Mystic
Vancouver Island Brewing

473ml can - a dry-hopped sour, in collaboration with a brewery that does not exactly sound very Vancouver Island-ish, I gotta say.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, pale golden straw colour, with two fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and fizzy bone-white head, which leaves nothing in the way of lace anywhere near the glass as it quickly wafts off.

It smells of gritty and grainy cereal malt, tart domestic citrus zest, some earthy yeastiness, and very tame leafy, weedy, and dead floral hop bitters. The taste is rather sour lime, lemon, and other indistinct stone fruity esters, grainy and crackery pale malt, more unsettled yeasty notes, and some plain earthy, musty, and ephemeral floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is average in its palate-clinging frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and actually fairly smooth, with nothing really getting in the way of a good time at this particular juncture, so, um, yay. It finishes rather dry, the yeast and tart frootiness easily performing the lingering trick.

Overall - this comes across as an enjoyable enough version of the style, with both the hops and souring agents doing well to pucker my lips. Easy-drinking, once you acclimatize, and a worthy inclusion in this mixed-pack.

473ml can poured into tulip.

Pours a hazy bright yellow with one finger of white head that leaves pretty much no lace.

Smells of sour lime and orange, crackery pale malt, peach, grape, mint and some citrussy hops.

Tastes of more lemon-lime tartness, orange juice, unsalted crackers, more muddled stone and orchard fruit, some herbal minty freshness and more citrus hop bitters.

Feels pretty subdued. Light bodied with a little carbonation after the initial excitement of the pour. Finishes off-dry.

Verdict: Recommended. Not perfect, but still pretty tasty.

Hazy golden-straw color. Strong flux of bubbles rising from the bottom of the glass getting visibly larger as they are rising. Extremely foamy; about 3/4 of the glass full was head from a careful, slow pour. The head broke down into a mix of bubble sizes over a couple of minutes, leaving no lacing behind.

Very odd spice smell (based on camphor or moth balls) dominates with a musty scent. Swirling the glass kicked up a bit of fruit and more of the spice.

Very tart with some stone fruit and citrus flavors. Mild bitters join in and then everything slowly fades away together in the aftertaste.

Fresh off the pour this explodes into a large bubbled foam. It quickly loses a lot of fizz in the glass (at about the same rate that the head dies down). After a couple of minutes this has only mild carbonation that doesn't produce much foam in the mouth. Slightly astringent.

The strange camphor/spice smell is a bit off-putting; thankfully it does not show up in the flavor. The tart fruit is very refreshing. This is almost two different beers in one glass as the excessive carbonation on a fresh pour fades down to a very mild bubble by the end of the glass.

Collaboration with île Sauvage Brewing.

Vancouver Island/Ile Sauvage 'Mystic' @ 5.0% , served from a 473 ml can , 3 of 4 Pod Pack
A-pour is a light gold from the can to a hazy gold in the glass with a small white head leaving a minimal lace ring along the tulip
S-hints of dry-hopped
T-tart start , dry-hopped , sour swallow
MF-ok/mild carbonation , medium body
Ov-ok summer sour beer
prost LampertLand