Farm Table: Altbier
Beau's All Natural Brewing Company

 

 

Serving: Can
Canned: Feb-6-2019


It pours a crystal clear ruddy copper with a finger of fluffy tan head that settles to a fat film with doily lacing. The aroma is mostly caramely malts, toasted dark bread, pepper and a hint of herbal hops. The taste follows the nose with a hint of mineraley-ness and an herbal/lightly molassesy finish. It is fairly clean, crisp and smooth with active carbonation and just enough of a bite to balance out the caramelized character of the malt. Another nice, drinkable, simple beer from the folks at Beau's.

4...3.75...3.75...3.75...3.75

August 5 2019

Tallboy from the LCBO; dated Feb 6 2019 and served slightly chilled. As is the case with a few of their other 'Farm Table' beers, the brewery admits that this is a re-branding of one of their old seasonals (Festivale).

Pours crystal clear, with a reddish amber-hued body topped with one finger of frothy, off-white head that sizzles off over the next several minutes. A webby pattern of lace has been left imprinted onto the glass, with a thin collar being the only other remnant of note. It smells of bready, biscuity malts, as well as toasted nuts and grains - beyond that, there's a light caramel sweetness, as well as a touch of floral, grassy hops. Straightforward, and maybe a little sweeter than I'd prefer, but still quite enticing.

Yummy stuff; the malt profile is rich and slightly more dominant, but those German Perle hops really shine towards the back end of the sip. It starts off with toasted grains, caramelized malt sweetness and a bready, biscuity note with just a hint of nuttiness developing by mid-sip. Notes of grassy hay and earthy, floral hops round out the finish, which leans towards the dry side. Medium-light in body, with middling carbonation levels that gently agitate the palate. Good drinkability; I could certainly knock back a few of these in a row without any fuss.

Final Grade: 4.01, an A-. Festivale was one of my favourite brews in the (prolific, to say the least) Beau's line-up, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I also really enjoyed this Altbier. I've always felt that this is a solid recipe and they would've been foolish to abandon it entirely, particularly because quality alts are not readily available in this province. I expect I'll continue to return to this for the foreseeable future - this is actually the third can I've had in as many weeks.

Fairly ordinary looking stuff the colour of dark tea with a short-lived moderate head, minimal lace. Sharp hops on the nose but still dominated by caramel malt. That carries on through to the taste. What makes this one work for me is the character of the malt as it comes through in the aroma and flavour. I'm not generally a big fan of ambers (German-style amber ale, sez the can), but this one offers up a pretty robust dose of malt to give it some dimension. Tasty without being too sweet and nicely paired off against the hops. I like it.