle. Plus it's German. So it must be good.

First Sip
Boy howdy! This is a nice wheat beer or weiss bier as the manufacturer refers to it.

Halfway
Truly enjoyable. I'm detecting a hint of sweet banana. Odd but nice.

Bottoms Up
Eighteen people on the label could hardly be wrong! One of the nicest unadulterated wheat beers out there.

91/100

Muskoka Cream Ale

Brewed by: Muskoka Brewery
Brewed at: Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada
Type: Cream Ale
5% A/V

First Impression
This Cream Ale has a heck of an act to follow, given the fact that I had sampled the very well made Mad Tom IPA from Muskoka just recently. The colour of this beer looks great, medium to dark amber, slightly beige head, with a great fragrant quality.

First Sip
I have to say they're telling the truth on the back of the can! Nice hops and and Anglo-pub smoothness to boot!

Halfway
I'm finding a little back palate bitterness here that isn't exactly my cup of tea. Not horribly offensive or anything, just not me...

Bottoms Up
The kindly people busily making beer in Bracebridge, Ontario have nothing to hang their heads over with this one. Cream Ale is another winner for Muskoka Brewery.

82/100

Ghosttown Stout

Brewed by: Brasseur de Montreal
Brewed at: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Type: Flavoured Stout
6.6%A/V

First Impression
Scary. Ominous eyes peer out from the upper third of the label. "absinthe natural flavour" WTF?! Doesn't absinthe make you go blind or something?

First Sip
Looks truly like a stout and smells deliciously of rich dark malts... but with an unmistakeable underlying quality that I can only presume is the call of the absinthe. Delicious!

Halfway
Awesome. Bold, black, beautiful beverage.

Bottoms Up
This beer is a hardcore delight. Stouts can be smooth and easygoing or savage flavour bombs enjoying nothing more than to eviscerate your expectations and reawaken your sense of what "possible" means. Ghosttown falls very much in the latter camp. I love it. And I can still see!
97/100

Mill Street Lemon Tea Beer

Brewed by: Mill Street Brewery
Brewed at: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Flavoured Wheat Beer
5%A/V

First Impression
Still traumatized from my run in with both Great Lakes Breweries Green Tea Beer and Coor's Light Iced T, I'm dreading what may lie ahead. The most attractive packaging of the trio of those tea related beers, Mill Street does little else to allay my fear.

First Sip
Okay. Not the abysmal disappointment that accompanied earlier forays into this peculiar beer motif.

Halfway
I can with the utmost confidence state without qualification, I don't like tea beer.

Bottoms Up
Clearly not my favorite type of beer. However this is the best of what I consider a bad bunch.

46/100

Walker's Blueberry Wheat

Brewed by: Mill Street Brewery
Brewed at: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Fruit Flavoured wheat beer
5% A/V

First Impressions
Mill Street does a great job of keeping their packaging fairly unique to each product. A standard brown glass bottle with a blue label... Poured in a glass the redness of the berries is clearly evident and a heavy touch of haze to represent the wheat beer base.

First Sip
Subtle for a fruit beer. Blueberries are probably one of the calmer, subtler forest dwelling berries out there so this makes sense.

Halfway
Not terrible. Drinkable. Not as blueberryish as you might expect.

Bottoms Up
Yeah, drinkable for sure. The pinkish reddish colour could lead you to expect a sweet and fruity drink. It's not really that sweet and frankly not terribly fruity either.

58/100

Black Creek Pale Ale

Brewed by: Black Creek Historic Brewery
Brewed at: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Pale Ale
5%A/V

First Impressions
The labels from Black Creek Brewery don't deviate very much. This could be a good sign as they tend to spend most of their time working on their beers and not their labels...

First Sip
Wow! The evergreen fragrance of the hops and even the aroma of malt are powerful enough to indicate what's in store. An antique copper color with the authentic haziness make it look like a real good pale ale... A little less flavorful than I prefer pale ales to be, with the unapologetic booming bitterness I've come to expect from Black Creek.

Halfway
Losing my enthusiasm at this point. Bitterness is holding strong but not a heck of a lot else happening.

Bottoms Up
The last couple of mouthfuls told a great story about how much beer can change with only a few degrees fluctuation in temperature. Too cold earlier, just right at the end. A classic pale ale.

80/100

Coors Light Iced T

Brewed by: Coors Brewing Company
Brewed at: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Beer pretending to be something else... Or was it the other way 'round?
4%A/V

First Impression
It's about time they made it taste like something...

First Sip
Oh lord.

Halfway
This was a bad idea.

Bottoms Up
I'm certain there are legions of non-beer drinkers who'd prefer this to beer. Beer aficionados should avoid this. Choose regular Coor's Light if given the choice.

