Welcome to part three of my journey through flavour country, specifically the beer-swilling country of Gravenhurst, Ontario. I’ve taken you through a handful of different beers so far, and they’ve ranged from great to good to amazing.
What other wonders lay in store?
I’ve got news for you: A bunch of them. I seriously scored so many beers from this place. Today we’ll look at Old Fashioned Dust Up Rustic Pale Ale and Death And Taxes Raspberry Radler!
Old Fashioned Dust Up Rustic Pale Ale
The Can: This can features two olde-timey gentlemen beating the snot out of each other. I love it and it looks great beside a turtle statue.
The Colour: This beer looks very rustic coloured to the inside of my mouth. I think that I’m just going to skip the colour category from now on for beers that I totally just poured directly into my mouth.
The Flavour: I’m going to be 100% honest. I had already had all of those other beers and I have no recollection of what this guy tasted like, beyond the fact that I thought it was totally fine, if unremarkable. I think that I remember it being dry but not overpowering, and kind of wishing that I was just drinking another Juicin’.
The Verdict: I can’t be definitive about saying that this beer is fine to drink, but you don’t need to go out of your way to do so. Because I was drunk. This is a hazard of the beer game, and I would have to fail all of the other beers if this hadn’t been the result of previously drinking three of them immediately beforehand. The only true verdict that I can reach on this one is: Beer – it does its job.
Death And Taxes Raspberry Radler
The Can: I must mention that I did not take this picture, as I forgot to take a picture when I was drinking this one. It wasn’t because I was drunk. This was on a different day than the others. It was just because I’m stupid. It is a shame, because this can is pretty great. It features a really angry eagle fighting with a really angry rattlesnake that has a raspberry for a tail instead of a rattle. Solid work, you sickos.
The Colour: I actually did pour some of this into a glass, and although it is not apparent in the picture above, this beer has a very very slight and very attractive pink hue. There are actual raspberries in it, but not so many raspberries that the beer winds up being neon or something.
The Flavour: While the term “radler” conjures up a very sweet, juice-like beverage, Death And Taxes is very distinctly a beer. The raspberry flavour is very light and subtle, adding more tartness than sweetness. As the beer sits at 4.3% alcohol rather than the 2.5% that is common with a half-juice half-beer radler, I do not believe this to be a radler at all. It is, instead, a flavoured beer.
And a very good one! Crisp and super refreshing, it reminded me a great deal of the impossible to find, but fantastic to drink Sour Kraut raspberry lager made by Neustadt Springs Brewery. I love Sour Kraut and having an alternative raspberry beer as good as Death And Taxes is a great thing. It is disappointing that Death And Taxes is also very difficult to find.
The Verdict: Flavoured beer is not to everyone’s taste, and that seems a reasonable position to me. If you’re anything like me, though, you’ll grab a flavoured beer from time to time during the warm months and sail the seas of fruity pleasure™. Viva raspberry beer! Viva summer fun! Viva Sawdust City Brewery!
The Fraudsters' Almanac 