Category Archives: Tasting Notes

These are my thoughts about various beers that I taste. Not as thorough as a review, but more than just casual drinking.

Mikkeller Big Worse

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Breweries these days are finding all sorts of interesting ways to do business. Nano-scale, alternating proprietorships, and taproom-only sales are all part of the brewery landscape. These business models allow a brewery open with minimal up-front capital or to reap the full profit from every pint sold.

Contract brewing is also still very much a part of the picture; a brand-holding company paying another brewery to make their product. It’s a controversial practice that has fierce adherents on both sides, who fling arguments both pro and con. Are these entities actually breweries? Are they just leeches trying to cash in on the boom without making the commitment – both financial and physical – to the cause? Whatever you think, the practice is here to stay and it’s here in a big way. You probably drink and love many contract-brewed beers without even knowing it.

The controversy spills over to the alternating proprietorship arrangement in which two or more fully-licensed entities share a brewing facility. Although each one is responsible for their own label approval, ingredient procurement, tax reckoning, and all the other nitty-gritty of running a brewery, in some cases all of the beer is actually brewed by only one of them. Often one of the breweries isn’t even on site when the beer is made.  It may even be headquartered in another state. Aren’t these really just contract brewers? Or is this really something else?

And what are we to make of gypsy brewers, also called tenant brewers. Beer makers like Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project, Mikkeller, and Minnesota’s own Blacklist Brewing have no physical brewery. They move from place to place, making different beers at each one. In the case of Mikkeller, these landlord breweries are spread out all over the world. The idea of migrant brewing sounds romantic. I have even heard Mikkeller praised for the practice. But doesn’t this make Mikkeller just another contract brewer? Does that even matter if the beer is good?

Here’s my notes:

Mikkeller Big WorseBig Worse
Mikkeller at De Proef Brouwerij, Lochristi-Hufte, Belgium
Style: Barleywine
Serving Style: 12.7 oz. bottle

Aroma: Round and rich caramel malt. Pleasant, floral alcohol cuts through the caramel sweetness. Hop aroma is low to none. Some sherry-like oxidative notes. Underneath, smells of vanilla custard and candied oranges add depth. Three Cs – custard, caramel, and candied oranges.

Appearance: Full head of creamy, ivory foam. Very good retention. Mahogany red and clear.

Flavor: Flavors very much follow the aroma, with gentle hop bitterness and citrusy hop flavors thrown into the mix. Caramel malt and fruity esters lead – those candied oranges again. A sweep of bitterness rolls in shortly thereafter to keep the sweetness in check, but with a delicate touch. The buttery caramel makes a comeback at the roof of the mouth, joined by bright notes of citrus –lemons – as well as some darker fruits – dates.  Alcohol is in there too, perhaps a tad intrusive. The beer goes out semi-dry with lingering bitterness and oranges.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body – remarkably light for 12% ABV. Carbonation is medium-low. Creamy. Warming.

Overall Impression: The luscious aromatics draw me in, beckoning me to sip. But I just want to keep smelling. The palate is rewarded by that sip, though. This is a remarkably drinkable 12% brew. Light almost. Neither clinging like some strong English barleywines, nor tongue scraping like many of their American counterparts.

Summit Unchained #14: Bière de Garde

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Wow! It’s been a while since I posted anything here!

You know how sometimes you get yourself involved in a project that takes over your life? You think about nothing but that thing. Your reading all revolves around that thing. You start saying “no” to offers so that you can focus more intently on that thing. That’s where I’ve been for the last couple of months. But it’s over now. I can re-enter the regular world.

It seems fitting that my first post after emerging from the bunker is the same as my last post before going under – tasting notes for the latest Unchained Series beer from Summit Brewing Company.

Jeff Williamson is one of Summit’s newest brewers. You may know him as the founder and former brew-chief at Flat Earth Brewing Company. Jeff left Flat Earth in May of 2012 and was quickly scooped up by Summit. This is his first go-round with the Unchained Series.

For this the fourteenth installment, Williamson has chosen to make a bière de garde, the French version of the farmhouse style ales that originate in the region surrounding the French/Belgian border. I have already written an extensive piece about bière de garde in The Growler, so I’ll cut to the chase and get right down to the business at hand.

Here’s my notes:

Unchained14Unchained #14: Bière de Garde
Summit Brewing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota
Style: Bière de Garde
Serving Style: 12 oz. bottle

Aroma: Malt forward, but not sweet smelling. It features notes of caramel and dry toast, with low, coffee-like, roasted undertones. Maybe a faint whiff of smoke? Low dark fruit tones. Faint alcohol adds sharpness.

