Side Launch Brewing Company: Pale Ale – A Sideways Review

Side Launch Brewing Company, like many other craft breweries throughout Canada, takes its name from a part of its hometown’s (Collingwood) history. “Side Launch” refers to the practice of launching a ship sideways: you can even watch a video of this engineering spectacle on the brewery’s homepage, along with a short video featuring the brew-master discussing his brews and ingredients.

A big winner at this year’s Canadian Brewing Awards, Side Launch took home the “Brewery of the Year” award along with three other Gold medals! Unfortunately, their Pale Ale wasn’t one of those gold medal winners, but I can always review one of them later. For now, bring on the Pale Ale!

Side Launch Brewing Company: Pale Ale – First Sip

Side Launch Pale Ale pours a cloudy golden, almost orange, colour. This brew leaves a thick layer of head at the top of my glass, easily 1/2″ thick. I get a faint smell of oranges as I take my first sip. This brew is more straightforward than some other pale ales I’ve reviewed. It’s tough to identify what the feature flavour in this brew is. All of the normal IPA/APA flavours are there, but none of them is prevalent.

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This pale ale’s dominant flavour is its tartness rather than the usually bitter flavour of IPAs and APAs. Its mouthfeel tends towards the thick and slightly fizzy side of the scale, leaving a malty flavour in my mouth when I put it down.

Side Launch Brewing Company: Pale Ale – Last Sip

At 5.3% ABV in a 473 mL tall can, you can have a few of these in one sitting. Like many other brews I’ve reviewed, though, this one goes down pretty smoothly at 5.3% so don’t lose track of how many you’ve had.

With its tart flavour and thick-ish mouthfeel, I recommend enjoying this brew alongside a steak. This brew’s tartness helps balance out the savoury flavour of red meats. And, its thickness will help soak up any fat you may have forgotten to trim off of your cut.

Michael Bedford
Michael Bedford
Under intense scrutiny by the Temporal Authorities, I was coerced into actualizing my capsule in this causality loop. Through no fault of my own, I am marooned on this dangerous yet lovely level-four civilization. Stranded here, I have spent most of my time learning what I can of the social norms and oddities of the Terran species, including how to properly use the term "Hipster" and how to perform a "perfect pour." Under the assumed name of "Michael Bedford," I have completed BA's with specialized honours in both theatre studies and philosophy, and am currently saving up for enough galactic credits to buy a new--or suitably used--temporal contextualizer ... for a friend.