June 21, 2013

122/770) Sarah's Café and Bar:  Shangri La IPA by Wellington County Brewery of Ontario:  **;   earthy hop nose;  dry, lingering bitter hoppiness;

123/771) Caffe Volo:  Robo Hop by Great Lakes Brewery of Ontario:  **;  a 9% American double IPA;    strong grapefruit nose;  bitter, rooty flavours;  lingering dry after taste;

124/772)  Caffe Volo:  Mash Pipe by Bellwoods Brewery of Ontario:  **;  a smoked Berliner brewed with rhubarb;  rhubarb supplies tartness, which is a clever touch;  smokiness (finally) done right, which is to say extremely subtlety;  cidery;  nose is grain, fresh rhubarb; 

125/773) Caffe Volo: It's Bigger In Texas by Flying Monkeys of Ontario:  **;  a Texas Brown, reminding me of  a beer I had at a marvellous place called BeNeLux in Montreal.  very dark brown;  sweet mocha nose;  flavours are brown sugar, mocha;

126/774)  Caffe Volo:  Le Sang D'Encre by Trou du Diable of Quebec:  **;  billed as an Epic Stout, which I could not resist;  6.2%;  nose is mocha;  smooth mouth feel, almost too thin;  subtle mocha flavours;   translations:  sang is blood, encre is ink;

127/775)  Caffe Volo:  Red Tape Stout brewed at the Indie Ale House of Ontario:  **;  a 9.5%  Imperial Stout;  nose is dark coffee and alcohol;  there is a hint dark brown sugar to the nose;  sweet mocha flavours;

Sarah's was holding a Wellington tasting as part of Ontario Craft Brewers week.  A representative was handing out samples of their Arkell Bitter and the Russian Imperial Stout.  Sarah's is a fun place to have a beer.  The staff are uncommonly enthusiastic.  They regularly ask what I am drinking and how I like it.  I enjoy being served beer by beer fanciers.

This looks pretty bad but the glasses were small, as small as 150ml.  Even so, I find my notes becoming increasingly hard to decipher as they go on.

In a break from tradition, they were playing vintage/retro music tonight at the Volo instead of the usual background techno/house.  At least I think that is the term.  The sound is as if only one of two speakers is on so you hear bass and rhythm.  It works increasingly well as an evening progresses.  

To my delight, Ken Woods of Black Oak showed up and shook my hand.  It is great to be recognised by the very face of the Ontario craft brewing scene himself.

While I was enjoying my glass of Red Tape Stout I was musing about how much I like this trend of being able to find brewpubs' wares at other brewpubs.  It is one of the more enjoyable developments of late.