Ontario - Fitger's Brewhouse

joshuaseresse

Minnesota

4.43/5  rDev +0.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Bottle #123 of 204. Big thanks to my father for picking me up a bottle of this while up in Duluth on Business. Split with some La Crosse BAs yesterday:

A - A deep orange color with a slightly brownish core. Creamy thin head but leaves a nice foam film on the top. Only slight lacing.

S - Nice citrus notes but its subtle. Bit of a funk with a decent brett profile. Bits of floral and herbal presence. Grape tones mixed with cantaloupe.

T - A nice Belgium yeast taste with plums. A light funk with grapes, and a hint of red wine. A bit bitter and decent hop profile.

M - Really clean and a touch of drying and bitterness. A bit thick from the ABV and somewhat syrupy.

O - Probably the best offering from Fitger's I've ever had (although what I have had is quite limited.) I really enjoyed this yesterday since I just finished mountain biking and it was something like 85 degrees out. Really smooth and clean feel with not so much in your face flavoring. Really want another bottle or two.

Serving type: bottle

06-06-2011 14:41:04 | More by joshuaseresse

feloniousmonk

Minnesota

4.35/5  rDev -0.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Ontario is a tribute to the Trappist beer, Orval. Only beer brewed under the watchful eye of the Cistercian monks, has the right to use the strictly controlled name of Trappist. Ontario is a Belgian style Pale Ale that has been dry hopped and conditioned with Brettanomyces. Brettanomyces is a wild yeast commonly found on the skins of fruit. This yeast contributes a unique characteristic. Ontario has a rich orange hue and a dense creamy head. The flavor profile presents a balance between sweet malty honey and a citrus hop bite.

Deep crimson hue, opaque; large and lovely creamy white head. Looks good.

Aroma: Belgian funk and fruit at first sniff…rich and ripe…and very mellow. Citrus and spice, lemon and pepper. Mmm. Piquant, even. Yes, I use that word from time to time, when I want to seem learned.

Taste: Mmmm, yes. Very groovy, very mellow. For those who are not inside my mind, I am channelling Slim Gaillard, Mr. Mellow-roonie, a Cuban-American jazz singer/guitarist/pianist, whose work cannot be easily summarized, but which was utterly hip and suffused with humor and cool.
Which means that I merely want to express nonsense words and hope you get them. Does that mean that I am lazy and want to skip the work of making words connect to meaning? No, but I just wish that I could. You know what I mean. Admit it, we all wish we could. We just never get to.

So, without further ado…skabop-blee, scoo-bop, doo…shooby doo, shooby-daa…Mmmm, this is creeping into sour, but not quite there, it many kinds of fruit, without being one in partoo-blee-dop-blow…ticular…peach, melon, a little sweet, a little sharp, a little tanga-tee-bop-op-bleedoooo…

It's beautiful, is what I want to say, it is terr- iffic. Peach fuzz and malt essence, mellowing it out on the palate. How many times need I say this, very cool, very mellow…

A hint of the funk, of the farmhouse horse blanket-ness, just a brief whiff of it, and the fruit carries the rest, and it's all mellow and groovy. All reety, all righty, all rooty-tooty.

Just lovely. Not too thick, medium body, full fruity, flavorful feeling, long, lovely finish. Wonderfully warming, and relaxing, without ever being overly alcoholic.

Way to go, Fitger's, this is righteous and very groovy, very mellow, a groove juice special.

Serving type: bottle

05-28-2011 05:02:32 | More by feloniousmonk