Not Canary Brewing. That is what the email said. Not Kan Airy, either, I suppose. Good advice but not information I needed as I've enjoyed a couple of their beers before, the ones placed in the local government store. Local in the sense that it serves about 12 million souls. The beer is brewed in... let me check that World Atlas of Beer for a second... Finland? No, can't be that. Better check the wiki. Oh, OK... the brewery is located in B.C. Penticton, B.C. That's 4,322 km from here. Is it a west coast or east coast? I dunno but, oddly, in Canada it is still in a sense local. Go figure.

♦ Anarchist Amber Ale. This one pours medium caramel with a white rocky head. Aromas of pale malt sweetness, apple and something that is reminding me of walking in the woods at this time of year. [Ed.: ...where the hell did that come from?] A black tea drying effect from the hops yet a bit more-ish from a fresh if, yes, watery core. Citrus and apple, black tea and light raisin, lightly astringent and maybe some smoke. It is an anarchist, after all.

♦ Naramata Nut Brown Ale. NBA. A style that has been trodden under the hop obsession. There are as many notes and observations to be made with the deft use of malt as there are with hops but these have been set aside for the past decade or so. A beer like this reminds you of the great US craft beers of the '90s that understood that crystal malts came in the plural and that flavours and textures of husk and sugar were as worth exploring as much as hop acid and yeast spice. Aromas of date and fig, pumpernickel and molasses. Minerally sweet husky dark dry fruit in a lush soft water setting. Like the bread crust of Maritime Brown Bread.

♦ IPA. How swell. Plain old IPA. Well, it would be plainer if it was PA but you get my point. It pours a lightly oranged medium amber under a big off white rocky head. Black tea and grapefruit pith hops. Maybe, again, a tiny nod to smoke. A bigger seam of pale malt, again, bread crustiness. There is something slightly rich and fatty in the malt, too, but only enough for a BBQ leftover sandwich as opposed to sitting by the smokehouse where you are being assaulted as you cook dinner. A well placed sharp hoppy burn in the finish.

I like. BAers speak of "balanced" and "flavourful" and "pleasant" which, until a certain point, were perfectly good beer related adjectives. They go along with beers that may not scream at you... but do in fact carry on a reasonable conversation if you are up for it.