Hello, I am new. I remember the delicious draft ales we used to find in Ontario, Canada. They tasted like pine or spruce or something else? Occasionally I would buy a case of beer with some of that taste. Jump 25 years - where did it go? I would like to buy a case of beer or ale with that old pine taste. I can not go to specialty places anymore and can't make my own either. Looking for that strong pine taste that will overpower my tabasco and whiskey tastebuds. Help
Thank you for the suggestions. Is there anything available mainstream? I remember liking Heineken a bit.
I'm not very familiar with the Canadian beer scene but Alaskan makes a Winter Ale that is brewed with spruce tips - spruce-y goodness I think.
I suppose my initial description is not up to beer advocate sophistication. I note Sierra Nevada Hoptimum is described by the makers as "aggressive hoppiness, featuring notes of grapefruit rind, rose, lilac, cedar, and tropical fruit" This could be what I am yearning for, however, my memory, my imprinting, belongs to trays of 15 cent draft. Labatt, Molson, and Carling were the only available brands. They did have specific name choices.
Look for Alba, a traditional Scottish ale made with pine needles and spruce tips. It should be regularly available all over Canada.
Now, clearly I'm a little young for that time period when drafts of anything could have cost just ยข15, but if Labatt, Molson, and Carling were among the only options for something that tasted like spruce and pine, then I have no idea what you might have been drinking back then. Jump ahead 25 years though, and I think it's fair to say plenty of beers have piney, resinous flavors and scents in them. Some hop varieties like Chinook and sometimes Simcoe can be very pine-forward, and anything with a lot of dry-hopping tends to be resinous in character. From what I can tell, Sierra Nevada loves Chinook, and so do I: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale meets that bill when fresh, but their Torpedo Extra IPA is also very resinous and can be quite piney, as well. Hoptimum, because of the hops used and the amount of dry-hopping, is also very resinous and has strong piney qualities, but definitely Sierra Nevada Pale Ale seems to me to be the most widely-available, strongest candidate for a specifically and predominantly pine- and spruce-forward beer. Does that help?
Also, for what it's worth, I just had Sixpoint Mad Scientists #10 recently, which is basically an APA brewed with blue spruce tips, and it was very pleasant and really fun to drink. What struck me, though, is that actually brewing with spruce (tips, at least) does not add the kind of piney, resinous flavor you would think! In my opinion, anyway. I wrote it up, and thought it was a riot drinking it.
