Beer # 358 Flotter Dreier Block 3 Sawdust and Stack Brewing Collaboration

Beer #358 Flotter Dreier

Collaboration Beer

Block 3 Brewing Company
St Jacobs Ontario Canada

Stack Brewing
Sudbury, Ontario Canada

Sawdust City Brewing Company

Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada
Independent Microbrewery Established 2012
Aged and Flavoured Berliner Weisse
ABV 4.0 %  
Aluminium Can 500 ml.
$3.75 (Canadian) At the The Brewery

Twitter @SawdustCityBeer @StackBrewing @BlockThree

After a whirlwind tour of about 45 beers this weekend at FUNKFEST 2017 at Sawdust City Brewery... (yeah couldn't do all 80... I would need another liver) I noticed I hadn't got to do one of the beers from our Gracious Hosts at Sawdust. Luckily I had put aside this gem for just such an emergency.

Flotter Dreier, means "Threesome" in German. Yup, get the laughs out now... I'll wait. However, this "Threesome" means the three breweries involved in the collaboration. First The beer was fermented at Block 3 Brewing in St. Jacobs. The Beliner Weisse beer was fermented in Oak Foeders (pronounced FOOD-ers) They are essentially large oak barrels stood on end instead of on their side. Once initial fermentation was done the beer went on a little trip. A 4.5 hour 480 Km trip to Stack Brewing in Sudbury. There it was aged in wine barrels for 2 months. The the beer put on it's roller skates one more time and drove another 3 hours, 260 kms down to Sawdust City in Gravenhurst where pink guava was added and the beer underwent Can Conditioning. So 740 kms later we have Flotter Dreier. 

Let's taste.

Pours a cloudy light gold with bright white head made up of small to medium bubbles. Head dissipates rapidly. The aroma is biscuit, woody, winey, active yeast, citrus, light herbal hops and some guava and tropical fruit in the background. First sip gives us the tangy twang of brett with some citric acid, lemons, oranges, some grapefruit. Hints of spicy oak, some toast and a tropical sweetness to end. Guava comes out more on the aeration, with some more lemon and a touch of pineapple. Slightly sweet yet still dry enough to be thirst quenching. Very smashable (good thing it is only 4.0 % these go down too fast!). Good cheek puckering Berliner.

 Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


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

Final Thoughts:

Super refreshing patio sipper. I love the can design. Given the meaning of the name, the all black label and the simple three stick figures make perfect sense. Sadly this gem was limited to 750 Cans at each brewery. Yup... They are gone. However, I assume this may become a FUNKFEST Tradition (one can hope). I would usually leave off by saying get one of these into you... but if you haven't got one in your fridge by now... your going to have to wait until next year. So why not book your tickets for FUNKFEST and come see me there! (they go on sale around May 1st)


Cheers

CJT

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The 2-4 Beers of Christmas Day 2 Stack Brewing Smoke N' Oak

Beer # 250 Smoke N' Oak

Stack Brewing Company

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Independent Microbrewery
Barrel Aged Smoked Ale 5.5% ABV 
Aluminum Can 473ml
$3.50 (Canadian) At The Brewery

Twitter: @Stackbrewing

Back for day 2 of the 2-4 Beers of Christmas. I have been sitting on this beer for a little while, from my last trip to Sudbury, but I think it is a perfect time to break it out. It is a barrel aged smoked red ale.



Let's get into it.

Pours a caramel/dark chestnut with a fairly thin, off-tan  head made of tiny bubbles. The nose is loaded with bacon, hickory, and dark rye bread. Light in body but there is plenty of caramel and roasted malt to keep you interested. Certainly one of the lightest smoked beers I have tried. It just makes me crave bacon. Very fruity with hints of vanilla and bubblegum. Aeration gives us a slightly creamy feeling with lots of fruit and caramel, and a light campfire.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


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

Final Thoughts:

Quite a good beer, light fruity and still smoky. I would love to eat this with a nice deli sandwich or I would love to marinate some meat with it with some nice smoked paprika.CJT


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Stack Brewing Trademark Infringement Gose Second Anniversary Ale

Beer # 244 Trademark Infringement Anniversary Ale

Stack Brewing Company

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Independent Microbrewery
Gose 4.5% ABV Brown Glass Bottle 500ml
$6.00 (Canadian) At The Brewery
Twitter: @Stackbrewing


Another beer from the good people up at Stack Brewing in the Nickle City. This is a Gose they brewed for their second anniversary back in June. I may have sat on this beer for a bit... Glad I'm finally getting to it.

