Joseph James Craft American Lager
Joseph James Brewing Inc.

Sometimes you just want a beer with no flavor, not a lousy adjunct macro, but a crushable craft yellow beer that glides down the gullet and finishes clean, even your burps don't taste like beer. This is that brew. Basically flavorless, seriously. I know it's fresh, and it appears to be an all malt offering, at least it doesn't have that corny sweetness or the metallic tastes like the can thing going on. No hops or real grain flavor to it though, but it also doesn't feel as watery as it tastes, which saves it I think. Clean and bright, crisp, definitely a lager, as the yeast is really the only appreciable flavor in this. Nice to see these guys, who do the big stuff well, can also do such a simple mellow brew like this with equal skill. Obviously made to be slammed, it suits that purpose really well. Good in hot weather, good for shot gunning, and good for all day drinking and no thinking. Best when ice cold though, less good when it warms up. Nothing special, but it fills a niche in the craft world I suppose...

A Golden yellow color with a ton of fizz. The head is brigh white fuzzy and frothy with an okay retention, which is perfect for this style of beer.

A rich grainy and cereal note, and yeast.

A rich grain and cereal with yeast and hint of floral hops.

The mouthfeel is carbonated and clean.

Actually this a very good example of an Adjunct Lager, it is better than Bud. It certainly has more flavor. I am kinda shocked a craft brew that is superior to Bud, who knew. It has a really nice dry hop to it, although the dry hop is minimal compare to an APA.

Joseph James Brewing Co. "American Lager"
12 oz. can, no freshness dating

I had high hopes for this as the label reads "CRAFT AMERICAN LAGER". I thought it might be a pre-prohibition style lager, or something robust and hoppy. Then when I saw that it came from Nevada, I wasn't so sure.

Unfortunately what I found was sweetly malty with a note of lemon, and perhaps even a touch of lemongrass. It's grainy, which is nice, but it's not balanced by bitterness, and it finishes a bit sticky; and the more you drink the longer it takes for the malt to erode from your mouth in the finish - I almost felt like taking a sip of water to cleanse my palate.

On the up-side it does have some positives: it's clean; it looks pretty good in the glass (it is hazy, so hopefully I don't have an old sample, but without any freshness dating I have no idea); it's got fairly good head retention and lacing; and the medium body and moderate carbonation leave it smooth and silky (except that that doesn't quite work with the sweetness it offers).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pours a clear, pale golden color with a quickly fading white head that leaves little to no lacing.

Smells of grainy malts mostly.

Tastes of the pale malts with a touch of lemony hops. Grainy malts lead off with some sweetness. Lemon hops come through next. Not much to this beer.

Mouthfeel is light with a crisp amount of carbonation.

Overall, this is a one note beer that doesn't do anything to stand out.

Pours a hazy light orange with a foamy off-white head that settles to wisps of film on top of the beer. No lacing on the drink down. Smell is of malt, grain, and hay aromas. Taste is much the same with citrus zest and grapefruit juice flavors on the finish. There is a medium amount of hop bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a good level of carbonation with a crisp mouthfeel. Overall, this is an average beer that is easy to drink but isn't really much better than some of the macro beers I have had in the past.

 

 

 

Wait a tick (literally). I think this may be my first Nevada brew.

There is a strong malty sweetness to this beer, but I like it. The whole thing is one dimensional, but it works for me. Carbonation is quite full though. Not too shabby, for a lager. I've certainly had worse.