Now, you may not credit it, but I like being proved wrong. In most capacities and professions, this is not necessarily a thing that people hanker for, but as a beer writer, it’s an infrequent surprise.

You may remember that at the end of the last year, I wrote about Breweries That Don’t Exist Yet. While the brewery that I spent most of the article talking about continues not to exist, the secondary example that I gave, Spearhead Brewing has come out swinging.

Now that they're on the board, the slate of their existence is no longer blank. Somewhere John Locke is spinning in his grave.

Let’s see what I wrote about them:

“In the case of the Spearhead Brewing Company, I can honestly say that while their online presence has only recently cropped up, I’ve been aware of them for about six months. They may not have produced beer commercially yet, but they’ve got a brewmaster and I have seen their logo on a hat. I feel like they’re somehow closer to launching than Parkdale. Currently all the information I have about them is from their mission statement, which is slightly longer than this article. I also think that they’re more likely to do something interesting than Parkdale, if only because I’ve heard good things about their entries for Toronto Beer Week’s homebrew contest. Also, Stephen Rich is involved and you can’t fault the guy’s enthusiasm.”

Well, not only does the brewery now exist, they’re existing in style. They are hosting a number of launch events this week in various locations and they’re making their presence felt throughout Ontario Craft Beer Week. They have branded standees and coasters, taps, hats, t-shirts, glasses, and even a couple of pretty nicely designed delivery vans. Congratulations to all involved. Specifically Stephen Rich, Dmitri Van Kampen and Tom Schmidt. Not only have you successfully launched a brewery, you’ve set something of a standard for making a splash in the market at launch time. It’s an all out assault on local media including interviews on blogs and plenty of reviews. The media coordination is impressive and I suspect that much of the thanks for that goes to Karen Van Kampen.

Their first offering is a Hawaiian Style Pale Ale.

Not exactly a hard ticket to Hawaii.

I guess the question is “what do you make of that?” Well, it’s a little difficult to pin it down. At 6.5% alcohol and 60 IBU, I’m pretty sure that no one would be able to call it a Pale Ale according to any guideline I’ve ever heard of. It falls pretty squarely into an American IPA definition in terms of style. Or it would, except for the Hawaiian part. It includes Pineapple. I’m told that the juice is added towards the end of the boil. I’m not entirely sure what that accomplishes in terms of innovation. I haven’t seen it very frequently. I think Black Oak did a Pineapple addition for one of their one-off casks.

I think that it probably adds slightly to the aroma of the beer, which has some fairly significant tropical fruit notes, but that can be accomplished with the right kind of hopping. The hops certainly take over as soon as you sip it. The only place that the pineapple is noticeable other than the aroma is on the finish, which I found to be mildly more acidic than it would have been without the Pineapple.

I don’t know that it’s a great beer in terms of international competition. It’s probably a good beer that differentiates itself for the sake of novelty. It’s an attention getter, certainly, which is probably what you want if you’re starting up a brewery.

Look at it this way. Had they left out the Pineapple and labelled it an IPA, it would easily compete with Muskoka’s Mad Tom and Great Lakes Crazy Canuck. I know that I prefer it to Flying Monkeys’ Smashbomb, but I find the Citra hops slightly overwhelming in some of their recent batches. That may seem as though I’m damning Spearhead with faint praise, but you have to remember that this is their first time out of the gate. They’ve managed to do by design what it took other breweries years of trial and error to accomplish. If that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is.

And the quibbles that I’ve noted above? The Pineapple? Labelling it a Pale Ale? Well, those are pretty clever ways of getting people to try out a new beer. It’s different enough that people will want to try it and a strong enough offering that people will remember it. Maybe you don’t like IPA, but you’d order a Pale Ale. It’s probably an appeal to a broader audience with a product that is targeted to a specific audience of craft beer wonks.

Well done. Mea Culpa. I am forced to concede and even praise your existence.

Congratulations, Spearheaders.

And so, as my liver sinks in the west, we bid you a fond Aloha.

Now, with that out of the way, let’s get on with Ontario Craft Beer Week.