Wellington Arkell Best Bitter

It's been awhile...I'm back with another Canadian brew review.

Wellington Arkell Best Bitter

Wellington Brewery

Ontario, Canada

English Bitter

4.00%

Look: The beer poured A very rich, yet clear amber, brown color.  A nice off-white head stood up for A few minutes before deflating into nothingness, leaving behind A decent amount of lacing on the rim of my glass. Not much trace carbonation visible.  Not the best looking beer I should add.

Smell: Immediately I get A very roasty, nutty scent.  I could smell it as soon as I popped the can open.  Also pick up A bit of some honey biscuit and cereal grain. Perhaps A bit of some grapefruit from hops, maybe A little pine as well.  Besides the nuttiness everything else is fairly subdued.

Taste: Some light bready notes, watered down coffee, and A bit of caramel.  About half way through the taste you get A bit of bittering from the hops to balance the beer out quite well. Finishes with A brush of some roasted cereal and some piney/grapefruit hoppiness.


Mouthfeel:  Medium bodied. Perhaps A bit lighter than that.  Medium carbonation as well. Does not sting the tongue and goes down very easy.  Maybe it could be A little more full bodied but I think that the amount of flavor to mouthfeel ratio is really making this beer work.

Overall: This really isn't A great example of A bitter, yet it's also not A horrible one.  Maybe A bit higher than middle of the road when it comes to English Bitters.  I would suggest giving it A try though if you are ever in Ontario, maybe you will have A different experience than me.  

Wellington Arkell Best Bitter gets A 3.5/5 from me.

Sleeman Clear

I spent A few days in Toronto, Ontario, Canada last month. Specifically March 13-15. What did I do? Well, I drank beer. Lots of it actually.  Well I guess that's not all I did. I made A few great friends too. Yeah, that actually never happens. It did though, I swear... Anyways, over the next many posts I plan on reviewing all of the my libations.

Lets get started.

Sleeman Clear
Sleeman Brewing and Malting Company
Guelph, Ontario
"Light Lager"
4% ABV

Look: Right off the bat you can see the beer.  It comes in A clear bottle, it's impossible not to be able to. It's A very light, "corny" yellow color.  Poured almost no head at all. What did form was about an inch and A half of a rocky, bubbly head.  A sad looking beer.

Smell: Very grainy.  Before I even got close to it, I could smell fresh cut grains and heaps of corn.  Underlying all of that is A musty hint of some old apples and maybe some rusting metal.  I am not detecting anything too discernible except for maybe the corn and the metal.

Borrowed photo from Libres-Penseurs. I neglected to take A photo for some reason.

Taste: Yep, it's A light beer. The first taste I get is actually the non-existent taste. A crisp, watery, drink.  Some light hints of corn and sweet apple linger throughout the entirety. Maybe the faintest taste of some hops.  Surprisingly the beer wasn't skunked because of the clear bottle. I guess you need to actually have hops in the beer for it to skunk though. All in all, it doesn't taste bad, but it doesn't really taste like anything.  It sort of reminds me of Coors light with that hint of fruity banana or apple flavor.

Mouthfeel: Carbonation doesn't sting as much as I thought it may have for A beer like this.  Medium carbonation. Very smooth and easy to put down, especially on A hot day.

Overall:  It's not the worst thing in the world, but it's also not the best.  It's A light beer.  Primarily water.  I can't say that it didn't go down really good after walking around Toronto all day. I'll give it that.

Sleeman Clear gets A 2/5 from me.  I'd drink it again if the circumstance are right.

Abita Christmas Ale

Consumed from the bottle into A Sam Adams special glass. Purchased for $2.50 at the House of 1000 Beers in New Kensington, PA.

The Abita page about the beer can be found HERE.

Abita Christmas Ale is A seasonal brew. (Winter)

An American Brown Ale coming in at 5.50%ABV.
Brewed by Abita Brewing Co.
Louisiana .

Look: Very nice orange/brown/ruby-amber color.  The beer poured A thick 2 finger tan, off-red head. Semi-cloudy/clear.  The beer wasn't murky but it also wasn't easy to see through either. Abita Christmas Ale left some decent lacing around the glass as I consumed it. 

Smell: From the start, I get pine.  It smelled as if I had walked into A store that sold nothing but Christmas trees.  The real ones...not the plastic ones. I also picked up some very faint, lightly toasted malt.  Maybe even some faint spices hiding in and around somewhere. A bit lacking and uninspiring. 

Taste: Well. The first sip was very disappointing. I picked up almost nothing.  Some pine from the hops and maybe some light nutmeg and biscuit...but not much of those even. Maybe the beer is too cold?  After letting it warm up for A good half an hour or more, I decided to give it another go. This time A bit more flavor showed up, but not too much. Picked up some more nuttiness that blended nicely with the pineyness from the hops. Some honey and toasted malt. A little baker's chocolate, and some spices that I was unable to identify because of how faint they tasted.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied. Low carbonation...Which I like in these kind of beers.  I don't need A lot of carbonation ruining the flavor by numbing my tongue. The beer was just A bit chewy. Definitely came across as creamy.  It was able to coat my tongue and mouth just A little bit.

Overall: I'm pretty disappointed with this Christmas Ale. Especially compared to other ones. It's A bit piney and A little spicy but it just falls short of what I had expected.  Maybe I was hoping for too much?

Abita Christmas Ale gets A 3.5/5 from me.

Not bad, not great, A little better than middle of the road.