Quidi Vidi Eric's Cream Ale

Product:   Quidi Vidi Eric's Cream Ale

Producer: Qudi Vidi Brewery

Made In:   St. John's, NL

Style:       Cream Ale

Alcohol:    5% alc./vol.

Price:       $13.69/ 6pk

     I had to put beer drinking on the back burner with not only moving but exams all coming up. In all of the craziness I at least have a moment where nothing can get in between the beer on the coffee table and myself. Quidi Vidi (QV) brought this beer out to commemorate the landing of Eric the Red and the vikings in Newfoundland. Their label always read: Eric's Red Cream Ale, which caused a lot of confusion, leading people to believe that it was a red ale and not in fact a cream ale. The new label change I think is to correct that.

Appearance:

     After the pour there was not head formation. QV cream ale is slightly darker golden almost an amber colour. It is perfectly clear and almost sparkles

Aromas:

     There really isn't much of an aroma associated with this beer. To the nose it's a little boring. Its a little malty and a little touch of some fruity esters and malt, all of which is very subtle the most prominent aroma is a very faint corn smell.

Flavours:

     Similar to the aromas. This beer is very mild and doesn't contain any featured flavours. the corn taste comes back out. The beer does almost have a grassy taste to it as well. There isn't a lot of bitterness. It has a bit of a sour finish, and a lingering aftertaste.

Mouthfeel:

     The mouthfeel is watery, but smooth. It is certainly highly carbonated and has a dry finish.

Drinkability:

    This beer is very drinkable. It does finish very well and doesn't sit too heavy. The only drawback to drinkability is the high level of carbonation.

    This is a classic American beer that somehow found it's way to Newfoundland. I think that flavour-wise it is very similar to the QV premium although it does have more flavours. I'm not sure where the corn flavour is coming from because QV doesn't use corn in  their beer, even though cream ales are typically brewed with corn. It could be something they do with the malts that brings in the sour corn flavours. Overall it was pleasant but not all together outstanding, it is characteristically a mild flavoured beer and QV offered a different mild beer to their market.

Quidi Vidi Eric's Cream Ale

 

2 / 5

    

Quidi Vidi 1892

Product:   Quidi Vidi 1892 Traditional Ale

Producer: Quidi Vidi Brewery

Made In:   St. John's, NL, Canada

Style:       Amber Ale

Alcohol:    5% alc./vol.

Price:       $13.69 / 6pk

     Quidi Vidi (QV) 1892 is an interpretation of a traditional ale recipe found in St. John's, Newfoundland. The beer gets its name from the St. John's fire in 1892, which is around the same time that the original recipe would have been used. This beer is made with 2-row malt and European hops which would have been from the traditional English style recipe.

Appearance:

     The beer poured to form a nice off white head which dissipated into just a film. It was perfectly clear and was a light to medium amber colour.

Aroma:

     The aroma was very sweet with caramelized malt. The fruity esters coming from the ale yeast were also noticable. This was the first QV beer that I could easily detect the floral hops. 

Flavour:

     The flavour was very sweet at first and developed into a more bitter flavour as the hops came in. The brewery advertises that it is generously hopped however i believe that this is only true in comparison with domestic lagers and lighter beers, the hops were mild but pleasant. The beer was a bit sweeter but the extra bitterness balanced this out nicely.

Mouthfeel:

     I was hoping for something a little fuller bodied, and something truer to a traditional English-style however I found the body was quite light to medium at best. I found that 1892 was also very overcarbonated and it was difficult to get a good taste because of all the bubbles.

Drinkability:

     The flavour and aromas of the beer were very pleasant, and the lighter body sits very well however it was a bit overcarbonated. This would be more sessionable if it were less carbonated

     I have to confess after I tried the beer as it was I held the beer in my hands, and warmed it up a bit. I also shook the beer in the bottle just a bit to take some of the carbon dioxide out of the beer. What a difference it made. I believe that on tap, at the right temperature that this beer would have been a much better experience. I could taste all of the flavours and get all of the aromas so much better afterwords. This is definitely not the beer to keep in a fridge and consume right away, best let it warm up a bit in your hands or put it into the fridge about a 1/2 hour before you want to enjoy it.

