Country Lager
Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe

Pours an English red colour. Head is a bit too big for a pour; was the bartender even looking when he poured this? Sinks fairly steadily, but nice and dense. Lace is fairly nice, a steady continuous bead. Not bad.

Smells quite sour with some raw grain notes: barley, a touch of sourdough bread and rye. Quite astringent hop notes, almost vinegary with a wet grass kind of ester. Not very fussed, but OK.

Taste is a bit bland. Fairly bitter throughout with a touch of amber malt on the front with a slight raw sugar touch; descends into fairly astringent phenolic hop bitterness, long and earthy witout much nuance. Quite mediciney and herbal; not very clean. Also not very bad but pretty blah.

Fair texture -at first- but overcarbonated on the back without a lot of body. Meh.

Not undrinkable, but have had better.

On tap at Redoak. They say it's an Oktoberfestbier on their list, but it has a different ABV to their regular Oktoberfest, and also a different name, hence the new entry.

Alright, let's get down to business. Pours a decent coppery amber colour, brownish in its depths, with a very good head of fluffy white. Supple lace sticks to the glass in sudsy lines. Quite a light body, with lots of tiny carbonation. Looks pretty decent.

Nose is not that great, to be honest, coppery tones with husky malt, and an odd crystal sweetness that doesn't sit so well with it. Little else. No body, no true malt sweetness. It ends up feeling very thin and weak.

Taste takes the metallic twang and turns it into coppery blood flavours. Metallic and slightly astringently chemical on the back giving a rather harsh bitterness. For all that, very simple in profile and very thin in the body.

A very average effort from Redoak, whom I'm not usually that enamoured with to start. This is below par even for them.