Each sip of craft beer offers a completely different experience that can’t be found in a can or bottle. Glasses of craft beer are filled to the brim with secrets: secrets that you can only learn by exploring types of beer.
When it comes to ordering beer, you may feel intimidated since you don’t know what most of the drinks offered at a bar even are.
The Brooklyn, a craft beer establishment in Kingston, is the perfect place to face your fears of craft beer. You’re not alone, though. Not when you know the essential terms to help you navigate the menu.
Photo by Courtney Lailey
General Types of Beer
1. Hops/Hoppy: a beer with a bitter kick to it.
Photo by Daniel Schuleman
2. Malt: sweet and is usually described to have a yeasty or grainy flavour.
3. Stout: a strong, dark beer that usually has a chocolate or coffee flavour. Beer, caffeine and chocolate are all heavenly.
Photo by Amanda Gajdosik
4. Lager: the most common type of beer around and you’ve probably tried it. Think Labatt Blue beer.
5. Ale: has a fruity taste balanced out by a dash of bitterness.
6. Cider: beer does apple juice. Or apple juice does beer. You decide.
Is that apple juice or beer?|Photo by Courtney Lailey
7. Pale: either a lager or ale with extra hoppy bitterness in it. Amber, Blonde, APA, and IPA are types of pale ales.
8. Dark: a heavier beer with hints of smooth malt or coffee.
Specific Types of Beer
Although the menu is always changing according to the season at The Brooklyn, servers are always willing to help you find the right beer. Just don’t ask for Canadian or Coors – they may give you a glass of water instead.
Photo by Courtney Lailey
1. Sweetgrass Golden Ale:
This light-bodied, golden ale seems to be a permanent treat on the menu, which says a lot about the drink’s popularity. With a fruity flavour minus the bitter hops found in many types of ale, the drink tastes a lot lighter than 4.9% would suggest.
2. Spearhead Sam Roberts Session Ale:
This medium-bodied, amber ale has malt flavouring with a kick of bitter hops. For those who like to savour a bitter aftertaste, this is the perfect 4.5% beer for you.
Spearhead Sam Roberts Session Ale (left) and Sweetgrass Golden Ale (right)|Photo by Courtney Lailey
3. Whitewater Farmer’s Daughter Melon Blonde Ale:
I know. The name of the drink stretches on for miles, and you want to drink instead of exercising your brain. Anybody can enjoy this refreshing melon blonde ale, though. A tangy, citrus taste is followed by a light kick of bitterness at the end.
Final verdict? Very easy to drink and not heavily carbonated. You would have never guessed that this ale’s 5%.
Photo by Courtney Lailey
4. Broadhead Rye and Ginger Ale:
This medium-bodied ale is smooth on the way down. A ginger aroma complements the soft taste of caramel with a mild bitterness that lingers on the tongue. The ale isn’t overly sweet, and yet, it doesn’t need to be. Excellent for a 5.5% beer.
Photo courtesy of Aaron Hockley
5. Waupoos Draft Apple Cider:
A cider that tastes like an apple orchard. The sweet apple touch is light enough to send you on a nostalgic apple picking trip down memory lane.
My jaw dropped when I found out that this drink is 6.5%. It’s easy to have a few too many when enjoying this one.
6. Sawdust City S’more Camp-Out Stout:
Campfire mixed with beer. All the flavours of the best s’more can be tasted. Marshmallow, chocolate, graham cracker, and campfire smoke. A heavy beer, overall, but supported by 5.6% alcohol content. Story time starts when you order this beer.
Sawdust City S’more Camp-Out Stout (left) and Waupoos Draft Apple Cider (right)|Photo by Courtney Lailey
7. Side Launch Dark Lager:
A medium-bodied drink, which has malt undertones to a slight coffee taste. Even those who aren’t usually fond of dark lagers can enjoy this 5.4% beer.
Photo courtesy of Jerry Andrews
Attending a beer tasting event, like the Beer Festival on March 29, could really give you a head start to finding that beer.
It’s time to go out and pick your go-to craft beer, and what better place to start than at The Brooklyn?
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