It's about time...drink me.



Pours a light cloudy gold with a thin head of made up of tiny bubbles. Aroma is sweet, wheaty, slightly caramel with hints of singed citrus. There is also a hint of mineral. First sip is slightly nutty with light grapefruit and lemon. Tart and mildly sour with a good backbone of minerals and salt. Aeration gives us some more malty, nutty, herbal notes.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


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

Final Thoughts:

Full disclosure, I have had this beer in my fridge for a couple of months, so it definitely has picked up some age. But the flavours are all still there. Lovely use of the salt in the beer. 
 
Cheers

CJT


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Stack Brewing Les Portes L'Enfer Side by Side

Les Portes de L'Enfer: Side by Side

Stack Brewing Company

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Independent Microbrewery

Twitter: @Stackbrewing

Two beers for one tonight. I just stopped up in the Nickle City (AKA Sudbury) the Paris of Northern Ontario. I kid you not! More good stuff goes down in Sudbury than anywhere else around here. There is a thriving art community, a theatre community, a music community, There is a Cheese Shop! And thankfully, there is an amazing craft brewery. We go up once or twice a year to go to Science North, and Dynamic Earth... because we are nerds. And my visits would not be complete with out Cheese from the aforementioned Fromagerie Elgin, Drinks at Hardrock 42 the best craft beer bar north of Toronto (possibly). And last, but not least a visit to Stack Brewing. I left with 6 beers this time... stay tuned to this space.

Les Portes de L'Enfer (The Doors to Hell) is Stack's award winning biere de garde (Gold at the Ontario Brewing Awards in the Biere de Garde category and Bronze in the Canadian Brewing Awards) I tried to get some on my last trip to Sudbury but it was not long after the Ontario Brewing awards so the beer had all been snapped up. As it was a seasonal I had to wait for it to be brewed again and when I arrived in Sudbury this time, I was rewarded with a bonus a Portes de l'Enfer that had been barrel aged in Malivoire Winery's oak barrels. So tonight I present them to you side by side.

Onto the tasting.


# 238 Les Portes de L'Enfer

Biere de Garde 8.0% ABV Brown Glass Bottle 500 ml (16 oz).
$6.00 (Canadian) At The Brewery

Pours a hazy chestnut brown with a tan head made up of small bubbles. Aroma is clove fresh hay some bread malt sugars and a touch of earthiness. First sip is toasted wood,caramelised sugars, some coffee and toffee. wheat notes sneak out underneath the bolder flavours along with a hint of bitter green hops. Rich and complex, very chewy, a good strong mouthfeel. Aeration brings out the darker breadiness, deep rye or pumpernickel tones with lots of toasted sugars and some pleasant bitterness from the hops finishing in a slight black tea taste.

# 239 Les Portes de L'Enfer Barrel Aged

Oak Aged Biere de Garde 8.0% ABV Brown Glass Bottle 500 ml (16 oz).
$6.00 (Canadian) At The Brewery

Pours a lighter chestnut that it's un-aged counterpart with a hint of red running through it. Head is a similar tan colour but the bubbles are much finer. Aroma is a stellar red wine and oak wood nose a slight berry, and red fruit aroma with hints of grape must and yeast. First sip is... WOW. Very smooth, creamy toasted oak and vanilla mixed with the breadiness of the beer. Taste similar to a Cabernet Sauvignion, some slight tannins, some tartaric acid and the barest hint of hops underneath. The fruit and the bread give it a sort of "jam sandwich" flavour which is not unpleasant at all The barrel aging has softened the beer and smoothed out the flavour profile, drawing out the finish into a nice long hum of wheat and fruit. Slightly tart on the attack, it has just enough sugar in it to balance it out, and not be cloying. Aeration gives us a rounded creamy oaky explosion, slightly nuty, bready, and yeasty.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


Regular                                     Barrel Aged

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


Final Thoughts:


Two Great beers great for two different reasons. Honestly it is hard to tell that they started out as the same beer. While the regular one is a wonderful example of a biere de garde, the oak aged is all about what the barrel brings to the product, it's magical transformation. Though equal, I would say that the barrel aged beer slightly edges out the regular on my palate. lovely smooth and fruity. I could drink that beer for days.