Quidi Vidi 1892 Traditional Ale

2 / 5

Quidi Vidi Honey Brown

Product:   Quidi Vidi Honey Brown

Producer: Quidi Vidi Brewery

Made In:   St. John's, NL, Canada

Style:       Brown Ale

Alcohol:    5% alc./vol.

Price:       $13.69 / 6pk

     I think for a few years QV not only offered the Honey Brown but a light Honey Brown as well. I would have interested to see how a light version of this beer would have worked out. I learned my lesson with the 1892, so I let the honey brown warm between fridge and room temperature before I opened the bottle.

Appearance:

     The beer poured with an slightly yellowish/brown head which reduced into lacing. The beer is perfectly clear and has a amber-brown colour.

Aroma:

    This beer lives up to its name. You can smell the residual honey mingling with the aromas of sweet malts. The malt almost has a burnt smell, almost toast. I still get the aroma of cooked corn that I have from many other QV products. If you really sniff around for it you can detect a slight floral/hoppyness coming from the beer.

Flavour:

     I think if there was a word to sum up the flavour, it would be robust. It has a very sweet flavour. The flavour has a very earthy flavour and it has burnt flavour aswell. The corn aroma doesn't come through in taste. The hops don't carry much aroma but do have  a nice level of bitterness to compensate for the sweetness left by the non-fermentable sugars in the honey. It has an aftertaste of honey in the back of your throat.

Mouthfeel:

      First it's overcarbonated. But it has a nice medium body. Honey Brown is also mouthcoating.

Drinkability:

     Where it is a little sweeter than most beers I don't think that I myself could drink too many before I had had too much of a good thing, and the slightly heavier body of this beer compared to others means that it is quite filling. It's overcarbonated however I don't think in this case that it impedes the drinkability of it. This would be a good beer if you wanted to enjoy 2 or 3 at a time, not a good beer to drink a case of.

     I am in the process of moving back to Nova Scotia, and I didn't have any glasses so I actually ended up drinking and reviewing this beer from a ziploc container, not the classiest way of drinking a beer but you've gotta do what you've gotta do, and all in the name of beer science.

Quidi Vidi Honey Brown Ale

2.5 / 5

Quidi Vidi Premium

Product:    Quidi Vidi Premium
Producer:  Quidi Vidi Brewery
Made In:    St. John's, NL, Canada
Style:        Pale Lager
Alcohol:     5% alc./vol.
Price:        $13.69 / 6pk

     Quidi Vidi (QV) Premium is another beer similar to the QV Light as that it's aimed at attracting the same type of market as the big boys, Molson-Coors, and AB-Inbev. You can buy  this in either 12, 6 , or you can also buy it as part of QV variety pack. I bought the variety pack to save myself some cash, but I have purchased some QV products in the past. I would also like to mention that throughout the course of the year QV has gone through some major updating including their website and labels. In my own opinion I think that the new labels and in some cases the new names of the beer, have been a great improvement. Ironically enough this was one of QV's first beers they put into production, under the name Northern Lager. After a legal suit with Northern Breweries they changed the name to just "QV". Finally earlier this year the name changed again to the simple Quidi Vidi Premium. 

Appearance:

     QV Premium pours crystal clear and very pale yellow in colour, not unlike the QV light. It has a nice bright white head which dissipates to a film after about a minute.

Aroma:

     There are not a lot of aromas that I can detect, then again I was working in drywall dust yesterday so that could be just me. I can smell a bit of malt and a bit of the grassy floral notes probably coming from the hops but that's about it.

Flavour:

     This is definitely a mainstream beer, with mainstream flavours. It's probably biased but I knew what I was getting into before I had even poured it. It's a little on the sweet side. This is from the malts. Again i get a bit of a metallic taste. It's pretty clean taste overall though, probably because it's a bit more bland. It's mainstream and is kind of mindless is flavour.