Appearance: Dark mahogany with ruby highlights. Brilliantly clear. The dense, off-white to ivory foam displays good retention.

Flavor: Malt is definitely the winner here. Dry, grainy, toasted and roasted malt flavors dominate from start to finish. Some light caramel sweetness gives a moister base that helps balance the dryness. A hint of raisiny dark fruit comes in the middle, but gives way to dry, roasted bitterness in the finish. Hop bitterness is medium-low, letting malt do the rest. The finish is just off-dry with roasted malt and hop bitterness lingering after swallowing. A faint note of dark, bitter cocoa powder comes in long after swallowing.

Mouthfeel: Medium body. Medium to medium-high carbonation. Dry with a slight bit of astringency from roasted malts.

Overall Impression: Bière de garde comes in three flavors – blond, amber, and brown. This is definitely a brown one, and a roasty one at that. Not roasty like a stout or porter, but dry, and grainy roasty with toasted backbone. It’s similar in some ways to a Scotch ale, but without the caramel sweetness and thick body. It’s a lovely beer and perfectly suited to the season.

Summit Unchained #13: Another IPA

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Does the world really need another IPA? Aren’t there enough of them yet? According to this infographic created in honor of International IPA Day (Yes, there really is such a thing. Call it the Hallmark day of beer.) IPA made up 16.5% of all craft beer production in 2012. The volume of IPA sold increased 282% between 2007 and 2012. IPA is the single largest category in the GABF competition and the Brewers Association says the style is second only to the nebulous seasonal and specialty category in popularity. Isn’t it enough already?

Not according to Mike Lundell, brewer at Summit Brewing Company and creator of the thirteenth release in the Unchained Series appropriately named Another IPA. Lundell’s previous two contributions to the series were also IPAs of sorts – a brown, rye one and a black one. I detect a pattern. That pattern and IPAs ubiquity inspired this humorous video by Summit’s in-house video dude Chip Walton.

This time Lundell has made an English-style IPA. That’s my favorite kind. They tend to be a bit lower in alcohol than their American cousins with a more substantial toffee/biscuit malt backbone to support the hops. The bitterness is high, but typically lower than in American versions. The same is true for hop flavors, which tend more toward the herbal, grassy English varieties than the citrus and pine resin American hops.

Another IPA is being released today (August 1st) with a party at Barrio in St. Paul and Pat’s Tap in Minneapolis. It is International IPA Day after all. Information about other release events can be found on the Happenings page of the Summit website.

Here’s my notes:

Brews_Bottle_Unchained13Unchained #13: Another IPA
Summit Brewing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota
Style: English IPA
Serving Style: 12 oz. bottle

Aroma: Hops and malt vie for dominance, modulating back and forth as to which is on top. Hops barely eke out a victory. The malt has toffee and caramel notes with hints of biscuit. The hop aromas are lovely and complex; marmalade, bergamot, hay and earth. There is even pinch of pine, but in an herbal/rosemary sense, not American pine resin.

Appearance: Full, rocky, off-white to ivory foam that persists. Dark golden with orange hue. Hazy on first pour, but cleared up as the beer warmed up.

Flavor: The whole experience gives an impression of delicacy. Very balanced. Medium-high, stony bitterness lingers into the finish, accentuated by a high degree of attenuation. Hops and fermentation give notes of orange marmalade, melons and herbs. There is a low level of sweetness in the middle, but caramel, toffee and biscuit flavors come through well.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body – surprisingly light for an IPA. Medium carbonation.

Overall Impression: Take the bottle out of the fridge ten minutes before you pour it. When it warms up the biscuit and toast malt flavors really start to pop. It’s so refreshingly light on the tongue. Mr. Lundell did a nice job. I think I know what beer my clients will be drinking in the next few weeks.

[EDIT] Apropos the videos below, the 12/13/2012 date code indicates that I was enjoying beer from batch one.

Pour Decisions Verity

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After high school I spent a year in Germany as an exchange student. Although I was nowhere near Berlin, I quickly learned about Berliner weisse. It was one of my greatest pleasures to spend afternoons sitting outside at a café sipping Berliner weisse with raspberry syrup. It was great with those incredible German “kuchen” and “torten” that I still crave to this day. Oh, to have someplace like Café Lutz in the Twin Cities!

