Here are the fruits of my trauma-suppressing labours -- the top local beers of the last year.
Bellwoods Brewery's Motley Cru
The name given to the beer that Bellwoods opts to release on their birthday in April each year, the ingredients and process of this second installment had nothing to do with the first Motley Cru--and little to do with any other beer either. A blend of IPAs, Motley Cru was barrel-aged with funkifying Brett Lambicus yeast for 14 months before it was dry-hopped and then bottle-conditioned with fresh champagne yeast for another two months. The resulting beer had some of the most enticing aromas I've ever smelled in a beer--I'm talking stick-your-nose-in-the-glass monster oak notes and ripe fruits.
Great Lakes Brewery's Thrust! An IPA
Whenever I write about IPAs, a handful of commenters feels the need to pile on about Ontario's craft brewers and a perceived propensity toward "overly-hopped" beers. Thrust! An IPA is the beer that proves there is no such thing. This beer was hops on hops on hops and its execution proved how amazing that can be in the hands of an adept brewer. For this beer, which rightly took home gold in the American IPA category at the 2014 Canadian Brewing Awards, brewmaster Mike Lackey proves his mettle (again) by crafting a ridiculously layered beverage that could have easily been a one-note mess in a lesser brewer's hands.
Amsterdam Brewery's Reserve Saison
Most people know that Amsterdam brewmaster Iain MacOustra makes some excellent beer, but what they don't know is that he's something of a closet oenophile, too. Released around thanksgiving, Reserve Saison was a blend of several saisons from Amsterdam's cellars as well as two different fresh batches. It was aged with funky Brettanomyces yeast, then barrel-aged on lees, the dead yeast cells left over from wine fermentation. The result was an absurdly delicious beer with aromas of fruit and funk that's equal parts tart, sweet, and smooth.
Indie Alehouse's 99 Luftballoons
This beer was actually made prior to 2014, but I'm including it here for two reasons: 1. It's my list and I can do whatever I want, and 2. This year's batch (there's one keg left, on tap now at Indie) was aged in chardonnay barrels about 6 months longer than previous batches, and for my tastes, the added depth makes it somehow so much better than previous iterations that it's practically a different beer. With notes that sound vaguely disparaging, this thin, low carbonation, tart beer manages a remarkable refreshingness while still being full of vaguely puckering flavours like oak and sour apple.
Bellwood's Brewery's Skeleton Key
If you told me you wanted to include anything related to rum in my beer, I'd probably run from you just as fast as I ran from the principal after I vomited on that dance floor in grade eleven. Fortunately, the folks at Bellwoods know how to make it work and this beer, released in October, ended up mind-meltingly delicious. An imperial stout that was aged in rum barrels for an entire year with ginger, allspice, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg, and juniper berries, Skeleton Key is about as rich and deep a stout as you're ever likely to find.
Honourable mentions:
Left Field Brewery's Sunlight Park Saison - A near-perfect summer sipper made with grapefruit and named after the city's first baseball stadium.
Great Lakes Brewery's Limp Puppet - When the province started trending toward low-alcohol "session" beers, Toronto's residing hop king said, "Sure I can do that, too" and absolutely murdered the concept of hoppy beer you can drink all day.
Nickel Brook's Uber - In case you've been living under a rock, take note: Nickel Brook's brewer Ryan Morrow is seriously upping the Burlington brewery's beer game these days. Exhibit A: this near-perfect Berliner Weisse.
Sawdust City and Bar Hop's Blood of Cthulu - An imperial stout brewed in a collaboration between Gravenhurst's Sawdust City Brewery and staff from Toronto's Bar Hop, Blood of Cthulu features raspberries, cranberries and tart cherries and tasting notes that include the phrase "black as the blood of a malevolent demi-god." That's probably all you need to know.
Ben Johnson also writes about beer over on Ben's Beer Blog. You can follow him on twitter @Ben_T_Johnson.
Photo from Bellwoods Brewery
by Ben Johnson via blogTO
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