From a relatively new brewery in Dundas, Ont., this exhibits a fine balance associated with the sort of operation you'd think would have been around much longer. But, then, brewmaster Rob Creighton has been in the beer business since well before some of today's long-bearded hipster craft brewers were born. That would be 1977, when he started as a student at Labatt before helping launch Upper Canada's brewing operations in the mid-1980s. A more recent stint saw him turning out excellent products at Grand River Brewing in Cambridge, Ont.
This is faintly hazy and golden, typical of most wheat beers, which are unfiltered. Medium carbonation helps find the middle ground between creamy and crisp. The up-front citrus essence is underscored by a bare hint of sweetness (in contrast to a few cloying big-brew wheat beers) offset by a tangy snap, touch of clove and moderate but discernible hoppy bitterness. Alcohol is 5.5 per cent. Do as the label suggests and swirl before pouring to stir up the foggy sediment into your glass. Which is also to say: Don't pound it straight from the bottle; this is chic wheat beer. Available in Ontario.