Bench Brewing Company – Ball’s Falls Session IPA

Given that we live in a time of a great abundance in terms of craft beer choices, most brewers have taken it upon themselves to rely on flashy label design or other such gimmicks in order to grab our attention and cause us to give their beer a shot. I’m a big fan of good graphic design on a beer can, to the point where it might actually make the beer taste better. I’m less convinced by actual gimmicks. Pumpkin beer – which will become a huge waste of LCBO merchandising space this month – can fuck right off without exception.

I’m not saying that Bench Brewing Company‘s Ball’s Falls IPA is necessarily a gimmick beer. Ball’s Falls is a real place that exists.

All that I’m saying is that I bought this beer solely because the can had the word “BALLS” on it.

Here’s what I thought of it.

The Can: The can features clean design. Looks fine. Looks especially fine because the word “balls” is on there. They could improve on this can design by replacing the word “bench” with the the word “balls”, as I’m not sure that I 100% buy the word “bench” as a focal point for this design. Not when “balls” is on the table.

The Colour: I couldn’t bear to pour the beer out of this can into a glass. If I did, I’d be drinking out of a glass instead of out of a can that has the word “balls” on the side of it. So… I don’t have any clue of what colour this beer is. Probably some kind of yellow?

The Flavour: This is a nice, crisp and refreshing hoppy session ale. I like session beers a lot because they tend to have a great hoppy snap to them without tasting really heavy. All in all, this beer has a lot in common – flavour-wise – with Amsterdam’s Cruiser. I’m not quite as partial to it, though, as this beer has a bit of a lingering aftertaste. Still very good, though.

This is where everybody needs to be very impressed that I didn’t make some joke after I said “lingering aftertaste” and make it about “balls”. Well, shame on you for expecting it. That wouldn’t be fair, because this beer is actually very nice!

The Verdict: This is a good beer with a great name. I would definitely pick it up again and would not miss the chance to order it on tap. That would mean that I would both get to check out what the beer tastes like from a keg, but would also get to order something with the word “balls” in its name at a bar from an actual person. It’s a can’t-lose proposition.