Founders Nemesis 2009: Maple Bourbon Barrel Aged Wheat Wine

This is an Anti-Establishment Ale which is right up my alley. "Every batch diabolically brewed to decimate ordinary-average-run-of-the-mill tasting beer."

Maple bourbon barrels... I drool just looking at the label. I had one of these back in April of 2010 and I've been eying one in the back of my fridge ever since. It's easy to get excited about beer when it comes from Founders and I'm curious about how this aged. My valentine this year is a beer and I'm okay with that.

This pours a beautiful dried apricot-rusted yellow with a brilliant, yet hazy orange glow, with flakes of yeast, potential calcium flakes, and proteins swirling around lightly like a snow globe. The head is tight and protein dense, eggshell white and slowly fades to a film coating the top of the surface. This beer looks stunning.

There is a very nice caramel sweetness that tingles the nose at first, followed by that oak, bourbon and earthy maple notes just perfuming through the wheat bite. Wheat sometimes has a way of being grainy, bready and fruity. Banana break and maple glazed walnuts are a predominate aroma in this beer that weaves between the boozy 12% alcohol. I'd be lying if I said you couldn't sense the alcohol from a few whiffs of this brew. Granted, bourbon barrels have a way of adding to this boozy, dried apricots and berry warmth. I'd like to stress that this is a warm dried berry warmth not a cherry hotness. Like any good Canadian, I love maple syrup and this just has such a gentle, earthy maple character. It's woody and adding to a little hop balance to all of the wheat and malts. The barrel gives it a little oxidized aroma that simply gives this beer depth amongst the easily depicted aromas.

The flavours of this beer seem to start on the back of the palate with a lovely bitterness and sparged wheat astringency. This light tingle slowly sinks into the pocket of the tongue with apricots, peaches stewed in caramel. The caramel turns to an oaky, woody dry-sweet and watery glaze on the tip of the tongue. For the most part those tingles of maple in the nose are lost in the depth of this brew. The banana is lost but that lovely wheat and nut bread just glazes over the tongue and pinches the cheeks with the splintered-barrel flavours. The bourbon is the over all lingering expression of this beer that finishes very clean and slightly sweet. The finish is not much different than a nice bourbon that just lays nicely on the back of the tongue.


The carbonation is very moderate and the body is fairly thin considering this looks like a chunky beer and at 12% it's surprising me. Trust me that it's full bodied, but I love the bourbon characteristics that it holds in the mouthfeel. Maybe "full" is wrong to describe this, as it reminds me more of a fluffy marshmallow that is simply dissolving in my mouth. Bourbon has a sweetness that dominates the back pocket of the tongue, there are enough hops to leave that bitter coating on the very back of the tongue, and the roof of my mouth and tip of my tongue just splash in the light watery residues left over. This is something you just have to sense in the mouth all the flavours are spiked by where the sugars, wood, or lack of sugars tend to remain after every mouthful.


This is a great style of beer that isn't over done not to mention the creativity of the brewers to have it aged in maple bourbon barrels is this reason why Founders rule. I drink this and I think of an outstanding weissenbier blended with a dunkel on steroids with a marshmallow mouthfeel and sweetness that just tickles the palate.

As for food pairings, this beer needs an arugula salad with a cilantro & yogurt salad dressing topped with pinenuts, walnuts and golden raisins. The arugula has such a grassy, earthy flavour that would just be perfect for the oaky flavours that linger from the beer. Cilantro also has that green flavour that will cut the beer flavour yet compliment the light hopping of the beer and the bourbon finish. I think salad due to the residual water left in the front of the mouth. This pairing could happen with either beer or salad coming first. You can break this flavour orgy in the mouth with an artisanal wheat bread made with grated beets. A nice dry bread and sweet soil beets with a light olive oil dip will simply cleanse the palate without disrupting the flavours that can blend. Keep in mind, wheat is dry and astringent. This beer has a slight astringency from the wheat and a nice bread with a little oil can go with almost any beer of this depth. (I'd also recommend this with salmon sashimi and a little wasabi.)


For those craving a little more sugar, I wouldn't judge you for popping a big fluffy-white-anti-establisment marshmallow in your gob while drinking this sucker.

Dig in. Indulge. Enjoy.

