The 2-4 Beers of Christmas 2019 Day: 15 London Fog By Beau's

 Beer # 515 London Fog

Collaboration with David's Tea

Brewery: Beau's Brewing Company


Type: Independent Microbrewery    Est.:  2006

Location: Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada

Beer Style: Flavoured Ale

ABV: 5.3%      IBU: 22

Format: Aluminium Can  Size: 473 ml

Cost: $3.65 CAD     Purchased At: LCBO

beausallnatural

    @beausallnatural

From and espresso latte Last night to a tea latte tonight. Beau's is the employee-owned co-operative brewery from near Ottawa in Ontario. They have paired with online tea retailer David's Tea. Brewed with lactose and vanilla and David's Tea Organic Cream of Earl Grey tea. this beer actually nails the taste of London Fog Latte.

Let's try it out...

Honey amber in colour with a fluffy, off-white head made of small bubbles. The aroma is malt, black tea, and scalded milk. The first sip is exactly what the beer advertises. a London Fog Latte. Scalded milk tea and vanilla dominate the attack. I am not getting much bergamot if any but the effect is stellar anyway. Very simple beer not much else going on but it is exactly what it says it is. Aeration spikes up the black tea and vanilla and allows a long drawn out cooked milk finish.

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:

As I said before, this beer is spot on when it comes to the drink it is trying to emulate. It's a very good beer and easy drinking. I enjoy Earl Grey Tea but I wouldn't think of having it added to beer. I'm glad Beau's did though. Check this one out while you can.

Cheers

CJT

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The 2-4 Beers of Christmas Day 12: 80 Shilling, Beau's All Natural

Beer # 310 80 Shilling 

Farm Table Series

Brewery: Beau's All Natural Brewing Company

Type: Independent Microbrewery     Est.: 2006

Location: Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada

Beer Style: Scottish Ale (80 Shilling, Export Strength)

ABV: 4.7%      IBU: 29

Format: Crown Capped Brown Glass Bottle  Size: 600 ml

Cost: $4.55 CAD     Purchased At: LCBO

Twitter: @BeausAllNatural



Back again to Beau's All Natural, One of Ontario's hardest working breweries. It's been a big year for them. They hit their 10th birthday, and they decided to give the company to their employees. Wait, what? Yes. Beau's became the first fully, employee owned, brewing co-operative in at least Ontario history. Couple that news with Muskoka Brewery becoming Ontario's first certified living wage employer, and the rapid increase in female brewers and brewery employees, and I would have to say you would be hard pressed to find a more progressive and socially aware industry in Canada. See, beer is good for the planet. That is even aside from the fact that brewers are more environmentally aware, the craft beer industry is reducing the overall carbon footprint of the brewing industry by sourcing local and delivering local. And when you buy local craft beer you are giving your hard earned money to your neighbours and helping to put their kids through college. What could be more win, win than that? Please take this time now to stop reading and go out and buy a lot of locally sourced craft beer before you continue reading... for the sake of the planet.


I'll wait...



Don't rush... I know, traffic, weather...



Ok. We're back? Good. Open that beer and let's finish.


Tonight's beer is an 80 Shilling. What is that you may ask? Well, Scots used to classify their beer by quality and the higher the quality the more a hogshead (54 Imp. Gallons) of beer cost. For instance light ales were known as 60 Shilling ( or 60 /-  for short) which meant the hogshead cost 60 shilling. So I'm a nerd... I had to figure out what that would cost in today's money. 60 /- for a 54 gallon barrel was about £1086  or $1800 Canadian Dollars. 54 Gallons is 432 Imperial pints (16 oz) which works out to $4.17 CAD per pint... which is not that unreasonable given inflation. Further beer classifications were 70/- or Heavy, 80/-  or Export (our beer tonight), and 90/- a "Wee Heavy." While the actual specific gravity and alcohol content varied in the nineteenth century, they have come to be regarded as follows. Light under 3.5% ABV. Heavy 3.5% to 4.0% ABV Export 4.0% to 5.5% ABV, and lastly Wee Heavy over 6.0% ABV. In case you were wondering the modern pint prices would be as follows: 70/- $4.87. 80/- $5.57. 90/- $6.27 (all prices CAD and for 16 Imperial ounces).

Overwhelmed by math? Have another beer, and let's go on to the tasting.


Pours a rusty caramel gold colour with a short off-white head made up of small bubbles. The nose is sweet with heady florals, some hay, caramel, and a touch of pine. First sip is deep green hops, sweet malt and caramel, freshly mown hay, and some distant smoke. Mouthfeel is very light and airy. Notes of wood and coffee sit in the background. Bitter hers and florals near the finish. Aeration gives us a smoky sweetness, light caramel  and green hops.

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
Christmas Cheer: 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL

Final Thoughts:

I used to drink Caledonia 80/- all the time in Toronto when I lived there and I remember on my one trek up into Scotland an 80/- was one of my first pints. It is great to have this beer to compare those experiences to. Beau's has done a lovely job with this one, equally light, quite fresh and flavourful, smokier than the ones I have had before, but not unwelcome in the least. So if you didn't get any Beau's on your last craft beer run... you did go get beer right? Go get some, support some neighbours, maybe even save the planet. That should put you back on Santa's nice list.

