This weekend we made the trek down to one of our favourite beer bars in the city: Beer Bistro. We generally make trips to the bar just because we love the bar, but this trip was special. We were on a mission to taste ‘Sass on the Side’ by Shillow Beer Co.

Sass on the Side is a beer made specifically for Beer Bistro. Meaning you can’t find the beer anywhere else. Not only that, it is the very first beer by Shillow Beer Co, a brewery started only recently here in Toronto by a husband and wife team (I bet you can guess what their last name is!)

The beer itself is a brown ale, an interesting choice for a first beer. It’s advertised as having ‘nutty and toasty’ flavours. While I’ll agree there are some toasted nut flavours, they aren’t as strong as you would expect.

You can only get Shillow Beer at Beer Bistro for the moment. It sits at 5.6% ABV.

Also note in the photo the fries. Those glorious fries are made with duck fat (and beef fat) I highly recommend them.

Here are our tasting notes:

Appearance: Dark brown with nice head.
Aroma: Hoppier than expected. Slight cherry hint. Plenty of roasted nuts to go along with it.
Taste: Super light mouth feel. Very balanced malt and hops mix. More cherry. Less of the roasted nuts, but they are certainly still there.
Aftertaste: Just the hops.
Overall: A great first beer. I’m excited to see what they make next.

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Kole McRae

Founder of Toronto Booze Hound. He can be seen drinking almost anything in the wild from beer to rum. Try not to startle him, he may use humour as a self defence method.

Email: [email protected]

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