Lighthouse Road Trip Fresh Hopped Dark Ale: Brewed in Victoria, BC comes another local fresh hop brewed ale which is brewed to a strength of 6.2% and an undisclosed IBU. Admittedly it took me a little longer to find this than I wanted it to as it most non-Vancouver liquor stores didn’t get it until recently, but it’s still in it’s drinking window and is one of my favourite styles of beer in that it’s a dark ale. The picture on the front reminded me so much of Fillmore from the movie Cars that I went on a rampant toy search until I found my 4 year old’s die cast toy car for this picture (he was also delighted to see this toy again that was hidden in the depths of one of his toy boxes). I got this a Central City Liquor Store which still seems to get a decent selection of craft beer and has by far the best prices as well as a CAMRA discount of 10% on most craft beers.
Aroma and Appearance: This pours a dark brown colour with a finger of foam and some almost hidden bubbles in the center of the glass. Its aroma is toffee malt, dark fruit, dates, cocoa and hints of citrusy tea leaves
Flavour: The toffee malts are prevalent throughout, with some mild citrus up front a nutty balanced middle that has a creamy mouth feel which finishes with a fairly dry earthy cocoa finish and some bitter tea leaves in the aftertaste.
Overall Impression: As previously stated, I like this style of beer a lot and enjoyed this one. For me the fresh hops were subtle yet still worked well with this beer.
Rating: I give it an excellent rating of 8/10, an easy repeat for next year.
Food Pairing: I suggest drinking this fresh hop beer on it’s own otherwise you’ll miss the flavours.
The name of this beer brings back some funny memories from the movie Road Trip, specifically me favourite scene from it where they jump the car over a broken bridge as seen in the clip below – now I want to watch this again!
West Coast Beer Geek 