Paddock Wood Double Double

Brewed by Paddock Wood Microbrewery
Style: English Strong Ale
Saskatoon, Canada

Smells nicely of hops, strong and heavy. Dark and thick and lots of particulates, just a bit of reddish and brown. Lots of strong hops flavours that linger on long into the aftertase. A great double IPA, nothing is out of sync with the other flavours, it all balances out quite nicely, much more than most I have tried recently. There is no crazy overpowering hops hit in the aftertaset like most DIPA’s, and I can’t believe this is actually 10 %, it tastes more like 6.

Poured out an absolutely colossal light tan head that was creamy, lots of messy as hell lacing. Brew is burnt orange in colour and crystal clear. No lack of aroma - toffee, melted cane sugar, sweet golden raisins, cherry, light spice, concentrated apricot or nectarine... very aromatic with a light floral hint, red licorice - excellent. The aromas are never in your face - they are soft and keep my nose happy. The taste is missing the massive in-your-face spice - which is nice. Initial hops linger for a while now that I’m on to them - pine, mild grapefruit. Nice tasty mix of mild spices that I cannot distinguish between, toffee, raisin, tons of malts dominate the flavour. Citrus is very yummy, this is odd - although the spices are low and I like the citrus, my brain says these should not mix in this fashion. But it works. Excellent creamy mouth feel, wonderful carbonation, medium bodied, finishes with toffee, light roast, a slight lingering spice and decent bitterness. I gotta say that I really enjoyed this brew and never noticed the 10.5% until I got up to take a piss and almost did a header through my drywall ala NAIT.

Dull glowing hazy honey brown body with a stupidly long lasting very large nipple shaped crown. Woody aroma, some vegetable and there is this sharp sweaty feet mixes with caramel stink that I’m detecting, no trace of the alcohol . I’m not sure I like this aroma its not bad but its not winning me over either it’s just lacking something. Taste seems clean, nice and malts, good sweetness with a bitter finish. Brew is very heavy bodied with tons of in your face spice. Beer has more hops then I expected with them starting of very flowery but turn piney. I think I just taste celery but when I try to find that again all I get is a lemon lime. Very drinkable tame flavor, I could drink this all the time but there are better out there.

22 oz. bottle shared at Logan’s 2009 pre-GABF Party. Dark orange pour. Whiskey and citrus hop aroma. Wood, whiskey, and pine flavors. I wouldn’t go out of my way for this one.

22oz bomber from Brewery Creek. Solid copper in the glass. Refrigerated and the aroma suffered as a result. The malts are certainly evident on first tasting. Strong and certainly British in style. The alcohol is somewhat evident but still well worked in. As the glass warmed to room temperature the subtle and layered nature of this beer evolved nicely. Bit of a wolf in sheeps clothing. Certainly some well worked hops in the finish. Overall a lovely example of the style and a welcome addition to a very under represented category in Canada. Nice job.

From Brewery Creek. Rather pricy at $8.25 CAD for a bomber, but this was my first chance at a beer from Saskatchewan. Poured a rich and hazy copper beneath a creamy small head of ivory hue. The aroma was right for an English Strong Ale, malt although not a hint as to the high ABV, yet you certainly could taste it! Nice, nice mouthfeel and a good strong ale finish.

Bottle purchased at Willow Park Calgary and shared with Parksy. Pours a dark amber brown with a lively finely-bubbled golden head that leaves fine lacy tendrils. Aroma is of leafy stemmy hops, apple skins, and toffee. Palate is surprisingly light (medium-bodied) for 10.5%, with sweet toffee malts up front, backed by biting hop bitterness in the finish. There is some interesting subtle fruit and spices in there as well. Finish is bitter and warming, but in no way harsh. Again, I find it surprising that this beer is 10.5%!