Cheers
CJT


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Hwy 69 Sawdust City Stack Brewing Collaboration

Beer # 224 Hwy 69
Collaboration

Sawdust City Brewing Company
Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada

Stack Brewing Company
Sudbury, Ontario

Independent Microbreweries
Flavoured Belgian Pale or Golden Ale
6.9 % ABV 20 oz Draft (591 ml.)
$6.50 (Canadian) At the brewery

Twitter @SawdustCityBeer @StackBrewing

I was very excited to hear about this collaboration as Stack Brewing is one of my picks to be a major up and coming brewery. They had already won a gold medal at the Ontario Brewing Awards for their Belgian Farmhouse ale: Portes de l'Enfers. And a Bronze for the same beer at The Canadian Brewing Awards. They also gleaned headlines for their "All-too-Canadian" dispute with Moosehead over the naming rights to two of their beers. (Friendly Moose and Angry Moose) Essentially I imagine the phone call went like this:

Moosehead: Hello eh? This is Moosehead... you gots them beers named Angry and Friendly Moose. Well we have naming rights for any beer in Canada that has the handle "Moose"

Stack: Oh Geez boy, Didn't know... Sorry.

Moosehead: Sorry.

Stack: I guess we will rename them then... Sorry

Moosehead: Thanks, and sorry.

Okay... maybe a tad stereotypical, but Stack made it clear that the conversation was very friendly and they did agree to change the names. (sorry)

So onto our collaboration...

Pours a slightly hazy dark gold with a thin off-white head made of small bubbles. Bright citrus and mandarin on the nose. First sip gives us more citrus plenty of wheat and at the end a little hit of black pepper. Aeration gives us some tongue prickling heat from the pepper some orange pith a little funky herbal hops mild traces of marijuana. 

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 

Cost: 5/6 PASS
Colour: 5/6 PASS
Beer Style: 5/6 PASS
Re-Order:  4/6  PASS
Experience:  4/6 PASS

Final Thoughts:

Very orange and citrus flavoured which worked well with the golden ale style. The pepper was a nice counterpoint and did not overwhelm the beer at any point. While quite good, I never felt the beer "wowed" me at any point. But nevertheless, it is a nice refreshing beer. Hopefully Stack and Sawdust will collaborate on more beers because I'm pretty sure they could brew up a stellar pint together.



Cheers


CJT



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Beer #109 Stack Brewing Impact Altbier

Impact Altbier

Stack Brewing Company

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Independent
Altbier 5.0% ABV Brown Glass Growler 2 L (64 oz).
$14.00 (Canadian) At The Brewery
Twitter: @Stackbrewing

Last bottle of Stack beer in the Fridge of Fame. It was a wonderful trip up to the Nickel City, as usual. This beer is named after the great "Impact" an asteroid had with Sudbury 1.8 Billion years ago. The massive impact that resulted from the asteroid smash drew billions of tons of rich nickel ore close to the surface, allowing Sudbury, to become one of the world's best sources of the very valuable mineral.

Enough with the education.... let's try a beer with some... impact. I think I said impact a few too many times, the word was starting to lose it's... er... well... impact.

Deep copper in colour with a thin off-white head made up of small bubbles. Aroma is clean and mineral, like cracked granite, or sparked flint. Big bold grain notes on the taste with some darkly caramelised sugars underneath. Beer is effervescent almost to the point of being "fizzy" on the back of the tongue. Very clean, very dry, aftertaste is mild with slight reminder of the grain we started with. Aeration gives us wood, and rum notes. Very drinkable.

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 is, so far my favourite beer from Stack. It is a very good all purpose beer, good with food, good on it's own, great after work. I want to see a lot more beers from Stack that taste like this. Now I am looking forward to my next visit to Sudbury, plus... I have to return my empties to the brewery.

