Formosa Springs Draft
Waterloo Brewing

 

This a draft beer in a bottle and you can tell. It has a real beer taste, with good hops. It is the best beer in my opinion for the price.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had some buddies over for the super bowl and this got left in my fridge. Bottoms up!

Appearance: Well it poured with two fingers of head and sustained amiably and even produced some lace. The downside? It's that awful sickly lighter lager yellow and the carbonation looks out of control in the body.

Smell: It's the kind of smell I'd expect a lawnmower to produce after you cut grass just after some heavy rainfall, only that it's quite a bit more "wet" then that smell. Thankfully it's subdued enough to not take too much away.

Taste: Not quite where it needs to be, as it tastes very watered down. There's not a lot to say as it tastes as hay like malt and subdued earthy hops take a back seat to a chemical laden plastic taste that lingers for a bit too long. Still, it's not awful, I guess if I had to describe it, is that they got the chemical flavour done right, although that's not very encouraging.

Mouthfeel: There is a LOT of carbonation in this beer, and it's helps the beer go down a lot, even if it comes across as a bit too much and artificial. It doesn't have anything more then a mild straw aftertaste.

Drinkability: This beer can be summed up in two words. "Glug glug". It goes down ridiculously easy and light because of the carbonation and it's very moist and refreshing. Still, the chemical laden taste makes me wonder just how long before this one turned south on me.

Final Thoughts: It's pretty much what people who regularly buy discount beer are looking for. Something without a lot of taste or character but you can guzzle down and get drunk quick on it. To be fair, I probably wouldn't have bought it or had it if it wasn't left behind. You'll want to pass.

Serving Type: A 341ml bottle poured into a glass.

A: A nice head that settles down. Many bubbles rise in this golden beer.

S: Malty, earthy, slight sweet aroma.

T: Clean, easy brew. Not very complex. Malts, grains.

M: Nice smooth feel, goes down easy.

D: This is a very easy beer to drink. On that you can enjoy and have in the fridge so others can too. Its taste will not scare the newbs and won't offend the beer geeks.

A very good beer, though I do miss the original Formosa Springs. Since they were bought out by Brick Breweries, its definitely gone down hill over the last three and a half years. But nevertheless, its still an excellent beer.

Served in a standard brown Canadian bottle. Poured a beautiful golden yellow with a lasting white head, excellent polished due to the Cascade hops and, with what I think is a Northern Brewer hop.

The aroma is well thought and excellently sweet with hints of after fermentation hopping, through a secondary. Excellently casked, not in a typical steel cylinder. No preservative scent, nor taste.

The taste was clean and refreshing, best served with Haddock or a perfectly cooked schnitzel. Well carbonated, but not to the extreme that its overpowering. But due to the slight increase in carbonation may cause some to be deturd from drinking several. Though it is very easy to enjoy one or two.

It says fresh draft, but there are definite preservatives in here, because only they give me indigestion. Initially malty medium mouthfeel, followed by the usual metallic lager drying long finish from so many inferior beers. Thanks Pootz, you warned me dude. Much better on draft with fruity yeasty head, a different beer.

Had the chance to sample several bottles from a friend who picked this beer up while visiting relatives in Canada. A pretty straightforward, no-frills pale lager. Clean, a touch sweet and slightly grainy, there is little that distinguishes this beer, and yet, at the same time, little that detracts as well. One of those "beers for when you don't want to think about the beer" beers. Just grab it from the ice (galvanized washtub, preferably) and enjoy it straight from the stubby bottle. Reasonably well made for what it is.

Stopped off at the Formosa spring Brewery in, Formosa Ontario, on the way to the beach this week. This was a pilgrimage for a prodigal son of sorts. I hadn't been to, nor tasted, the wares of this brewery since the mid seventies when their "club" ale, "diamond" lager were popular in cottage country.
Also, Formosa "Oktoberfest" beer flowed like rain at the Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest.

In their day, Formosa springs was a small local brewer that turned out high quality beers from traditional recipes and the famous Formosa spring water under the noses of the big 3. Their beers were the original "micro" brews of the day....and they were head and shoulders above the mega brews of the day (The days of the stubby bottle)

Anyway, back to the case of Formosa springs cold filtered draft I bought from the brewery outlet store:

The nostalgia stubby bottles were placed in a tub of Ice at the beach and consumed to great delight by thirsty beer drinkers that hot sandy day. Was it like the great Formosa beers of the past?....no, not to my recollection (which is getting a tad foggy) but,...it was a good rendition of draft beer with a unique fuller bodied character not available in the watery mega drafts.

Poured a pleasing gold color with a small white frothy head that dissipated quickly. Hints of malt and nutlike yeast aromas, started smooth with a medium body and distinct malt and nut-like yeast taste, finished with a distinct lingering, not unpleasant malt/yeast taste on the tongue. This is not a watery draft. I like it over all the bottled draft beers available. I don’t know what they mean by “cold filtered” but it produced a strange but pleasing beer….a beer which has a mellow, smooth draft quality with out removing the beer’s character….part of which is the tasty yeast used…and I normally HATE the yeast taste in beer.

Try a dozen I think you'll like this unique beer.

This offering by the Brick Brewery family is not impressive. The colour is a light golden and the head is minimum.
The body is full and carbonation is weak.
Aroma is non existant. Taste is malt heavy and lingers due to a severe mouthcoating that will not let go.
Disapointing...