Capelin Hound Session IPA
Mill Street Brew Pub

 

 

355ml bottle - part of the current Mill Street Canadian Brewpub pack. Made in the Toronto location, but from the St. John's brewpub's recipe.

This beer pours a hazy, medium copper amber colour, with three flabby fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat bubbly ecru head, which leaves some random chunky splattered lace around the glass as it slowly dissipates.

It smells of bready and doughy caramel malt, buttery crackers, muddled domestic citrus flesh, some stoney flintiness, and tame leafy, weedy, and piney green hop bitters. The taste is gritty and grainy cereal malt, some orange, red grapefruit, and bruised drupe fruitiness, a damp minerality, and more herbal, floral, and piney hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-coating frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and mostly smooth, with a wee clamminess arising as things warm up a tad at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the malt clumsily closing up shop.

Overall - while not coming across as thin or watery in the typical nature of the style, the flavour just doesn't meld for me. The malt kind of takes charge way too soon, and I'm left wanting a whole lot more hop bitterness. Sigh, this mixed pack isn't turning out so hot, but quelle surprise!

Hazy and cloudy golden color with lots of activity. Creamy beige 2 finger head, lasting around 10 minutes, with good legs and swirl reaction. Flavors of pineapples, tangerines, caramel, sweet barley, butter, soft peppercorn, and herbal hops. Slick and smooth medium body with prickly carbonation. Medium strength finish, tropical and leafy, slightly piney. Quite flavorful for a session, texture is pretty good. Well refreshing and well balanced. Good drinkability. Overall high quality craft.

 

355 mL bottle from the LCBO, one of six included in this year's Brewpub sampler pack. Dated May 2 2018 and served slightly chilled.

Pours a foggy, translucent amber-blonde hue, with roughly one finger of loose, soapy white head that fizzles off almost entirely within 90 seconds; a collar of foam survives, ringing a few islands of bubbly film. No lacing - not much of a looker. The aroma is low-key but palatable, with fruity notes of apricot and orange coming through alongside some muddled, indistinct hints of tropical fruit and berries. Nothing to write home about just yet...

...nor do I think any such letter is forthcoming. It tastes ok - there's some pale malt sweetness and gritty grain husk in there, but as expected the (mostly) fruity hop flavours are the more dominant aspect. Orange and grapefruit take the lead, bolstered by hints of melon, apricot and passion fruit. The flavour becomes more pithy and leafy on the back end, providing a fair bit of resiny hop bitterness that lingers briefly into an aftertaste best described as sort of astringent. Light in body, with moderately assertive carbonation that prods the palate continuously, resulting in a crisp, slightly frothy texture. It's technically sessionable, but to be honest the lingering astringency really curtails its overall drinkability IMO.

Final Grade: 3.68, a serviceable B grade. Mill Street's Capelin Hound Session IPA ain't half bad, though I wouldn't say I'm in a big hurry to seek out more of it. The fruity flavour profile is enjoyable enough, though I find the bitter/astringent tail end of the sip to be not particularly well-suited to a 4.2% session ale. No idea what hops they used in this one, and I can't find any details online just yet - if I were to take a shot in the dark I'd guess maybe Citra or Galaxy, but I have nothing to back that up other than my own subjective taste. As far as this mixed pack goes, it's a decent start, and I suppose I'd take this over their Welterweight ISA.

Hazy gold-orange with a strong head with lacing. Fruity, citrus hop nose. Malt body with some resinous notes. Body is on the thinner side.

Part of the Summer 2018 Brewpub mixed pack.