It was back when I had first moved to Toronto that I came across Kensington Brewing Company’s Fish EyePA at a tech social. I was looking to meet new people and because it was the available craft beer option, it seemed like an obvious choice. That event unfortunately threw a two year halt on ever trying another beer from Kensington.

Looking back at it, the beer just wasn’t given the right conditions to show it’s true colours. It was chilling in a cooler for a number of hours and being served alongside some that require Mountain Cold Temperatures™. The result was an extremely bitter beer that I could barely enjoy and it left me a little untrusting of this newly launched brewery.

Since then I’ve been avoiding them simply because of that single bad experience and I decided that I should give them a second shot. On my latest trip to the LCBO I grabbed a can with the intention of taking another look at Kensington’s beer to see if I might have misjudged it. This time, under conditions that I had more control over was able to take a look at their beer and I was quite surprised and pleased with the results!

It pours a dark amber with a head that dissipates somewhat quickly, though it doesn’t disappear completely. Along with that amber colour comes a lot of malty characteristics you’d find in some darker English beers, though being a fan of English style ales, I rather enjoyed it. The hop character is also very English, it was quite floral, more so on the nose though detectable when you taste it.

According to the beers stats page it’s an American IPA, and with the hops that have gone into it I’d agree, but for whatever reason it just smelled way more floral than I’d expect. Though it could be a result of the Amarillo being used in the dry hop, which does carry some floral characteristics.

That being said, I enjoyed all of it and will definitely consider a pint of it in the future. Now to get my hands on the rest of their beers!