Berliner weisse nearly died out in Berlin. I believe there may be only one brewery still making the stuff there. But it’s seeing a re-birth over here. Along with Gose and Grätzer it’s part of a trend to revive extinct or nearly extinct beer styles. Right now seem to be boom-times for Berliner weisse in Minnesota. Schell’s just released Star of the North a few weeks ago. In Roseville, Pour Decisions Brewing Company has been putting out their own version called Acerbity on an off-and-on basis since they opened. Pour Decisions brewer and co-owner Kristen England is well-known in homebrew circles for his Berliner weisse. It’s won a ton of awards, and rightfully so. I first tasted it years ago while judging some competition or other. It was great then. It’s still great now.

Tomorrow (Saturday, July 27th) they are releasing a chardonnay-barrel aged version of Acerbity called Verity. I got the chance to taste some. Here’s my notes:

Pour Decisions Brewing Co.Verity
Pour Decisions Brewing Company, Roseville, Minnesota
Style: Barrel-Aged Berliner Weisse
Serving Style: 750 ml bottle

Aroma: Loads of lactic acidity and barnyard funkiness. Vinous. Some bready wheat malt aromas still survive underneath. Deep smells of ripe fruits – ripe pears and pineapple. Creamy vanilla.

Appearance: Light golden with a slight haze. Full and fluffy, mousse-like, white head that is very persistent.

Flavor: Lactic acidity leads it in – freshly sliced lemons. Brettanomyces derived leather and dirt usher it out. The pear notes make their way from the smell to the taste, accompanied by newly-arrived, crisp, green apples. The finish hints at vanilla as well. Subtle wheat brings some sweet balance to the profile. There is no bitterness here, nor any hop flavor.

Mouthfeel: Light body and spritzy carbonation. Puckering.

Overall Impression: A beautiful blend of sunny acidity and earthy funk. I love the touch of vanilla complexity brought by the wine-barrel aging. It’s delightfully light and refreshing, but there is a lot to pay attention to as well. Another great Minnesota-made Berliner weisse. Another great beer from a brewery that, in my opinion, doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.

Batch 19 Pre-Prohibition Style Lager

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American lagers weren’t always the bland, flavorless brews offered today by the big breweries. For that matter, the big breweries weren’t always big. An influx of immigrants from Germany in the 1840s created a rise in the popularity of lager beers. The German brewers who were part of that wave were only too happy to oblige. Using the know-how and yeast that they had brought with them, they crafted a full range of German-style beers adapted to the ingredients available to them in their new home.

Yes, that meant using corn and rice. It’s not just the modern macros that turn to these adjuncts. They’ve been part of American brewing since the mid-19th-century. The 6-row barley commonly grown in North American was higher in protein than the 2-row varieties these brewers were accustomed to using in the old country. Corn and rice cut that protein, lessening haze and lightening body. It wasn’t until after the end of prohibition and World War II that the dumbing down of American lagers really began.

Coors Brewing Company is attempting to revive this beer-of-old with Batch 19 Pre-Prohibition Style Lager. The Coors PR propaganda for Batch 19 says that an old brewers log from 1919 was “discovered in the brewery archives.” “Discovered” may be an exaggeration. Surely they knew it was there. But the story is that they brewed this new beer according to the recipe for the last batch made before prohibition went into effect. Whether this is true or not, it’s a good story. The story is good, but what about the beer?

Here’s my notes:

batch 19Batch 19
Coors Archive Brewing, Golden, Colorado
Style: Pre-Prohibition American Lager
Serving Style: 12 oz. bottle

Aroma: Fresh bread, lightly toasted. Hop aromas are very subtle, just the faintest hint of herbs and mint.

Appearance: Deep gold and brilliantly clear. Medium stand of creamy, white foam that is moderately persistent.

Flavor: Very balanced. Malt almost wins out with a bready/grainy sweetness. It’s lovely grainy, like chewing on barley malt but without the husks. Malty sweetness is balanced by medium-level bitterness that is enhanced by a crisp, dry, lager finish. Hop flavors are predominantly spicy licorice, but with a distinct blackberry note.

Mouthfeel: Medium body. Creamy and mouthfilling. Medium carbonation.

Overall Impression: Say what you want about the Coors brewery, this is a really tasty beer. If this is the type of everyday beer my grand-pappy was drinking, I’m jealous. Smooth. Full-flavored. Complex if you want it to be, but easy-drinking if you don’t. This really is my kind of beer.

