I recently in the same night got to try two celebrity beer. (Well one is definitely a celebrity, the other just among us Alberta beer geeks). It was an interesting contrast.

Everyone knows Wayne Gretzky. Best hockey player that ever lived and more recently purveyor of mediocre wine. He has, like many celebrities, jumped on the bandwagon of having a winery create a wine or wine brand in their name. Fellow Canadians Mike Weir and Dan Akroyd have one. Super model Cindy Crawford has one (who was/is an avid beer homebrewer by the way). As does Dave Matthews, which is one of my favourites (maybe because I love his music??).

There are many. Some are better than others.

But celebrity beer is a more rare beast. A couple years ago Canadian and Saskatchewanian golf celebrity Graham DeLaet released a beer with (oddly) B.C. brewer Bomber Brewing. We see the occasional beer inspired by a television show or band, but otherwise it has been a less traveled path by celebrities.

Until recently. A few weeks ago, the Gretzky No. 99 Rye Lager, entered the western Canadian market. It was released this past spring in Ontario as a collaboration between Gretzky’s winery and Andrew Peller Ltd., one of Canada’s largest winery companies and operator of Gretzky’s winery.

Their public communications are unclear but I think the Gretzky Lager is brewed onsite at the Niagara winery location. It is billed as a premium lager with rye characteristics.

So, how was the beer?

In short, meh.

It pours a bright pale yellow, building a big dense white head, and creating some lacing. I perceive a moderate carbonation from it. The aroma is quite subdued. After working at it, I pick up some light grainy malt, notes of earthiness, and a little fruit note. Mostly not much, I must say.

Upon the taste in the front I pick up a generic grain sweetness, a touch of honey and a bit of floral sweetness. The middle dries out and sharpens a bit, offering a bit of spicy and earthy rye character. The finish is moderately sweet with a hint of grassy hop bitter linger.

Overall the beer is kind of boring. It is all grain and very clean. But it takes a lot of work to find the rye character. It is mostly just a premium lager. I imagine it is quite a small rye addition. The beer may be a bit boring but there is nothing particularly offensive about it. I imagine if you are a big Gretzky fan (which I admit I am) and a casual beer drinker you would find this beer to be quite pleasurable.

Fair enough. I just kinda feel the best hockey player that ever lived should offer up a beer that is more than decent and a bit boring, as that is not how he played.

The second beer is named after Stephan Bezan, Sherbrooke Liquor’s beer manager. He is likely throwing up at the moment over my gall at comparing him to Wayne Gretzky.

I am fully aware that a Gretzky celebrity label and a beer made in collaboration with one of Canada’s best beer liquor stores and an upstart Calgary brewery, O.T. Brewing, are hardly the same thing. But I sampled them in the same evening, and so this unfair post was born. Suck it up, Bezan!

This beer, called Bezan’s Banger Imperial Stout, couldn’t be more different than the insipid Gretzky beer. It is full, flavourful and, at points, rather scary. They report brewing it with apple cinnamon breakfast cereal (yes, seriously), lactose, and vanilla beans. The cereal is an interesting option.

It pours inky black with a think dark tan head that drops away fairly quickly. At first the aroma offers up cinnamon, dark chocolate and roast coffee. Dark fruit and some sherry notes come along a bit later. Alcohol also hits the nose, reminding me that it is 10% alcohol.

The taste maintains that rich complexity. The front offers a chocolate sweetness, plum and blackberry and some treacle. It is quite silky upfront. The middle introduces a noted cinnamon that dominates through the rest of the sip. The roof of my mouth picks up some artificial cherry, which is a bit odd. The finish is big, sweet with a milk stout kind of finish, along with a touch of coffee. Alcohol warming is the final voice. Quite sweet. The aftertaste brings some hotter alcohols and fruity esters that I am not sure about.

This beer has lots of flavours, some of which are conflicting. I find the cinnamon and coffee in particular fight each other. I also find the beer finishes too sweet as that gets in the way of the spicing. A bit more attenuation might have served the beer well to soften the sweet backbone. The highlight, in a way, is the cinnamon, although the apple is completely lost, making me think they should have just added cinnamon rather than the whole cereal. Aging would help the base beer, but would likely cause the cinnamon to disappear, so hard to know what to recommend around that.

But I have to say it is big and bold and exactly the opposite of the Gretzky beer. Who knew Bezan would be more intense than the Great One?