Henderson’s: Fierce: Rush Canadian Golden Ale (Scotland: Golden Ale: 5% ABV)
Visual: Solid, just slightly browned, gold. Very mild hazy to a clear body. Frothy off white head that leaves some suds.
Nose: Cream and a white sugar dusting. Soft kiwi and lime. Slight clear honey. Cake sponge. Oily hop feel.
Body: Thick. Honey. Sweet lime. Honeycomb. Lightly bready. Cake sponge. Vanilla toffee.
Finish: Key lime pie. Cake sponge. Orange juice. Soft hop feel. Slightly oily. Gentle bitterness. Honeycomb. Kiwi.
Conclusion: This is not what I expected for a golden ale, and I don’t mean bad, just radically different to expectations. I do wonder if that is why they labelled it “Canadian Golden Ale” – not just that it was (originally) made in Canada, but that the style is done very differently there so needs to be specifically labelled. No idea, so I have to take this beer as it comes.
It is less crisp and less hop led than I am used to. It has hops but in a thick oily way, along with a mouthfeel that reminds me of that slight syrupy feel a lot of bottled Martson’s beers have in the UK.
So oily and thick feel, but sweet. Lots of honey in there mixed with soft lime and kiwi notes. A mix of surprisingly heavy weight to easy drinking flavours with just a bit of bitterness to underline it.
It’s a solid one, definitely glad I tried, especially for its unusual nature, not a must have but good enough that I want to dig into other takes on this style. So that is a good enough sign for me
Background: I had to do some googling for this, as it is a Henderson/Fierce collaboration with the band Rush. Listed as brewed in Scotland. Best can tell this was originally brewed by Hedersons/Rush in Canada and this is Fierce doing a brew of it in Scotland for the UK market, but not 100% sure. The abv is different, 5% here, 5.5% in Canada, so I presume at least a slightly different recipe (since a small variance (0.5%) is allowed in the UK between listed abv and actual abv it could be the same recipe just with the abv listed as lower for tax reasons maybe? I dunno – the tax band is 3.5% to 8.4% so wouldn’t change the tax band, but since you pay duty per liter of alcohol maybe it still saves them money? I also spoke with Chris of Indie Spirit (where I bought this) who suggested it may be same recipe but Henderson’s had a more efficient system that resulted in higher abv, or with Fierce being Scotland based Scotland law on minimum unit pricing may make a round 5% abv easier to calculate). Any info people have let me know. Also, as I wondered in the notes, I was unsure if this was listed as “Canadian Golden Ale” as it was originally made in Canada, or because Canadian Golden Ale is a distinct separate style. After speaking with Chris (Again) he confirmed Canadian Golden Ale is a specific different beer style. Thanks for the info. Music wise, there was, of course, only one choice. A Rush beer, of course you know it had to be … Republica: Speed Ballads.
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Yes I’m a monster and yes I do things like this mainly to entertain myself.
