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Brews News: Muskoka teams with Kawartha Dairy for seasonal treat

Two of the greatest things about Muskoka are ice cream and beer.

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Two of the greatest things about Muskoka are ice cream and beer.

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The region’s best known craft brewery and the famous Kawartha Dairy bring them together in one delicious adult dessert brew with Blue Buried Treasure, a beer that mimics the taste of one of Kawartha’s popular ice cream flavours.

It’s the fourth year they’ve combined talents to create the flavour and launch a seasonal guaranteed to intrigue beer explorers.

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Building from the base of a pale ale, Blue Buried Treasure delivers sweetness from a generous helping of blueberries and tartness from pomegranate. This five per cent alcohol treat also has a vanilla taste. And is that some graham cracker in there?

Last year’s release, Key Lime Pie Pale Ale, evoked warm memories of my time in Key West, my favourite part of Florida. In 2019, it was Black Raspberry Thunder Milkshake IPA and in 2018, Salty Caramel Truffle Bock.

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The Kawartha ice cream upon which Blue Buried Treasure is based is a relatively new flavour, launched in 2019, that quickly took off for the dairy.

This sweet beer, which pours magenta, has an interesting food pairing suggestion from the brewery: rib-eye steak. The pitch is that the opposing flavours of the savoury steak will contrast the sweetness of the beer for a palate-pleasing meal. Always shy on grilling during chilly months, I have yet to test this.

Even if I had the barbecue cleaned and ready, I’d be more likely to pair Blue Buried Treasure with cheesecake or cake and ice cream.

Muskoka brewed Blue Buried Treasure with Magnum hops and two-row, Dextra Pils, and flaked oats malts, along with lactose.

It’s the first of what promises to be an exciting year of new beer releases as Muskoka showcases its considerable creativity for its 25th anniversary.

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Blue Buried Treasure is available in 473 ml cans at the LCBO, grocery stores, and the brewery for $3.75 a can.

NEW AND NOTED

A saison with sour cherries marks Wellington Brewery’s participation in the Red Beer Project. This is a collaboration with Queen of Craft with 50 cents from each can going to the Thunder Woman Healing Lodge Society. This beer launches March 23. Already available is the Queen of Craft-Wellington Witbier with Flowers, which features can artwork by Alanah Astehtsi Otsistohkwa Jewell, originally of Oneida of the Thames and now of Kitchener.

New Tiny Batch releases from Refined Fool in Sarnia are a stout brewed with 150 oysters and a 3.6 ABV ginger beer. The inspiration for the stout was Victorian England when sailors would nosh on raw oysters on the half shell and beer. The ginger beer, christened That’s Classic Jessica, was brewed with fresh ginger both during the boil and post-fermentation. It’s for light beer drinkers who like it sharp.

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Walkerville is boosting a streetcar restoration project with a premium imperial stout, Streetcar 351.
Walkerville is boosting a streetcar restoration project with a premium imperial stout, Streetcar 351.

Walkerville in Windsor has a new imperial stout. Streetcar No. 351 was rested for 351 days in bourbon barrels and, railfans please note, it is a fundraiser for the Streetcar 351 Restoration Project in Windsor. The sale of each bottle brings $1 to the project. A four-pack of 500 ml bottles is $39.80.

Breweries marked International Women’s Day with special releases. Among them was Amsterdam of Toronto, which brewed Huntress Blackberry Gose.

Left Field of Toronto has a new beer with a Woodstock connection in time for St. Patrick’s Day. O’Neill Stout is a tip of the cap to Tip O’Neill, who started playing baseball in Woodstock before embarking on a 10-year career in the big leagues. Dubbed “Canada’s Babe Ruth”, he’s in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in St. Marys. Good to pair with clam chowder, O’Neills ingredients are all-Canadian including hops from VQH Farms in Eden.

New and weird at Half Hours on Earth in Seaforth: a lulo, apricot, matcha sour called The Future is Electric. Lulo is a citrus fruit from South America.

Wayne Newton is a freelance journalist based in London.

wayne.newton@bell.net

Twitter.com/WayneWriteOn

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