Mouthfeel:

     QV premium is light to medium bodied. It's on the watery side, but it wasn't unpleasant or characterless. This beer is over-carbonated and again had bit of a metallic aftertaste.

Drinkability:

     It's pretty standard fare. You can drink this all day and night. Very clean. Only drawback is that it's a bit on the bubbly side.

    I don't know if I would have reviewed this beer and QV light, if they weren't included in the variety pack. I wasn't interested in mainstream domestic beers even if they were from Newfoundland or else I would have picked up a case of Black Horse, India, Dominion, Jockey Club, or any other domestic brands made by Molson-Coors or Labatt's. This is a beer that you can pick up and bring to any event, but it's not special, and it's not meant to be. I reviewed these two first to get them out of the way so that I could get to the really special and exciting beers in the QV line-up.

Quidi Vidi Premium

1.5 / 5

Reviews to watch for:

1. Quidi Vidi 1892
2. Quidi Vidi Eric's Cream Ale
3. Quidi Vidi Honey Brown
4. Rickard's Dark

Quidi Vidi Light

Product:   Quidi Vidi Light
Producer: Quidi Vidi Brewing Company
Style:       Light Lager
Made in:   Quidi Vidi, NL, Canada
Alcohol:    4.0% alc./vol.
Price:       $13.69 per 6pk

    Quidi Vidi Village, is just minutes from St. John's. This small fishing village is home to Newfoundland's largest microbrewery. I was fortunate enough to be able to tour the brewery last summer. They offer multiple styles of beers catering to different markets. I'll be sure to put up an entire page about the brewery later. I've talked with Dave Rees, co-founder of QV and he says that QV light is their most popular, and the backbone of QV's revenues.

Appearance:

     Absolutely perfectly clear. Very light in colour. Very Pale yellow. Like most beers a bit of head with the pour, and dissipated to no head at all.

Aroma:

     QV light almost has a floral, grassy aroma. You can smell the malts. It doesn't have a whole lot to really smell in the beer itself. slightly sour smelling and a bit papery. 

Flavour:

      Very mild flavour. A little on the sour side to start, a little bit of sweetness from the malt, and only a very little bit of bitterness from the hops. The beer almost has a metallic taste to it as well. I thought that it was very bland overall. It is very clean though. This beer lacks any discernible flavours or characters that would make this a flavourful beer.

Mouthfeel:

     This beer is very light bodied, and has very little character in the way of mouthfeel. It is very watery and again has a bit of a metallic mouthfeel/aftertaste. Way over-carbonated.

Drinkability:

     QV is very drinkable. Very light in taste and is very clean. It's a little bit bland which could get boring after a few, and its over-carbonated. But if that's what your looking for in a beer I would give it a try, especially if you drink any domestic light beers

      It's unique in the way that it's prepared and I think that this beer is marketed towards Newfoundlanders who want to buy a local and pure beer, but still want to enjoy a light beer. It's a beer, which is all there really is to it. There is nothing special about it as far as flavour goes. What sets this beer apart is that its brewed locally, contains no preservatives and no additives.

   Quidi Vidi Light

1 / 5

Reviews to look out for:

1. Quidi Vidi Premium Lager
2. Quidi Vidi Honey Brown
3. Quidi Vidi 1892 Traditional Ale
4. Quidi Vidi Eric's Cream Ale
5. Rickard's Dark

Samuel Adams Octoberfest

Product:   Samuel Adams Octoberfest
Style:       Märzen (March Beer)
Producer: The Boston Beer Company
Made In:   MA, United States
Alcohol:   5.3% alc./vol.
Price:      $14.99 per 6pk

     This was the first Samuel Adams that I had ever tried. It was October at the time that I purchased it so I thought that it was appropriate. The name Octoberfest I found was almost misleading. When I think of Oktoberfest I think of all of the German style Pilsners. Instead what the Boston Beer Company offers is a traditional Märzen, which would be brewed in March, lagered all summer and  enjoyed in the October festivals. And so expecting a Pilsner, I poured the bottle into to my mug and found this delightful surprise.

