Deck of Paradise

Maybe I’ll fall off my chair when drinking real Pilsners in Vermont later this week. Nothing wrong with a liver cleanup beforehand 🤓

Purchased at LCBO

Perfect beer to open the patio with! 12 mo can; delicious body; ripping with crisp malt and bitter floral hops.

Purchased at Trapp Family Brewery

Misery Monday. Sweet one-note citrus powder plus astringent hop burn, burn, burn.

Purchased at The Alchemist Welcome Center

Sunset > beer. Simple malt profile and hops. It’s one-note and factory food perfected. Rinse repeat. “Is your $25 t-shirt M or L?”

Purchased at The Alchemist Welcome Center

Sunny Delight one-note drink powder orange taste. Floral, powdery midpalate and then burn on the finish. I can taste the alcohol here - it’s very hot, on top of the burn. What an awful beer. For trade: 12 cans of Focal, 12 cans of Heady Topper. ISO: water

Purchased at The Alchemist Welcome Center

Holy crap it is *that* good. Tart, massive body - toasty oak, sour vanilla cream, leesy lemon + sourdough bread crust. Long finish, like a vintage BdB Champagne. Just spectacular. Not SARAthon but 1/100th of it Vin 🥳

Purchased at Sante Adairius Rustic Ales

Earned the Better Together (Level 92) badge!

Not so subtle differences between bottle dates in 2019. Here: it tastes like a tart farmhouse with lime - basically, like Brother Soigne. Served blind I’d swear it was that. Tart, honeyed, straw & heather with a lime backdrop. Very nice.

Purchased at Hill Farmstead Brewery

very nice banana bread flavours, rounded out by subtle root beer and coffee. It’s dry - too dry - and missing the caramelized malts of a Bavarian dunkel. Still a good local example.

Purchased at Godspeed Brewery

Blend 1. At early stage of “peak drinking window” for 3F gueuze. Gobs of dried apricot & peach 🍑. Bit of Parmesan cheese & sour cream. Palate is bone dry and has a crunchy, tannic grip. Grip; not astringency. Sour; acidic but more elegant than raspy 👍🏻

Purchased at Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen & lambik-O-droom

Earned the Silence of the Lambics (Level 36) badge!

Over-ripe peaches, white wine vinegar & slightly rancid full fat milk aromas 😊. There’s a lot of cactus pear, starfruit & peach fruit here. Some barnyard but it’s subtle. Leather & horse blanket on the finish. Not harsh; very smooth & balanced. Solid 4+.

Purchased at Bottega Volo

The golden sour base is nice. But poor choice for the grapes - Vidal. It’s a hybrid used in low end sweet wines (unless you’re from Ontario and it’s the best ever for late harvest and eiswein 😔). Gassy; flabby. Tart and sour are faint. Can’t win ‘‘em all

Purchased at Upland 82nd Street

Smells like Parmesan cheese rind, wet socks & sour cream with orange rind. Basically perfect. Bone dry (0g/L sugar, surely), floral/herbaceous/citrusy/stone fruit minerals; well water, not malt. Rich tart, lactic & cheesy citrus finish. Phenomenal for 4%.

Purchased at Hill Farmstead Brewery

Delicious dry cider. Great price ($4 a can, I think). I left a bit of red wine (Rioja Reserva) in the glass, and it added some more berry flavours while preserving the yellow & red skinned apple fruit here. Delicious.

Purchased at West Avenue Cider House

Last can of misery. Worty - still sweet and under-attenuated even with a 4-month can fermentation. Smells like brewing day; tastes like ripe mangoes 🥭 but also chalky grass clippings. Grateful it’s the last can; next VT trip is about the lagers.

Purchased at The Alchemist Welcome Center

Bottle 9 of the case 😊. I find that Dorothy is usually shot by the 6 year mark, but this bottle isn’t an oxidized, malty mess; rather, it’s peppery lemon-lime spritzer with a quite nice sheep dung earthiness (aroma not taste 😆). Very nice; crushable.

Purchased at Hill Farmstead Brewery

Clearing out the cellar dwellers (still a ways to go 😊). Now: no cloves or black pepper; all honeyed straw and overripe apple. Soft, creamy and delicious. Can’t tell it’s 8% abv. Very nice.

Purchased at Logsdon Farmhouse Ale

Easily, the most disgusting cork I’ve ever seen. Oozy, inky black mold puddle 1/8” thick between the crown cap & cork. Mold in the cork. I drank it, still. Stunning: candied marmalade like fruit, herbal hop notes. Crushable as it’s more lush than sour.

Purchased at Brasserie Cantillon Brouwerij (Cantillon - Brouwerij en Brussels Museum van de Geuze)

Earned the Belgian Holiday (Level 76) badge!

Sickly good. And not a mortgage payment like Revel ciders are. So much Bartlett pear flavour you think it’s going to be a sweet mess, like a supermarket pear purée drink. Tart, bright finish. Excellent. And so crushable on a warm summer night. Sunset view

Purchased at West Avenue Cider House

Good home beer > crap company event beer. Crisp lager, well made. Solid 4.

Purchased at Godspeed Brewery

4 month old can; 6 mo which is when the brewer says it starts to show best. Not the same Heady as 2018+before, but still decent & good value for the money. Just in awe of the sunset tonight, and happy to see the bats 🦇 zoom by.

Purchased at The Alchemist Welcome Center