Stone Ruin Ten IPA

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In 2012, Stone Brewing Co. celebrated the tenth anniversary of their brutally-bitter Ruination IPA with an amped-up version of that beer. Stone Ruination Tenth Anniversary IPA was brewed with twice as many hops as the original – a whopping 5 pounds per barrel – to achieve a tongue-scraping 110 IBU. The ABV was ramped up from 7.7% to 10.8%. This beer was a hops and booze fiend’s wet dream.

It was not my cup of tea. I don’t seem to have actually recorded any tasting notes anywhere. At least if I did I can’t find them now. However, I do recall having a social media back-and-forth with someone about the beer. I took the negative position. It was too much boozy bitter and not enough juicy hop flavors. I really didn’t like that beer.

Fast forward a year. Due to popular demand, Stone has re-brewed this monster. It was released in June as Ruin Ten IPA. I figured, “What the heck! I’ll give it another go.”

Sensory perception is so fungible. The experience of a beverage or food is subject to so many variables. What time of day is it? Who are you with and what are you doing? When and what did you last eat? What kind of mood are you in? All of these things and more come into play when tasting beer. What seems an abomination one day may be sublime the next. Or at least palatable.

Here’s my notes:

Stone Ruin Ten IPARuin Ten IPA
Stone Brewing Co., Escondido, California
Style: Double/Imperial IPA
Serving Style: 22 oz bottle

Aroma: Hops lead the way from start to finish with juicy tangerines, pineapples, and tropical fruits. Some light herbal notes are in there as well. It’s not all hops though. Some malty sweetness with tones of caramel lies underneath the fruit.

Appearance: Copper colored with reddish tint. Hazy on pouring, but cleared up to brilliant clarity as it warmed. Dense stand of persistent, off-white foam.

Flavor: Aggressively high bitterness lingers all the way through to the finish, but it isn’t an unbalanced beer. Ample caramel-tinged malt sweetness gives a sturdy counterpoint. Bitterness is the main hop characteristic, but hop flavors aren’t ignored; tropical fruit, oranges and lemons, herbs. Alcohol is also noticeable, but stops short of being boozy. The finish is long with caramel, bitterness and alcohol being the lingering notes.

Mouthfeel: Full body, but well attenuated. Medium to medium-high carbonation. Warming.

Overall Impression: At this particular time and place I really enjoyed this beer. Malt offers better balance in this version than in the smaller Ruination IPA on which it is based. It’s not just all about bitter. Nice citrus and fruit hop flavors as well.

Schell’s Star of the North Berliner Weisse

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Hidden on the grounds of the Schell brewery are lagering cellars built in the 1890s by Otto Schell, son of the company’s founder August. Nestled in those cellars is a single cypress fermentation tank installed in 1936 by Otto’s grandson Alfred. There were of course more of these tanks at one time, but they were dismantled and removed sometime later in the brewery’s history. Only the one remains.

In 2008 current Brewmaster and 6th generation descendant of August Schell, Jace Marti, returned from brewing school and set about restoring that piece of Schell’s history. The plan was to use it for a special line of beers called the Noble Star Collection. The wooden vessel was to be inoculated with cultures of brettanomyces and lactic acid producing bacteria to craft the delicate sour beers were once an important part of German brewing tradition.

The first beer in the collection is Star of the North, brewed in the style of the nearly extinct Berliner Weisse. A mash of pilsner and wheat malt (mostly wheat) was given a double decoction and the wort was sent to the fermenter without boiling, as is traditional for the style. The driving force of Berliner Weisse is the character derived from fermentation by lactobacillus, an acid producing bacteria. It results in a tart, fruity beer that can be drunk as is, but is often enjoyed with a shot of sweet raspberry or woodruff syrup – “mit Schuß.” Hops play next to no role in the flavor of Berliner Weisse – Star of the North boasts only 4 IBU. Hops are added more for their preservative quality to keep the lactic fermentation in check.

It’s a trend now for American brewers to revive historic beer styles. Berliner Weisse is one of them. Many of these efforts aim high, but end up short of their mark. Schell’s is one of my top-5 breweries in Minnesota. They have a solid reputation for crafting traditional German ales and lagers. I was excited to see what they would do with Berliner Weisse.

Here’s my notes:

StarOfNorthStar of the North
August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm, Minnesota
Style: Berliner Weisse
Serving Style: 750 ml bottle

Aroma: Delicate. Fronts with tart green apples and fresh lemons. Crackery wheat sits just underneath. A dash of floral makes an appearance. There is a hint of brettanomyces barnyard, but only if you look for it.

