Commander Salamander
Spring House Brewing Company

16 oz can, no date

Pours clear yellow golden, with bright white colored head. decent head retention. aroma of tart citrus and cucumber. similar taste - its okay but kind of a weird combination. Sourness level is moderate. thinner bodied.

 

 

A: Kumquat lime sour. A pale crystal orange colored body shows a vibrant and strong, champagne like fizzle of carbonation. The off white head was slight and quick to dissipate, normal per style. Clean window dressing.

S: The nose was of kumquats and strong lime scents with hints of ginger and a fresh lemon sourness. The strength was rather reserved, kettled, though still pleasant and smooth. Sour tropical fruit and musky wheat.

T: The flavor followed the nose with strong kumquats and lime notes. Lemon souring was smooth, of good strength, and continued to build. Some tropical guava, white grapes and wheat along with some green apple.

M: The mouthful was very slick and syrupy, a near full body experience with a strong and crisp backbone of carbonation that livened up the texture.

O: Overall a decent level of sourness, fruity kumquats, lime with a strong tingly sensation. Approachable kettle sour for those timid or new to the scene.

Spring House Brewing Co. "Commander Salamander"
12 fl. oz. can, "CANNED ON 05/20/22" and sampled on 07/21/22
$2.79 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: Commander Salamander pours a hazy golden body beneath a fair sized head of white foam that steadily dwindles into nothing. That's quite common for sour beers so there's no problem there. The aroma is floral and mineralish and suggests that it's sour. I get lime and the kumquat. Kumquats are awesome, aren't they? I love the contrast of the sweet peel against the tart and juicy flesh; what a great idea to brew with them, of course, they're probably quite expensive. On to the taste... well there's kumquat there, even more so than the lime I think. It's fairly tart, and refershing. You get a little bit of the sweetish maltiness along with the fruitiness and acidity and it's nicely balanced. I'm not finding any bitterness but it finishes dry and acidic with the fruitiness lingering shortly. In the mouth it's light bodied and gently crisp. This is a great little sour beer with a lot of charm, and at just 4.5% ABV you could drink a few of these on a hot day.
Review #8,171

 

 

Commander Salamander from Spring House Brewing. Purchased on 16 Aug 21 from Franklin Beer, Franklin, PA. $ 10.00 (Including tax) per six-pack of 12 oz cans ($0.139 /oz). On room temperature shelf at the store, stored at home at 42 degrees. Reviewed 20/8/21. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Undated can. Served at 47.1 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 55.4 degrees.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Very light straw, nearly colorless (SRM 2), clear.
Body – Straw (SRM 2), clear. When rear-lite, same.
Head – Large (Maximum four cm, aggressive center pour), white, high density, fizzy, quickly diminishing to no crown and no cap. Second pour produces a 0.1 cm head and pours cloudy.
Lacing – None.
Aroma – 3 – No malt, no hops, no yeast. Extremely weak lime and some unknown pungent stench.
Flavor – 4 – Begins with a light refreshing citrusy taste, predominantly lime. No malt, no yeast. No ethanol (4.5 % ABV, as marked on container) taste or aroma. No gastric warming. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Thin, watery, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 3.5 (After deducting 0.25 point for undated personal container) Good use of old cans – covered by paper label. Been a few decades since I’ve had a kumquat, so I don’t remember either the taste or aroma, but the lime comes through and is distinctly refreshing. And cheap as well.