Grand River Plowmans Ale

Reddish - and a bit of brown. Earthy aroma with hints of pine. Very earthy, rich, slightly woody, slightly lemony taste. Nice brew.

Bottle courtesy of Matt7215. Pours copper with a thin white head. Smells of citrus, roses, caramel, dough. Tastes of tea, some bitterness, light spice, dry malt.

Slow gusher, popped and left on the counter, a minute later it’s sitting in a pool with a small foam puff rising out of the lip. Bottle conditioned? Cool. Cloudy rust brown body with a fine-bubbled tan head. Infected nose, all isovaleric acid, cheesy, lactic, minerally, blood-like and metallic. Spoilage actually tastes like a poorly made biere de garde or saison, with some minerally, dusty yeast (the bad kind) taking over some of the malt sweetness. Pretty bad.

I had this a few times because the first pint was so terrible, I couldn’t believe that people rated it this highly. The rating is for the second time I tried it. Tap at Volo. Earthy sweet malty base with a hint of butterscotch that I find somewhat unappealing. A fruity woody hoppiness as well. The flavour is substantially better however. Soft malty base with asome light licorice as well. As it warms the hoppiness in the nose give off a nice floral/herbal character. Further warming really brings this together. Noble/woody/floral hops over a soft earthy malt base. Lightly nutty flavour. Soft earthy malt base. Lightly nutty flavour with a soft lingering bitterness. The palate comes across quite watery though. It’s kind of a strange bag of stuff and I still don’t think it’s all that good.

Bottled on 4/14/09. Poured clear, medium garnet with a short, creamy cap of yellowy-beige head. The aroma picked up toasted caramel and nutty notes with an ample dose of juicy grapefruit, pine, and earthy hoppage.. sappy sweetness emerged as it warmed up. The flavor had caramel, darker fruit, and berry sweetness at the core, but the hops were a bit of a mess.. sticky grapefruit, pine, and peppery notes didn’t play well with each other or the malts.. finished bitter and sharp. Light-medium bodied, with an empty feel at times on the palate.. again it didn’t flow too well and ended very bitter. Lost some ground after the initial impression.

Lovely white head, with lace, on grapefruit coloured body. Aroma is good, with C-hop, malt and lager. Grapefruit hop takes over, hoppy pale, with acidic bite begging for food. Bold eh? for Ontario, very fresh thanks to Old Faithful’s growler. Very drinkable and also surprisingly bitter. A good pale, Once in a while, the hype is for real. One of the best Ontario brews I have had...you can look it up.

Growler
Appearance :Amber gold with golden fine top.
Nose :Sweet .candy like malt aroma, herbal aroma behind.
Flavour/Palate: Medium bodied, aromatic soft but thinish. Caramel with herbal strike with hint of green bitterness. Fruity finish. Not especially coherent.

Draught. At Volo. Clear amber with an average off-white head. Leathery aroma - reminded me of a decent Merlot - burnt malt and UK hops, bitter and dry. Very bitter and burnt UK hop aroma, lots of toaty malt backing, long herbal-bitter finish. Average body, very astringent and carbonized moutfeel, bitter aftertaste - solid effort, I’d have it again .... I love the leathery character to this.