A small gift to myself from Tulley's last August. $3.25 from the discount rack. "Discount rack?!?" you say. Yes, discount rack. Don't you recall what your mother told you as she lent over you and cooled your brow with the wet wash cloth when you had that fever back in grade five? She said "remember: it's not off...it's Belgian." That's what you heard. You never understood at the time. You thought it was the fever. But now you know. Because it is true.

Massive waves of yeast, rising bread and apple rise from the massive mouse head over clouded amber ale. Sweet and malty with a lager-ish roundness. Creaminess with the sweetness that is a bit like MacKintosh's McCreamy McCandy - slight butter, slight smoke - but a jag of alcohol which that 1960s Canadian tartaned schoolyard treat never boasted. Also very close to a higher test version of a 1995 Algonquin Hunt Club cream lager, according to herself who obsesses over that long lost Ontario microbrew. A worthwhile rich and sweeter take on a pale ale from Brasserie D'Ecaussinnes. Nutmeg in the finish.

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