Oh, Canada! Round Two

Last December a buddy invited us over for a tasting of beers he had brought back from Canada. It's a favorite destination of his so on another trip this spring he was kind enough to again return with bottles to share. It was a nine-bottle, IPA heavy lineup with the deviators being an ESB from Driftwood Brewing and a porter from Phillips Brewing, both from Victoria.

Of the IPAs Total Eclipse of the Hop from Howe Sound Brewing in Squamish tickled my fancy the most. Beyond that it was the deviators which ended up being two of the evening's best beers. Interestingly both came from breweries which had garnered my praise from the last tasting. The Hildegard ESB was much hoppier than most ESBs and if I had to give it a more appropriate name I think I'd call it an Imperial ESB, in part as well because of the 6.5% ABV.

At the beginning of the evening there had been a discussion as to whether to start off the evening with Longboat Chocolate Porter, as to have it before potentially destroying our palates with hops, or to wait until the end and have it as "dessert." We ended up holding off to have last and dessert it was! The aroma was strongly roasty but the flavor was that of dark chocolate minus any trace of sweetness.

Thanks once again to my kind friend for sharing his haul. I hope you're lucky enough to have at least one friend like that.