St Andre'
Cool Beer Brewing Co.

 

Poured a 473ml can into a pint glass. A two finger bubbly tan head on a clear copper. The head soon diminishes to a layer. Good lacing.

Smells of caramel. The taste follows the nose with some grain. The taste is fairly mind. A very mild hop finish.

A medium/light body. Good carbonation. Smooth. Overall a decent Vienna Lager. A bit thin in the flavour department but true to the style and pretty good value for the price.

 

This beer is good for any location. It's delicious. Probably my new go to. And it's great... I love everything about this beer
It's finally a beer that's not smokey taste. And it's clean. Very well balanced

 

473ml can poured into dimple mug. No packed on/best before date on the tin. 4.6% ABV

pours a transparent, copper-coloured beer with a little white head that quickly dissipates leaving no lace, and a tiny ring around the top. it's lighter/more orangey than a Rickard's or a Smithwicks. It looks like a lighter Creemore, with less head. A few streams of tiny bubbles rising, but you have to look closely to see them.

Smells sweet, as red lagers tend to do. No odour of hops, but that's not why you drink this beer. Not a brilliant olfactory sensation.

The upfront taste is kinda what you would expect for a discount red lager. It's got a sweetness that is more caramel than cooked malt. It's not really bitter at all. the body is light for a beer this colour, but not bad for 4.6%. The little malty aftertaste is nice.

Overall, St. Andre is consistently one of the least expensive tins of beer you can buy in my neighborhood, but it's not a bad beer; it's a cheap beer, done well. The Cool Brewery makes a variety of budget-friendly beers, and I would argue this is the best of them. I'm a little biased because it's a locally made beer that I enjoy; it's a solid red lager that comes cheap, but it's not fancy. Maybe that's why I like it.

At my lady Pamela's house; canned and chilled, from the University Ave. West LCBO in nearby downtown Windsor. My first beer from the Etobicoke, Ontario brewery.

A very good beer indeed.
Tops in its price range (just over 2 bucks).

473 mL can from Metro; there's a date code, but it's smudged. Served slightly chilled.

Pours a crystal clear, bright amber colour, sporting an inch-thick layer of frothy, foamy, off-white head that lasts for a minute or two. A tight collar of creamy suds remains, alongside a thin cap and a modest smattering of lace. Sweet aroma of caramel candy and cereal grains, with toasted, bready malts and earthy, herbal hops.

I mean, it's not great, but I don't dislike it. Grainy malts, toasted bread, caramel and a touch of bruised apples, with suggestions of herbal, spicy hops creeping into the tail end of the sip; low attentuation makes for a relatively saccharine, persistent aftertaste, especially for this style. Light in body, with moderate carbonation that gives some crispness to this brew's smooth, slightly slick mouthfeel. Good drinkability, but after a can or two I'd need to swap it out for something less sweet.

Final Grade: 3.42, a B-. I feel like I'm being a little hard on St. André, because despite the fact that it's not a very good Vienna-style (or Bohemian) lager, it's actually good value for a budget beer. Seriously, this is $2.20 a can, which is at least a buck cheaper than most of its competition! Cool Brewing is not an especially prolific Ontario brewer - they've been fixated on the value brand niche for nigh on three decades now, and since they rarely brew anything novel it's easy to overlook them. Still, taking into account the price point, I'm much more likely to buy St. André again than, say, a Rickard's or a Keith's Red.

 

473 ml can served cold into a pint glass. LCBO purchase for just over $2 per can.

Appearance - Frothy and very foam brew with many fingers of head pouring out with even a gentle pour. Little in the way of visible bubbles but nice amber colored brew that is brilliantly clear lays underneath.

Smell - Fairly malt forward, some caramel and bready grains. Aromatics are more intense than expected.

Taste - Malty with plenty of bready and biscuity nuggets. Approaching too sweet, the caramel note is just reigned in by the hops. If anything maybe could use a little more hops. A touch metallic at the end. Apple kind of figures in to the mix but just barely.

Mouthfeel - Medium-thin bodied, the carbonation kind of gushed out because by the time I was sipping this a few minutes later, the beer was on the flat side. Moderate finish.

Overall - While a little more carbonation and a touch more hop bitterness would be welcome, this isn't a bad Vienna Lager. With these features it makes St. Andre more of a gateway towards craft from the macro lagers which might have been the intention in the first place. Worth a shot and the price is pretty great.

I bought a can at the LCBO in Ontario 473ml at 4.7%.
It was a cheap bought at 1.90 Canadian or 2 bucks .
Poured into glass with a 1 finger head leaving a lace as you drink it which is good .
The taste was creamy with apple flavors.
A Bohemian style lager light and easy to drink.
Overall an ok beer
Cheers.

March 23 2025

On-tap at Le Select Bistro, in Toronto.

This majestic display of amber looks like some kind of precious gemstone (carnelian, to be exact) that must have taken mother nature millions of years to craft. It has a glittering, bewitching complexion that entrances the eyes like a hypnotic swirl. Clarity is above reproach despite a deep tone. Its head is both tinted and built like a brick.

