Category Archives: Beer Reviews

4 - Good (buy), Badlands Brewing, Beer Reviews, Canada, IPA - New England / Hazy Double

Badlands DIPA January (2025)

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Brewery: Badlands Brewing
Country: Canada
ABV: 8.2%
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy Double
Other Notes: Hops – Nelson and Superdelic

Brewer Description: (from Untappd) The monthly DIPA series is our neutral, hop ready canvas to play around with all things DIPA. The goal for the series is not only to bring you at least one DIPA per month, but also to allow us to push our base DIPA recipe in any number of directions with the goal of ultimately tweaking, refining and improving every DIPA in our lineup.

This month January is riding shotgun with Evolve, so we had to pump it up to a 10lbs/bbl hop charge of Nelson and superdelic. We taste tropical gooseberry, pineapple and some characteristic dank New Zealand lush hop expression.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.14

Intro: A 473ml can, canned on 19th December 2024. Poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy pale milky yellow colour with a two finger white head that had good retention, and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Tropical, pineapple, melon, citrus zest, grapefruit peel, green gooseberry, with notes of white wine grapes.
Taste: Tropical fruit, pineapple, gooseberry, white wine grapes, grapefruit peel.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with soft to moderate carbonation.
Overall: Pretty good aroma and flavours, but more so, is that I’m now drawn to the Superdelic hop, and want more of that.

4 - Good (buy), Badlands Brewing, Beer Reviews, Canada, IPA - New England / Hazy Triple

Badlands Evolve Or Die (2024)

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Brewery: Badlands Brewing
Country: Canada
ABV: 10%
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy Triple
Other Notes: Hops – Citra, Mosaic, Motueka and Galaxy

Brewer Description: (from can) Our annual triple IPA where we push the hopping rates to their illogical extreme.

The goal of this beer is to implement everything we’ve learned through our Dora and monthly DIPA series’. Each one is a different experiment that pushes our hoppy beer into distinctly different directions, always with the intent of making a more densely layered, and intense hop experience while still remaining soft, and endlessly drinkable.

Stagnation, complacency and comfort are the enemy of progress and innovation. This is the culmination of everything we’ve learned over the past year about hoppy beer. Evolve or die.

Hopped with Citra, Mosaic, Motueka and Galaxy, this is a deeply hop saturated beer that is as undeniably cost prohibitive as it is delectably drinkable. We taste intense notes of pineapple, mango, tangerine, mojito lime, peach and tropical fruit. The hopping rate of this beer is approximately 20lbs/bbl (78g/L).

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating:4.35

Intro: A 473ml can, canned on 18th December 2024. Poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy pale milky yellow colour with a one finger white head that had good retention, and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Tropical, mango, pineapple, peach gummy candy, and notes of citrus zest.
Taste: Light to moderately sweet, tropical fruit, mango, peach gummy candy, citrus zest bitterness, with a splash of lime.
Mouthfeel: Medium to full bodied with soft to moderate carbonation.
Overall: Good enjoyable aroma and flavours. Not too sweet as the bitterness on the finish balances it out.

4 - Good (buy), Badlands Brewing, Beer Reviews, Canada, IPA - New England / Hazy

Badlands A Dent

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Brewery: Badlands Brewing
Country: Canada
ABV: 6.5%
Style: IPA – New England / Hazy
Other Notes: Hops – Citra, Mosaic and Idaho 7

Brewer Description: (from can) There are some moments in world history that put a dent in the way you think. The image on the label is a call back to the moon landing of 1969. A moment that captured the collective imagination of the world. A collective feat of human ingenuity that clearly signaled to us Earth dwelling homosapiens that maybe, just maybe, if we could touch martian soil, maybe one day we could be an interplanetary species too. To some, this landing is controversial. Staged in a Hollywood studio or some such thing. I don’t care. We like it.

Hopped with Citra, Mosaic, and Idaho 7. We taste ripe tangerine flesh, pink grapefruit and papaya.

My rating: 4
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.04

Intro: A 473ml can, canned on 18th December 2024. Poured into a winebar glass.
Appearance: A hazy pale milky yellow colour with a one finger white head that had good retention and left nice lacing.
Aroma: Citrusy, orange zest, grapefruit, and a touch of tropical fruit.
Taste: Lightly bitter, citrusy, orange zest, mandarin, grapefruit, tropical papaya, melon, and a dash of lime.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: The aroma was fine, but the taste was better, and it goes down easy.

4 - Good (buy), Beer Reviews, Chien Bleu, Farmhouse Saison, Switzerland

Chien Bleu Chien Andalou

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Brewery: Chien Bleu
Country: Switzerland
ABV: 6%
Style: Farmhouse Saison
Other Notes: Cuvee 2020-2021

Brewer Description: (from Untappd) Three spontan beers blend with Solera method, 3 years (20%), 2 years (20%) & 1 year (60%). Barrel aged in Sherry and Pedro Ximenez.

My rating: 4+
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.5
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.4

Intro: An unnecessarily black waxed, capped and corked bottle, cuvee 2020-2021, with a best before date of April 2027. Poured into a Tilquin stemmed glass.
Appearance: A hazy golden orange colour, with a nice fluffy one finger white head that had great retention, and left good lacing.
Aroma: Grape skin, white wine vinous, wood, sherry, light funk, with notes of yellow stone fruit and lemon zest.
Taste: Light to moderate sour, yellow stone fruit, grape skin, vinous, wood, sherry, and a touch of light funky notes.
Mouthfeel: Smooth, medium bodied, with moderate to soft carbonation.
Overall: The wax was unnecessary and just caused a big mess before I even got started. Despite this, the beer drank really well with enjoyable aroma and flavours. Admittedly, a good surprise!

5 - Excellent (must buy), Beer Reviews, Belgium, Brouwerij Girardin, Lambic - Gueuze

Girardin Gueuze Black Label

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Brewery: Brouwerij Girardin
Country: Belgium
ABV: 5%
Style: Lambic – Gueuze

Brewer Description: Unfiltered version.

My rating: 5
My beeradvocate.com rating: 4.5
My ratebeer.com rating: 4.4

Intro: A 750ml corked and caged bottle. Bottled in 2017. Poured into a The Lambic Basket gueuze glass.
Appearance: A hazy dark golden orange colour, with a pillowy two finger white head, that had great retention, eventually settling to a thin cap, while leaving nice lacing.
Aroma: Red apple, lemon, lime, wood shavings, damp wood, musty, funk, with notes of lemon zest.
Taste: Lightly sour, red apple, grapefruit peel, wood shavings, oak, a touch bitter, lemon zest, funk.
Mouthfeel: Smooth, medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: One of my favourite regular gueuze’s out there. Lovely aroma and flavours with a nice complexity that aligns with my palate.