Appearance:

    Leagues away in appearances from the Pilsner I was expecting. Samuel Adams Octoberfest is  a reddish amber beer in colour. I was disappointed with head retention, there wasn't very much head after I poured and what head was there dissipated completely. I think that has more to do with my mug coming from the freezer though. I think the cold killed the head. Oops.

Aroma:

     The Octoberfest had some very rich and complex aromas. The first aromas are of a very rich malty and caramel-like notes. Very roasty smell. It smells slightly like maple syrup. More mild aromas include alcohol, nuts, and hops. The hops smell a little bit floral and a little spicy.

Flavour: 

     This was definitely a sweeter beer. The maple syrup and caramel aromas come back as flavours and fuse into a really malty, caramel flavour profile. The hops come in later at the end of the taste providing the mild bitterness and spice flavour needed to balance off the sweetness. I normally don't like a sweeter beer, however Samuel Adams Octoberfest found a rich and complex balance between sweet and bitter.

Mouthfeel:

     This beer has a really smooth texture. It has a nice mouthfeel, medium body. I thought that the carbonation of the beer was spot on, I didn't feel bloated after drinking it. It had a very warming characteristic to the mouthfeel.

Drinkability:

      Bring this beer to your next sitting with friends and impress them.  What an easy drinking beer. It's not over-carbonated. The flavour profile is smooth, the finish isn't perfectly clean which leaves you with an aftertaste of malt that leaves you wanting more. I purchased this beer and drank 5/6 of the bottles within the first two days, I had to hide this bottle in the back and practice my feeble willpower in order to get it to review. If you can find this on tap, I think it could only be enhanced.

     After I took the cap off of the beer and noticed that this beer had won a gold medal in internation competition. After trying this beer, I am not surprised.  I might have had my beer a little colder than I should have, I think it would have been even better slightly warmer, but I couldn't help myself from finishing it. What a well rounded beer. My hat comes off to Jim Koch and the rest of the Boston Beer Company to recreating a traditional Märzen beer.

Samuel Adams Octoberfest

4.5 / 5

     I am getting ready to leave Newfoundland and return to Nova Scotia so I have decided squeeze in as many Newfoundland Craft Beers as possible. I have shipped 3 bottles of Yellowbelly beer to N.S. already so I plan to review those probably around Christmas. Reviews to keep an eye out for:

1. Quidi Vidi Eric's Cream Ale
2. Quidi Vidi 1892
3. Quidi Vidi Premium
4. Quidi Vidi Honey Brown
5. Quidi Vidi Light

Rickard's White

Product:       Rickard's White

Style:           Belgian Wheat Ale

Producer:     Molson-Coors Canada

Made in:       Canada

Alcohol:       5.4% alc./vol.

Price:          $3.95 per 473ml can


     Before I get into the review, I sat down to do a side-by-side comparison between Rickard's and Keith's White. I honestly didn't imagine that I would find many differences between the two but I was surprised when I tried them both together. I think your personal preference would depend on your own tasting but I found that they each had their own properties. This was a very pleasant and flavourful beer, but if you are looking to decide yourself between a few white ales, I'd suggest picking up a few different brands and tasting them at the same time.


Appearance:
This beer is very light in colour and the cloudiness of the beer is why it's called  a white ale. The beer was slightly more orange when compared to the colour of Keith's white. The colour of the head was a bright white with large bubbles. There was a significant head while pouring however even by the time I had photographed the beer, the head had deteriorated, and by the time a tasted it there was only a film.


Aroma:
     It says so on the can, and I don't think they were trying to make it a subtle flavour, they added orange peels and lots of them to this beer. You can smell it right away a very bright and fresh citrousy aromas. You can also smell a little hint of coriander although this is a much more subtle smell. There are some sweet straw-like aromas that also come out in the beer. There are no hop aromas that I could detect. Overall a very fragrant and fruity aroma.


