Canada 150 Best Bitter Ale

Brewed in honour of Canada's sesquicentennial, Canada 150 Best Bitter Ale comes from Toronto, Ontario's Black Creek Historic Brewery. Sold in 473mL cans featuring a canoe full of voyageurs, the cloudy, brown ale contains 5% alcohol and pours with a short lived off-white head.

While its aroma isn't particularly powerful, Canada 150 has a decidedly malty nose, with some mild caramel notes. Chiefly malty to the taste, the beer is also a bit bready, and closes with a clatter of bitterness that has a bit of a molasses streak.

Black Creek makes much of the fact that its recipes are inspired by brewing in the 1800s. Having visited the brewery, I can attest to the fact that the beer making on site uses some traditional methods. However, I'm dubious that the canned and commercially available offerings owe all that much to their beery forebears. This suspicion is heightened by the lack of details on the can concerning the particular recipe used.

Still, Canada 150 was a pretty solid best bitter--unremarkable, maybe, but tasty and made with some skill. I didn't find myself caught up in the excitement that has surrounded Canada's 150th year, so I likely wouldn't have bought this beer for myself. However, my baby bro left me a couple cans in exchange for cat-sitting, and I'm glad he did.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.