Church-Key Catch Her In The Rye

Brewed by Church-Key Brewing
Style: Specialty Grain
Pethericks Corners, Canada

C’est What Craft Beer Fest. Malty nose,amber, tiny off-white head. Full malt flavour, alcoholic notes. Medium bodied,sweet,strong for a 7.5%. good.

Strong pumpernickel flavour, spicy yet mild. Thick, creamy and sticky body. A bit one-dimensional, but enjoyable nonetheless. A great experiment by a respected brewery.

[303-20070509] 650mL (c/o tupalev, w/ him, blankboy, GregClow, jerc). Caramelized veggie aroma with a sweet background. Clear, brown orange body with a quick head and some central groups of medium-sized bubbles. Tastes like a watered-down root vegetable smoothie, kinda boozy and a sweet long aftertaste. Medium-full body. Very interesting blend of aroma/flavour.

On tap at Magpie - clear deep gold with a fairly frothy white head. Aroma expertly mingles sharp hops and a subtle malt sweetness. Flavour very intriguing - a surpising caraway prominence and very sweet because of the rye. Some underlying hops as well as a spiciness. Alcohol is very well hidden. Church Key is a great brewery and I hope to taste more of these unique experiments from them. Props for taking a chance.....

A wonderous elixer! On tap at the Castle on King A rich prtien-hazed orange color in the glass with a 1 finger off white sticky cap. Aroma is lush: rich spicey grains over some light honey-like tones and wet grass. Starts thick with spicey-tangy rye malts.... mid way you get some light hop s and some tangy sweetness...finish is delightful, rich and malty, spicey with a caraway seed-licorice root taste. This is a flavorful "big" beer and the rye spiciness just sets it off wonderfully....hides alcohol well...drinkable and satisfying. The brewer gets 2 extra points for imagination and originality....rare traits in the Ontartio "me too" craft brewing market.

Draught. At Volo. Poured slightly hazy amber with an average off-white draught head. Slightly sweet aroma, with cereal and herbal notes. The first taste that hit me was fennel - so much I wondered if the fennel bread I had with my cheese and carne appetizers was influencing my palate, but no, there’s fennel or carroway, or anise or something in there, a fair bit of it - as well as fresh toasty cereal malt and some light sweet herbal hops and mild fruity yeast. The body is middle of the road, with a little herbal and alcohol bitterness balancing out the sweet malt nicely - I’d like more rye and slightly less sweetness, but those are quibbles - I’d have this again.

Draught. Orange-amber body with a small white head. The aroma has plenty of rye notes along with some kind of sourish qualities, apples, and apricot. The flavour is quite sweet and smooth with some almost vinous characteristics. Raisiny fruit and cookie sweetness are apparent and alcohol becomes noticeable though doesn’t detract from anything.
Sampled at the C’est What Spring Festival Of Craft Brewers on May 25, 2007.

Tap at Beer Bistro
Clear ale with golden sparkle, light brown medium sized top with average density.
Aroma: mainly sweet and malty, grainy quiet plain but pleasant enough.
Soft textures yet marked with medicinal accents. Plum, grapes perhaps touch of vanilla. Sweet malts again. We all know how hard is to brew decent rye beer and its difficulties were shown here. I think few more tweaks and we could have decent rye on set. For now only 8/20.