Flavour:
     Rickard's White is very flavourful without a doubt. My initial thoughts were that it tasted almost like someone took a light bodied beer and mixed a little orange juice with it. After the initial taste of acidic and citrus, the flavour develops and you get some sweet malts notes. You don't notice the coriander until the finish of the beer but it's a good thing that it's there because the hops simply aren't. I think when Molson-Coors developed this beer they were trying to make that orange flavour apparent and trying to expand on fruit-beers with the public. I think that this would be a lot nicer beer with some hops and bitterness at the end to counter the citrus and the sweetness of this beer. Having said all of this, this beer has a fantastically clean finish. This would be a good beer for a BBQ or to have during any summertime meal.


Mouthfeel:
     The body is light as I expected it would be, but the beer and the flavours are still full and rich. Rickard's white is a little bit over-carbonated but is overall on-par for the beers overall mouthfeel.


Drinkability:
      Despite being a very light bodied beer, and despite that this beer has very little aftertaste and finishes very cleanly, I don't think this is a beer that most people could drink more than one or two of in a sitting. There is just too much citrus and too sweet to drink a case on your own in an afternoon. One or two with a meal or on a hot summer day I can see to be very refreshing and I think that is how this beer is meant to be enjoyed.


     I enjoyed trying the two whites side-by-side. Keith's and Rickard's Both used oranges and spices, but only Keith's used Hops. Out of the two I think that Keith's White is more drinkable however if you are looking for a summer Beer to have while you sunbathe on the deck I would definitely recommend trying Rickard's White as an alternative to the generic domestic light beers.

Rickard's White

3 / 5

Reviews to look Out For:

Rickard's Dark

Samuel Adams Octoberfest

Quidi Vidi Erics Red Cream Ale

Leffe Blonde

Product:       Abbey of Leffe Blonde

Style:           Strong Belgian Abbey Ale

Producer:     InBev Belgium

Made in:       Belgium

Alcohol:       6.6% alc./vol.

Price:          $14.49 for 6pk of 33cl bottles  ($2.42/bottle)

      I decided to give this beer a try for a number of reasons. One reason was up to this point I have only reviewed domestic Canadian beer. Another reason was the packaging caught my attention, and lastly I wanted to review something very different. This beer, is exactly that, very different. If you haven't a blonde beer with enough flavour, look no further because this is the beer. This beer however is not for the beginner beer enthusiast and not something to bring to the next Superbowl party.

Appearance:

Leffe blonde is a very deep golden colour, almost amber. The head is snow white. It poured with a good amount of head which melted away to a film on the top of the glass.

Aromas:

You can get all kinds of aromas but what really hit me the most was the smell of canned corn. The over the top sweet fruity aromas coming from this beer are unique. Aromas of apple and especially a banana smell come from it as well as a hint of cloves. You can smell the little bit of extra alcohols and it gives it almost a sour vinous aroma as well.

Flavours:

The flavours begin well in a nice slightly sour, bitter, creamy way but for me at least this was the very peak of the flavour. After this the middle and the finish of the beer the flavours go downhill. After the initial taste you get this overwhelming sweetness, too sweet in my opinion. It finishes off very fruity, very bitter, and again with a bit of a sulfury, canned corn taste. the bitterness is good and the little bit of a touch of cloves is nice as well. The aftertaste isn't good at all you get this very raw metallic aftertaste that I don't care for. Overall the flavour is very sweet, and reminiscent of cooked corn.

Mouthfeel:

I think that the mouthfeel of this beer was very good.  The beer was a little gassy, I found that if you took a smaller sip that the sip turned into foam before I had a chance to swallow it. But, it's a very mouthcoating, full-bodied beer which I was pleasantly surprised about.

Drinkability:

The overly sweet, slightly gassy, full bodied beer is not my first choice if I was going to take something out amongst friends. It's a very filling beer and something I believe a beer lover could enjoy a glass of but I find it hard to conceptualize drinking the whole 6 pack in one evening. In fact this is the last of the 6 that I am reviewing. I could drink maybe 1/2 of a bottle before feeling that I had had too much of it.

