Senator Alberta Birthday Ale
Village Brewery

 

 

650ml bottle, where the name pretty much says it all, except for mention of the dude on the label, one Senator Patrick Burns, 'Alberta's Greatest Citizen', apparently. I'll have to look that one up later.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium golden yellow colour, with a teeming tower of puffy, loosely foamy, and bubbly off-white head, which leaves some scattered island group lace around the glass as it slowly but surely bleeds away.

It smells of clove and mixed peppercorn spice, bready and doughy pale malt, an earthy yeastiness, muddled domestic citrus rind, and some understated leafy, weedy, and zesty floral green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy pale malt, a much lesser caramel sweetness, gently phenolic Belgian yeast, a still heady clove and rainbow peppercorn spiciness, still hard to discern generic citrus peel, and more laid-back earthy, weedy, and gently perfumed floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is quite active in its swirling and mousse-building frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and sort of smooth, as that yeasty character has a small issue of not knowing exactly when to take 5, and smoke 'em if ya got 'em. It finishes off-dry, the malt and muted fruitiness continuing to take in on the chin from the yeast and spice esters.

Overall, this is a perfectly fine brew, with lots of robust flavour abounding. The trouble with hybrid styles, is that you don't know going in which side will be favoured, or if it will be an equal meeting of worlds. Here, they've obviously emphasized the 'Belgian' over the 'IPA', and there's nothing wrong with that. But now I (and you) know.

Appearance - Pours a pale amber with three fingers of bubbly foamy white head that leaves a nice lacing on the glass.

Smell - belgian yeast, clove, pepper, spicy hops, citrus, orange, and stone fruit aromas, and bready malts.

Taste - Starts off with a pleasant punch from the belgian yeast, clove, and pepper. The citrus, orange, and stone fruit come through next followed by the bready malts. The spicy hops are there but are dominated by the belgian yeast.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with light to moderate carbonation. Finishes sticky with the yeast lingering.

Overall - A Belgian IPA that a fantastic aroma but did not translate well in the taste. The hops were subdued by the yeast and citrus, orange, and stone fruit which is disappointing because of the potential this beer had in the smell.