Chocolate Orange Kveik (Community Venture Collection)
Muskoka Brewery

Collaboration brew with Quidi Vidi.

Packaged on Sept 9/19.

Appearance - Pours a dark nut brown with four fingers of frothy tan head.

Smell - earthy, leafy, citrus, floral, and weedy hops, plum, raisin, fig, bready and wheaty malts, caramel, toffee, chocolate, cocoa, orange peel, licorice, molasses, and earthy yeast.

Taste - earthy, leafy, citrus, floral, and weedy hops upfront. The brew then goes into the plum, raisin, fig, caramel, toffee, chocolate, cocoa, orange peel, licorice, and molasses. The bready and wheaty malts, alongside the earthy yeast round out the brew. It has a pleasant creamy chocolate and orange taste to it.

Mouthfeel - Medium to full bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes sticky with all ingredients lingering.

Overall - A unique and flavourful brew. I agree with thehyperduck that "saison" isn't quite the style to classify this brew as it has various components of certain styles. This one is a rare find here in Cowtown and glad I picked up a bottle. This one is definitely a must try for anyone that comes across it.

750 mL bottle from the LCBO; dated Sept 6 2019 and served at cellar temperature.

Pours a murky, brick reddish-garnet colour, topped with one finger of foamy, cream-coloured head that steadily seeps away over the next couple of minutes. A wide, creamy-looking collar encircles a filmy cap, with a liberal coating of lace also having been deposited in its wake - a nice looking glass of beer. I'm getting licorice and orange peel on the nose, together with wheaty pale malts, caramelized sugars, dried fruits and an earthy, floral hop note. It also features mild ethanol fumes, as well as an unfamiliar yeastiness.

I'm tasting grainy, bready malts and a slightly sugary sweetness throughout the sip, as well as a touch of cocoa. The orange peel and cacao nibs provide a pleasant 'chocolate orange' vibe mid-sip, which are followed up with an earthy, floral hop note and some herbal licorice towards the finish; yeasty spiciness intrigues the taste buds into the aftertaste, alongside touches of citrus oil and faint cacao. Medium-full in body, with gentle carbonation and a smooth, fairly satisfying feel on the palate. Fair drinkability - this serving should prove adequate for any individual, and I think most would prefer splitting it with a pal.

Final Grade: 3.79, a B+. Chocolate Orange Kveik bedevilled me in the best of ways... it's a farmhouse ale, so saison seemed the best category to shoehorn this beer into, but that's a less than ideal compromise IMO, because this kveik also has fruit/herbed beer and IPA-like aspects. It's hard to classify (at least for now, since 'kveik' is not currently listed as its own style on BA), but I'm certainly not going to criticise it for that - on the contrary, I love being surprised by novel ingredients, be they hop, malt, or in this case, yeast. Canadian BAs who can still find this Muskoka/Quidi Vidi collaboration in stock should consider giving 'er a go.