Reclamation Lager
Oakshire Brewing

One of the best German-style pils beers I've had. I tend to avoid the style due to the macrobrewery connotation (and taste experiences) but this was a good one to bring me to trying it again.

 

 

 

 

 

(Shortened) Very bready malts up front, with some noticeable sourness. Not a crappy lager smell though, which may just keep this above a 3 for the smell. It's a nice smell, just not too complex at all, and not very big. The malt aroma is also a little different, kind of a weird bready smell. Yet at the same time light malt smell, not light in amount, but light as in kind of malt. It's not bad at all though. Not much in the way of hops. I'll say 3.5 for smell, but just barely. The flavor is veeeerrry interesting, I like it though. The first thing I notice is a surprising bitter, tart flavor. Way more than I would expect in a lager. Not much of a hoppy bite at all, nor floral or citrucy, but bitter and nasty. Nasty in a good way. I mean honestly I might even say the bitterness is bigger than the malt flavor. Which seems to be taking the back seat in this beer. A tiny bit of a sourness in this beer as well, but for sure not super sweet or sour like a lot of lagers. Maybe even a little fruity too, perhaps some lemon coming through. Maybe that's just the hop bitterness and refreshing combination, I dunno, but it for sure seems slightly fruity to me. Overall a very nice taste. It's unusual, big, somewhat complex. I like it. Honestly, for a lager, this is a 4.5, for a beer it may just be a 4. I know sometimes I probably go back and fourth from grading a beer more by style, or more as a beer, but tonight it's a 4.5, by it's style, a lager. And that's what I'm gonna give it for taste :) it's really a nice tasting beer. The mouthfeel is also very nice, pretty damn thick for a lager. The cloudy appearance for sure comes through in the mouthfeel. The carbonation is really just perfect too, it's about medium. Really not a watery mouthfeel, and not over carbonated. Honestly I have a hard time giving this beer another 4.5, but dammit, it deserves it, 4.5. Drinkability on this beer isn't bad at all. It has a little bit of a rough bitterness, which maybe makes it a hair tougher to drink, but I like it for the most part. Overall a pretty darn drinkable beer, it is a lager after all. Overall on this beer, it's a pretty dang good beer. I've already given it two 4.5's, and I may well give it a third for appearance. Some of those were tough decisions, and so is the overall. It may be a 4.5 overall, but I've given it 4.5 instead of 4 too many times, so 4 overall. Either way, it's a really nice beer, different, big, pretty complex.