Where to begin? When I saw the name Goodbye Gravity I was immediately intrigued. But it is not a reference to the impact this beer will have on you, but rather a tribute to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield who hails from Sarnia, where the brewery is based. Hadfield is famous for playing his guitar and singing Space Oddity while in orbit. Many thought his rendition of Bowie’s hit from the late 60’s was out of this world. Hadfield himself was over the moon about it, but I found it had no atmosphere.*
Who was it who said “read the fine print”?** Well I wish I had remembered that sage advice when I bought this craft beer. The fine print on this can says “with Madagascar vanilla”. I made my opinion about vanilla clear in my review of Lions Winter Ale. *** They say Madgascar vanilla is a superior quality of vanilla for a variety of reasons. Next time I buy ice cream I will look for a Madagascar vanilla, but it won’t be in any of my future beer purchases that’s for sure.
So how does it pour? White. That’s right. A completely white foam fest. 100% foam. This beer can was so full of foam my fire extinguisher was jealous. I didn’t go to bartender school but I have poured a few beers in my time and seem to fare OK in that department. But the whole glass was foam. I timed it and it took 8 minutes and 38 seconds for it to settle and when it did there was 1 inch of beer in the bottom of my glass. The foam froze to the side of my chilled glass, congealing into sometime kind of vanilla beer shake.
Once I cleaned out my glass of this vanilla foam waste I poured the rest of the can in. Same deal. A fizzy foamy fiasco. Some beers say they are naturally carbonated. I guess that means some beers are unnaturally carbonated. This beer was supernaturally carbonated. A white bubbling foam that could have been an extra in Ghost Busters or a prop in any mad scientist’s lab. It was in dire need of an exorcism but I definitely wasn’t qualified to do that. This beer was fizzier than my alka seltzer.
I cracked this brew at 9:30PM and sent a pic of the pour to my old buddy JT because I had never seen anything like it. At 10:55 he sends a note back “something wrong with that beer…all foam… don’t think I would drink it.” Now he tells me.
This beer was all fizz and foam. Possibly its only redeeming quality was that the vanilla flavouring didn’t over power the brew, but I think that is due to the fact that the beer was all froth and zero flavour.
Not the right way to honour a Canadian astronaut, or anyone for that matter. I only hope I got a bad batch, I would hate to think that this is how this beer is supposed to taste. A carbonated craft disaster of epic proportions. The only reason it has any rating at all is out of respect for Commander Hadfield.
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