Cheers

CJT

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Beer # 108 Stack Brewing Valley Girl

Valley Girl Wheat Ale

Stack Brewing Company

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Independent
Wheat Ale 5.5% ABV Brown Glass Boston Round 1 L (32 oz).
$6.00 (Canadian) At The Brewery
Twitter: @Stackbrewing

Now for another trip up to one of Canada's most impressive geological features: The Greater Sudbury area which was carved out of the rock 1.8 Billion years ago by an asteroid that was 10 to 15 Km across (almost 10 miles across to my friends from the USA) It was the second largest impact that the Earth has ever suffered (it was even a larger impact than the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 Million years ago). Paleoproterozoic era Sudbury was much different than it is today, because of continental drift it was located in the southern hemisphere where it was attached to the super continent Pangea. When Pangea broke up Sudbury moved north with it's new continent named Laurasia that eventually became North America. 1.8 Billion years later Shawn Mailloux and Michael Guillemette opened Stack Brewing. Did someone say segue?

Stack Brewing started basically the same way every brewery starts. The owners were tired of drinking beers that "weren't quite right" for their tastes... so they struck out on their own. And we are all glad that they did.

Enough with the geology lesson... let's taste some beer that rocks instead:


Light gold in colour with a long lasting white head, medium in size, comprised of small white bubbles. Nose is banana, cloves and nuts, with a hint of yeast. Subtle but not overwhelming. Banana carries over onto the attack of the taste as does the spice, which intensifies with cardamom and nutmeg. Very grainy, the rich wheat gives you the impression of eating a homemade, whole grain loaf of bread. Light hints of apple also noted. Aeration gives off a warm brandy feeling and some sweetness over the underlying grain.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional

Cost: 5/6 PASS

Colour: 5/6 PASS

Beer Style: 5/6 PASS

Re-Order:  5/6 PASS

Experience:  5/6 PASS

Final Thoughts

quite possibly one of the best wheats I've had in a while. True to it's German origins, this is an aromatic and flavourful beer. This would be best served on a patio near you, preferably with a light lunch... and as always best shared with a friend (especially if you bought the 1 L Boston round like I did).

Cheers

CJT

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Beer # 107 Stack Brewing Saturday Night

Saturday Night Cream Ale

Stack Brewing Company

Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Independent
Cream Ale 5.3% ABV Brown Glass Boston Round 1 L (32 oz).
$6.00 (Canadian) At The Brewery
Twitter: @Stackbrewing

1 Litre Sharing Size

I discovered Stack Brewing last October when we went up to Science North and found the beer in a little cheese shop near our hotel called Fromagerie Elgin. (A culinary adventure in itself! Try the house made pate) This was actually the first beer I tried and then later I got to try a few more at the local pub Hard Rock 42. (Another Sudbury must see) The rest of the province noticed this brewery earlier this year when the Ontario Brewing awards were released and Stack had taken home gold in the Farmhouse/Bier de Garde category for their "Les Portes de L'enfer."

Gold Bier de Garde Category

So when we returned to Science North this year I made a point of dropping in and picking up a few to add to the blog (Sadly they were all out of the gold medal winner I had to settle for the picture of the trophy instead).

More on Stack in the next post... Stay tuned.

Onto the beer:

I think there was an unwritten rule in Ontario that the first Brewery that opened in the Nickel City had to name one of their beer's after that iconic Northern Ontario anthem "Sudbury Saturday Night" by Canada's late great Ambassador of Music Stompin' Tom Conners... So job well done guys. My favourite version is here.

Colour is clear gold with a small off-white head made up of small bubbles. Aroma is caramel malt and medicinal hops with a touch of sulphur, or wet dog smell. Deep maltiness, wet grain, and some dark sugar on the taste. Very dry and fairly cleansing. Aeration brings out the wet grains and a hint of light fruit.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional
Cost: 6/5 PASS
Colour: 6/5 PASS
Beer Style: 6/5 PASS
Re-Order:  6/3 SO-SO
Experience:  6/4 PASS

Each bottle features a very short story

Final Thoughts

Saturday Night is very similar in my mind to some of the macro beers; Canadian, and Budweiser, spring to mind. However, it is better put together and has more flavour than the big boys. I would recommend this beer as a baby step for those who have been raised on macros to enter the world of craft beer. Don't be afraid of the flavour guys! While it would not be a beer that I would regularly drink, it is a good beer for the masses, who will hopefully leave the macros behind and buy local. Remember, buying craft beer puts money in the pockets of your neighbours.

Cheers

CJT


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