Beer # 483 Black Raspberry Thunder Milkshake IPA

Beer # 483 Black Raspberry Thunder Milkshake IPA

Brewery: Muskoka Brewing Company


Type: Independent Microbrewery    Est.:  1996

Location: Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada 

Beer Style: Flavoured Milkshake IPA

ABV: 6.0%      IBU: 18

Format: Aluminium Can  Size: 473 ml

Cost: $3.65 CAD     Purchased At: Sobey's

muskokabrewery

    @muskokabrewery

Tonight's offering is the second collaboration between Muskoka Brewery and Kawartha Dairy. The brewery created a beer inspired by one of Kawartha Dairy's ice cream flavours. Last yeas was a salted caramel truffle and this year was the ever-popular Black Raspberry Thunder. Created in a milkshake IPA style, in case you don't know, this quite popular style is an IPA that has added lactose in the ferment. The yeast eats this sugar as well as the maltose and leaves a creamy slightly sweet taste in the final beer. I may do another post about it later because the science is quite interesting. As a similar fermentation style is used in the making of some wine (Malo-Lactic Fermentation).  Into this mix is added black raspberry and chocolate and you have an ice cream inspired beer.

So... I like ice cream, I like beer.... let's see how well they go together.

Onto my milkshake IPA brings all the blogs to the yard...

Pours a reddish-purple with a short creamy head with a pinkish hue. Aroma is piney and milky with hints of fresh fruit, berries and peaches. First sip is smooth and creamy with notes of chocolate and black cherry soda. The smooth creamy lactose mimics the feeling of an ice cream float. The beer is lightly effervescent aeration brings out some chocolate light sediment very fun.

Impressions: Fail, So-so, Pass, Exceptional 


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


Final Thoughts:

So I've been having trouble with the Milkshake style. I have been finding it is just an excuse to stuff a lot of fruit into a beer and take advantage of a (possibly) flash in the pan style of beer which is popular right now. While it is fun and different I'm finding very few of them are interesting enough to drink more than once. While this one is a fun drink, I would be hard-pressed to ever want another.

Cheers
CJT

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Runination 2.0 Double IPA Stone Brewing

Beer # 482 Ruination 2.0 Double IPA

Brewery: Stone Brewing Company


Type: Independent Brewery    Est.:  1996

Location: Escondido, California, United States of America

Beer Style: Double India Pale Ale DIPA

ABV: 8.5%      IBU: 100

Format: Brown Glass Bottle  Size: 650 ml

Cost: $8.40 CAD     Purchased At: LCBO

stonebrewing

    @stonebrewing

The ninth-largest craft brewery in the USA, Stone Brewing was founded in San Diego California in 1996 by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner. Beer Advocate Magazine has named it the best brewery in the world twice. They are the brewers of the World Famous "Enjoy By..." series the most famous being their "Enjoy By 4-20" for obvious reasons. Tonight's beer is the new version of their Ruination Double IPA which was the first Double, West Coast IPA that was brewed year-round. The new version is packed with a huge 100 UBU's worth of hops and is left unfiltered for a pure taste.

Onto our ruination... 

pours a hazy medium gold with a short off-white head made up of small bubbles. Aroma is ripe with fruit, Lychee, peaches, hints of guava and passionfruit and a slight background of pine. First sip is attack of the killer hops! Wow, piney and bitter with hints of medicine and marijuana. Sweet fruit lingers through. The malts come out later with bready caramel notes. Long lingering citrus on the finish. A definite West Coast IPA. Aeration is all about the hops, very green, citrus deep sweet and spicy malt with hints of whiskey.

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 a huge beer. If you are just starting out tasting craft beers... let this one sit for a bit. That being said if you like you beers stacked with hops, bursting with pine and citrus get this beer. It truly is a unique and wonderful West Coast IPA.


Cheers
CJT

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What's 10 Months Between Friends?

Yep.

