Ratclops
Bellwoods Brewery

 

Go Ratclops! It's Your Birthday. Gonna party like It's your birthday....Ok fine, Luckily It's not my Birth-Day, but I'll still party.

So, i used to not really like these IPA Juice flavored hoppy beers, but lately I think I've changed my mind sometime in very late 2024 and have come to acquire a taste for these beers now. Ratclops is an example of a really good IPA beer. I used to drink only lager and stouts until some Kool Kid with a man bun told me to drink some IPA's, of which i did and thought they were alright...and then started looking for IPA's online and in the LCBO store.
Hazy, orange citrous like beer but with a twist. Looks like fresh orange juice maybe, but maybe not.
I could have one of these in the morning...screw the breakfast coffee beers, i never liked them in the morning anyway. I'm making citrous IPA the new breakfast beer. Not stouts.
I'm dead serious. Drink Ratclops for breakfast and pair it with toast, eggs and bacon. You won't have a bad day.
To hell with diet BS. Eat what you want (limit junk food), drink what you want (in moderation.)
I'd buy it again.... i bought it online from Bellwoods website. Probably the last guy to do so because Ratclops is no longer listed for sale after i received my order. I really wanted more.
Anyways, awesome beer and hope they sell more of these. Winner in my book. I'll keep an eye out, eh.

April 29 2024

 

 

Pours the requisite Bellwoods hazy straw with a crackly head. The head coats the glass with lace trails. Intense peach, pineapple, mango hop notes in the nose. The taste follows suit with loads of citrus and tropical hops as well as a minty edge. The mouthfeel is full bodied with medium carbonation. High bitterness and loads of residual tropical fruit in the finish.

Another benchmark IPA from the Toronto masters. Juicy and complex, aggressive yet approachable.

 

 

 

473 mL can from Maud's Variety; dated Jun 27 2022 and served slightly chilled.

Pours a turbid, pale apricot yellow colour, stirring up one finger of soapy, sudsy white head that fades within two or three minutes' time. A tight collar is the sole remnant surrounding an otherwise barren surface; not much lace either. The aroma is understated yet nuanced - slightly grainy and grassy, with hints of melon, pineapple, mango and peach; vaguely citrusy too, with perhaps a suggestion of strawberry.

The flavours follow along the same lines - grainy with light oat sweetness, and fruity hop flavours filling in the remainder of the profile. I'm getting melon, pineapple and stone fruit, with suggestions of orange and mango coming through occasionally; the back end is a little more piney, with some dank, resiny bitterness that reverberates briefly into the aftertaste before going off-dry. Light-medium in body, with moderate carbonation that brushes lightly against the tongue; feels smooth and soft, thanks mostly to the oats, but it's a little on the watery side.

Final Grade: 3.87, a B+. Ratclops is an in-betweener - sure, I could theoretically toss these back one after another without complaint, but I can't come up with a compelling reason to do so. Its expensiveness, though not a factor in my rating, is still a practical hurdle. I guess I just don't think it stands out all that much, certainly not in Bellwoods' catalogue of pale ales. Amongst Ontario hazy pale ales in general, it's still above average, but is that enough to justify its premium price tag? Decide for yourself by giving 'er a try.

1788
Ratclops
Bellwoods Brewing
Pale Ale
ABV 5.6
Date: Unknown
After a long day at work, it is time to relax and drink a cold beer. A good friend gifted me this beer. A Votre Sante! I used a pint glass to serve the beer at around 44 degrees. The pour created a one-fingered frothy bright white head. Head retention is average, dissipating quickly and leaving no lacing on the glass. The color is pale gold with subtle straw yellow, chart around SRM 4. I see haziness; not sure if it is from grains or hops. Overall the appearance of the beer is average. A substandard head hurt the appearance.
Aromatic hops include pine, grapefruit, oranges, pineapple, and resin. Nosing the glass again, I smell crackers, lightly toasted malts, and a touch of bread. Other adjunct aromas I smell are grass, a hint of phenols, and a touch of dank. A melon note comes in after I have nosed the glass several times.
The beer's nose does not match the flavor. The hops are present but not vibrant. The style closely resembles a Northwest Pale Ale. The hops come out as pine, resin, grapefruit, oranges, floral, and a touch of herbal. I also taste crackers, melons, grassy, lightly toasted malts, dankness, cereal grains, and morning dew.
The mouthfeel is creamy and astringent—a medium-light body with medium carbonation. The beer finishes quickly and is a bit watery.
A solid pale ale, but I was not a fan of the slight wateriness. The other Bellwoods beer that I consumed thus far, is my least favorite. Saying that this is still a solid easy sipping pale Ale.

 

More of a miss than a hit acidic mouthfeel for a pale.

Good head production and retention. Body is lemon-yellow and turbid, a NE-style APA without question. It doesn't really strike me as what I expect from an APA, but if it winds up being a modest ABV hop bomb, then that completely makes sense.

On the nose, the emphasis is indeed on hop expression, primarily juicy but with a slight citrus edge. It smells much more like a modern hazy IPA (or even IIPA), with notes of mango, pineapple, melon, and lemon.

Plenty of sting on the palate; watery, even for 5.6% ABV; semi-dry finish; crushable.

Flavor matches the nose. As is often the case with modern hop bombs, as you dial back the ABV (and the malt complement by necessity), it loses some sweetness and richness. This isn't session IPA levels of crackery and bland, and falls well into the range for an IPA masquerading as an APA, but the experience would be improved by a touch more sweetness, especially given a hop flavor profile that really emphasizes tropical fruit, with just a bit of sweetness.

Overall, this is a really nice and enjoyable beer, absolutely crushable but with plenty of hop flavor. I'd take this over a session IPA 10 out of 10 times, but I'd also take a proper IPA or IIPA over this probably 8 out of 10 times.

Poured the color of raw honey and the 1 centimeter bone white head dissipated before I could snap a photo. Curious.
The aroma leapt from the pour, promising a little citrus, a little pineapple, and a lot of peach/apricot/stone fruit flavors. Quite enticing!
The flavor follows, the stone fruit is more pronounced than the citrus and the pineapple is only at the end for me, and may have been what caused the very light sharpness; almost like dankness but not quite.
The feel is consistent with the look, it has body and texture but in the best possible way. Smooth.
OA, another very good beer from Bellwoods! Thank you Peter for sending it my way.