Papa Bear Prairie Ale
Half Hitch Brewing Company

Solid beer of this style. Highly drinkable

Hadn't seen this one on the shelf of any liquor store recently, but I happened to order pizza from one of this brewery's places called "Mash," which, as its name might imply, uses the spent grain from the brewery in the baking of its pizza dough. Excellent pizza, btw!

Anyway, the pizza restaurant had this available, and being one I had not tried before, it was a no-brainer.

Pours out with a lovely head and appearance. The aroma is excellent, quite sweet and complex. I'm not even sure how I would describe it style wise. Smells like a dark ale at times, other times a bit like a Kolsch, and then again sometimes the wheat pops up. Very nice.

Taste is more of the same, complex. Dealing with 4 different grains here, so it's not surprising. A very creamy full body, and sweet malts through and through, but with a dash of hops at the end. Very malt centric as can be imagined. Plenty of caramel and toasty cereal notes. A very rich and tasty malting that is almost chameleon in nature, with a little dark fruit creeping in, lots of butterscotch and caramel, and overall just a delicious graininess: something akin to a nice wholesome breakfast cereal.

This is by far the best thing I've had from Half Hitch. I hope they keep this one in circulation.

 

Appearance - Pours a deep gold with a finger of bubbly white head.

Smell - biscuity malts, hay, grass, lemon, mild leafy and floral hops, and earthy yeast

Taste - Very malt forward. The bicuity malts dominate followed by the hay, grass, and lemon. The leafy and floral hops are very minimal in the taste and the earthy yeast finishes the brew off.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes dry with the malts lingering.

Overall - A refreshing and sessionable Kölsch. A malt-forward brew that is a nice addition to the Alberta craft beer scene.

 

355ml can (@5% ABV) - made with Alberta barley, wheat, rye, and oats, it was the gold medal winner at the recent Alberta Brewing Awards in the new Canadian Cereal Ale category. At least it wasn't running as a 'patio beer'.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium golden yellow colour, with three flabby fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy off-white head, which leaves some random splotchy and chunky lace around the glass as it rather slowly abates.

It smells of semi-sweet, bready and doughy pale malt, some wet rye and wheat crackers, a mild earthy yeastiness, faint domestic pome fruity esters, and some very mild leafy, musty, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is grainy and bready, well, cereal malt, rye whiskey without the kick, lightly buttered Wheat Thins, a subtle bruised apple and pear fruitiness, and more well understated earthy, weedy, and floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is fairly restrained in its lackadaisical frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and quite smooth, with a nice airy creaminess evolving as things warm up a tad around here. It finishes off-dry, the various malts still genially blended in their lingering state.

Overall - this is definitely a malt-forward offering, and that's not a bad thing, as it really shows off what our province's farming concerns can produce. And the flavour does indeed come across as something similar to breakfast cereal, just with water instead of milk, and once again, I don't mean that pejoratively. Good stuff!

Half Hitch’s stab at a “Canadian Cereal Ale”, sampled on tap at the source. The classification is based on info provided by the brewery. This beer was a gold medalist at the Alberta Beer Awards, with good reason. It is a bright, crisp summer beer. Heavy on the malt, along with wheat, rye, oats and barley, as designated in the “Cereal” designation. A tasty treat on our way home from the Rockies.