Appearance: Pale yellow. Very hazy, but not quite cloudy. Has a white cast like a Beligan witbier. The moderate stand of fluffy, white foam dissipated fairly quickly, falling to a gauze on the surface. Effervescent bubbles.

Flavor: Bright and tart with high acidity; cider-like. Green apples and lemons lead, like the aroma. Acidity is the primary flavor driver, but cracker-like wheat survives to provide a comfy cushion. A bit of brettanomyces leather and barnyard brings earthy tones to this beer that is otherwise all about sunshine. Hops never make an appearance. The finish is quick and dry with some lingering tartness.

Mouthfeel: Light body. Effervescent carbonation.

Overall Impression: Delightful and refreshing. Despite its lightness there are layers of flavor, particularly as the brettanomyces yeast adds earthy depth. At 3.5% alcohol, Star of the North is a light and satisfying, summer patio sipper. It’s beautiful as it is, but it would be great with a “Schuß” of raspberry syrup.

Steel Toe Brewing Size 11 Double IPA

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Size 7 IPA from Steel Toe Brewing is I think my favorite Minnesota-made IPA. Having honed his skills in the Pacific Northwest, brewer Jason Schoneman likes IPAs that favor hop flavor and aroma over palate peeling bitterness. That’s my kind of IPA. I love the juicy fruits and pine sap. I’m not so crazy about the bitter.

I’m also not crazy about double IPAs. They tend to be overly bitter or overly syrupy for my taste; a lot of hops an little else or under-attenuated and sticky. There are a few that I enjoy; Avery Maharaja and Pliny the Elder come to mind. But even those I’m pretty much done with after one glass.

Given how much I like Size 7 though, I was intrigued by the prospect of a Steel Toe double IPA. I figured if I were going to like anyone’s version it would be Jason’s. I somehow missed last year’s release of Size 11. This year I made sure to pick up a bottle before it disappeared.

Here’s my notes:

Size 11
Steel Toe Brewing Company, St. Louis Park, Minnesota
Style: Double IPA
Serving Style: 22 oz. bottle

Aroma: A basket of juicy fruits. In fact it reminds me a bit of Juicy Fruit gum. Kiwi, tangerines, and tropical fruits like mango. Underneath is a light, grainy maltiness, with subtle tones of biscuit and toast that get stronger as is warms.

Appearance: Medium amber to copper and very clear. A towering cap of creamy, ivory foam that lasts all the way to the bottom of the glass.

Flavor: Hops are king and bitterness is high, but it’s not insane. There is enough malt there to maintain balance. It’s malty but not sweet.  Caramel notes combine with the biscuit and toast that carry over from the aroma. Toast gets stronger as it warms. It’s just a guess, but I’d say that there is a good bit of Munich or some such malt in there. It dries out in the end, leaving it refreshing. Now let’s get back to those hops. The bitterness has a sharp, mineral quality and leaves a cooling sensation on the back of my throat. Those fruits from the aroma come back in the flavor. It’s that same juicy fruit gum thing, but this time with some herbs added. Mint? Bitterness lingers, but it isn’t astringent. Hop flavors hang around with it. Dry finish to keep it light.

Mouthfeel: Medium body. Medium carbonation.

Overall Impression: I’m the oddball who first considers the malt in an IPA. I know the hops will be there. I want to know what else is going on. Jason didn’t neglect the malt. It isn’t just there to keep the hops company. It adds interest of its own and is a nearly equal partner to the hops in the overall experience of the beer. It’s nicely layered and complex. The hops dominate but don’t overwhelm. This might be my new favorite DIPA. I’m sorry I only bought one bottle.

Stone Enjoy By 5.17.13 IPA

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“ENJOY BY 5. 17. 13!” The bottle in my fridge had been relentlessly nagging me for three weeks. The big black and white letters on the green label glared at me from the shelf. I was away when it arrived on my doorstep, but it even from afar it scolded me for my neglect, imprinting guilt upon my mind – nee my soul – that I was allowing it to fade with each passing day. And now the dreaded deadline had arrived. I had let it go until the last minute. It was 5. 17. 13.

I pried the cap off of the bottle and poured its copper-colored contents into my Sam Adams/Dogfish Head IPA glass. I raised it to my nose with anticipation. Had I waited too long? Would the lupuline nectar be degraded; a mere shadow of its once bitter self? Only a taste would tell.

