Henderson Brewing’s Rush Collaborations
Henderson Brewing, Toronto, Ontario (hendersonbrewing.com)
Appropriate to the season, the way Henderson Brewing co-owner Steve Himel describes the birth of the partnership between his brewery and the legendary Toronto band Rush sounds a bit like a scene out of a Hallmark movie. And it happened barely a year and a half after the brewery had opened.
Not long after the first pint of Henderson beer was sold in January of 2016, Himel and his business partner Adin Wener started the ‘Ides’ series of special release beers, which included one released in November called Put Your Scarf On, Geddy.
“I went to York Mills Collegiate and was a big Rush fan,” Himel says, “There was a girl there who was trying to ingratiate herself into our group, and she did it by saying she was Geddy Lee’s cousin, providing proof by telling a story about going there for extended family dinners. Being older, Geddy was more interested in hanging out with his friends, and she said that whenever he was on his way out his mother would holler at him, ‘Put your scarf on, Geddy.’ So we used that for the name of a beer.”
Apparently, the unique name caught the attention of Geddy Lee himself, so one afternoon while walking his dog, Himel answered his phone to hear: “Hello, this is Rush. Would you like to make a beer with us?”
Plans started to fall into place in the summer of 2017, but as every Rush fan will know, if wasn’t long after that when drummer Neil Peart fell ill. Understandably, the project was halted, most likely indefinitely, the Henderson partners thought.
Turns out, however, that Lee and bandmate Alex Lifeson weren’t quite ready to see their beer dreams come to an end, so several months after Peart’s untimely death, Himel received another call and the project was back on.
And here is where your humble narrator comes into the story. During the summer break in the 2020 COVID lockdown, I met up with Wener on the roof of Toronto’s Bar Hop BrewCo, where we shared a few beers and chatted about the industry. Near the end of our session, Wener happened to mention the Rush beer project and asked me about styles, to which I responded that the only logical one to me was the Canadian Golden Ale, a beer style once sufficiently recognized that it was for several years running judged at the Great American Beer Festival. And to make it really Canadian, I suggested adding some rye to the grist. Thereafter, I provided some informal feedback on a couple of test brews.
I mention the above to explain why I am not including the flagship Rush Canadian Golden Ale in the reviews below, and never will review it. For although I admire how the brewery has constructed the beer, and have enjoyed it on numerous occasions, as someone present at and involved in its conceptualization, however tangentially, I feel it would be a conflict of interest to write about it.
After the Golden Ale, the Rush series moved rapidly into special releases, with the first arriving in the summer of 2021. Moving Pictures was described as a ‘Belgian-style extra strong ale with Niagara wine must,’ and while I did not have the chance to try it upon its release, Henderson did provide me with one of the last few remaining bottles for this article.
Two and a half years following its release, the 14% alcohol by volume Moving Pictures stands up, albeit with a note of oxidization that sits somewhere between the flawed flavour of a younger beer and the appealing effect of age and air on a cellared ale. Deep russet in colour, it has a winey, slightly papery aroma – the latter being from the oxidization – with raisiny notes and touch of cinnamon as accents. The flavour offers fruity sweetness up front leading to a slightly tangy mid-palate – most certainly the impact of the grape must rather than any sort of lingering bacterial effect – with plum, raisin, and muted vanilla flavours battling for attention with the aged, oxidized notes.
No rating here, as the beer is hardly showing its best, but I would guess that any lingering in a well-maintained cellar somewhere will very likely improve significantly over the next year or two, growing from the awkward adolescence of this sample into a more complex and developed maturity.
Signals (11.9%): This was the second special edition, bottled in September of 2022, so about fifteen months old at this point, which should be still a reasonable time frame for sampling a 12% alcohol beer. The billing this time is “extra strong Belgian-style blonde with Riesling must and whole-pressed apples,” and that last bit is certainly still very much in evidence in the aroma of this medium gold ale. Notes of red apples hit the nose first, swiftly followed by wafts of lightly candied fruit, including pear and strawberry, and hints of lime zest and white pepper. The flavour similarly begins with some fruitiness – pear and apple, mostly – before growing spicier on the mid-palate with a hint of cardboardy oxidization and more baked than fresh apple notes. Drying rather than bittering hop and softly warming alcohol bring this to its lingering conclusion.
