ottawa foodies

OK, based on some recent comments of mine ( Forum - Craft Beer?post_id=39902#post_39902 ) I picked up a can of Rickard's Dark when buying my father's day beer. Trying to stay open minded here.

My first sip was "holy fe*k that's some wicked gravy browning" ... then I realised this was not a very open-minded comment. So I backtracked and tried to form a better opinion of it, and what exactly I meant my that.

It's sweet. Very, very sweet. In fact, in a single-blind test on the front porch just now I handed my glass to refashionista and said "tell me what you think" without mentioning what it was. She just took a sip and made half a face and said "it's sweet". I asked "good sweet, or bad sweet". She said "weird sweet" and paused for a moment and added "I wouldn't want to drink a whole glass of it".

Me neither, really, but I will because I don't want to waste it.

The label says "Porter Brewed" which means they might as well kick me right in the nads because WTF is "Porter Brewed" supposed to mean? I guess it means it is supposed to be a Porter. OK, I have not had a Porter in some time and I know there are a few types of them that are different from each other, so maybe there is one out there which is really (sickly) sweet like that. But the Propeller Porter I love so much certainly is not. There is certainly no roast flavour in this and I'm pretty sure there is supposed to be roast in all Porters.

Anyway, it is not a hideously offensive beer, I guess. Nor it is a really great beer that I'd like to buy again. But I'll buy more of the Rickard's line to try.

Hahaha... great write-up, Zym!

The only Rickard's I actually like is *draught* Rickard's Red. But I like it a lot! (With apologies to Alexander Keiths' advertising department.) Have you tried that lately? Do I have to buy you one? ;-)

Rickards never blows me away. It's decent enough beer vs say, anything else from Molson or Coors, but while the Red was good enough back when there weren't many reds on the market, now there's better beer to be had.

I think Rickard's should stick with the Red. I've tried the white, meh, and Z doesn't make me want to try the Dark. There are many beers that I would order before Rickard's Red, but when only Coors Light, Canadian or Blue is available along side Rickard's Red, Rickard's red is an easy choice. I do enjoy it too.. maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's just a decent tasting beer, or maybe it's because my girlfriend swears it makes her more tipsy than other beers...

I had the white last night. Meh is right. Both Belgian Wit and Bavarian Wheat are 2 of the hardest styles of beer to screw up because they are so incredibly forgiving. Most of their flavour profile comes from what in other beers is considered "off flavours". But somehow Molson managed to screw this one up.

When I first sipped it, I thought "OK, it has the required coriander". But it was really missing the vibrant citrusy character that makes Wits so lively and drinkable on a hot summer day. After a few sips it just became foul. I cannot really pinpoint what was wrong, but it was just heavy and flabby when it should be light and lively. It was CSA night at my house last night which means beer geek night too since a number of my beer geek friends subscribe to the CSA which uses my driveway as a drop off point (CSA owner is also a beer geek). "Meh" was the consensus. Just not there at all.

I tried to choke down a few more drinks of it - I really, really hate wasting beer, and it has to be spectacularly bad for me to dump especially if I paid for it. But this was just too foul even for me. I dumped about 2/3 of it into my hop garden.

I buy most of my beer from the Costco in Quebec and most of the time, I do buy Rickards. It does not blow me away but its good and its available at Costco variety pack of 4 different Rickards beers which I like, mainly because it lets me offer more choice to my guests. I wish more beer brands would do this.

I have started to buy some more artisan beers, and really none of the mainstream ones compare to the taste experience.... sadly, the price can be prohibitive.

Cheers

Pretty sure that in Ontario Beer Stores you can mix-and-match 6 packs of any of the microbrew brands that only sell in 6 packs. That is to say that those beers in 6 packs usually offer a discount if you buy 2 of them, or 4 of them. With similar pricing to a dozen or a two-four. But they let you mix-and-match those 6 packs.

I remember when I first moved into Hintonburg 10 years ago, the Beer Store on Scott used to have pick-your-own six-pack, where you could mix-and-match individual bottles from various companies. Sadly, that is long gone.

Craft beers have spoiled me. I tried to drink an Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale a few weeks back. My that was some tasteless brew. On vacation I switched to unsweetened ice tea because the American mainstream beers were no better than here. There were some bright spots if you found a brewery serving food though. One of them was Lancasrer Brewing. They had a double IPA that was killer called Boss Hog it was seasonal so I could only get their regular IPA to go in bottles. Great little spot if ever anyone is close a must stop to pick up some tasty brew.
www.lbcharrisburg.com/

My rule of thumb is any brewery that names most of their beers after the color of the beer is suspect at best.