The Canadian Beer Conundrum

Whitewater Brewing, Forester Falls, Ontario

On a dead-end street on a heavily agricultural bend of the Ottawa River, an old farmhouse houses the only craft brewer an easy drive from Deep River. At the Bear’s Den in Deep River, Crites and I each tried the Whitewater’s brown ale, a tasty nut brown ale that checks all the boxes. It isn’t a style I clamor for, but we both agreed they did well enough to earn the trip to Forester Falls, an hour or so south of the cabin.

The river remained a constant; the geography shifted immensely. Herds of goats and cows grazed among tan grasses, and towns like Beachburg breezed past in a dozen colorful blocks. I don’t know that we ever reached the core of Forester Falls, but Whitewater Brewing was pinned to the wide swath of Ottawa Valley farmland. As in America, the beer stores (either the LCBO – Liquor Control Board of Ontario – or The Beer Store) sell any number of pale, fizzy lagers best served ice-cold and likely to make the next day gastronomically unpleasant.

The LCBO had a decent selection of Canadian craft brews, including some Belgian-style ales, some more innovative, boundary-pushers from Beau’s Brewing, and many breweries touting their hops.

Take the middle path

Inside the farmhouse sat a modern taproom line with booths and long tables, with a bottle shop filling it out. Whitewater’s taproom served a select group of beers along with a small but ample menu.

We didn't start well. The blonde was pretty weak, lacking in flavor and almost tasting watery. Other beers skewed closer to English dstyles than amped-up American craft brewed beers.

I attribute it to local palates. In a country still part of the British Empire, English-style beers will still hold sway. Whitewater’s IPA skewed heavily to the British style, with milder hops and a bigger malt profile. It was a balanced beer, not a hop monster.

The ginger wheat was easily the best Whitewater brew I tasted – sour like a Berlinerweisse, the ginger did not overwhelm the beer or my palate. By the time we left, the place was packed. One employee set up a small dais for the brewery’s comedy night. Packs of full growlers lined up on some tables. The man running the bottle shop told us Whitewater is in the process of adding a second taproom, this one right on Ontario Route 17. That will undoubtedly draw more casual visitors. Whitewater will have more followers with an outpost on the Trans-Canada Highway.

The session IPAs or hoppy session ales did not fare as well. Somehow a province boasting a lake named Simcoe cannot field a hoppy beer that rises to American expectations. Four beers billed as hoppy session IPAs failed the IBU test. At times, I sensed oily and grassy textures that would typically blossom into fuller hop tones of citrus and passion fruit. Then came nothing. Well, disappointment came, but not a shred of hop intensity. Perhaps I got old bottles; I have had plenty of American beers touted their Simcoe, Citra and Centennial hops where only the faintest flavor remnant emerges.

As blurry as I always should be

Where the brewers did well was with odder styles. Beau’s Brewery of Vankleek Hill, a one-light town east of Ottawa. The organic brewer won immediate points for not sticking with the basics. MaddAddamites NooBroo, their gruit ale, includes elderberries, cherry bark and rosehips, possessed a mildly sour, wild ale taste unlike anything south of the border. Made in collaboration with Canadian writers Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, this beer pushed boundaries. As an ancient style, it skipped the hops. Despite the cumbersome name, it's an easy for fans of sour beers, Belgian beers or flavorful beers.

The beer culture in Ontario is changing. It’s different than Quebec, which claims breweries like Unibroue (with its awesome lineup of Belgian-style bottles, and the innovative Brasserie Dieu De Ciel. Numerous signs outside small towns touted a local brewery. The pale, fizzy stuff still far outsells craft beer in the U.S. Our friends to the north have one-tenth of our population. For now you might have to hunt down good Canadian craft beer outside the big cities –but it’s a journey worth taking.