Obviously, Signals is a beer that has aged some, but despite the slight oxidization I’d say it has done so with grace and dignity. Also, like Moving Pictures, I believe it has a solid future in the cellar, probably over the next two or three years and perhaps even longer, as the oxidization merges pleasingly into the overall flavour profile.
78 ($17/500 ml)
Xanabrew (10.5%): By April of 2023, the wine must, which Himel says was included in the first two special releases to help the band members bridge from wine to specialty beer, was no longer deemed necessary, and instead Xanabrew had added freeze-dried honeydew melon, a reference to Peart’s lyrics from the song Xanadu. And indeed, the nose of this pale golden ale is appealingly fresh and fruity, with pear, melon, apricot, and green grape in evidence, buoyed by notes of fresh cereal grain and very lightly peppery spice. The palate entry offers more fruit in the form of dried and fresh pear, soft and round melon notes, some mixed herbals – which grow in strength as the beer warms and its fruitiness recedes somewhat – a bit of pepper, and just a hint of kiwi. On the finish, the fruit dries as white pepper notes grow and the alcohol warms nicely.
Stylistically, this sits halfway between a strong golden like Duvel and a tripel such as that of La Trappe, although with a trifle more complexity than either. Like both those beers, it can also more than capably serve as aperitif, digestif, or accompaniment to pork or chicken dishes.
88 ($13/500 ml)
X-1 (10%): Subtitled ‘Xanabrew II,’ this sees the honeydew replaced by black cherry juice and cabernet sauvignon grape must, mixed in a beer described as a “Belgian-style extra strong black ale,” bottled and released in September of this year. And black it certainly is, with fairly low carbonation – certainly much lower than Xanabrew I – and an intriguing aroma that mixes roasted malt notes with aromas of dark raisins, cooked cherry pie filling, hints of Chinese five spice, and just a whiff of burnt whole wheat toast. The flavour starts with black cherry, more a suggestion of the fruit rather than a sweet and full-on cherry-ness, before developing a nuanced mid-palate with fruit and roast blending and intertwining, so that there is first grape and plum, then licorice and a touch of smoke, and onward to dried cherry and tanned leather. The symphony draws to a dry conclusion with red wine tannins, prune, and raisin.
To be honest, it took a little time for this beer to grow on me, but it was definitely time well spent. From starting out thinking this might be the least of the four special releases thus far, I was left with the impression that it is instead one of the best, neck-and-neck with Xanabrew.
88 ($14/500 ml)
Fly by Night Pale Ale (5%): The opening of a dedicated Henderson bar and beer store on the arrivals level of Pearson International Airport in Toronto – which travellers and Rush fans will know as YYZ – brought about the launch of a new beer, available exclusively at the airport. Although lightly cloudy, this is no ‘hazy’ or ‘New England style’ pale ale, but rather a throwback to the day when pale ales were unapologetically hoppy and citrus-forward. The nose offers a round and caramelly maltiness balanced nicely with floral and citrusy hops, accented by a gentle whiff of pineapple. The Old School, west coast styling continues on the palate with a soft, tangerine-ish sweetness up front, blossoming quickly into a bold and moderately bitter mid-palate of orange, fresh lemon, and key lime layered over a honey-ish malt backbone that is almost up to the task, but ultimately falls just a bit short in balancing the bitterness. The finish brings everything back on track, though, with a dry, quenching, and appetizing crescendo.
Perhaps it is the affection I feel for any beer not embracing the trendy, ‘all aroma, no bitterness’ pale ale and IPA haze-craze of today, but I find this to be a stellar example of its style well steeped in the tradition of the great northern California pale ales. Aside from the very slight balance issue, it’s a definite keeper for those lamenting the departure of Sierra Nevada from the Canadian marketplace.
83 ($4.25/473 ml exclusive to the airport shop)