10 Months.


It's been quite a while. There are excuses, there are reasons. Mostly I've been busy. This summer I ran a food truck which consumed ALL of the time I had... and I mean all. Like 6 days a week 12 to 14 hours a day. The only time I had left was dedicated to sleeping, and mugging down a beer or two without much thought. Things still happened. I got out to Funk Fest at Sawdust City again this year. 4th year running. I got to see Stephen Stanley's solo performance at the brewery as well. Also managed to hit a couple of trivia nights. Other than that it was Fish and Chips, Burgers, Tacos and a metric tonne of french fries. I've only recently been able to get all of the grease out of my pores. After the truck finished for the year I embarked on the renovation our kitchen here at Pint Jockey Headquarters. What was supposed to take 1 week has now taken over 2 weeks and I still have a number of small jobs to finish. It was one of those things where everything you touched took twice or three times longer than expected. Plus it came with several surprises like having to replace the toilet and the bathroom floor before I could finish fixing the plumbing in the kitchen. It is pretty much done now and completely usable so I figure I can afford some time to myself to pick up the blog again.

Halloween is fast approaching and we are knee-deep in pumpkin beer season. Fortunately, I haven't seen many around. I think we tried 2? when we went down to Stratford for our annual Festival trip (I'm spotlighting two new breweries in two new posts stay tuned!). One was by Big Rig out of Ottawa and tasted like Dr. Pepper. I really hate pumpkin beers... please breweries, stop making them or at least make them taste good.

Big news is coming! There is a major trip coming up for the Pint Jockey Household. I'm holding back details until all the tickets are bought and passports acquired but we are going somewhere cool in December(?) and I'm taking the blog along. That does throw a wrench into my 2-4 Beers of Christmas Blog Series which is my most popular set of posts each year, however, I have it covered! I am working hard behind the scenes right now to fill up all of those posts and set up a publishing schedule so they go out daily while I am away. I still hope to add posts from our trip but the Internet will be (very) spotty and I'm not taking the chance. If I can't get anything published on the trip, it will all post in January when we return, but The 2-4 Beers of Christmas will run on schedule. Plus I will keep daily posts going through Instagram so make sure to follow me and keep up with my adventures in December.

That about updates you sports fans... Sorry for the long blank stare from the Pint Jockey Pages but work, sadly, always comes before play. Hopefully, we can all settle into a nice groove here and taste some beers.

Stay tuned...

Cheers
CJT

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The 2-4 Beers of Christmas 2018 Edition Day 22 B: Bonus 11.05 2016 Edition 2 Years Can Conditioned

Bonus11.05 2016 Edition 2 Years in my Basement!

Brewery: Sawdust City Brewing Company

Type: Independent Microbrewery Est.:  2014

Location: Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada

Brewery: Nickel Brook Brewing Company

Type: Independent Microbrewery   Est.: 1992
Location: Burlington, Ontario, Canada

Beer Style: Flavoured Belgian Quadrupel

ABV: 11.05%      IBU: 28

Format: Aluminium Can  Size: 473 ml

Cost: $6.50 CAD     Purchased At: The Brewery

sawdustcitybeer       nickelbrookbrewing

    @Sawdustcitybeer    @NickelBrookBeer


 So this is actually the third time I've tried this beer. I tried it when it came out, (here) at, 1 year old (here) and finally at 2 years (this post). So I've kept this in fairly ideal conditions in the basement in the #FridgeofFame. 

Onto our beer...

Pours a cloudy light honey colour with a huge fluffy white head made up of small and tiny bubbles. The aroma is Apple and hard cider with hints of hard candy and bubblegum. First sip is effervescent and alive with soft hints of brett sourness and toasty wheat notes. The mouthfeel is super smooth, almost silky. Alcohol builds as you sip. It is the smoothest belgian sour I've ever had. Aeration gives us grassy notes with mild hops.

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: 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL
Christmas Cheer 6/6 EXCEPTIONAL


Final Thoughts:

I am actually quite sad that there is no more of this beer. It's been quite an adventure seeing how this beer developed over time. I can't wait to see what the come up with next year.


