Unibroue Ephemere Apple Ale

Unibroue, a brewery based in Chambly, Quebec, Canada brews a plethora of Belgian inspired beers, each of which is unique in its own way. Today's beer is Ephemere Apple, a light summer brew, made with apple juice, coriander, and Curacao (a type of orange). At 5.5% alcohol by volume, it's a tad stronger than the "normal" summer beer, but lighter than many of Unibroue's other offerings. It poured the color of apple juice, with a long-lasting but small white head. The beer is quite effervescent, which makes it nicely thirst-quenching. The apple juice is quite obvious, and makes the beer taste almost like a cross between a witbier and a cider. Hops are very subdued, but the coriander and orange peel give it a Belgian Wit character. Unibroue has also brewed peach, strawberry, cranberry and raspberry versions of this ale. This came in a 4-pack from World Market called the Unibroue Taster Pack. Also included in the pack was a bottle of Chambly Noire, Blanche de Chambly, and Raftman. I'm looking forward to checking them all out.

Sleeman Honey Brown Lager 77

Today, I sampled another one of the four brews in my Sleeman sampler pack, their Honey Brown Lager 77. The 77 indicates the page number on which the recipe for this beer was found, in an old Sleeman family beer recipe book. This is a very mild lager, slightly sweet and malty, with a little showing of some caramel. It's a decent beer, but not a terribly exciting one. It compares favorably to J.W. Dundee's Honey Brown Lager, which is the one that most Americans are familiar with. It poured a crystal clear light brown color, with a small white head that was gone very quickly. It was bottled in a special bottle with the Sleeman logo embossed in the side, and a small neck label. Sleeman is a Canadian brewer, although I believe they have a brewery in the states as well. This could be a good session beer; it's mild and has a reasonably low alcohol level.

Sleeman Original Dark 50 Amber Ale

Sleeman's Original Dark 50 is actually an amber ale, and it's a pretty basic one at that. So far, that has been the theme of the Sleeman variety pack I bought a couple of months ago. This is a very drinkable amber ale, but it's nothing special. I've taken some grief about American beer from Canadian friends, but American microbrews have moved light years ahead of anything that I have tasted from Canada in recent years. The tides have turned - we no longer have to be embarassed by our lack of real flavorful beers, especially when compared to something like this.

Sleeman IPA 46

This IPA is another offering from the Sleeman Brewing assortment I picked up a few weeks ago. Since yesterday was a pizza day, I decided to try the IPA. This is a very subdued IPA, with less hop presence than a Sam Adams Boston Lager. Maybe that's the way they make IPA's in Canada, I don't know. I tried an Alexander Keith's IPA when I was in Newfoundland last year, and it was less hoppy than this one. I know that a traditional English IPA is less hoppy than the American variety, so I guess we just kick things up a notch here in the USA. If you're used to Dogfish Head IPA's or Victory's Hop Devil, or some of the other great American IPA's, this might be found lacking. I still enjoyed it.

Sleeman's Crean Ale #64

I bought a sampler of Sleeman brews, and this is the first 1 up for review - Cream Ale #64. The story behind the number 64 is that a recipe book was found which contained the original Sleeman family beer recipes, and the number corresponds to the page number that the recipe was found on. There must be a lot of recipes in that book! This is a nice looking beer - a clear golden color with small white head. I found it to be very typical of Canadian beers, and felt that it was more like a golden lager than an ale. It had a nice hop presence, and crisp finish. Unfortunately, there was nothing to make it stand out in a crowd of other Canadian beers. Solid, but kinda boring.