Moosehead Lager & Pale Ale (beer review)
I'm not well versed in Canadian beer as it doesn't seem to make it to the UK often. Sure, I've drank a lot of Carling which originates from there and I remember spending a day in London years ago in the Maple Leaf pub in Covent Garden drinking multiple pints of Sleeman's IPA and Honey Brown lager, but I'd never had anything from Canada's oldest independent brewery.
What's interesting about Moosehead is that it was founded by a woman, Susannah Oland back in 1867 and is still operated by the same family. The fact that it was founded by a woman all of the way back then is great but people generally don't know this. People quite rightly celebrate the female brewers of today, but Moosehead is quite an important brewery, in Canada at least, so she deserves some recognition.
They've had quite a rocky history, changing names a couple of times and unfortunately two fires within 8 years but each time they recovered and got stronger. Also, its success in the USA can oddly be attributed to Michael J Fox as he gave it a big plug on the Jay Leno show.
Anyway, I was kindly sent Moosehead Lager & Pale Ale to write a few words about...
Moosehead Lager (5%) pours golden yellow with a small, sparse head that disappears rather quickly. On the nose you have a little sweetcorn, a few hops and some skunkiness. When you taste it, there is no corn but instead it's just a crisp almost lemony lager flavour with a little sweetness. We rather enjoyed it!
Moosehead Pale Ale (5%) pours an amber colour that's almost brown, and again it doesn't have much of a head. I was expecting something akin to an American style pale ale, but to my surprise I got an English style Pale Ale. Lots of caramel and brown sugar sweetness, with just a few hops and a bit of golden syrup. Again, it's an enjoyable beer.
Overall: Both pleasant and accessible beers. As a beer geek, they didn't make me run around flailing but they are very well made tasty beers that at the right pricepoint could quite happily be most people's first foray into craft beer.
Thanks to Louise from Pierhead Purchasing for sending me these to write about!
Nate
What's interesting about Moosehead is that it was founded by a woman, Susannah Oland back in 1867 and is still operated by the same family. The fact that it was founded by a woman all of the way back then is great but people generally don't know this. People quite rightly celebrate the female brewers of today, but Moosehead is quite an important brewery, in Canada at least, so she deserves some recognition.
They've had quite a rocky history, changing names a couple of times and unfortunately two fires within 8 years but each time they recovered and got stronger. Also, its success in the USA can oddly be attributed to Michael J Fox as he gave it a big plug on the Jay Leno show.
Anyway, I was kindly sent Moosehead Lager & Pale Ale to write a few words about...
Moosehead Lager (5%) pours golden yellow with a small, sparse head that disappears rather quickly. On the nose you have a little sweetcorn, a few hops and some skunkiness. When you taste it, there is no corn but instead it's just a crisp almost lemony lager flavour with a little sweetness. We rather enjoyed it!
Moosehead Pale Ale (5%) pours an amber colour that's almost brown, and again it doesn't have much of a head. I was expecting something akin to an American style pale ale, but to my surprise I got an English style Pale Ale. Lots of caramel and brown sugar sweetness, with just a few hops and a bit of golden syrup. Again, it's an enjoyable beer.
Overall: Both pleasant and accessible beers. As a beer geek, they didn't make me run around flailing but they are very well made tasty beers that at the right pricepoint could quite happily be most people's first foray into craft beer.
Thanks to Louise from Pierhead Purchasing for sending me these to write about!
Nate
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