Helsdon Profile

Helsdon

Toronto, ON, Canada 🇨🇦 Member

My Stats (Click one to view detailed breakdowns)

Unique

Deeply underachieving beer snob. I'll occasionally have a drink, and when I do I want it to be a good one. Oh, and if I give a detailed rating on a beer, rather than a quick tick, you can ignore the specifics. I don't need to judge appearance, or whatever. I just don't want to leave a rating rounded to the nearest .5, like the quick tick limits you to.

Activity

Helsdon added a new beer Westetobicoken by Great Lakes Brewery (Canada)
9 months ago

Helsdon updated a venue: Indie Ale House located in Toronto, Canada
9 months ago

Helsdon (5) reviewed

Indie Ale House (Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦)

9 months ago

8/10 — Setting 8 Selection 8 Service 9 Food 9 Value 7 Overall 8

Last review? The indie alehouse is now closed. I'm a little surprised I never reviewed it, or maybe it got.lost in the Ratebeer transition. Great bar, amazing beer, delicious food. Just hard times post covid for restaurants and brewery. I'll miss this place.

Visited on 15 Oct 2025 at 22:33

Helsdon (1107) reviewed

10-4-23 from Indie Alehouse Brewing Co. (Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦)

9 months ago

7.8/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 7.5 Texture 8 Overall 7.5

Bottle from the brewery, which sadly, just closed. But not gone. Still at Eataly and apparently setting up brewing at the West End icon the Cheese Boutique, if that's even true. Regardless, this anniversary beer, now aged by Indie for two years...Pours a rich copper, with strong pink undertones. Nose of vanilla/oak barrel, strawberry and a little funk. Taste is lighter than I expected, grassy malts, fresh berries, mildly sweet with some light sock funk supporting. Very accessible, and refreshing yet funky.

Tried from Bottle at Indie Ale House on 15 Oct 2025 at 22:29

Helsdon (1107) reviewed

Simcoe Republic from Great Lakes Brewery (Canada) (Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦)

10 months ago

7.6/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 8 Flavor 6.5 Texture 8 Overall 8

Decent blonde pour, vague cloudiness, with white fluffy head that sticks around. Taste is slightly sweet grassy malt, with mild citrus running though, with a little resinous bitterness that lingers. Really quite good. Can from the brewery

Tried from Can at Great Lakes Brewery on 04 Oct 2025 at 22:38

Helsdon added a new beer Simcoe Republic by Great Lakes Brewery (Canada)
10 months ago

Helsdon (1107) reviewed

Plush from Slake Brewing (Picton, Canada 🇨🇦)

10 months ago

7.5/10 — Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7.5 Texture 8 Overall 7.5

Can from the brewery. Nice soft, mildly sweet, doughy malts. Some mild almost berry fruit esters. Pleasant.

Tried from Can at Slake Brewing on 20 Sep 2025 at 22:40

Helsdon (1107) ticked

Long Sleeves Amber Ale from Slake Brewing (Picton, Canada 🇨🇦)

10 months ago

6.5/10

Pours a nice amber. Taste is toasted biscuit with some medium syrup sweetness under, some almost.off flavour bitterness, with almost a touch of funk, which lingers. The overall balance is good, just the bitterness is a little too funky. Can from the brewery.

Tried from Can at Slake Brewing on 19 Sep 2025 at 23:04

Helsdon (1107) reviewed

Yes (Cherry) from Slake Brewing (Picton, Canada 🇨🇦)

10 months ago

6.4/10 — Appearance 7 Aroma 5.5 Flavor 6 Texture 7 Overall 7

Can from the brewery. Very fruit forward, lots of sweet natural cherry flavour eclipsing the mild malt, with a barely-there sourness. Not bad, but really not much of a sour. It would have been better served with more of a sour bite.

Tried from Can at Slake Brewing on 15 Sep 2025 at 23:10

Helsdon (1107) reviewed

Wendy from Slake Brewing (Picton, Canada 🇨🇦)

10 months ago

7.9/10 — Appearance 7 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 9

Can from the brewery. Pours a blonde with a sheet of white head. Taste is smokey with biting oak, that mellows to vinous grape notes, and an ashy, edgy bitterness in the finish. Complex. There is alot going on here, but tasty and interesting. Worth the try.

Tried from Can at Slake Brewing on 10 Sep 2025 at 23:19