This bright golden ale releases an enthralling floral bouquet with peach, banana and vanilla accents. Effortlessly fluffy and creamy thanks to additions of oats and wheat, its sweet centre will sing alongside prosciutto-wrapped spring asparagus.
Fruity malt aroma with yeasty and lightly hoppy scents give way to fruity and malty flavours with pleasant, gentle hoppy bitterness in the mouth. Will appeal to most palates.
Shows attractively soft creamy and persistent head, hazy blond colour with soft aromas of fruit spice and agreeable yeastiness. Robust, but very smooth dried citrus-fruit flavour seems mild in alcohol until it suddenly creeps up on you. Finishes with the merest touch of bitterness. Excellent cool-weather brew.
Hazy, unfiltered blond colour with creamed corn, nutty malt and lightly hoppy aromas. Opens with a touch of fruity sweetness on the light-bodied palate, together with balanced malt and agreeable hoppy bitterness in the German style.
Light blond in colour and opens with a bitter nutty aroma and flavours nicely balanced between light fruitiness and savoury malt. Texture is pleasantly creamy with mild hoppy bitterness on the finish. Easy-drinking summer brew.
Hazy blond colour with floral hoppy scent and creamy/nutty malt aromas. Initial dried-fruit sweetness shifts to nutty malt flavour with judicious hoppy bitterness. Unlike many IPAs, this one is not excessively hopped, but is well balanced and characterful.
North Brewing Co/Benjamin Bridge Saison de Pinot 2016, Nova Scotia ($18/750ml) A collaboration between gifted Halifax-based craft brewer North Brewing and celebrated Gaspereau Valley winery Benjamin Bridge, this highly distinctive brew uses a significant percentage of Pinot Noir must from the winery in the wort. The result is a cloudy, reddish-amber brew with appealing red berry and cherry on the nose, and a hint of barnyard Brett. Flavour tastes like a hybrid between wine and beer, showing red fruit and zingy spritz, finishing quite dry with a touch of sour cherry. It vaguely resembles the style of wild yeast-charged Belgian lambic beer. Though the idea was apparently pioneered by northern Italian brewers who came from wine-making families, this may be the first beer of its kind made in Canada.