1/100

Green Tea Ale

Brewed by: Great Lakes Brewery
Brewed at: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Type: Novelty Ale
4.2% A/V

First Impression
The font used on this label could be called 70's Kung Fu. A big brown bottle with a painted label like most others from Great Lakes Brewery. In a drinking vessel it's definitely cloudy. I must confess that I'm harbouring a certain degree of apprehension toward sampling this beer. It's just that imagining the combination of green tea and beer is not something that is conjuring a pleasant outcome.

First Sip
True to Great Lakes Brewing precedents, the unmistakable flavour is that of cold brewed green tea. Also it reminds one somehow of beer...

Halfway
If I'm honest, this is very hard to get used to. The flavours are thin, the beer has a wateriness to it.

Bottoms Up
The label says that it pairs well with Pad Thai. Perhaps it does but in the words of Jules Winnfield "Hey, sewer rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'd never know 'cause I wouldn't eat the filthy m..."
Not overly impressed. If you're intrigued get it while you can, it can't be available for long...

32/100

Bucanero Fuerte

Brewed by: Cerveceria Bucanero S.A.
Brewed at: Holguin, Cuba
Type: Stronger Cuban Beer
5.4%A/V

First Impression
The "Bucanero" packaging reminds me of a fun park roller coaster pirate theme. I feel like I'm going to get beaten up for my unkind words toward Bucanero's little sister Mayabe...
Slightly darker than the other Cuban I've reviewed.

First Sip
Egads. I am not a fan of the products of Cerveceria Bucanero.

Halfway
Not finding the silver lining or even the face only a mother could love.

Bottoms Up
Bitterness is a hallmark flavour of beer, however bitterness is also a flavour generally associated with poisonous plants. The bitterness of well utilized hops is what we enjoy discovering in beer. In Bucanero though, the bitterness is more along the lines of something that makes one hope the brewer didn't accidentally use hemlock in lieu of hops in the brewing process. Not great.

4/100

Mayabe

Brewed by: Cerveceria Bucanero S.A.
Brewed at: Holguin, Cuba
Type: Light Beer
4%A/V

First Impression
A standard 355ml sized can. Not an overly creative design on the label. Cuban beer is not something I get to see (or drink) everyday... Pale, looking just as ordinary in a glass as it did in the can I suppose...

First Sip
Ugh. Bitter. Fizzy. Tastes like it was made by someone setting out to try to brew beer, but without really knowing what they were doing, but coming close nonetheless.

Halfway
I don't recall ever hearing great things about Cuban beer. Or anything about Cuban beer for that matter... I think I'm learning why. It's not good. A last this one isn't. Bitter. Fizzy. And with an unpleasantly bitter aftertaste. As a matter of fact I just now, accidentally spilled some and didn't really care.

Bottoms Up
Yes, you're welcome. Don't spend your money on this particular beverage. Cuban rum is good. Mayabe is not. Mayabe you'd be better off ordering a Mojito.

7/100

Samuel Adams New World Tripel

Brewed by: The Boston Beer Company
Brewed at: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Type: New World Tripel
10% A/V

First Impression
One of the most impressive packaging presentations in the world of beer! Corked like a bottle of bubbly, obviously no expense spared in making it look good. This bottle is so pretty I might keep it... In the garage... I like the bottle but I like my marriage more... Slightly hazy, intriguingly fragrant...

First Sip
Hello friend... Warm flavours, layers of yumminess. I'm learning a healthy and abundant respect for the true craft brewers of America.

Halfway
True beer lovers will enjoy this beer. I want to say that this is like a cedar and brass powerboat... But it's better than that... This is my time. Now piss off... No offense...

Bottoms Up
This is not a beer anyone would drink on a golf course. It is, on the other hand a beer you might conceivably spray your teammates with after winning a major professional sports championship. This is a brewing deity. Have I built it up too much? Get your hands on a bottle of New World Tripel and a large goblet or snifter, chill the bottle to fifty degrees fahrenheit, light a fire, grab yourself a quiet hour or two and you be the judge. I enjoyed it immensely... Thanks Sarge.
100/100

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

Brewed by: Bayerische Staatsbraurei
Brewed at: Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany
Type: Bavarian Style Wheat Beer
5.4% A/V

First Impression
"The World's Oldest Brewery" since 1040! That is amazing. There is no doubting the heritage of this bottle. It couldn't be more unmistakably German if it danced a polka out of the fridge wearing lederhosen and driving an immaculately engineered automobile at truly civilized speeds while singing boisterously in consonants.
Classic wheat beer cloudiness with a white dollop of meringue for head.
Lovely.

First Sip
A surprisingly mild wheat beer! Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier is a nicely drinkable sample of this old Bavarian style. Where generally this variety tends toward sourdough and yeast, this big kindly German is subtle and readily quaffable.

Bottoms Up
Easier, nay, much easier to drink than I had anticipated. This Bavarian darling lends itself to being swallowed down in long thirsty gulps. At 5.4% potency such behavior might make for a short evening at the kneipe! Easy now...
94/100