Alley Kat: 15th Anniversary Cascadian Dark Ale

*Before we start I'd like to make a note about my feelings on "Cascadian Dark Ales" or "Black IPA's"... I just don't like them! The label, the genre, the style, the flavours, etc. "Why are you a hater?" Well, when you consider that in the early 1700's Porters or "Stout Butt Porters" were around 6-9% ABV and 65-85 IBU's this seems to fit these Black IPA's pretty well. This sort of recipe carried on into the early 1900's with a few speed bumps along the way. Rock n' Roll had similar experiences. I do understand the idea of the carafa(de-bittered/de-husked black malt) but some are not using this. Also, "Black IPA" doesn't make sense. I-India... this beer has nothing to do with voyages or trades to India or whatever myth/legend/fact/history you want to believe. P-pale, well dude, Black ain't pale. A-ale, well 1 out of 3 ain't bad. As for "Cascadian" I see that as being lame. Everyone makes a pale ale and they use whatever hops they want. Good for them. Don't make a style as complex as this and base it on the one and only hop you can/should use. You don't see single hop IPA's being labeled as SPA (Simcoe Pae Ale) or CIPA (Centennial India Pale Ale). Okay! Yeah! I totally get the idea of what the beer should be when you get the name, but I still see this just as much as a bastardization as Keith's calling their sugary-beer (most likely a lager) an IPA. Just sayin'. If the B-A or BJCP needs another style call it a Black Bitter or X-TREME ROBUST PORTER. Now I'm being foolish, and I am not trying to take away from the quality of the beer.




This is apart of the 15th Anniversary series that Alley Kat has put out along with a Belgian Tripel, Apple Wit (Cider?), Smoked Porter, and Ginger Beer. A great idea and a lot of work for the brewers. This particular Cascadian Dark Ale is a salute to Cascade hops and the brewers of Cascadia.




I'm guilty of a heavy pour that flowed pure, opaque, jet-black, with a rocky-eggshell white head. The head was a little large (due to my aggressive pour) but great retention none-the-less. The head is similar to when you pour a rootbeer float.




The aroma is very interesting off the top. I've been sticking my nose in this for a while and it keeps getting more and more interesting, yet less and less complex every time (Tip for tasters: The olfactory system has a limit for senses and will become fatigued very quickly. So when you are not sure what you are smelling in your glass anymore, smell the skin of your sleeve, and it kind of resets everything). First on the nose, I get a cola like sensation that reminds me of Crush Birchbeer (only available in Nfld and some Sobey's across Canada where Nfld'ers are abundant...think: Fort Mac). Now, that quickly changes to roasted barley, sweetened coffee, chicory (think smelling a Tim Hortans cup that used to be full of black coffee w/o sugar and has time to cool down), then citrus and tobacco. More tobacco than citrus, it comes across like flavoured rolling papers, where the paper part is leaning towards light oxidation followed quickly by licorice root or star anise and as it warms it takes on characteristics of spiced rum. The citrus is lemon-lime and CO2. Overall I perceive the nose to be very simple despite how "loud" it is.




The flavour hits roasty right off the tip of the tongue, flows to a milk chocolate, molasses, licorice sweetness in the centre of the tongue, and finishes with that dry tobacco, mint, and light lemon-lime citrus bitterness on the finish. The finish is surprisingly dry and kind of makes me grin despite the acidity of this beer. There is a sourness (which is in every beer, hopefully) that makes the middle-back of my tongue tingle in good ways. Overall there is a big Coca-Cola flavour going on with lots of root-like qualities, roasty bits, and a long lingering sweetened licorice that remains closer to the front of the tongue. The bitterness is there as a sheet that coats the back half of the tongue but it is not as powerful as I'd like it to be. The sweetness never covers the back of the tongue or palate. Think of oil on a hot pan that moves away from the heat, well the sugar is moving away from the bitterness and flows to the front of the tongue yet remains pocketed in the bucket of the tongue.




A lot of what I described in the later half of flavour contributes to the mouthfeel, which is a nice carbonation, which I'd consider quite high for the style. The body is full, but not rich. It is really dry, but not astringent other than a little roast kicking around. This beer puts a test to the palate to wonder if you are sensing bitterness or astringency due to roasted grain or hop bitterness. This is a dry beer, but even so it's slightly watery on the finish, which aids in drinking this beer quickly.





