REVIEW 93: LINDEMANS FRAMBOISE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  Belgium

BREWERY:  Brouwerij Lindemans

STYLE:  Lambic--Fruit

ABV:  2.5%

PURCHASE:  Draught (8-oz.), $9.00

SERVING:  Lindemans branded lambic flute. Small head from the tap, especially considering the narrow mouth of the glass; not even half an inch. Immediately fizzes down to nothing like the Wicked Witch of the West.

APPEARANCE:  A raspberry-cranberry color with a pinkish-white head (while it's there). Very opaque with no visible bubbling. No lacing; just the occasional sud.

BOUQUET:  Seems to hint at sour cherries at first, like a kriek, but immediately gives way to the more dominant essences of raspberry. ("Framboise" is the French term for raspberry.) The aroma seems to feature other berries, though they are not particularly discernible; cranberry seems like a good bet, blueberry and blackberry are possibilities. Very little in the way of malted grain, and no detectable hop presence. I picked up a trace of grape- or appleskin.

PALATE:  Very sweet, but with an even dose of sour. Though raspberry is clearly the dominant factor, other berries again seem evident; they may not actually be involved in the brewing process, but they seem present on the palate. Light-moderate body with carbonation that is overshadowed by the tart taste. Slightly syrupy finish, with a somewhat yeasty aftertaste that retains the raspberry character.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  I'm admittedly a novice with lambics, as I have only had maybe one or two in my entire life prior to this review. So I'm kind of winging it here.

Lambics aren't "beer-like" in the traditional sense. There are barely enough beer-like qualities--namely, yeast and very subtle malt--in them. (I considered flunking this along the same lines of Not Your Father's Root Beer--that it just doesn't taste enough like beer--but ultimately decided against it.) The question is, Why would anyone drink this? I would imagine it makes a good dessert beer. I also can see it as a substitute for a mimosa at a Sunday brunch. But I can't imagine anyone downing a few of these at a ballgame or a frat-house. They're just too sweet and tart for that.

That's not to say they don't--or more specifically, this one doesn't--have an amiable taste. It does. But it almost seems more suited to be an additive, a complementary part, an accent, more than it does a stand-alone offering.




GRADE:  C

The former Wicked Witch of the West. 

REVIEW 92: SWEETWATER 420 EXTRA PALE ALE

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA

BREWERY:  Sweetwater Brewing Company

STYLE:  APA

ABV:  5.4%

PURCHASE:  Draught (60-oz. pitcher), $12.00

SERVING:  Said pitcher, poured into chilled pint glass. Typical one-inch head from the tap to the pitcher. Standard pour from pitcher into the glass yielded just about the same. A slower pour produced about half that. Middle-of-the-road retention.

APPEARANCE:  Transparent, light copper-rust body with an off-white sudsy head. Light bubbling and quite decent lacing.

BOUQUET:  Essentially a tri-fold aroma of hops, pressed grains, and citrus. Although, a bit of caramel sneaks in there.

PALATE:  It's a pale ale, so you know what's front and center here. Moderate body with slightly cutting carbonation. Could stand to be more balanced. It's not that the hops are out of control; it's just that there's not much to counteract them, save for maybe a dash of generic citrus. Sweet finish and aftertaste, befitting the name of the brewery. So sweet, in fact, that it seemed almost artificial to me. Do they use NutriSweet in the brewing process?

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Poor man's Sierra Nevada, if that. A tad better than average, but not awe-inspiring. 

Guess what? You know how this is called "420 Extra Pale Ale" and has the I-420* logo? Think that's what this is named after? NOPE. It's really named after the other 420. 4-20. That 4-20**.




GRADE:  C+

*I-420 was a proposed, but ultimately scrapped, auxiliary interstate in the metro Altanta area, during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

**Okay, okay--not in that context. It had nothing to do with weed. But it was first brewed on that date!

REVIEW 91: KENZINGER

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA

BREWERY:  Philadelphia Brewing Company

STYLE:  Pale Lager*

ABV:  4.5%

PURCHASE:  Draught (pint), $5.00

SERVING:  Yards branded pint glass. Roughly a 3/4" head from the tap. Fairly quick dissipation. 

APPEARANCE:  Pilsener golden-straw body with a standard fizzy white head. Faint bubbling. Splotchy lacing.

BOUQUET:  One of those beers that splits the difference between malt sweetness and hop bitterness almost right down the middle, with no other aromas of significance. 

PALATE:  Moderate body, moderate carbonation. A tad puckery on the tongue early on. The bulk of the mouthfeel is biscuit-like and yeasty. Sweet up until the finish, where noble hop bitterness fades in and shares the aftertaste. Pretty straightforward beer with a simple but effective balance.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Founded in 2007 by former coworkers from Yards, Philadelphia Brewing Company is a young brewery from the Kensington section of Philly, the home of Rocky Balboa and . . . well . . . how do I put this lightly? A lot of people who's vice of choice isn't beer, let's say that.

Like any other metropolis, Philly has its high-society neighborhoods. But this is a blue-collar city first and foremost. You may even call it an underdog's city. This beer typifies that mentality: Not particularly prolific, but admirable and earnest. I rate it accordingly.




GRADE:  B

*RateBeer calls this a "Dortmunder/Helles." The bar that served it to me tonight calls it a "Kölsch," which is technically inaccurate because those beers, by definition, must be from Cologne, Germany. Beer Advocate, as well as the PBC's own website, calls this a "pale lager," so pale lager it is.

REVIEW 90: LOVE STOUT

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA

BREWERY:  Yards Brewing Company

STYLE:  Stout

ABV:  5.5%

PURCHASE:  Draught (pint), $6.00

SERVING:  Yards branded nonic pint glass. About a 3/4" head from the tap. Exceptional retention.

APPEARANCE:  Creamy, cappuccino-colored head atop a coffeeish body. Very little lacing. Just a handful of scattered suds.

BOUQUET:  Toasted barley and roasted coffee are the most prominent notes. They are rounded out by seeming essences of bitter chocolate and caramel and a touch of hops. I swear I picked up a whiff of butter or toffee. Slightly floral.

PALATE:  Taste is not quite as complex as the aroma. Features a deceptively medium body--that might not make initial sense; it feels light in your mouth but much heavier in your stomach. Very low carbonation. Fairly even and consistent mouthfeel up to the aftertaste, which is characterized mainly by toasted barley as with the aroma. Somewhat dry and roasty finish. A mild hop bitterness figures into the early going. Constant overtones of coffee. Balanced well, but everything seems held a bit too much in check; in other words, it could stand to be a little more adventurous. It's too timid.

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Yards. A Philly brewery with a few truly great beers and a smorgasbord of merely good ones. This is one of the latter.




GRADE:  B