First of all, I'd like to say that this is a celebratory beer. After the first couple of sips I was, hell, happy to be standing on the balcony: A nice, light, almost fruity tart that slowly winds itself down your throat leaving not so much an after taste as a pleasant sense memory. And, if that's not enough, there's one more thing about this beer so strange it warrants its own paragraph.
To get straight to the point: This beer likes to pretend it's champagne. Normally I avoid these light, bubbly affairs as if they're the plague but somehow this little brew seemed to just work, and that's not just the New Year's Eve talking. It didn't lose as much of it's carbonation as you'd expect and I was honestly quite surprised when I got to the bottom and wasn't presented with flat, room-temperature horse piss.
The only minor regrets I have (neither of which are the beer's fault) are that I couldn't find it in more than singles and it'd never piqued my curiosity during the summer months. By the time I was half way through the bottle my mind was running a continuous loop of scenarios involving friends and some kind of meat being seared over an open flame which means this beer will definitely be present the first time I put match to, err, propane next summer.
By the numbers, you'll wind up parting with more or less what you'd expect (at least at the LCBO here in Ontario) for a bottle this size and walk away with a brew that's towards the stronger end of average. While it's miles away from a malt liquor, they could easily bring it into the 6% plus range and still wind up with something perfectly potable.
A caveat, however, adapted from an old adage which is a favourite of my parents: A place for everything and everything in its place. While this beer may be the perfect accompaniment for the aforementioned grilling of meat, I couldn't see it being as good a dinner companion as say either Waterloo or Stonehammer's dark ale offerings (mostly because of it's fruity exuberance), but it would definitely make a return appearance towards the end of desert when most folks are turning towards coffee.
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