More Canadian beer! I was especially excited to get my hands on some beers from Muskoka Brewing. My parents get a magazine called Cottage Life that always has ads for Muskoka and I've always been drawn to their design. As you can see from that can up there it's good looking stuff. Anyway, The Dark Ale is an English Style brown ale, checks in at 15 IBUs and 5% ABV. To the beer!
Dark ale pours well, it pours pretty dark. I think that's probably ok. I'm all for pushing against style guidelines, but if you call a beer Dark Ale and it isn't dark you're just being a jerk. This appropriatley dark beer is actually, upon closer inspection, a deep rich brown with very pretty scarlet highlights that become apparent when the glass is held to light. It's topped by a tall layer of tan head.
Light chocolatey aromas lead the way here. They're followed by subtly roasty, somewhat grainy hints and a milky creaminess. There's just a touch of coffee in there as well and a nice light sweetness.
Muskoka Dark Ale is pretty light in body. Subtle, sweet, milk chocolatey flavors come out swinging first. Light flavors of roasty iced coffee follows. It finishes very crisp and clean for a brown ale.
This is a very simple, very approachable, and pretty mild brown ale. It is, ultimately, very enjoyable though. It's one of those beers, and we've talked about a lot of them, that isn't going to blow you away or really amaze you, but it won't let you down one bit either. Definitely worth checking out.
HD
Love the photo backgrounds. Reminds me of the place we used to visit in the Bay of Islands. We always stopped at LCBO in Whitefish Falls for a variety of Upper Canada offerings. Good stuff that was before it's time and eventually stopped producing. Loved the Maple Wheat Ale. Good to see that craft is still alive in Ontario.
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