This beer as a whole was very well done. I really dig it for what it is. It says exactly what it says it is. If this were a regular offering at a reasonable price I'd buy this in 6 packs of 12-packs. Seriously, great beer and bravo to the brewers. I look forward to sampling the other 15th Anniversary beers from Alley Kat. again, bravo on a well crafted brew!




As for food pairings: I'd put this with a bag of Doritos Sweet Chili Heat or Hawkins Cheezies, put the feet up and watch the game. Life is simple sometimes, no matter how complicated a label may seem.

My First

* I'm going to give the warning that I'll throw out names without description or any previous mention. Why? Because I can.


For any of you who know much about St. John's, Newfoundland, the music industry, University living or life in general, drinking alcohol can be hard to thwart off. Whether you care to give in to pressures of circumstance or not- it was everywhere when I went to University. Going to socials, meet and greets, concerts, parties, the pool hall, or just waiting for the next class at the campus pub. It is indeed a social lubricant and helps people overcome or indulge in social awkwardness.


I'll admit I saw far more awkwardness than anything else, perhaps leading me down the path of just saying "No thanks, I'll pass." when it came to having a beer. Looking back I saved a whole hell-of-a-lot of money that way, which was good considering I didn't have any to begin with. I used to work two or three jobs during summers putting every penny away for tuition. I lucked into cheap/damn near free rent by living with my sister and lived off of cans of zoodles (until I became a vegan, then things got weird) and processed white-bread. It helped meeting a girl who lived at home and had a mother that loved it when I ate her food. (What do you call a drummer without a girlfriend? - Homeless.) Wokka wokka!

Money issues got a little better when I started making a few (and I mean a few) bucks pulling off the singer/song writer deal downtown. I actually made more money doing that than as a drummer playing for every other band within the city. That was about the time I started "indulging" in the vegan lifestyle. As I made the switch from Zoodles to cans of beans, hummus, and lots of noodley type dishes. It forced me to learn how to cook and bake or I would have starved even more so.


Vegetarian was one thing that I started at the age of 16 with the exception of that one night when I was 17(?) when Clayton convinced me to eat one of Harold's balls... They were the most epic-meat balls ever! Vegan...what was I thinking? I've recently learned that some people just can't handle that kind of lifestyle and expect to maintain that thing people call life. I'll openly admit there were a lot of things that aided in how unhealthy I had become over the years of living a vegan lifestyle.



Back to the topic: When accepted into the Music Program at MUN, the percussionists seemed to have a way of socializing that generally revolved around pints after a concert. I always just sat around drinking water until I finally cracked at that one party at my prof/mentor's house. I was asked if I wanted a beer and I just figured "why not!" There was no reason for me to refuse and something about the whole event seemed right. When someone you really look up to and trust offers you something, you generally accept. This is the same person that really opened up and changed my views about music. He had suggested I listen to John Abercrombie - Cat n' Mouse, and he really gave me the insight of what it is to improvise without letting go of technique or vision. It may sound a little radical, but Rob was the kind of guy who made me value life through music. Lessons and rehearsals always seemed to reach beyond technique and simply playing the written music.


A beer called 1982 Traditional Ale from the Quidi Vidi Brewery was put in my hand. At this point I had no idea that the brewery used to be called "Northern" the beloved brewery that my Uncle used to drink gallons of every time he visited. I didn't pour it into a glass like I figured I should have, just drank from the bottle. I remember it kind of hitting my tongue and filling my mouth with flavours that were bitter, still kind of sweet, grainy, and at the time it felt like it was full bodied. The bitterness is something I really remember due to being a coffee junkie and loving that sensation. I nursed that beer for the better half of the social gathering. I nursed it because I really enjoyed the flavour, the sensation, and the surroundings. What better vibe than to be in a room full of peers, mentors, and friends dorking out on drum talk and listening to Tom Waits. What had I been missing out on my entire life? This substance called beer, so rich, fulfilling, bitter, pleasing both cold and warm leaving residual sugars on my tongue and a little gas in my gullet.



How was I supposed to know one beer could spark this sort of passion for beer and everything it has to stand for? To this day I still have a soft spot for that beer and drink a fair bit of it every time I visit my family back home. Recently I did have it and unfortunately it didn't have the bitter beings of the nice English style amber ale it used to be but more of a sweet cream ale (heavily oxidized as well). Complete transformation happened to that beer, but it still holds a place in my heart.


That was the first beer, so I might as well respect it.