Beer of the Week

Wychwood Hobgoblin was my Beer of the Week choice last night. This one was picked up randomly from the liquor store by my better half. It 's described on the bottle as:

"full bodied and well balanced with a chocolate toffee malt flavour, moderate bitterness and a distinctive fruity character with a ruby red glow."

Yes, it is full bodied and definitely has that chocolate toffee malt thing going on. I disagree with the moderate bitterness, it was lightly bitter. Overall a nice beer if you are looking for a more tasty but slightly heavier beer. I would classify this as a fall or winter beer, not a hot day in the summer beer. It was good, but I would likely only have one Wychwood Hobgoblin at a sitting due to it's heavy nature.

My Hobgoblin came in a brown 500ml bottle, but I see many of the pics on the net show it in a clear bottle. I didn't have a glass handy, so I can't comment on the "ruby red glow".

This week's Beer of the Week is Sleeman Silver Creek, brewed by the good people at Sleeman breweries in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

This isn't my first time drinking Sleeman Silver Creek, but it is my first time reviewing it. Another Sleeman beer, Sleeman Clear is a regular in our fridge here at Beer Day headquarters, but I digress. Sleeman Silver Creek comes in the typical clear Sleeman bottle with the raised Sleeman Brewery mark and maple leaf/beaver on it...kind of like a Canadian nickle.

This is a really nice drinking beer, the kind which makes you want to have another. The kind you could drink all day/night on a hot summer day at the cottage...

Note to self: When you get rich, buy a cottage, then buy a cooler, then buy some sleeman silver creek for the cooler, then make some time and drink it all day and night...just to test that theory

Ok, I'm back in the real world now, daydreaming about my Sleeman Silver Creek stocked cooler and my cottage full of friends. Back to the beer. Nice subtle taste, not unlike MGD or Sleeman Clear. A slight beery like smell...the good one, not the bad one like skunky OV. I'm doing my best to imagine whether this beer would go better with steak or fish. I'm thinking steak, steak or Oktoberfest sausage...yeah Oktoberfest sausage with a little sauerkraut , that would be sweet; would it be too much to ask for a little hot mustard too? Ooh, and a pretzel, one of those street vendor hot pretzels, that would be nice

Ok, my beer is empty, this review is officiall over. Kudos if you've read this far, you are far more patient than I am. In Summary, Sleeman Silver Creek is good beer, support a local brewery and have one today.

This week's beer of the week is Robert Simpson Confederation Ale. I'll keep this short and sweet. This beer was fantastic, excellent, amazing, tasty, delicious. It was clean and crisp with a nice flavour, my fellow beer taster describes it as a perfect guzzling beer. I responded with "but you should savour this beer, it's that good". Of course he took exception to me using the word "good"...oh well, hopefully my description here should make up for it.

Robert Simpson Confederation Ale is brewed in Barrie, Ontario. Support a local beer and give this one a try.

Brick White beer was a little on the light side. It had a slight fruity taste. There wasn't a whole lot of taste and absolutely no after taste, but what taste it did have was appealing, but only for one of the three people at the table who sampled it. This would be a nice summer beer (for me), for by the pool or on the patio. This beer would certainly appeal to people who don't enjoy heavier beer or even people who don't really like beer at all.


I believe they are going after the Corona crowd, but it lacks Corona's distinct flavour and smell. I can see myself ordering this on a hot summer day, or when my big fat belly is hurting, but otherwise I'll stick with my favourites.

This weeks "Beer of the Week" comes to us from Poland. I really enjoyed my last Polish beer, so I'm excited about trying this one. Unfortunately this weeks "Beer of the Week" tasting is an off site event, so you might have to wait until tomorrow to get the results. Here's the quick and dirty about the bottle.

It comes in a bottle.

The bottle is 500ml.

The bottle has beer in it, Polish beer, from Poland.

Apparently there is some sort of coldness indicator built into the label on this beer...not sure how that works, but I see a label...wow, mood beer!

Extensive testing shows that the Zyweic logo on the temperature indicator changes colour when the beer is cold (as opposed to not so cold). It turns kind of a pinky colour when the beer is ready to drink. Unfortunately it took me so long to drink my Zyweic that my logo went back to white before I was done

I am pretty much in the middle about this beer. I can't say I didn't like it, but I wouldn't rank it among my favourites. It had a strong after taste which sat in the back of my throat, growing stonger with every sip. I tried cleansing my pallet with wine, rye and Chinese food, but still the taste remained. I believe that this beer would appeal to those who enjoy a stronger European beer, or one with a home brewed taste.