      Overall I think this beer has some very strong aroma and flavours, which might not be pleasant for the average beer consumer. It has some very good flavours but I think that it's a beer that most will have to learn to fully appreciate. I think that the biggest hurdle for me was that I found it too sweet and possibly too rich. This beer is something to have a bottle of now and then, but I don't see myself introducing it to my friends whose idea of exotic imports is Heineken.

Leffe Blonde

2.5 / 5



Rickard's Blonde

      I had tried all of the speciality and made by Alexander Keith's (Labatt's) which were brought to market to help compete with Rickard's (Molson-Coors). I have started to review the Rickard's series as well. Later I will do a side by side comparison of each beer after I have tasted both. The Rickard's blonde and Keith's Blonde are so completely different I don't feel that it would make sense to compare them side by side. Keith's is a warm rich blonde ale whereas Rickard's is a German-style lager.

Product:     Rickard's Blonde           

Brewer:     Molson - Coors

Style:         Pilsner, Lager

Alcohol:     5.0% alc/vol

Price:        $3.95 per 473ml can

Appearance: 

This beer doesn't look any different then a lot of other beer. Very pale in colour and its perfectly clear. What surprised me was that this beer, unlike Alexander Keith's actually retained a film of head after the initial pour.  The head started at approximately an inch and reduced to about an 1/8th of an inch.

Aroma: 

The first thing that hits the nose is the fruitiness. Rickard's Blonde has a very light and airy floral notes. You can smell the sweetness of malt  and there are some nice hoppy notes as well.

Flavour:

The flavour is nice and hoppy, which is to be expected in a German style pilsner. very yummy. Nice dry finish, not much of an aftertaste to speak of. The bitterness is pretty good in relation to the malts. it's not very sweet but the extra bitterness from the hops i think is the star of this beer.

Rickard's Blonde

3.5 / 5

Alexander Keith's Ambrosia Blonde

             Alexander Keith's released two brew master limited edition beers this summer, the first was a brown ale and the second was the ambrosia blonde, which arrived shortly after Rickard's released their blonde. Their harvest brown was a big success however I think this might be the last time that we see the ambrosia blonde on the shelves. It wasn't a bad beer.

Beer: Alexander Keith's Ambrosia Blonde
Type: Blonde Ale
Alcohol: 5.2% apv
Price: $3.95 for a 473ml can

Aroma: The aroma is mild and slightly floral. There you can certainly    get a good nose-full of hops, but it doesn't over-power the malts

Appearance: The beer is a deeper golden colour. After the initial pour there was no head retention whatsoever.

Taste: You can taste the difference that all-malt brewing can make. This beer was really good. I had tried the Rickard's blonde before and I had expected a similar taste however its a much more mild and rich beer in comparison. It has a little bit of a sweet after-taste but the hops really help round off the flavours.

Mouthfeel: The beer is over-carbonated, probably to appeal to the summer crowd. Big bubbles hit your tongue almost immediately. It has a little bit more body than your typical Keith's IPA, but it still isn't what I would consider a medium bodied beer like they advertised.

Drinkability: Like I said before it's a over-carbonated which means that if you wanted to have more than 2 or three you are going to bloat up like a parade balloon. Besides that, it has a wonderful finish and its easy to drink  a half dozen of them.

        I think with a blonde beer, people know what to expect, however this wasn't at all what i expected. I was anticipating Keith's IPA with maybe some extra hops. What I found was a richer beer, a little bit drier than  their IPA and a more complex flavours. All that being said, its slightly above your standard blonde ale.

Alexander Keith's Ambrosia Blonde

3 / 5

Alexander Keith's Harvest Ale



         Alexander Keith's has released two limited brews for the fall season the first being Alexander Keith's Harvest Ale. This beer is a brown ale crafted in the traditional fashion. Here is what Keith's had to say about their beverage.

