My wonderful friends Sam and Emma semi-recently returned from a trip to Emma’s homeland of Canada and generously brought back some Canadian beers for me to try. Side note they also have their own beer Instagram so feel free to check them out here! As they are Canadian beers they are all new breweries for me which is incredibly exciting. First up is Collective Arts Brewing based in Hamilton, Ontario. They combine craft beer with talented artists from around the world to create their can designs! ‘Matter of Fact’ is the beer I tried from them and it is a Dry Hopped Blonde at 4.8% ABV

Visually the beer has a hazy straw colour to the pour. The aroma is rather light but there is still slight fruitiness to the nose. Flavour wise, you can definitely tell its been dry-hopped as there is a great hoppy bitterness from start to finish. Very zesty and light giving a clean, easy drinking quality to it.

A quick note on the can art: As expected from a brewery that actively collaborates with artists, what a great can! This design is from Singapore based artist Nadia So. Certainly not like anything I’ve seen on a can design before. However, I can’t decide if the plastic wrap is taking away from the artwork is is actually the medium for it.

I don’t typically drink too many blonde ales, and to be honest it’s not a style I see that often here in the UK. ‘Matter of Time’ was a nice change of pace. It’s got a slightly floral quality to it that compliments the zesty, tangerine flavours of the body. Crisp and crushable this would be a really good summer session beer!

Score: 7.5/10

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Additional Information:

• Hops: Ella & Centennial
• Malt: Not Available
• IBU: Not Available
• ABV: 4.6%
• Gluten Free: No
• Vegan: Yes