Church-Key Ginger & Rosemary

Brewed by Church-Key Brewing
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Pethericks Corners, Canada

On tap at The Magpie - poured a clear golden hue with a good solid sticky white head. Incredible, somewhat beguiling aroma that is incredibly peachy/mangoey/pineappley. Flavour more subdued, rosemary certainly present, not much ginger that I could detect. Super soft mouthfeel - delicate carbonation. An extremely quaffable golden ale. Nice one.

hazy, strong rosemarry, definate ginger flavour but the rosemary over whelms it a bit.

Bouteille de 341 ml achetée directement à la brasserie. Arôme: Odeur de gingembre, de canelle et de menthe. Apparence: La couleur est blonde avec une moyenne densité de bulle. Présence d’un moyen col mousseux. Saveur: Goût de gingembre avec une pointe de citron. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps et la texture sont mince. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Légère présence de thym en arrière goût. (Rating #674)

Pours light gold with a slight haze. Aroma does carry rosemary and ginger but also some thyme and savory. Sweet and syruppy. Apple pie, cream/butter fat. I just don’t know whether it works. It’s slightly better than the cranberry maple beer, but that didn’t do it for me either. It’s very trying.

Bottle. Pours a cloudy yellow-brown with no head at all. Aroma of ginger, rosemary and other spices. The ginger and rosemary come through in the flavour as well but it’s also quite sour in a negative way. Usually Church-Key knocks their beers out of the park with me but this one’s just O.K. I must give kudos for their continuous willingness to experiment and their great contributions to the Canadian beer market.

On tap cafe volo. This is your basic hot day sweat off your pants in the freaking humidity brew. It’s definitely Refreshing with a hint of the whitbeer style. Not too acidic or overwrought with citrus, but nice... ginger is a definite must try at least once.

Bottle (341ml) (thank you tupalev). Poured a very whitbier-y yellow orange, massively swirling, plenty of after-pour bubbles; no sediment; average white frothy head, no lacing. Nose is very sour grainy, some tart orange, a dominant sourish herb (I assume it’s rosemary), grabby ginger snappiness, somewhat unpleasant pall of fermented gym bag. Taste is a lovely fruity (mandarin orange and lemon) wheat beer style, minus the bitterness, acidic in the mouth, with the rosemary adding a nice balance to the citrus - bit like the Denison’s wheat, more watery mouthfeel and an earthy, astringent finish - an interesting lively ginger burn with the earthy, almost sour rosemary last on the tongue. Apart from the sour nose, very nice indeed - almost like a rack of lamb shandy! (canned corn???)

Bottle from the brewery - thanks to tupalev. This was actually the first Church Key beer I ever tried, at their first Toronto Beer Festival appearance a few years ago. I wasn’t on RateBeer at the time, and they’ve made it sporadically since then, so I haven’t had a chance to rate it before now. I’m pretty sure that the base beer is the Northumberland, or a very similar recipe, which is fine by me as I quite like that beer. Body is golden-orange and quite hazy. A fair bit of ginger in the aroma, but not much else. Flavour of ginger and sweet malt, with a lemony bitterness in the finish. The rosemary comes through as it warms, and works very well with the other flavours. A great warm weather beer, flavourful and refreshing.