CJT

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The 2-4 Beers of Christmas 2018 Edition Day 22: 11.05 2018 Edition by Sawdust City

Beer # 481 11.05 2018 Edition, Belgian Quad with Cherries Collaboration

Brewery: Sawdust City Brewing Company

Type: Independent Microbrewery Est.:  2014

Location: Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada

Brewery: Nickel Brook Brewing Company

Type: Independent Microbrewery   Est.: 1992
Location: Burlington, Ontario, Canada

Beer Style: Flavoured Belgian Quadrupel

ABV: 11.05%      IBU: 28

Format: Aluminium Can  Size: 473 ml

Cost: $6.95 CAD     Purchased At: The Brewery

sawdustcitybeer       nickelbrookbrewing

    @Sawdustcitybeer    @NickelBrookBeer

Well, it seems to be a Christmas Tradition that I talk about Sawdust City and Nickel Brook's yearly collaboration brew celebrating the shared birthdays of their two brewmasters. Sam Corbeil of Sawdust and Ryan Morrow of Nickel Brook were both born on November 5th so every year they select a new style of beer and brew it to 11.05 % ABV. The resulting beer is always an interesting experiment in producing great tasting high alcohol beers. This year they selected a Quad which is typically a higher alcohol beer, to begin with, and added cherries and oak spirals

Let's try this one out.


Pours a deep chestnut with an off-tan head made up of small bubbles. Nose is very oaky with hints of chocolate and cherry. Deep malt notes with earthy hints and a touch of mushroom. First sip is deeply roasted malt with a fair amount of sugar. Tart cherry comes in through the middle with hints of grenadine and cherry candy. Aeration gives off some raw wood and caramelised sugars.

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:

This year's edition was a good beer, but I had an issue with it and it took me a while to figure out what it was. It ended up being the "Oak Spirals." They left an interesting raw wood taste that, while it wasn't unpleasant it was very distracting to the overall flavour.

CJT

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The 2-4 Beers of Christmas 2018 Edition Day 21: Where the Buffalo Roam By Cameron's Brewing Company

Beer # 480 Where the Buffalo Roam

Brewery: Cameron's Brewing Company


Type: Independent Microbrewery    Est.:  1997

Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Beer Style: Barley Wine

ABV: 13.0%      IBU: 90

Format: Aluminium Can  Size: 473 ml

Cost: $11.95 CAD     Purchased At: LCBO

cameronsbrewing

    @cameronsbrewing

Well as they say it is better late than never... which I kinda feel I'm stretching to the extreme by posting my last Christmas beers in March. But I had the notes made so why waste them? Tonight's beer is a can of Where the Buffalo Roam Barley Wine by Cameron's Brewing. Thing is.. I've had this can for about 2 years... so we will see if it is still good.

Onto our beer...

This beer took some work to taste. It first poured an amazing cloudy dark honey colour with an off-tan head made up of super fine bubbles. The aroma was nutty and woody with hints of liquorice. However, since this was a beer that was over two years old there was a considerable amount of can-shock. First sips were very bitter and closed. Aroma opens up with honey, toast, whisky, wood, and hints of coconut. Alcohol is very present, there are some hints of wet dog from the ageing process. brown sugar and molasses round out the middle. Interestingly, there is not much in the way of bourbon. I get some whisky, but not the sweet vanilla, toasted oak that usually indicates good bourbon. Aeration gives us some more barrel flavours and with touches of dried fruit and sawdust.

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:

This was a very interesting beer and it starts shows the lengths that beer can be aged in a can. While it took some time to air out and show all of its flavours... I don't see it as a fault. It forced you to slow down and appreciate the beer. Barley wines are high alcohol and should be sipped, and is more akin to a whisky than a beer. So waiting half an hour for this beer to release all of its flavours should not be a terrible thing. You can always binge watch Netflix while you wait.


CJT

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