Eatdrink #81 January/February 2020

34 | January/February 2020
eatdrink.ca |@eatdrinkmag
Beer
Expand Your Beer Palate
Recommendations Outside the Average Comfort Zone
By GEORGE MACKE
Sipping a fine beverage isn’t just
for fans of wine and whiskey.
Many beer drinkers are moving on
from quaffing the mild tastes of
cream ales, ambers, and lagers in favour of
savouring the tastes of patiently-brewed
craft beers.
From wax seals covering bottle caps, to
walls of bourbon or wine barrels, to the
Flanders Red by Forked River, London
— Available in vintages from 2016, 2017 and
2018, Flanders Red is a Flemish-style beer
aged in wine barrels. It has flavours of black
sourcing of intriguing hops, there are many
tip-offs as to what constitutes a beer meant to
be enjoyed with contemplation.
Generally, these beers have a higher alcohol
content and are dark. In other cases, sourcing
of new or rare-to-Canada varieties of hops
makes them intriguing. Frequently, these are
seasonals, meaning once the batch is sold out it
will be unavailable for a year or more.
cherries, plums and red currants. It’s strong
in alcohol at 7.3 per cent, but not quite the
beastly Reforest Kelly, another Forked River
sipper which measured 11.5 per cent alcohol.