Autumn Beers

I don't drink much beer in the summer. I prefer darker, fuller-flavoured beers, and those kinds of beers are more appealing to me in the cooler months. So, recently, when the skies turned grey and the temperatures dropped, I visited the LCBO looking for beers I hadn't tried before. I came up with four – all from small Ontario breweries.

Crazy Canuck Pale Ale (5.2%, $2.50 for a 473 ml can) from Great Lakes Brewery in Toronto was a real surprise. The packaging suggests a cheaply made "hockey" beer, but promises a "west coast pale ale", and it certainly delivers. Unlike, say Okanagan Springs Pale Ale, which you can find at your local pub, Crazy Canuck has a pronounced hop aroma backed up by plenty of citrusy hop flavour. The colour is amber with a dense white head. There's some sweet maltiness there in the middle, but the hop bitterness dominates the finish. This beer would go great with sausage or pepperoni pizza. A great price for a beer of this quality.

The second beer I tried was a disappointment. I really wanted to like Muskoka Harvest Ale (6.2%, $8.95 for a 750 ml bottle) from Muskoka Cottage Brewery in Bracebridge; their Muskoka Cream Ale is a long-time favourite. Harvest Ale comes in an attractively labelled, swing-top bottle. The brew is copper-coloured, with a beige, creamy head. It's very bitter, but there's little or no hop aroma and only a hint of caramel in the malty body. Not a bad beer, but not a great one, and not worth the price. I enjoy a bitter beer, but I look for balance with the sweetness of the malt. Harvest Ale is just too bitter and unbalanced for me.

The next two beers were very different from the first two. Here malt dominated, with little detectable hop aroma or bitterness, but that's characteristic of their styles. Black Creek Porter (5%, $3.55 for a 500 ml bottle) is brewed by Black Creek Historic Brewery, located in the famous Black Creek Pioneer Village in northwest Toronto. Porter is a dark ale, favoured by the porters of 18^th century London (hence its name), and the ancestor of the better known "stout porter", aka, stout. The use of some roasted, but unmalted, barley gives the beer its mild bitterness and coffee flavour, as well as its dark chestnut colour. The head is modest and beige-coloured. This is a very sippable and satisfying beer, and my favourite of the four I tried.

Like porter, stouts employ roasted barley to create a dark, nearly black beer with a tan-coloured head and coffee bitterness in the taste. But Trafalgar Smoked Oatmeal Stout (5%, $4.95 for a 650 ml bottle) from Trafalgar Ales and Meads in Oakville throws a double twist into the classic stout recipe. The addition of oatmeal creates a sweet stout with a silky mouthfeel, while the use of smoked malt provides a distinct smoky flavour. It's a little like taking a bite out of a campfire and it won't be to everyone's taste. I suspect though, that the combination of sweet and smoke would make this beer a great combination with barbequed ribs.

Not every LCBO stocks all these beers, but you can search the LCBO website for availability. Next month: boozy coffees to ward off winter's chill.

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