Molson Common Bond
Molson Coors Canada

A- Poured this into my usual tulip glass, and am greeted by a golden amber colored brew that shows off some chill hazing, but overall is clear. The carbonation seems to me of medium nature, with several columns of carbonation rising, but nothing too aggressive. The head is light tan in color, starts off about two fingers in thickness, but does settle rather quickly into a patchy, slick looking film. There isn't too much for lacing either, with there mainly being a watery/oily film that covers the inside of the glass, with any foam slithering back downwards in quick fashion.

S- Not what I was expecting from a Molson product to be honest!....There is a distinct whisky aroma....it is sweet, subtle and while it is slightly boozy smelling, it is smooth. Underlying notes of charred barrel, cooked toffee/brown sugar just on the verge of burning, hints of vanilla, malt sweetness, and dry grassy aromas.....there could be some lingering boiled corn adjunct hiding too, as I still get that cooked vegetable like offness. The finish is smooth and slightly robust.

T- This is quite well rounded for Molson! The whisky is very mellow and there is a distinct malty caramel sweetness that is pleasing on the palate. Hints of vanilla, wood char and dry barley kernels.....there is a certain yeast like quality....maybe bready/biscuity is the better descriptor here, and the finish has the classic BMC Diacetyl buttery character that lingers on the palate long after the taste.

M/O- Body is a solid medium-light and the carbonation is relatively smooth. The alcohol is hidden quite well and the flavors in general are good, just with that ending, which I don't care for. It is a decent offering and much better than what these guys normally do.....shows what a little creativity can accomplish! I'd have this again but wont go out of my way to find it either.

463 ml can purchased from the LCBO for about $3.25 Cdn. Served cold into a pint glass.

Appearance - pale gold with copper highlights, a small finger of off white head is poured and recedes fairly quickly. Just a bit of haze and lots of bubbles.

Smell- light general graininess with hints of vanilla and some caramel malts. Sweeter aromatically than most beers.

Taste- fairly sweet graininess with some vanilla again, trace wood and more sweetness bordering on cloying. Not a lot is substance beyond the initially sweet and vanilla flavours, but not bad.

Mouthfeel- a bit sticky carbonation just lacking a bit but works pretty nicely with the flavours.

Overall- for a Molson brew it’s not a total miss, however I can’t see myself ever drinking this on the regular provided that This partnership with J.P. Wiser’s isn’t more than a temporary thing.

473ml can - so, 'hops that were aged in J.P. Wiser's 'Deluxe Whisky'. Who knew that Molson/Coors Canada employed such imaginative alchemists?

This beer pours a clear, pale golden copper hue, with four fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and pockmarked dirty white head, which leaves a bit of streaky dissipating cloud form lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of gritty and grainy pale malt, vanilla cookies, faint cheap rye whisky, and hops that took the 401 straight outta town a ways back. The taste is bready and doughy caramel malt, cooking vanilla, a weak barrel stave woodiness, canned corn, and more ethereal earthy, musty, and dead floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly timid in its decision to play the specter at this juncture of the production, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, in that 'the committee can do no wrong' manner. It finishes off-dry, the malt and weird whisky sweetness keeping a lingering indistinct bitterness at bay.

Overall - I'm getting strong vibes of that other famous 'whisky aged beer' from a number of years ago, provided by those lads in Scotland. Way too simple, but a marked improvement over Canadian, but that is not the fucking point here. Leave this stuff to the experts, or maybe loosen the shareholder purse strings and let your likely capable brewers make the real deal. But, yeah, that's not gonna happen anytime soon.

473ml can poured into an ice-cold glass, light amber look with a white foamy head, the smell is wheaty and a kinda oaky light smell. Moving into taste it starts off sweet then into a nice and almost woody smokey flavour throughout, slightly bitter aftertaste but overall a pleasantly sweet smokey beer.

Reminds me of Innis and Gunn Original in the red cans, a beer I would prefer over this but both are still solid. I imagine a similar process with the barrel ageing, and a stronger beer at 6.1% decent if you enjoy whisky, much better than expected for a macro brew.

473 mL can from the LCBO; coded Jan 9 2021 and served slightly chilled. I assumed this was aged in a whisky barrel or on oak staves, but what they actually did was age the hops themselves in Wiser's Deluxe prior to using them in the brew.

Pours a bright, brassy golden colour, generating an inch of soapy, foamy white head that disintegrates within two minutes or so. Multiple strands of lacing are left sticking to the glass, with a thin, filmy cap and creamy collar also remaining behind - looks good to me. Vanilla, caramel and bready malt sweetness on the nose, in addition to hints of wood, rye whisky and some spicy booziness.

It's above average for a macro strong lager, and that's the only real compliment I can give it. Leans sweet throughout, from the grainy, bready, caramelized malt sweetness at the forefront, to the rye whiskey, vanilla and candy corn at the finish. Faint hints of wood are most easily discerned in the aftertaste, which is a little boozy and fairly sweet - neither of which are all that surprising from a 6.1% whisky-infused lager. Light-medium in body, with moderate carbonation levels that prickle the palate, providing a little bit of crispness to this lager's smooth texture. Knocking it back quickly is easy enough, but my motivation for doing so was so that I could move on to something else.

Final Grade: 3.37, a B-. Molson's Common Bond is alright for what it is: a strong lager with some rye whisky flavour. While it checks those two boxes adequately enough, it's not something I expect to return to much, if ever - and that's not to say it's awful or offensive or anything... it just isn't what I want out of a beer. It's at least a little Innis & Gunn-esque, so fans of that brewery's main lineup might appreciate Molson's latest facsimile more than most - though I'd take I&G Original over this any day. Keep in mind that I am not a huge fan of rye whisky - so if the opposite holds true for you, I'd probably recommend this with an asterisk, as there's a strong chance you'll like it more than I did.

Preface: I’m not a fan of smokey or woody beers. This is both. It pours a nice dark gold colour with a decent head. Right away the smell of oak gets me. The taste is extremely wooden, with light notes of rye whiskey. Hints of smokiness on the back end. Not for me
Feb 21 2021