Neighbour
Village Brewery

The Village Neighbour is better than you expect your own neighbours to be.... House favourite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

330ml bottle, a self-professed 'Canadian Pale' - I'm down with that concept.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium copper amber colour, with two chubby fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some splattered sudsy lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of grainy and bready caramel malt, exotic citrus, a further berry-like fruitiness, and some woodsy, leafy, and earthy green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy caramel malt, muddled tropical fruit, a bit of relatively mundane orange and white grapefruit rind, a weird berry/candy sweetness, and more understated leafy, herbal, and grassy verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-supporting frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, just a touch of hop acerbity perhaps taking the sheen off of things here. It finishes off-dry, barely, as the lingering hop bitterness nudges the base malt right down.

Overall, Village seems to have succeeded in what they apparently set out to do - creating a hybrid of the now rather complicated English/American pale ale spectrum. Just hoppy enough to know that you're in the New World, and not so much so that you'd be mistaken for being a stereotypically brash American. Yeah, this is Canadian, all right, and proud of it!

330ml bottle pored into tulip 29/3/17

A clear golden copper, a thick stream from the bottom feed a short lived finger of foam that leaves just a few patches of lace

S earthy, woody, leafy hops, canned peaches, citrus, soft caramel and bread, nice mix going on here, nothing runs away with it

t faint spruce, cotton candy, everything else is still there in one form or another, again its has enough going on to please

M medium weight, prickly bubbles end up creaming up, an earthy fruity aftertaste linger

O one of the better beers I've had from Village, I could drink a 6er of this stuff by the river or something to bring to a party

I could drink this stuff again and I don't remember the last time I bought a Village 6er so this is a big step in the right direction

Appearance - Pours a warm honey/amber with two fingers of foamy off-white head.

Smell - Citrus, leafy, and tropical hops, grapefruit peel, pineapple, peach, orange, biscuity malts, caramel, and toffee.

Taste - Citrus/leafy/tropical hops up front, really nice notes of the tropical and citrus fruit aforementioned. Malts are biscuity with notes of caramel. Very well balance flavours.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Slightly sticky finish on the palate and lingering hop aftertaste.

Overall - This is a great entryway American pale ale for those who are interested in trying out the style. The flavours are well balanced, but not muddied in anyway - you can still pick out all the flavours individually. So happy to see Village Brewery getting into hoppier territory.