Searching For a Fine Glass of Beer: Upper Canada Lager

The Upper Canada Brewing Company was founded in 1984 to (according to their website), produce a family of traditionally-brewed, all-natural beers.

Because a member of my family stored their lager in my fridge last weekend I got to try one or two. I tried not to be influenced in my assessment by the fact they didn’t cost me a penny.

The colour is golden and the aroma is light, with a touch of sweet corn or honey.


["Looks good, smells and tastes quite mild to me": photos GAH]

The taste is mild, in my opinion, perhaps because the lager is brewed with only four ingredients in accordance with the Bavarian Purity Act of 1516, which allows the use of only four pure ingredients (malted barley, hops, yeast and water), none of which are high on unique flavors.

Because the label depicts large, handsome (in a rugged sort of way), hard-working Voyageurs, I was expecting something heartier or more potent, even though the label clearly states the beverage is 5% alc./vol.


["Okay, maybe not handsome. At least rugged"]

My son likes the price per bottle and after a hard day of paddling the back waters of Northern Ontario on a hot day I suppose I’d be happy to dring two or three in a row while eating a plate of brown beans and watching the sun set in the west.

Would I buy it myself?

Likely not. Too mild for my taste. Even though, according to the brewery’s website, Upper Canada Lager won a Silver Medal at the 2004 Brussels Monde Selection in 2004, I’d lean toward trying something else from their family of beers first.


["Can you remember the four natural ingredients in this beer?"]

Maybe the Upper Canada Dark Ale, because it won a Gold Medal again at the 2005 Brussels Monde Selection.

Or their Maple Brown Ale, introduced in 1998, with pure maple syrup infused into the brew.

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Please click here to read my last beer review, i.e., Dead Elephant Ale.

http://itstrikesmefunny.blogspot.com/2010/03/searching-for-glass-of-fine-beer-dead.html

Please visit Searching For a Fine Beer in the lower right margin for 12 recent beer reviews.

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