The weather moves gradually from summer to autumn. One day it rains and the wind blows; the next it’s sunny and too hot for a jacket. In terms of beer, it’s an abrupt jump from the warm weather lagers and pale ales to the quite wintry porters and stouts. I feel we need a beer to stand in between.
Earlier in October I considered pumpkin beer for this role. The best ones are tasty enough, but the most convincing mark against pumpkin beer as a standard-bearer for harvest season is that they are necessarily made from last year’s pumpkins. The new class of harvest ales, brewed with freshly-picked “wet” hops, seem like a more appropriate option.
Amsterdam goes as far as stating that the Cascade hops for its Autumn Hop Harvest Ale are picked just four hours before being put to use. Since the farm they are grown on — Clear Valley Hops, near Collingwood — is a two-hour drive from Amsterdam’s Leaside facility, the brewing starts before the hops arrive.
In a tulip glass, this harvest ale pours a bright gold with hints of copper in the deepest parts. The aroma is the calling-card of West Coast hops: pine resin, lemon, grapefruit peel and touches of grass and tangerine. Naturally, the flavour continues on the bitter theme with a brass section of white grapefruit pith supported by sweet barley malt on percussion.
It’s faint, but there’s a dry, stony minerality at the core of the bitterness that reminds me of certain Ontario white wines (this might eventually become how we recognize Ontario-grown hops).
Even more than usual, it’s important to drink this hoppy ale when it is as fresh as possible and to keep it away from natural light. The LCBO has an ample supply, and bottles are also available from the Amsterdam retail stores at 45 Esandar Dr. and 245 Queen’s Quay West.
Amsterdam Autumn Hop Harvest Ale, $4.75 for a 500 ml bottle, LCBO #337261
In addition to covering beer, new restaurants and food trucks for Post City, David Ort writes about food and drink for several Toronto publications including his own site, Food With Legs. He is also the author of the upcoming Canadian Craft Beer Cookbook. For more of his thoughts on food, beer and life in general, follow him on Twitter or get in touch at info@foodwithlegs.com.