Did you know that you can tour our great nation using only your tastebuds and liver?
Well, you can. You have to use beer to do it. I’m sorry to have to break that to you, if you’re more of a wine person. You can’t do it with wine. If you did it with wine, you’d just keep landing in Niagara and saying “Jesus Christ, this is too sweet…” to yourself.
This evening I’m visiting picturesque Thunder Bay, Ontario. Having never been to Thunder Bay (…that I can remember…), my overall impression of the place is that it is probably a place where kids jump off of cliff faces into a lake and also they go through some challenging but formative experiences while they come of age and also it’s the best time of their lives and the worst time of their lives. But I don’t know, that might just be me.
Thunder Bay is home to Sleeping Giant Brewing Company. It seems safe to assume that they’ve taken their name from the area’s famous formation of mesas and sills. A quick poke around their homepage reveals that they’ve been brewing since 2012. This is my first run-in with one of their products.
Let’s give it a spin.
The Can: This is a really fun can. It’s a crazy lumberjack riding an angry bear with antlers for fuck’s sake. The name of the beer is kind of a pun, but not really. The beer isn’t a lager. It’s a golden ale. Regardless, the suggestion of wordplay makes me pretty happy. Points deducted for the text on the back of the can, though…
…it says “whatevs” on it. I know that millennials drink a lot of beer or whatevs, but you don’t have to pander to them so fervently, Sleeping Giant Brewco. You may as well have put “DRINK THIS BEER BCUZ YOLO” on the can. Minus three points.
The Colour: It’s golden, motherfuckers.
The Flavour: This is a very tasty and refreshing beer. I was on board immediately and enjoyed consistently until it was (regrettably) all through. It is crisp and light, brightly flavourful with a hint of sweetness that doesn’t tip over into sickly-sweet territory. It is similar in character to Side Launch Brewing Company‘s Mountain Lager, which I love. Excellent stuff. Would drink again.
The Verdict: I greatly enjoyed Side Launch’s offering over the summer months and I would have greatly enjoyed Northern Logger as a heat-beating alternative. Now that it’s nearing winter, I’ll probably begin to gravitate toward IPA beers strong enough to induce a fugue state for a few months in order to avoid being conscious of being Canadian. If I notice this beer on the shelf while out shopping, however, I’ll have a hard time not throwing one in my basket. A very nice beer!
The Fraudsters' Almanac 