“True North” out of Vaughn. You know what’s North of Vaughn? How about almost all of Canada, most of Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, Alaska, Greenland, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan to name a few places. If you are from Toronto and have never been to Algonquin Park (which is not very North either) then maybe, just maybe you would think of Vaughn as North. Of course, North is a relative term. Our neighbours to the South may well picture Vaughn as an igloo infested ice encrusted winter wasteland.
With the North debate abated, it’s time to beer me. These imperious imperials are a tough row to hoe, but having recovered from my last royal tasting, I was up for another high ABV adventure. This one a big ol’ bear of a beer, time to grin and bear it. At 8% it’s not as extreme as some imperials. Here’s hoping for a palatable pint.
This bear bites too.
A dark foreboding, or is it forbidding, perhaps both, pour. A tan and white layered head, interesting. A mild stout aroma with some boozy understated overtones. First taste yielded a full stout flavour which was quickly overtaken by a harsh boozy back end. The bear bites. This isn’t a cuddly teddy. It’s a harsh liquor with a stout in there somewhere grizzly. You could call it easy drinking, as in easy to make it last. I never quite settled into this severe sipping stout. To be honest, I could barely bear the bear.
They call it “approachable”. As approachable as a cocaine grizzly,* or a rattler with a toothache. This is a hard core imperial ready to rumble stout. No matter how much gird loining ** I did, this one was too much for me.
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