May 9, 2014

One of the first beers I thought of when I decided to list one a month that I missed was Upper Canada Rebellion.  Upper Canada was one of the very first in the wave of Ontario Craft brewing in the mid-1980s, though we called it micro-brewing at the time.  Their impact was huge as evidenced by how many former employees are active in the craft brewing scene and how very wide spread they are.

One of the first Upper Canada products I encountered was Upper Canada Rebellion, at the Sticky Wicket beyond the northwest corner of the University of Toronto.  It was unusually strong at 6% and unusually flavourful.  It wasn't quite the same in a bottle but it was still pretty good.  It certainly wasn't the same after it was re-formulated and re-branded Rebellion Lager to accompany the newly minted Rebellion Ale.  Neither survived very long after Upper Canada was purchased by Sleeman.

I did manage to save a bottle: