Gahan House's Honey Brown Ale

On our trip to PEI before the holidays I took the opportunity to purchase some beer from Gahan House, the island's microbrewery. Sir John A's (as in John A. MacDonald, Canada's first Prime Minister and a key player in the establishment of our 1867 Confederation which just so happened to having been signed in Charlottetown) Honey Wheat Ale is a great example of this sort of beer; light, slightly sweet with a pleasant roasted grain taste. In order to properly test the valour of this beer, I would have to have a taste test with Gahan House taking on Sleeman's variety of the same type of beer. In my opinion, the microbrewery's version should be better than Sleeman's mass produced variety. If it isn't, something's wrong. I'll keep you posted.

John A. in bronze on a bench in Charlottetown. Canada rocks!

Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA

When I worked at the Pump House brewery this summer, the brewer there was a great connoisseur of beers. He also loved things really hoppy. For those familiar with beer, it would come to no surprise that my brewer friend raved about Dogfish Head's 60 Minute IPA.

Now if you're used to mainstream beers, this would be like drinking liquified dandelion greens. But if you enjoy the taste of beer, as a wine drinker might, this beer is for you. I had to go to Ontario to find it but I was pleasantly surprised when I did find it (they also had the Japanese Asahi beer there).

Yes this beer is very hoppy and thus bitter. But the bitterness doesn't seem to linger. It washes away to leave you with a pleasantly light malty finish. Just remember, our tongues have four different zones: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. So go ahead, excite your palate.

St-Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale

St-Ambroise are arguably one of the best breweries in the nation. Their oatmeal stout is out of this world...liable to knock Guinness out of their fortified monopoly and establish a Canadian brewery as the world's best brewer of beers. But that's a stretch.

What I do know for sure is that the Apricot Wheat ale is steller. I wouldn't say that it's sweet like some other fruit bears can sometimes be. And the wheat part of the beer isn't too heavy and rich. The beer, I would say, is almost a bit dry, definitely refreshing, and only has a slight aftertaste of apricots; though I did find out the other night that the more you drink, the more you can taste the apricots...bonus!

If you find this beer on your liquor store shelves, buy it. Really good beer.

A Study in Belgian White Beers

Think I've had enough beer for one summer? Maybe I have. But what the hell. I mean beside German wheat beers, Belgian whites (or abbey beers) have to be one of the best types of beer in the world. Here then is my impression of 4 beers of this style which I tried and compared. The results attest to the fact that maybe I have been drinking too much beer. Such a thing happens when you start leaning towards the drinkability focused beers...but anyways...

Hoegarden

This beer wears its name properly. It's white compared to the lager-ish yellow of the other three beers. If you've never had Hoegarden before I highly recommend it. It tastes like a crisp wheat beer and when nice and cold, it's better than anything Labatt or Molson carry any day.

Leffe

The first thing I thought of when I took a sip of the Leffe was wheat beer. It certainly resembles the style but still has the lighter notes of a white. Of the four beers on selection today, this was was the heaviest. But still very good.

Stella Artois

Easily the most known and main stream of our little beer buffet, Stella is a beer I've been enjoying for a while. Though there are little to no wheat notes to this beer - thus divorcing it from other Belgian white beers in my opinion - Stella has a very crisp taste with a slight herbal and nutty finish. This is easily the more "drinkable" beer (drinkable defined as a beer to get plastered on) but it really is a great beer. Not incredibly original, but still very good when compared to any light beer. (Though they have released a light Stella recently....shame on them...succumbing to the masses).

Affligem

Last but not least, Affligem claims to be more of a blond than a white. Though blonds do tend to be sexier than snow heads, when it comes to beer I consider this one to be something in between the Leffe and the Stella. That is, it's light and crisp but still has the rich wheat flavours. The thing that distinguished the Affligem for me was a slight bitter finish which the other beers did not seem to have. All in all, a very respectable beer.