Beer # 499 Lone Star Lager (Canadian Version)

Beer # 499 Lone Star Lager

Brewery: Sleeman Brewing and Malting


Type: Wholly owned by Sapporo Breweries Company  Est.:  1988

Location: Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Beer Style: Lager

ABV: 4.9%      IBU: 10

Format: Aluminium Can  Size: 473 ml

Cost: $2.0 CAD     Purchased At: LCBO

sleemanbeer

    @sleemanbeer

Ok... This beer is iconic and intrinsically linked with Texas, except, it is brewed by a Japanese company in... Guelph, Ontario, Canada? Well... yes, and yes... The original Lone Star Brewery was built in 1884 in San Antonio Texas. It was Texas' first large scale mechanised brewery; originally put together by Adolphus Busch of Anheuser-Busch fame and a group of local San Antonio businessmen. Busch had bought the Alamo brewing company in 1874 and used it to build the new Lone Star Brewery. Lone Star Beer itself, wasn't brewed until1940 by Peter Kreil of Munich (It is very much a Munich Lager). The Lone Star Beer Company has had many masters over the years. It has been moved to several locations in Texas, it was purchased in 1976 By Olympia Brewing from Washinton,

No.. Not that Lone Star.

and again in 1983 by G. Heileman Brewing. Stroh's bout Heileman in 1996, and then Stroh's was bought by Pabst in 1999. Pabst now contracts all the brewing of Lone Star out. So where does Japan and Canada fit in? Glad you asked. Stroh's Canada was purchased by the Sleeman Brewing and Malting company which was later bought out by Sapporo of Japan. Sleeman's brews the Stroh's line Including Lone Star, Old Milwaukee, and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Still billed as the "National Beer of Texas, even though this one is brewed North of the border... Let's give this one a try. 

Let's use the Schwartz on this Lone Star...

Clear gold in colour with a thick, bright white head made up of small bubbles. The aroma is corn syrup and malt extracts. Rain watery German-style hops and hints of wet dog. The first sip is sweet and corny with a very light malt profile. Taste is very flat with a watery texture. There is a clean crispness to the beer, but it comes at the cost of very little flavour in the actual beer. Aeration makes it taste like sugar water.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 3/6 SO-SO
Re-Order:  1/6 FAIL
Experience: 3/6 SO-SO


Final Thoughts:

This is a very boring beer. There is really nothing to it but sugar and a hint of malt. I get the feeling that if you drank too much of this the gut-rot and headache the next day would make you wish you were dead. It tastes like an underage party... one where you cobbled together anything with alcohol in it. It's not so bad, that if someone offered me one I could drink it... but I would politely decline a second one.

CJT

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The 2-4 Beers of Christmas: Day 8 La Résolution Unibroue

Beer # 171 La Résolution

Unibroue

Chambly, Quebec, Canada
Owned by Sleeman's Breweries, a subsidiary of Sapporo Breweries LTD, a
Strong Belgian brown ale 10.0 % ABV Brown Glass Bottle 750 ml.
$8.95 (Canadian) At LCBO 
Twitter: @unibroue    @sleemanbeers 

I am quite fond of Unibroue beers, actually I am fond of Quebec beers in general. They use more wheat in their beers there and really pack the flavour in. This beer does not disappoint either. 

Onto the tasting...

Pours a dark walnut brown with an ample light tan head made mostly of small bubbles. Nose is very spicy, cinnamon and cloves, wheaty. First sip is an explosion of spicy, transforming quickly into a deep dark caramel, almost a brulee of brown sugar. Alcohol is very present along with some vanilla, and licorice. Nutmeg comes out very strong in the middle. Very good representation of a Belgian Brown ale. Aeration gives up a nose warming shot of alcohol, the caramel intensifies, and the lips get sticky. finish is long spicy and roasted malt.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 



Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL
Re-Order:  5/6 PASS
Experience:  5/6 PASS
Christmas Spirit 5/6 PASS


Final Thoughts:

 A really good beer, highly enjoyable. Very good match for the holiday theme. 


Cheers And Beery Christmas


CJT


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Beer # 97 La Fin Du Monde

La Fin Du Monde (The End of the World)

Unibroue

Chambly, Quebec, Canada
Owned by Sleeman's Breweries, a subsidiary of Sapporo Breweries LTD, a
Strong Belgium Tripel (Golden Ale) 9.0 % ABV Brown Glass Bottle 750 ml.
$7.75 (Canadian) At LCBO 
Twitter: @unibroue    @sleemanbeers 

Years ago my friends and I traveled to Quebec. It was our first trip out of province on our own. We stayed outside of Quebec City in a little town called St. Anne de Beaupre, in a motel that sat on the St. Lawrence. On our way back one night from the old city we stopped in the most French restaurant we could find... Pizza Hut. Well we were hungry and it was late, and the crowd was restless  So in horrible broken French we explained to the least bilingual server in all of Quebec that we wanted a local beer. The concept of local and craft beers in Canada was still a few years away... so after a few aborted attempts to serve us Molson Dry the server finally brought us the beer I am talking about tonight: La Fin Du Monde. Obviously we had never heard of it. And yes we were very intrigued. I could not tell you the point when I first decided I wanted to devote my spare time to learning as much about beer as humanly possible, but certainly this one moment was a giant NEON signpost on the road to that goal. The beer was unlike any other I had ever had. It had tremendous amounts of flavour, complexities, and nuances. It was alive... and it was my first "Real Craft Beer."

Sadly I haven't had the beer in  awhile as it was not readily available in Ontario. With the coming of the Mayan Apocalypse  Unibroue has had an advertising pitch out to toast the end of the world with La Fin Du Monde, so the beer is once again (happily) available.

Onto the Tasting:


Cloudy and light gold in colour. Enormous fluffy white head with lots of staying power.Toasty wheaty floral aroma with coriander, clove, and honey. Truly drinks like a champagne among beers. Warm roasty wheat sweet honey, coriander and clove. Effervescent on the tongue, dry and clean. The spices linger in the mouth like the aroma of holiday baking. Aeration gives a burst of spices clove allspice and cinnamon.


Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 

Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL
Re-Order:  6/6 EXCEPTIONAL
Experience:  6/6 EXCEPTIONAL

Final Thoughts:

This beer is everything a Tripel should be. I can not say enough about it... but at this point I just want to settle in and savour the rest of the bottle...


Til the end of the world...

Cheers

CJT


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