COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Iceland
BREWERY: Einstök Ölgerð
STYLE: Witbier
ABV: 5.2%
PURCHASE: Six-pack of 11.2-oz. bottles, $11.99
SERVING: 11.2-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. A pour of normal speed led to a head of three full inches; a slower one cut it in half. Good retention.
APPEARANCE: Very pale, yellowish straw color. Hazy and cloudy, although it becomes clearer as you drink it. Spongy white head. Thin but steady bubbling. Very, very little lacing.
AROMA: Prominent coriander notes, but orange zest seems to hog the spotlight here. Wheat, malt, and lemon essences are noticeable as well.
TASTE: As with the aroma, zesty orange peel is the through-line, with an uptick of it in the aftertaste, which is quite lemony and yeasty overall. Mild at the onset, with a somewhat thin mouthfeel and middle-of-the-road carbonation. Wheat and coriander notes are makeable but very shy; they're almost bullied into submission by lemon and orange rind, and yeast. What's there is likeable but not ideally balanced.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: This is a witbier, but at best, it comes off like a compromised one. It's like Blue Moon and Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy mixed together. Nothing wrong with that; but it's a little misleading.
This is a brew with a decent enough taste and it's very easy to put away. But it's too heavy on the lemon and orange zest and doesn't have enough actual witbier character. It's what I call an "identity crisis" beer. I like it, but it's the worst of the three I've had so far from the Einstök brewery in Iceland.
GRADE: B-
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Iceland
BREWERY: Einstök Ölgerð
STYLE: APA
ABV: 5.6%
PURCHASE: Six-pack of 11.2-oz. bottles, $11.99
SERVING: 11.2-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. A normal pour yielded a head of an inch and a half; a slower pour whittled it down to an even inch, more or less. Great head retention.
APPEARANCE: Translucent body with a caramel tint that could also be described as light copper or amber. Slightly off-white head. Faint bubbling. Good and fairly consistent lacing around the inside of the glass.
AROMA: Balanced yet subtle aroma. Mainly pressed grains and (seemingly) appleskin. Hoppy accents. Rounded out by a tinge of lemon, orange zest, and some other kind of spice, probably allspice or cinnamon. A bit roasty.
TASTE: Well-attenuated body in terms of texture and taste. Carbonation, though, is a little sneaky; it's barely there, but can surprise you if you hold a sip too long. Entry is a little blah, but it rights itself by mid-palate, taking on an appleskin-malt profile. Finish is somewhat fusel-like, and not too dry. Aftertaste continues the apple-malt throughline while adding a dimension of spice--again, it's hard to pin down. Seems like allspice or orange zest, possibly a tease of cinnamon, maybe even clove. Not particularly hoppy, and this is supposedly an APA--an American pale ale.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: This isn't a bad little brewery, but they have some work to do.
This is a solid brew, but it's not perfect. They call it an APA because it's brewed with cascade hops, but it's brewed with a couple other varieties of hops as well. And they weren't that conspicuous. That could be a good or bad thing, of course.
Per the label, this was "brewed 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle." The Arctic Circle passes through . . . Iceland--well, Icelandic waters, anyway. In other words, they're just saying it's brewed in Iceland. I love marketing people.
GRADE: B
