Cariboo Malt
Pacific Western Brewing Company

 

Clear gold color. Poured a medium height head that collapsed to a patchy skiff in half a minute. Low flow of small bubbles from the bottom of the glass. No lacing.

Strong yeast funk that was a bit sharp, starting to verge on an artificial chemical smell. Very mild malt scent. Swirling the glass kicked up some pepper and a mild barnyard.

Lightly sweet. A light malt that get joined by some pumpkin spice as it warms up a bit. The aftertaste is a stronger spice, with some cinnamon and dried ginger gaining. The sweetness level increases as a slight chemical flavor (odd yeast funk perhaps?) shows up.

Slight tongue tingling. Turns into a coarse bubbled foam. A bit warming.

The strange chemical smell and flavor are the main issue. I was surprised by the spices. With the low malt flavor it was like having a very mild gingerbread. I'm not sure where the warmth is coming from. 8% ABV is not high enough to register as an alcohol burn for me.

A - Cariboo Malt pours crystal clear, the color of ripe hay. It throws a rocky, off white head with decent enough retention.

S - Sweetness up front, sort of a combination of soda crackers, and sweet corn. Aromas rise into a center that is more noticeably corn although somehow not unpleasantly so. Malt and corn sweetness drop into a finish almost lacking in hop character.

T - Flavors are more up front sweetness than I would have expected from the nose. Almost but not quite being outright sugary in its sweetness. Sweetness moves into a center that is more corn, followed immediately by a not overpowering alcoholic flavor.

O - Overall, slick mouthfeel and an almost sickly sweet quality make this somehow better than expected and exactly as expected at the same time.

 

355ml can, a quiet addition to the downmarket lager shelves of Alberta liquor stores of late.

This beer pours a clear, bright pale golden yellow colour, with two fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly bubbly bone-white head, which leaves some distant rainstorm cloud lace around the glass as it quickly sinks away.

It smells of bready and lightly doughy pale malt, semi-sweet corn cereal, white grape juice concentrate, a touch of lemon floor cleaner, and a sort of musty yeastiness (hops - nah!). The taste is fairly sweet grainy and corn-fed malt, some underripe apple and pear fruitiness, purple grape juice pops, some mildly earthy and estery yeast, and a very subtle hint of leafy, weedy, and certainly perfumed floral hop bitters.

The carbonation is fairly thorough in its gentle and caressing frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and more or less smooth, with not even a probing boozy ester here, nor a clammy corn note there seeming to interfere - huh. It finishes sweet, sure, but kept just sane enough by that, ahem, 'robust' fruity character.

Kill me now, as I really don't have anything all that bad to say about this offering, and yeah, I fucking tried. This is such a simple, unapologetic, and straightforward version of the style, that it's easy to just put them back like you had not a single care in the world - especially if your actual concerns extend to 6-packs which come in at under 8 bucks, of course.