Beer O'Clock: Your Pick

I have gotten so in the habit of ordering my beer online that I rarely step into an LCBO with the purpose of looking for new beer.

I really wasn't planning on doing it this past weekend, but DW and I were just coming out of Costco and when she noticed that there weren't many cars parked in the lot close to the neighbouring liquor store, she asked me to pull up.

"I've been wanting to pick up some St-Germaine for a while," she said.

For those of you who don't know, St-Germaine is an elderflower liqueur that tastes a lot like lychee. DW bought a couple of small bottles, last December, to give as Christmas gifts and she kept one for herself.

It was a tasty treat.

As the parking lot promised, the store was quiet. DW made her way to the spirits aisle and I headed straight for the back of the store, to the refrigerated section where the beer is kept.

As the sliding glass doors parted, I was immediately met with a display and sign that read "New Beer." This would be as far as I would go. Three brews, each from a different brewery, caught my eye. I grabbed one of the shopping baskets that were conveniently stacked by the entrance and loaded up two cans of each style.

Over the weekend, I tried a can of each beer and was pleased to discover that I liked all of them. They each had a distinct style and each were good examples of that style. I told myself that I'd be happy to write a review for any one of them.

The problem was, which one would I review first?

I left that decision to my Twitter followers. Yesterday, I posted a poll and asked my peeps which style of beer I should review next. The choices were IPA, maple ale, and sour. Because I needed enough time to crack the winning beer open, review it, and write this post, I allowed only a two-hour window for people to cast their votes.

Here's the beer that 85.7 percent of the pollsters chose:

Maple Beer (5% ABV)
Brew Microbrewery
Windsor, ON

Appearance: pours an unfiltered, medium gold with a creamy white head that settles to a solid, half-centimetre cap. Reddish-brown sediment, almost like dark sugar crystals (maple sugar?) fell to the bottom of my glass.

Nose: rich, sweet maple syrup can be detected from about a half-metre away. With my nose right up to the glass, this smells like something that you would pour over fresh-out-of-the-oven pancakes (yes, DW makes oven-baked pancakes: they're awesome!). There's a lingering aroma that reminds me of buckwheat.

Palate: the maple syrup continues as the leading star of the flavours in the mouth, but there's a spice that backs up the sweetness in the finish and also reminds me of buckwheat, but it's actually ginger, which is one of the ingredients that has been added to the batch. The mix of maple and ginger is a winning combination.

Overall impression: it's been many years since I've had a maple ale, and at the time, McAuslan's St-Ambroise Erable was the benchmark of maple beer. But Brew Microbrewery's Maple Beer gives St-Ambroise Erable a run for its money. The only thing this beer is missing is smoke from the sugar shack. It's sweet without being cloying; it has a rich maple flavour that makes me long for a breakfast treat; it makes me think that I need to brush my teeth right after finishing a glass; yet, it has a light to medium body that makes it nice to drink—that is, it's not so rich and sweet that I can't finish the glass.

I don't reach for maple beer often but during maple syrup season, this is a great one to grab.

Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺🍺🍺 this is a very good maple beer with a bit extra.

This brew is currently available throughout Ontario, in the LCBO, or can be ordered online directly from the brewery (they seem to have a sale on). The brewery also has a lime beer and various wines.

Have you got a particular style of beer or a specific brew that you'd like to see me review? Leave a suggestion in the Comments section and I'll see what I can do. I'll review the other two beers in the coming weeks.

Cheers!