White Out
Sleeping Giant Brewing Co.

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, 473mL in a pint glass. From my favourite LCBO at Tecumseh Mall in nearby Windsor. My second beer from the Thunder Bay, Ontario brewery, and first for 2025.

 

I got a tall boy can of this beer from The Beer Store in Fort Frances, Ontario whilst there for my son's hockey showcase. It poured a hazy golden with fizzy white head that dissipated quickly and did not leave much lace. The scent had dank guava and papaya notes. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink with crisp sweet malt base with pineapple, mango, and fuava presence. The mouthfeel was lighter in body with good carbonation. Overall it is a great beer.

 

This a well balanced hazy IPA. The nose is very tropical. The pour is a hazy light golden orange. The head is thick and bright. The taste is less forward than the nose but has a nice malt backbone. Has a great creamy mouthfeel.

 

Look: Pours a opaque light golden orange colour. Strong fluffy 2 1/2 finger bright white head on an aggressive pour. The head is still a full 1/3 finger across the top with substancial lacing after 5 minutes.

Smell - Mandarin oranges, summer melon, kiwi, mangos, vague lemon and slight bubble gum notes. Juicy and tropical.

Taste: Sweet oranges with lemon on the front end. Very quickly a grainy malt backbone shows up and mixes with the citrus tropical orange flavours. The back end of the sip is tart and bitter, with lemongrass and hoppy pine flavours dominant.

Feel: Medium light bodied and generaly creamy and the front of the sip. The finish is tart and crisp almost to the point of being prickly.

This is a more complex beer than I'm used to from Sleeping Giant. Smells, and starts off tasting very juicy and soft, only to shift gears mid drink into something far more prickly and sharp. I give it a B, a good beer, but one I didn't particularly enjoy.

Pours a hazed deep gold with a large tight-pored cap....aromas of citrus, mango and musty yeast funk...medium body, smooth on the palate and mild, good balance, bright fruity character....front side is a nice chew on juicy citrus hops and pale malts...goes to a long wet finish with a modest hop bite at the end..a mild and sessionable NEIPA

I bought a can at the LCBO in Ontario
473ml at 6.1%.
Poured into glass with a 2 finger head that lasted for awhile leaving a lace as you drink it.
Lots of tropical fruit flavors with a medium bitterness level.
Overall a nice creamy beer .
Cheers

Pours a semi-cloudy golden orange. Mine was hazy enough — reviewer below might have had one that had sat and had really had the sediment collect at the bottom. I like to ‘gently’ agitate unfiltered beers, just enough to wake it up before I pour so I get just a little bit of the sediment, so YMMV. A fairly dense 1 inch head appears before dissipating after a few minutes, leaving a strong impression via lacing around the glass.

Aromas, wow, they whack you with pineapple and mango + papaya. Tropical fruits rule here, but you can absolutely get some notes of other hops in the background, namely citrus aromas. Some very gentle grapefruit and lemon-like in the background. I personally did not notice the scales tipping towards a malty smell dominating the hops, but it does very much balance it out on the taste. My can was absolutely hop forward on the aromas.

Taste is more subdued than the nose and this is where the malt comes out a little bit more. You’re hit with a very gentle bitterness, and very juicy tastes of mango. Towards the finish the grainy, malty, and mildly bready tastes appear and leave you with a certain bitter sweetness. As with many IPAs, if you look for it, you’ll find some earthy and piney notes as well, though they are not front and centre in this beer whatsoever.

Medium-light bodied with relatively good carbonation, small bubbles run up the glass, giving it a very gentle prickliness on the sip before it flattens and coalesces into a creamy swallow.

This is where I mention that I am not a particularly noted IPA drinker. So my recommendation — if you’re like me, you’ll likely love this. The bitterness is not too strong at all, and the malty grainy notes are something you’ll be used to. It’s very balanced with a pleasant smell. People used to strong IPAs might find this a tad too restrained or mild. For what it is, it’s a very enjoyable blend of flavours that presents as a very smooth, tasty beer.

March 31 2026

 

473 mL can from the LCBO; dated Jun 2 2020 and served slightly chilled.

Pours a cloudy, translucent golden-orange colour, giving rise to one finger of foamy white head that dissipates within two or three minutes' time. A sloppy swath of gorgeous lacing is flung about in the process, with a soapy collar of froth also remaining in place; looks as you'd expect for the style, but the aroma is comparatively subdued and not particularly juicy. Hints of indistinct citrus and tropical fruit - I'm leaning towards mandarin orange, mango and lychee - along with hints of earthy, slightly floral hops.

It tastes mostly of grapefruit and passion fruit, with hints of mandarin orange, mango and melon also coming through; meanwhile, its wheaty, grainy pale malts and oats supply a mildly sweet backdrop that lasts throughout the sip. The fruitier hop flavours persist through a slightly earthy, spicy finish with a touch of resiny bitterness, culminating in a brief tropical fruity aftertaste. Medium in body, with lively carbonation that gently tickles the surface of the palate, providing a bit of bite to its otherwise soft, fairly smooth texture.

Final Grade: 3.84, a B+. Sleeping Giant's White Out is a technically sound and more than serviceable IPA, though I'm not sure it stands out all that much in a sea of similar options - there's just nothing particularly distinguishing about it. That being said, it's still one of the better SG brews I've had the chance to sample, and I enjoyed the entirety of the glass, so I'll more than likely return to this one in the near future. Recommended to hopheads everywhere.