Here’s my notes:

Enjoy by 5. 17. 13. IPA
Stone Brewing Co, Escondido, California
Style: Imperial IPA
Serving Style: 22 oz. bottle

Aroma: Light apricots and pineapple. Hint of sugary grain. Aromatics very low overall.

Appearance: Golden color and hazy. Substantial and persistent, off-white, rocky foam. The head really hangs around.

Flavor: Bit of chives right off the bat. Brown sugar, but not sweet. Light toast. Bitterness is high, but not unbalanced. Malt sweetness is enough to counter. The bitterness hangs on in the finish though, coming back for another bite long after swallowing. Hop flavors are low, with hints of chive, herbs, mint, and  citrus peel. Some stone-fruit flavors pop in as well. Alcohol is noticeable, but not hot. Very dry. Although I have picked several things out, it’s all very subtle. Bitterness dominates.

Mouthfeel: Medium body. Medium carbonation. Mild astringency. Alcohol warmth.

Overall Impression: I really wanted more. More hop aroma. More hop flavor. More interesting malt. The whole seemed a bit one-dimensional to me, and that dimension was mostly bitter. Sure, there were some other things going on, but as I stated above they were all pretty subtle. I found myself thinking, “Well, there’s another 9.5% IPA. And the world certainly needed another one of those.” Maybe I did leave it too long.

Schell’s Goosetown

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The folks down at Schell’s keep trotting out the new brews. I have to say, I was devastated to learn that Chimney Sweep, my new favorite, was not a year-round offering. Somehow I had got it in my head that it was. Maybe wishful thinking. In fact it’s a six-month beer that will alternate with Goosetown, a new Gose-ish summer beer.

Goosetown is part of a new trend in brewing to recreate extinct or nearly-extinct beer styles. One could say that the trend began in 1967 when Pierre Celis opened the Hoegaarden brewery to revive the Belgian witbier style that had sputzed out of existence ten years earlier. Today microbrewers are brewing modern interpretations of such long-lost beers as Gose, Mumme, Berliner Weisse, Grätzer, and Burton Ale.

Gose (pronounced GŌ-zuh) seems to fit into the family of “white beers” that once existed across Europe and Great Britain. It includes Hefeweizen, Berliner Weiss, and witbeir among other styles. Gose originated in the region near Leipzig, where water high in sodium lent the beer a saline profile. It’s a wheat based beer, often with coriander added. Lactic fermentation gives it a lemony tartness.

Goosetown isn’t exactly an authentic, traditionally brewed Gose. I don’t think the brewers at Schell’s would dispute that assertion. It is a tasty and refreshing summer ale, though. I actually tasted this long ago. I’ve been tied up in an all-consuming project in Chicago, however, and am just now getting around to posting my notes.

Here’s My notes:

Goosetown
August Schell Brewing Company, New Ulm, Minnesota
Style: Gose
Serving Style: 12 oz. Bottle

Aroma: Wheaty. Bread and Saltines. Very light fruity notes – like a light lemony citrus. Aromatics are very subtle and mostly malt.

Appearance: The first sample was light golden and brilliantly clear, although later bottles have had a haze. Long-lasting fluffy white head. It really sticks around in a thick layer on surface.

Flavor: Bready wheat malt with smooth edges. Background salinity, but not enough to say it’s salty. It adds a mineral note and gives emphasizing contrast to the malt. Light sweetness. Bitterness is low and hop flavors are nearly non-existent. Only the lightest note of spice and something that reminds me of Indian lime-pickle. Maybe it’s the salt and noble hops bringing that to my mind. There is an afterthought of lemony acidity, but not nearly enough to say it’s sour. Maybe not even enough to notice outright unless you really pay attention. Like the coriander and orange in a witbier, it enhances without drawing attention to itself. Finishes with a parting shot of light bitterness and lingering bread and lemons.

Mouthfeel: Light body. Medium carbonation.

Overall Impression: Delicate yet flavorful. Exceptionally clean and balanced. Billed as a Gose. It’s Gose-ish, but I’d call it more of a slightly salty American wheat beer with a hint of acidity. But that’s okay. It’s a delightfully drinkable brew. It almost makes up for taking Chimney Sweep away for the summer. Almost, but not quite. I really want to try this with Indian lime pickle. The intensity of the pickle may overpower the beer, but something tells me it would be a good pairing.