Cheers

CJT

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Beer # 125 Kissmeyer Nordic Pale Ale

Nordic Pale Ale

Beau's All Natural Brewing Company
Collaboration with Anders Kissmeyer and B-side Label

Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada
Independent
Flavoured APA 5.0 % ABV Brown Class Bottle 750 ml
$4.85 (Canadian) At LCBO 
Twitter: @Beausallnatural


Tonight's beer is an interesting Collaboration from Anders Kissmeyer and The good folks at Beau's All Natural. Anders is Described on the Beau's website as a "One man gypsy beer company" he previously worked with Nørrebro Bryghus, the innovative brewhouse in Copenhagen, Denmark. I have Tasted three of their beers here,

Yarrow

here, and here (The last one was my favourite). Prior to being a driving force in that brewery, Anders worked for Carlsberg as the quality control officer. He flew around the world ensuring that carlsberg beer in Uganda tasted like Carlsberg beer in Mexico. On a trip to the States he met Brooklyn Brewing Company's rock star brewmaster Garret Oliver and had his eyes opened to American style craft beer. He left Carlsberg to persue his dreams and ten years later it seems he still had more dreaming to do and has left Nørrebro Bryghus, to open Kissmeyer Beer. His Facebook page is here (mostly in Danish).

Tonight's beer has a lot of components... and I mean a lot. There are three different grain malts, 3 herbal additives and hops, maple syrup, rosehips, AND cranberries. Sweet Gale yarrow and heather make up the herbals. So this is going to be a complex beer, which is par for the course with Anders, as his beers from Nørrebro Bryghus were quite complex as well. So I look forward to trying this.

Sweet Gale

Enough already... onto the tasting.

Dusty gold in colour with a slight cloudiness to it. The fluffy white head is made up of medium sized bubbles. The aroma is herbal hops, citrus, and spicy. Notes of Dusty Miller (the flower), hay, and yarrow. Slight muskiness, earthy, weedy. Effervescent sweet and tart, Yarrow is prominent, followed by the sweetness of oats and the heady malty taste of dark rye bread. Light citrus and such a tiny hint of cranberries and ginger. As it warms you get the sweetness of rosehips and and a fruity, spicy finish. Aeration gives us a woodsy, outdoors, field at the edge of the woods smell, very vegetative and sweet. Finish is not unlike a bitter aperitif wine, cleansing, and refreshing.



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:

When I first read the ingredients list for this beer I was taken aback. Barley, rye, and oat malts, hops, wild sweet gale, maple syrup, cranberries, rosehips, yarrow, and heather flowers, all organic of course. It seemed to me to be an impossible task to make all of these ingredients work together. Regular readers will recognise some of these ingredients as we have discussed medieval beers before, namely Gruits, which is what I thought this beer was aiming for. However it was plain to see that they had merged a gruit style into an APA, and it actually worked. Pick this one up while it still is in stores.


CJT


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Beer # 123 The Tom Green Beer! Beau's All Natural Brewing Company

The Tom Green Beer! Milk Stout

Beau's All Natural Brewing Company

Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada
Independent
Milk Stout 5.0 % ABV Brown Glass Bottle 600 ml
$4.85 (Canadian) At LCBO 
Twitter: @Beausallnatural

Back to one of the hardest working breweries in all of Ontario. Beau's All Natural's brewing stable looks like a catalogue. They produce so many seasonals, one offs, and collaborations, I believe they must stay up nights trying to figure out how to stay up more nights so they can brew more beer. Tonight's beer is a type of collaboration, one that has gained a lot of popularity lately: The Celebrity Collab. Barrie's Flying Monkey's did it with the Bare Naked Ladies (Band) and City and Colour (Dallas Green's Band). Muskoka Brewery has an upcoming Collab with Dara Howell (Canadian Gold medal winning freestyle skier from Huntsville, Ontario) (P.S. it's called Snowy Howell and I will be tasting it as soon as I can get one in my hot little hands!! Stay tuned in June!) Anyway for my readers outside of Ontario who may be unfamiliar with Mr. Tom Green he is a stand up comedian, actor, director, and rap star most notable for his own TV show on MTV "the Tom Green Show," his short marriage to star Drew Barrymore, and a bout with testicular cancer which he had documented and shown on TV. He is also starring in the upcoming "Trailer Park Boys" movie sequel "Don't Legalize it." Which may or may not have something to do with Marijuana. For more information on his work go here.

Enough shock comedy already... onto the tasting:

Pours very dark brown with a slight hint of copper around the edges. The ample dark tan head is made up of small to large bubbles and is short lived. Aroma is is smoke, charcoal, wood, and chocolate malt.Initially sweet on the palate, notes of smoky chocolate rise up in the attack. Mouthfeel is creamy like chocolate milk. Sweetness gives way to smouldering chocolate, and dark malts with the tiniest hint of bitterness. Aeration is milky and sweet, finish is woody and slightly toasted.

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:

I have never been a Tom Green fan, or a fan of the Shock-Comedy Genre that he helped to create. In fact, the only way Freddie got Fingered, would ever be slipped into my Blu-ray player is if Tom Green himself was holding me at gunpoint, and even then it would require serious thought. However, I am, now, a fan of his namesake beer. The milk stout is an underutilised style in North America. It is sweet, refreshing, sustaining, satiating, an all around delicious beer. And this beer delivers on all points. I may never watch his movies, but I will drink this beer again... and so should you.

CJT


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