Beer # 258 Maple Buttertart Ale
Collaboration with The Griffin Gastropub, The Township of Midland and Sam Corbiel of Sawdust City Brewery
Sweetgrass Brewing Company
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Independent Brewery
Flavoured Altbier 5.0% ABV
Aluminium Can 473 ml.
$3.25 (Canadian) At the LCBO
Twitter: @SweetgrassBeer
Tonight's beer was thought up at the Griffin Session Toronto this year where they asked communities to suggest a collaboration brew. The Township of Midland was the winning suggestion and hence we got the Maple Buttertart Beer. What could be more Canadian? We invented buttertarts and we certainly do know our beer. The beer was a collaboration between Sam Corbiel of Sawdust City, the Griffin Gastropub, and Sweetgrass Brewery which handled the actual brewing.
Let's try some buttertarts...
Pours a dark amber with an off-white head made of small bubbles. Aroma is strong with rum extract. First sip is slightly tart with a creamy mouthfeel. Slightly sticky, some caramel, sugars. Malt in the back ground. some vanilla. Aeration gives us some maple and a bitter aftertaste.
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
Christmas Cheer: 3/6 SO-SO
Final Thoughts:
I was so excited for this beer. I thought it was a great idea, however, the execution left something to be desired. The extracts used were way to powerful and detracted from the actual taste of the beer. Everything felt artificial. I was not really reminded of buttertarts, and the butter rum extract wiped out any notion of maple or vanilla in the background. I hope they do this beer again and this time use real maple syrup and real vanilla, perhaps some lactose to give a sweet creamy feeling. For now... avoid.
Cheers
CJT
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Beer # 186 White Session
Beer # 187 Red Session
Collaboration with "The Local 7*
Sweetgrass Brewing Company
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Independent
Barrel Aged, Flavoured Belgian Saison 7.5%
ABV Brown Glass Bottle 750 ml.
$19.95 (for both)(Canadian) At the LCBO
Twitter: @SweetgrassBeer
If you are a regular follower of my blog you will remember I spent the day in Toronto for OCB Week this past June.The Ontario Craft Brewers Week is a celebration of some of the most dazzling brewers in our province. It begins each Father's Day weekend (well... Dads like beer...) with The Session Toronto. I was hoping to make it down for this one but work schedules intervened and I went slightly later in the week. Session is sort of like fight club for brewers... There is only one rule... there are no rules. And you SHOULD talk about Session... So it's not like Fight Club... but somehow I wanted to use that analogy. Brewers are encouraged to bring out the inner artist and paint a pallete of beer. (Ok that's a slightly better analogy). Brewers try to "One Up" each other in a friendly (hehe check out what I did) kind of way. Sweetgrass Brewery and the so called "Local 7" a group of craft beer bars that included The Only Cafe, The Griffin Gastropub, Bar Volo, Wvrst, C'est What, The Auld Spot, Barhop, and Bryden's (kind of like the Group of 7 But Craft Beer Bars... instead of painters) all collaborated on a brew... or two. The result was a Lemon Verbena, and Raspberry flavoured Belgian Saison, that was split into two batches, and one was aged in chardonnay barrels (White), and one Cabernet Sauvignon Barrels (Red). Each was aged for ten months and the result was released in December of 2014 to the LCBO. Sadly, I have been sitting on these bottles because of my cold... I was hoping to get this post out sooner. I am quite certain that all of the bottles of these are gone. So if you didn't get to try these beers... sorry... email or twitter @sweetgrassbeer and maybe they will make more (if we are really, really good...)
Well I have a Litre and a half of beer on my desk... Onto the tasting...
White
Colour is a slightly hazy clear gold with a bright white head made of small bubbles. Aroma is woody and grapey. Definitely a white wine nose. Hints of green floral citrus from the lemon verbena. Oaky vanilla and light caramel. First sip gives us a lot of chardonnay qualities, grapey, oaky and citrus. Hints of malo-lactic fermentation, creamy, buttery, vanilla and caramel. The elements of the Belgian style saison are deep within, under the chardonnay window dressing. Aeration brings out the beer, a bready, citrus clean Belgian saison.
Red
Colour is almost Identical to the white in every way, except that I would say this is slightly lighter in colour. (Strangely). Nose is very mossy, woody, like a autumn walk through the woods. Oaky, smoky, and dark red wine. First sip is very oaky, and sweet, lots of caramel and vanilla. Tastes not unlike a heavily oaked chardonnay more than a Cabernet sauvignon. Slightly more effervescent than it's white counterpart. Fresh cut oak overwhelms the beer a bit. Aeration gives us sweet smoky oak, some breadiness, a touch more caramel and a lingering vanilla.
Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional
White Red
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
Christmas Spirit 5/6 PASS Christmas Spirit 5/6 PASS
Final Thoughts:
Two most excellent beers and two excellent examples of how a barrel can change the way a beverage tastes. So much happens inside those little wooden envelopes... so much so that scientists haven't even figured out all of the processes, and chemical interactions. It is one area though where we don't need TOO much science... just let your tongue be the experimenter. Enjoy the reaction of all the woody elements that lend so much to these beers.
Cheers And Beery Christmas
CJT
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Beer Style: 3/6 SO-SO
