Willibald Farm's pale ale Side Pocket came off the canning line on September 15, and it returns in a 355ml can rather than the 473ml tallboy the farm brewery uses for most of its IPAs. The brewery calls it "your favourite little short can." The format is part of the pitch.

The hop bill is Mosaic, Citra and Vic Secret, and Willibald is unusually direct about the reasoning behind it. "Classic hop combos are classic for a reason," the brewery writes, "and you can't get more classic than Citra with Mosaic." Vic Secret, it says, "adds a base layer of sweet fruit underneath," while Citra and Mosaic "do most of the heavy lifting."

That division of labour is worth a moment. Citra and Mosaic pull in broadly the same direction, which is exactly why they became the default pairing in American pale ales and hazy IPAs. Vic Secret is the outlier on the list. It is an Australian variety, generally associated with tropical fruit and pine, and it is more often used as a headline hop than as a floor for two others to stand on. Putting it underneath is the quieter way to spend it.

Willibald also offers a shortcut for anyone deciding whether to pick up a four-pack. The brewery points drinkers toward two of its own beers as reference points:

Fans of Roses will get that big orange/ peachy/ plum hit with Side Pocket, while Dreamy fans will get familiar flavours in a lighter base beer.

Roses is the farm's other pale ale, built on Southern Cross, Simcoe and Amarillo, so that half of the comparison is close to like for like. The Dreamy half is the more useful one, since it positions Side Pocket as familiar territory at a lower weight. Both are brewery-supplied framing rather than anything JollyPint has tasted, but they are more specific than most newsletters bother to be.

Side Pocket is 5.5 percent and made at the farm in Ayr, Ontario. It is available now at the farm retail shop, the St. Jacobs and Kitchener farmers' market booths, through local delivery, and by direct delivery across Ontario.

Editor’s Take

There is a particular kind of nerve in putting out a beer whose selling point is that the hops are the normal ones. Citra and Mosaic have been the house pair of North American brewing for so long that plenty of breweries now mention them almost in passing, on the way to announcing something experimental that still has a number instead of a name. Willibald has gone the other way and printed the reasoning right there in the newsletter: classic combos are classic for a reason. Hard to argue with, and nobody really wants to.

The other thing I enjoy here is the can. Three hundred and fifty five millilitres, described by the brewery as your favourite little short can, which is a lovely bit of affection for a format the craft aisle spent a good decade treating as beneath it. The tallboy won the shelf because it looks generous. The short can wins on a Tuesday, when what you want is one beer and not one and a quarter. Side Pocket seems to know which of those it is, and the billiard balls on the label suggest it is not expecting to be the only one on the table.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Side Pocket Returns, With Vic Secret Under the Citra and Mosaic

Willibald's returning pale ale runs on Citra and Mosaic, the most conventional pairing in the business, with Australian Vic Secret set underneath. It comes back in a 355ml can, filled September 15.

Source & Editorial