While Ontario is home to a number of craft breweries that have developed names for themselves even beyond the beer geek scene, there are also plenty of brewers out there that tend to fly under the radar. Whether by choice or necessity, a lot of small breweries concentrate on servicing their immediate area or other niche markets, and are little known outside of their hometown except for in a handful of beer specialty bars.
One brewery that sits somewhere between these two extremes is Burlington's Better Bitters. Founded by John Romano in 1991 as a homebrew supply store and "U-Brew" operation, the company branched out into commercial brewing in 2005 under the Nickel Brook brand. While their product initially suffered from a lack of consistency, brewmaster Tim Blakeley subsequently whipped things into shape and developed a solid and often adventurous line-up of beers, including the popular Ale and Apple Pilsner; seasonals like Maple Porter and Spring Bock; and more out there brews like Uniek Kriek (an oak-aged beer made with sour cherries) and Sahti (a traditional Finnish brew flavoured with juniper berries). And while they may not yet have the same level of recognition of Mill Street or Cameron's, the Nickel Brook name is definitely getting out there thanks to the quality of their beers and the untiring work of John, Tim and crew to promote the brand.
A beer that's helping to build their reputation is Nickel Brook Organic Lager, one of the brewery's flagship beers. Brewed using 100% organic malt, Organic Lager is one of two organic beers from the brewery (the other being the seasonal Organic White, a Belgian-style wheat beer), and sits amongst a very small handful of organic beers being brewed in Canada. While organic malt is harder to source and more expensive than conventional malt, Romano and Blakeley's choice to use it has allowed them to tap into a lucrative market, and has attracted the attention of notable healthy food proponents such as Tony and Abby Sabherwal, who feature Nickel Brook beers at their Magic Oven restaurants.
Of course, all of the good and green intentions in the world wouldn't mean a thing if the beer were lousy. But thankfully, it's not - quite the opposite, in fact.
To start with, it looks great in the glass, with the bright golden body and snow white head of a quintessential premium lager. The aroma offers some husky malt and herbal, grassy hops, along with a hint of apple (spillover from the Apple Pilsner, perhaps?). The body is sufficiently crisp and refreshing, and the flavour has an ideal sweet-bitter balance, with neither the malt nor hops coming to the fore. In the finish, the hops hold a suggestion of tea and very subtle citrus.
Like many Ontario craft breweries, Nickel Brook has recently made the move to cans, a format that is well suited to beers like this that are best enjoyed as fresh as possible. The format also allows the brewery to offer Organic Lager as a single serve product (LCBO 92338 - $2.50/473 mL), which is convenient for those who like trying a few different beers before committing to a six-pack or case. And to make it an even more appealing option, that $2.50 price is a discount from the regular $2.75, with the sale price in effect until August 16th.