I'm such a Heathen; I started drinking my Hockley Gold straight from the can. That is until I noticed in bold print "Best Served Cold in a Chilled Glass".

Well, Hockley Valley Brewing Co. You know best.

After my pour, I notice that the beer is not as clear as most beer I drink. Hockley is a small craft brewery from...Ontario, Canada. Hockley Valley to be more accurate.

On to the beer. Nice taste, slightly heavier than I usually drink. This would be a nice dinner beer (filling). Good with a burger, or steak. Mmmmm steak. There is not a strong aftertaste at all and it's fairly easy to drink. Kind of like a Keiths I'd say.

My Hockley Gold came in a 500ml can. Not sure if it comes packaged any other way as this one was a gift It's labelled Hockley Gold Premium Draught. It's not the type of beer I would drink all night, just have one and move on, but the one would be most enjoyable.

Did somebody mention food? For some reason drinking this makes me think that I should be in a pub eating wings or something. Yes, it's the Duke of Wellington all over again.

So, now I've searched the internet for a picture of my Hockley Gold can and all I find is a silver one (my can is white, red and gold). Don't tell me that I'm going to have to take a picture of this thing myself?

...John heads upstairs to take a picture of his beloved Hockley Gold beer can...

Hey, now I'm starting to taste apple (or is that crab apple) in my beer...cool! There is also sediment on the bottom of my glass, but that doesn't scare me, I've had 8 year old unrefridgerated Bailey's and lived.

I love Perogies, Cabbage Rolls, Polish Sausage and Polish women. Why then was I so surprised when I found this Polish beer so appealing?

Okocim is an import (at least to me in Canada). It comes in a 500ml bottle. The label claims 1845, which has given them 160 years to get it right. Okocim is based on a traditional polish beer recipe.

If I could tell the brewers of Okocim one thing it would be "don't change a thing". I love this beer. It is one of the best beers I've had in a very long time. I might just become a life long fan of this brew. I must truly thank Craig and Jackie for giving me this (as a birthday present). Of course, now I have a dilema. I have one more Okocim in my refrigerator...do I keep it to myself or share it? I have a feeling that I'll split the other Okocim with my good friends

To the beer, it was like a mild Lowenbrau, very easy to drink for a 5.5% beer. Yummy!

You remember Drew Carey? Do you remember the beer company he had? How about what they called the beer? Well, I'll help you out, it was called Buzz Beer! The premise was that they'd add caffiene to beer and call it "Buzz".

This isn't that beer. This Buzz beer is from the Canadian West Coast, Vancouver I think. It's a "Hemp" beer. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I do know that I like it, especially if it's chilled to perfection. Perfection is not simply cold, but cold enough that the beer will freeze instantly if bumped too hard

The label says All Natural, Cold Filtered, Hemp beer...do you need to know more.

Give Buzz a try and support the Canadian Hemp industry!

For those of you who long for the good ol' days, here's Britney...when she was still...well, you know.

Carib is this week's beer of the week. I enjoyed several Carib's at a party on the weekend and I even invited several others to try them as well. The overall impression was that everybody liked it. Carib reminded everyone of Corona, although I thought it wasn't quite as skunky as Corona. In any case, it was a nice change from the beer I typically drink. It was light and tasty and of course did not hurt my belly.

My Carib was brewed in Trinidad. The next time you're in the mood for Corona or something light, pick up some Carib and give them a try for your self.

Well, last night I did my first beer sampling for Beer Day and it was Grolsch.



Grolsch is the #1 selling Lager in Holland. It certainly is a little different from the North American brands that I am used to drinking. It's just slightly heavier with a "hoppier" flavor.



It comes in a big (497 ml) green bottle which is resealable. Pretty cool stuff.



We (my co-reviewer) and I found that the bottle was good for at least 30 seconds of conversation, after which the beer needed to stand on it's own. I enjoyed the beer. That said, I would not sit down for a nights drinking with only Grolsch on the table. It's worth trying, just for the bottle and the distinct flavor, but not my favorite.



Enjoy...and cheers!