Here we have this year’s ‘Gardener’ incarnation, where they source a portion of their ingredients from local backyard gardens (I almost said farms – ok, amateur farms).  No indication as to where the beets came from, but I’m guessing that they looked north for that.

This 650ml bottle pours a clear, bright pale salmon amber colour, with two fingers of puffy, chunky, and somewhat creamy off-white head, which leaves some random de-icing back car window lace around the glass as things slowly sink out of sight.

It smells of cold borscht (the only kind I’ve ever had, thank you Polish ex-girlfriend), grainy and crackery pale malt, and some musty, leafy, and herbal green hop bitters.  The taste is bready and grainy pale malt, none-too-subtle earthy and vegetal beets, a hint of wayward son yeastiness, and more leafy, musty, and dead floral ‘verdant’ hoppiness.  The carbonation is average in its palate-pinging frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and not particularly smooth, but hardly leaning in the other direction, either.  It finishes trending dry, the beets and fading malt in a dance of lingering death.

Overall – well, I cannot fault truth in advertising, when it’s actually true, right?  This is a session ale (4.7% represent!), and the beets aren’t exactly shy, to say the least.  Interesting, and very autumn-friendly, with a certain joie-de-vivre of Alberta harvest mentality.  Good stuff.