Brewery: Carlow Brewing Company
Origin: Carlow Ireland
Style: Irish Stout
Abv: 4.3%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: Classic black and white can with bronze accents. It reads very simple yet elegant in its design. I'd call it pub chic. I like the can a lot.
Color: The beer poured black as night with a characteristic creamy white foam on top common among nitrogenated beers. I love watching the reverse waterfall of a nitro beer. It's so mesmerizing.
Nose: Strong roasted notes, coffee beans and some light smokiness.
Taste: mostly dry upfront with a good amount of bitterness in the finish. Roasted malt flavors with coffee coming through. No skunkiness which I sometimes get from imported beers. Skunkiness is never good. I'll never understand people who like a "naturally skunky" beer like Corona... But I digress.
Texture: Soft and creamy. It has that watery sort of mouthfeel common among nitro beers but not as much as Guinness. Medium to full bodied in my opinion.
Impression: A great nitro Stout with a lot of flavor. A quintessential Irish stout in my opinion. Low alcohol percentage makes it a decent social beer. I drank many of these in my day and will continue to purchase them every now and again.
Brewery: Publican House Brewery
Origin: Peterborough ON Canada
Style: German Kolsch
Abv: 4.8%
IBU: Unknown
SRM: Unknown
Marketing: Metalic red colored can with wheat stocks wallpaper and lamp sigil image. Brewing award displayed and a few notes about the beer listed on the back. I'm not big on the design of this can to be honest.
Color: The beer poured a coppery golden orange color with a flimsy loose head of bubbles.
Nose: Malty aroma with notes of cereals and bread dough. Pleasant.
Taste: Sweet and tangy with an odd bitterness in the finish. I can't describe it any other way. A mild metalic like taste to it, which I'm not a fan of.
Texture: Nice texture with a decent amount of carbonation.
Impression: I wasn't big on this beer. I'm not a huge fan of wheat beers or Kolsch style beers, so this one didn't do it for me. It gave me a mild gut rot feeling that I sometimes get from beers that use cheap ingredients like high fructose corn syrup for their malt. I don't know if thats the case with this beer, but it didn't make me feel good. Maybe my body has an intolerance to wheat beers, who knows? Anyway, the odd metallic taste was a bit off putting for me as well. It was drinkable and wasn't horrible or anything, but I wouldn't buy it again.
Brewery: Amsterdam Brewery
Origin: Toronto, ON Canada
Style: Pale Ale
Abv: 4.9%
IBU: 40
SRM: Unknown
Hops: Citra and Sorachi Ace
Marketing: A grey-green colored can with bone stylized font and skeleton riding a bike image. The description sounds cooler than how it actually looks. Its a super boring can really and a very unpleasant color in my opinion. Lets just say the can sucks and I hate it.
Color: The beer poured a hazy bright orange-yellow color with a really decent head of foam on top that lasted a good amount of time. That's a win.
Nose: Very hop forward with tropical fruit aromas and notes of pineapple, grapefruit and pine. Very refreshing smell to me.
Taste: Very very bitter on first sip, tangy and almost sour when I slowed down and sipped it, and sweet in the forefront when I took notice. Strong grapefruit flavors and a resiny character coming through from the hops.
Texture: Strong carbonation with a velvety texture underneath. Medium to full bodied in my opinion. It has that heavy weightiness common in hop forward beers.
Impression: This beer wasn't my preferred style. It was too hop forward for me and too far on the bitter side. Nonetheless it tasted fresh and clean so I still enjoyed drinking it.
