Beer of the Week – Rickard’s Dark

As one of North America’s pre-eminent beer festivals, Montreal’s Mondial de la Bière is often used as a venue for breweries both large and small to release their latest creations. These new brews are generally strongly promoted and heavily hyped, with many running out well before the festival closes as the beer geeks prowl the floor looking for the latest and greatest.

At this year’s edition back in June, there were a lot of brand new beers to choose from, but there was one that debuted so quietly that many festival goers didn’t even realize it was available. It wasn’t mentioned in the festival program, and there were no obvious signs or placards announcing its availability, which was especially surprising since it was a new beer from Molson, a company not exactly known for being shy when it comes to promoting their products.

The beer in question was an addition to the Rickard’s line-up that was being given a quiet “sneak peak” release a few months before being officially launched. The small sign simply stated that it was a new Rickard’s beer, but the tight t-shirted serving girl cheerily told me it was Rickard’s Porter, which intrigued me for a few reasons. First, I’m a big fan of stouts and porters in general and always up for trying new ones. Second, while I don’t care for most of the Rickard’s brands, I thought they did a decent job with Rickard’s White, so I was willing to have an open mind about this one. And third, they were offering a small cheese plate with each sample poured, so even if the beer was lousy – hey, free cheese!

So I handed over my glass, and received it back filled with a light reddish-brown liquid that didn’t look like any porter I’d ever seen before. After requested and getting assurance that I hadn’t been poured Rickard’s Honey Brown by mistake, I gave it a try, and while it wasn’t awful, it also wasn’t anywhere near being a porter, just a fairly sweet but otherwise non-descript darkish ale. At least the cheese was good.

A few months later, and the beer originally introduced to me as Rickard’s Porter is now commercially available under the name Rickard’s Dark, although the neck label still calls it a “porter brewed with maple syrup”. I suspect that there may have been some tweaking done to the recipe between June and the official launch, as there are some subtle differences to the sample I tried in Montreal.

Most notably, the colour now seems darker, although it’s still a translucent ruby hue, not the dark and opaque brown expected from a proper porter. Very nice creamy tan head, though. The aroma is light, with hints of sweet maple toffee and a slight nutty background. The flavour follows with tasty maple and toffee notes, and even a hint of cocoa, with a bit of balance given by a quick and lightly hopped finish.

Setting style aside, Rickard’s Dark is a pleasant and nicely flavoured dark ale. But I think that Molson has exhibited bad judgment in marketing it even tangentially as a porter, as it quite clearly isn’t one. Labatt has already learned a lesson with their Keith’s Stags Head Stout, a decidedly non-stout-like dark beer that they’ve recently rebranded as Keith’s Dark. Molson was at least smart enough to use the non-specific Rickard’s Dark as the beer’s proper name, but leaving “porter” on the label, even in small print, was a mistake that is going to get them negative feedback from beer writers and raters that might have otherwise cut them some slack.

Rickard’s Dark is available now in 6- and 12-packs in Quebec and the Maritimes, with Ontario distribution currently limited to Rickard’s Taster’s Packs, mixed packs available at The Beer Store that include bottles of Rickard’s Dark, Red and White.