Motown Lager
Motor City Brewing Works

12 ounce bottle into lager glass, bottled on 8/18/2015. Pours slightly hazy golden straw color with a 1 finger dense white head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Light spotty soapy lacing clings down the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of cracker, bread, light honey/biscuit, herbal, grass, light pepper, and yeast earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance of pale malt and earthy hop notes; with solid strength. Taste of cracker, bread, light honey/biscuit, herbal, grass, light pepper, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate herbal/spicy bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of cracker, bread, light honey/biscuit, light pepper, and herbal/grassy earthiness on the finish for a short bit. Nice robustness and balance of pale malt and earthy hop flavors; with a great malt/bitterness balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Light-moderate dryness as well. Medium carbonation and light-medium body; with a very smooth crisp, and lightly grainy/bready/sticky balanced mouthfeel that is nice. Very clean on lager flavors with zero yeast ester notes present. Alcohol is very well hidden with zero warming present after the finish. Overall this is a nice Czech pilsener. All around good robustness and balance of pale malt and earthy hop flavors; and very smooth, crisp, and clean to drink. A nicely enjoyable offering; very well done style example.

 

 

 

 

Decent brew. A bit dirty tasting. But drinkable. Certainly not my favorite motor city brew

Decent lager. It's very drinkable.

I picked up a bottle of Motor City's Motown Lager last week in their new variety pack for $20 at The Lager Mill. So far the Nut Brown Ale is the only beer I've tried so far from their new variety pack, the Nut Brown made for a good first impression and I'm interested to see how it turns out, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling date. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks ok, it's not that eye catching and the brown/tan background gives it a vintage look, but not in a good way. It poured a little hazy straw yellow color that took on more of a golden hue when held to the light with a fingers worth of white bubbly head that quickly died down to a thin ring that eventually disappeared and it left a little bit of spotty lacing behind. This would be a pretty average looking Lager, but the slight hazyness knocks it down a little.

S- The aroma starts off with a slightly higher amount of medium sweetness and it's followed by lots of grainy and pale malt like aromas with some adjunct aromas coming through also and imparting a cream corn like aroma with some more sweet malts towards the end and there's no trace of hops. The aroma is below average for a lager because the sweetness is a little too dominating.

T- The taste seems to be pretty similar to the aroma, but not as sweet and it starts off with a slightly lower amount of medium sweetness and it's followed by some grainy, toasted, and pale malt like aromas. Up next comes some doughy yeast, and a little bit of those adjuncts that I got in the aroma coming through imparting a light cream corn flavor. On the finish there's pretty much no bitterness with a grainy and toasted malt aftertaste. The taste is actually ok, it's not too sweet and the toasted flavors make it a little unique for the style.

M- Smooth, clean, crisp, light bodied with a higher amount of medium carbonation. The mouthfeel is ok, it works well with this beer and it's just what I've come to expect from the style.

Overall I thought this beer was not that great, but I thought it was an Ok example of an American Bohemian Lager which is what the brewery claims it as, as a Czech Pilsener it's not a good example of the style with no noticeable hops and bitterness at all. This beer had ok drinkability, it was smooth, clean, crisp, and not filling, but the taste didn't do a good job at holding my attention and I would quickly get bored of it so one is enough for me unless i decided for some reason that I didn't care about taste, but that rarely happens. What I liked the most about this beer was the toasted aspect, I liked it and I thought it set it apart. What I liked the least about this beer was the aroma and appearance, they weren't that good and they both could use some work. I wouldn't buy this beer again, It's nice to try once, but it's nothing I would revisit. I wouldn't recommend this beer. All in all I didn't think this was horrible beer and there weren't really any off the flavors, but it had many aspects to it that need some work and the uniqueness of the toasted malts can't save this beer by itself. Not the worst lager I've had, but it's certainly not the best and so far it's my least favorite beer from Motor City Brewing. Better luck next time guys, this one could use some work.

 

 

 

 

 

This one looks good, though it's clouded a bit and not entirely clear, and the nose is okay. The first impression I got on the flavor profile was of an extremely high acidity. It doesn't seem so extreme after sitting for a minute, but it is still there more than I'd care for it to be. Eh. Not really workin' here.

Something about this beer... I dislike it, yet I like it. It has an odd taste I can't quit put my finger on when I first taste it, but it has an interesting enough after taste that I end up taking a few more sips. I'm not sure what I think of this... but out of the sampler I had, it was near the bottom. I think I'd try it again...

My least favorite MCBW beer though, regardless.

 

 

Pours a clear yellow color with a foamy 1 finger off white head that was full of bubbles and had tons of bubbles racing up the brew, then faded quickly and left decent lacing.

Smells of herbs, vegetables, corn, light sweet malt, light caramel, faint citrus hops, grains and husk. It almost smells like a PBR, but a tad more earthy and grainy.

Tastes like it smells, with herbs, grass, hay, light sweet malt, cardboard, vegetables, corn, light caramel, weak citrus hops, grains and husk. To me this is a funnel beer along the lines of Hamm's and a Matt's beer ball that I used to consume in mass quantities back in college.

Mouthfeel is light and watery, with very light carbonation, a light body and a sweet grainy finish. This is drinkable for college students looking to get wasted, just not a session beer.

Of note is that it actually got worse as it warmed up. This is a Bohemian Style Lager that lacks any hop spices or real flavor. It’s highly drinkable if you aren’t seeking taste.

The beer is golden / yellow hued, and mildly hazy. Upon agitating the beer, an eighth inch or so of head emerges, but only briefly. Minimal lacing. The aroma is foul. Honestly, the beer smells like piss and corn. There's no way I could identify this as either a Czech or German pils based on either the taste or aroma. While the beer tastes a bit better than the scent might indicate, there's nothing positive happening here. The body is thin, and the aftertaste leaves boiled veges, corn, urine, and a general cheap, macro lager taste in your mouth. Drain pour. Avoid.

in the age old debate "spit or swallow" this beer falls on the "spit" side. Truly a horrible beer. Dear God why does this exist? Haven't we suffered enough?

Bottle shared by the other Matt last night, I think it came as an extra in a trade he did, interesting.

Beer is yellow, thin wispy lazy head, no lacing, low retention, moderate to low carbonation. Czech pilsner? Doesn't even look like that. Plus the label clearly said "Bavarian recipe" so this might be better classified as a German pilsner, whatever it sucks no matter what you call it.

Aroma smells like urine and boiled vegetables, smells like a light struck old malt liquor.

One sip was enough for me. Grindingly gross beer here, vegetal, boiled cabbage, harsh finish, drainpour spitter here.