500ml bottle in Black Creeks holiday 4 pack. Black pour, with a small off white head. Nice aroma of roasted malts, coffee, and loads of roasted wheat. Some grassy nops, light notes of pine. Soft carb, a tad watery mouth feel. The fonish is big on roasted wheat, and toasted malts. Light notes of soy, and some coffee. Really nice stout.

Man I always want Black Creek to do well. It’s just an excellent idea, a historically accurate brewery at Black Creek Pioneer Village. Problem is I’m not always impressed. I’ve gotten a couple of growlers from the Village brewery that have been both excellent, then horrible, and a few bottles from the LCBO which have been meh. But I have high hopes for the Historic Beers of Canada gift pack I gifted to myself. This is number one of four... Pours a opaque black with next to no tan head, even after I brutalized the pour at the end to churn it up. What little head quickly flattens out to nothing. Smells of both caramel and toasted malts, there is a definite sweetness to the nose. The taste is mostly malt, that has both a burnt quality to it, a light sweetness, and yet a thinness which I suspect comes from the wheat. The finish leans toward a burnt flavour. I know the growlers from the Village are all cask, so low carbonation, this beer brewed at Trafalgar comes off the same. Overall the un-aptly named Riel’s dream turns out be more of a disturbing night-sweats kind of thing. What would my Métis ancestors think of naming a meh beer after a hero to their cause?