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