Well Preserved

My Christmas errands brought me to the LCBO (our Provincially-run liqour stores) and a quick rummage through the beer selection offered a few memories of seasons past as well as a few choices I hadn`t seen before.  Here`s some of the bottle`s we`ve tasted this season:

Barley Days Cherry Porter (5.5%, Picton, Ontario)
The cherry takes a backseat in this bottle; I`m not sure I would have picked it out in a blind tasting.  It`s on the sweeter side for a porter and is an easy drinking dark beer.  I think those who adore porter may call this a little tame but it is an easy drinking beer that could be drank year-around.

Dieu Du Ciel Corne Du Diable (God of the Sky Brewery, Hor of the Devil Beer, 6.5%, Montreal, Quebec)
Quebec has long roots in Religion – many Craft Brewers have reference to Religion, Folklore and such traditions.  This hard-hitting IPA is alcohol-forward and plenty bitter.  It was my favorite beer of the Holidays (so far).  It pours a beautiful dark-amber, it`s head is perfectly balanced and the beer is crisp and refreshing.  Considering the Holidays is a time when we eat a lot of vastly different flavours, it`s a treat to have a single taste that`s strong enough to cut through the different cheeses, snacks and feats we share while still leaving your palate in tact for the next taste.  This beer does just that.z

Brooklyn Brewery Double Black Chocolate Stout (10%, Brooklyn, New York)
This is a return to out fridge.  It screams dessert.  I love pairing this with parmesan dipped in chocolate.  It tastes of molasses or chocolate and is just a fantastic winter beer.  It`s an adult alternative to hot chocolate and also pairs fantastically well with a comfy sweater.

Russian Gun Imperial Stout (8.4%, Cambridge, Ontario)
Russian Stout tends to be heavily boozy.  Despite the high ABV, this stout was smooth to drink with no surprise finish (I find the boozy stouts can take your breath away a few seconds after a large gulp).  This was super-easy to drink and the only criticism I can think of is that purists may find it a little too tame to fit into this style.  This is a great beer to introduce people into darker and higher alcohol beers.  I quite enjoyed it.

Meantime Coffee Porter (6%, London, England)
This is the cutest bottle that exists.  It just makes the contents feel special.  Meantime is a very cool beer maker – consider that their coffee porter has won `Top 50 beer in the World` several times over and that they have an exclusive beer club that`s open to only 500 members.  Each of the members of the College Beer Club gets 2-750 ml bottles of rare beer sent to them each month for the low-cost of about $800 per year.  Meantime won brewer of the year in England in 2008.  Their coffee porter is a light-tasting porter with a heavy coffee influence – each bottle contains the same caffeine as a cup of coffee.  It`s a pleasant drinking dinner beer that was lovely with our turkey dinner.

Southern Tier IPA (7.3%, Lakewood, New York)
I love IPA.  If there`s one thing that the traditionally bitter ales labelled as IPA suffer from it`s that the style has become so interpretive that it`s tough to truly guess what the contents of a bottle may taste like.  Higher alcohol can dull the flavour of a beverage so those with high booze content tend to have amped-up flavours.  This beer is no exception – it`s very bitter and it`s taste turns the corner to taste almost like a spruce tree blended with citrus fruit.  It`s an interesting combination that I didn`t adore (though I found it easy to drink) and Dana`s mother loved.