Page 42 - Sharp Winter 2024

CAN IT!
INTRODUCING SHARP’S CANADIAN CRAFT BEER INDEX 2023
By Jonathan Wells
B EER’S THE BEST. IT POURS THE FROTHY
gamut from light lagers to ink-black stouts, tongue-tightening sours to traditional ales. And, with more than 1,000 Canadian brewpubs and microbreweries now up and running (almost double that of a decade ago), ours is a country that has turned craft brewing into an art. You must only look as far as this colourful collection of pilsners and porters for evidence of that; beers with such expressively designed labels that ev- ery can crumple feels like you’re vandalizing a masterpiece. Take Toronto’s Halo Brewery, for example, which entrusts a nearby graphic design studio to brand its beers. Or Collective Arts, whose collaborations with locals artists turn every can into a canvas. Kingston-based Daft Brewing even called on a globe-trotting graffiti artist to tag its Blackberry Sour IPA. But the beers contained within these aluminum artworks are equally wild and wide-ranging. From a Montreal-made IPA to a fruity wheat beer from Vancouver, we’ve chosen 19 national brews that have caught our eyes and turned our tastebuds this past year. Vibrantly packaged and packing a punch, allow us to present: the Canadian Craft Beer Index.
42 GUIDE • WINTER 2024
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GUIDE
High Park Brewery Black Magic Sour ($3.95)
Stanley Park Brewing SunSetter Peach
Wheat Ale ($12.29 for 6)
Junction Craft Brewery Krispy Lite
Lager ($3.15)
Town Brewery Square Wheels IPA ($3.76)
Garrison Brewing Co. Georgia Peach ($4.85)
Dieu Du Ciel! Disco Soleil IPA ($4.12)
Halo Brewery Magic Missile Pale Ale ($7)
Daft Brewing Follow Your Nose Blackberry Sour IPA ($4.75)
Nickel Brook Brewing Co. Black Light
Stout ($13.60 for 4)
Eighty-Eight Brewing Co. Personal Best Hazy Pale Ale ($18.99 for 4)
Matron Fine Beer Sunblind Sourbier ($3.75)
Blood Brothers White Lies Sour Ale ($6.15)
Refined Fool Brewing Co. Brouhaha Nut Brown ($3.75)
Collective Arts Brewing Stranger Than Fiction Porter ($3.45)
Quidi Vidi Brewery Squeezebox NEIPA ($5.47)
Bellwoods Brewery Green Velvet IPA ($4.42)
Brewhall Pineapple Flambé Milkshake IPA ($4.75)
Strathcona Beer Company Imperial Love Buzz Blackberry Pancake Sour ($16.25 for 4)
Sons of Kent Brewing Co. 8Track Extra Pale Ale ($3.55)