These rich German (or should I say Vienna?) malts smell like the maltster toasted them just to the point of caramelization and then killed the heat. They don't have the sweetness to be equated with caramel or toffee, but they do have the same crystallizing, browning richness. Continuous wafts of sulfur suggest this is an especially fresh sample.

Saint André only brews this one beer, so you know they're not skimping out on using anything but the finest quality malts. As mentioned, this rich continental maltiness is characterized by a toasty richness that dries out before ever quite reaching the level we'd call "sweet" (partly because the rummaging of some bitter, earthy, Noble hops). Faint notes of raspberry are also imprinted onto the tongue, somehow.

A bolder-than-usual character for the style, this Vienna is (like many) extremely reminiscent of an Oktoberfest-style lager. Everything about it points to classic fall-time drinking to me. But my last pint of the stuff, guzzled after a long work day in gusty, early spring conditions, couldn't have hit the spot any better. Come to think of it, this is suited to any season.

I'm glad I waited so many years before reviewing Saint André Vienna Lager - I would have gotten it all wrong. Like many, it likely would have struck me as a casual, decent amber lager and nothing more. In actuality, it is not only a great standard of measure for the Vienna style, but is a ringing endorsement for the quaffability and integrity of those lagers.

On tap at C'est What. Pours a bright amber colour with a finger of off-white head. Little bit of lacing. Smells of strong sweet caramel without much else. Quite a malty flavour. This reminds me of a slightly better tasting Rickard's Red actually. Nice carbonation and and easy drinking lager, just a bit too sweet for my palate.

Poured into a beer glass.

A: Clear deep reddish-brown, no lacing nor lasting head
S: Initially quite weak, mainly spicy hops but over time light caramelized sugar and smokiness came to the nose
T: Initially I was non-plussed, but there is a nice light bitterness and a bit of caramel in there. The sweetness takes a while to build and then lingers a bit, but is in no way cloying. Initially the beer was a 2.0 - 2.5, and likened it to Rickard's Red, but it really grew over time.
M: The major weakness here. The taste was off earlier I feel due to the watery nature and the lack of carbonation
D: An easy drinker, I could down a bunch of these. Not one I would search out, but if it was the craft offering in a bar I would be happy to drink it.

This beer appears a clear, dark golden brown colour, with one finger of thin white head, which leaves no lace in its wake. It smells of malted barley, and sweet orchard fruit. The taste is fruity roasted malt, and not much else. The carbonation is on the high side, the body medium weight, and it finishes off-dry, the fruity malt persisting.

An adequate malty lager, that could use some crisping up via a more judicious application of hops.

Orange copper body with an off-white cap. Both smell and taste are carmel and munich malts, some grains, and caraway rye bread with a bit of sweetness. A slightly sour funkiness which I actually enjoy. Decent bite from the hops, sort of spicy, a little sharp, weird mix of bitter tartness in the finish. This beer is hopelessly undistinguished, but I can't say I dislike it. Drinkable, average, inoffensive lager.

From a trade with rudge75 over at Half Pints...thanks!

Pours a hazy amber. The head settles to some spotty patches of white. Some lacing.

Grain, yeast, malt, some caramel, a bit astringent. Doesn't smell bad, though a little generically uninteresting.

Tastes like grain, malt and some honey. This is one of the most generic tasting beers I've ever had. It isn't bad, it just doesn't stand out in any way whatsoever, bad or good.

Again, average and non-descript on the feel. Medium-thin body with moderate carbonation.

This is certainly drinkable but not a beer I would ever seek out. It's kind of hilarious actually, the only description present on the label is "beer" and that's pretty much exactly what it is. Beer and nothing more.

I've passed over this beer for a long time, always letting the fact that it is contract brewed at Cool lead me to view this as more of a brand than a beer, but having tried the excellent versions of Mike Duggan #9 and Denison's Weissbier brewed at Cool I've gotten over that. Good beer is good beer no matter how it gets on a shelf.

What's more, I had a couple pints this summer on Le Sélect Bistro's patio on one of the few truly hot and humid days we had this summer and was surprised how wonderfully sessionable it is.

So when I saw a six pack in the walk in cooler of The Beer Store this week, I figured I'd give it a try in bottled form. And, say what you want, the packaging and label positively scream quality. If only more Ontario brewers put this much care into how their beer is packaged and perceieved by current and potential customers...

Anyway, cutting to the chase: Pours a nice copper color with a head that instantly disappears. I mean, there's not a speck of foam on the top of this beer. What a shame. Lots of beads of carbonation going on.

There's a slightly spicy saaz aroma, a slightly sweet malt, and some doughy breadiness.

As for the taste, at first blush what's most interesting to me is the combination of saaz and hallertau, admittedly probably two of my least favorite hops varieties, working together so well here. It's slightly floral and metallic, but subtly so. The malt is bready, toasty and lightly sweet. It's very well balanced.

It's well carbonated, crisp, and medium bodied. It refreshes nicely.

This was better on tap that it was from the bottle, but overall a pretty decent beer.