      "We're proud to share with you our Brewmaster's limited release of Alexander Keith's Harvest Ale. It has been Carefully crafted with a blend of speciality malts and select North American hops. This rich brown ale delivers a unique taste with hints of caramel and roasted malt."


Product:          Alexander Keith's Harvest Ale
Style:              Brown Ale
Alcohol:          5.3% apv
Price:             $3.95 for a 473ml can




Aroma: 
Thankfully I could really get a good smell of the hops in this brew.Very mild aroma, just a hint of the hops and roasted malts. I didn't find the caramel to come but the aroma hops certainly come through.


Appearance: 
Keith's Harvest Ale has a very dark brown colour and had a beautiful white head for the first 15 seconds after its pour but like the other Keith's I've tried the head dissipated quite quickly. I think that this beer would retain its head if it were kegged.


Taste: 
You definitely taste the roast malts and hops right a way. The caramel doesn't stand out as much as they claim you can get a hint of it but the hops over power the subtleties of the roast caramel. Overall the taste is balanced quite well, the extra hops really gives it the extra bitterness that should be expected in a fall brown ale and helps balance out the taste of the slightly higher alcohol content. The hops give it a slightly bitter after-taste as well.


Mouthfeel: 
This beer was similar to other brown ales that I've had before. It had more carbonation than I would prefer but it wasn't too bad. Overall I thought it was suitable.


Drinkability: 
I can definitely see myself drinking through a case of this with a few friends in a evening. Very drinkable. Because of the lower carbonation than most beers it sits fairly well. Because the taste is rich yet still mild i think that most people could enjoy this beer.


      Overall I thought that it was a  good beer. I Found that it reminded me a lot of Newcastle Brown. Its a beer full of flavour but not so much flavour that it would discourage me from sharing it with friends.

 Alexander Keith's Harvest Ale

3.5 / 5

Alexander Keith's Dark Ale

      Alexander Keith's has been pumping out a lot of new products over the past few years. First came their traditional IPA, then their light ale, then their red, and finally came their dark ale. Keith's were producing a stout which they only sold on tap in a few Nova Scotian bars. They later decided to release Keiths dark onto the market. the beer poured well and initially formed quite a nice head, which later disappeared.


Beer: Alexander Keith's Dark Ale
Type: Dark Ale
Alcohol: 4.1% apv
Price: $3.95 for a 473ml can


Aroma: The first note that hits you is that chocolate malt. Its a very rich smell and has this almost woodsy smell to it. You can pick up a bit of coffee smell from it too.


Appearance: The beer is black with a hint of reddish brown. The head that formed consisted of very large bubbles with a a dirty brown colour.


Taste: Keiths rendition is weaker in flavour then a lot of import beers. You still get the fruitiness of the ale yeasts but more importantly you get that coffee/chocolate/caramel flavour combination that you can only find in dark ales. The hop presence is weak and its not as bitter as I might have expected it to be. It reminds me a lot of the Rickards Dark, but it doesn't quite live up to the dark ales of Europe.


Mouthfeel:  I'm usually disappointed with the mouthfeel that you get from domestic breweries. This was no exception. While the beer tastes good, smells good and looks good, the mouthfeel is quite watery. This was also apparent with how quickly the head dissipated. The beer was a little more carbonated than I would have liked and I felt bloated not long after drinking it. Overall I found the mouthfeel to be week.  but it is a little on the bubbly side. The mouthfeel would have been a lot better if the beer had a creamier body.


Drinkability: Overall it is very drinkable. It has quite a bit more carbonation than a lot of its European counterparts which make it a little harder drink a lot but because of the lighter density and low alcohol (4.1%).
This would make a good beer to have when drinking with friends. I love stouts but lets face it, any more than 2 glasses and you feel full. I can see drinking this rather than stout if you were planning on having more than a few.


Overall this a good beer.This is also a good beer for those who may not have the experience of drinking heavier bodied more flavourful beers.

Alexander Keith's Dark Ale

3.5 / 5