India Pale Lager
The Grizzly Paw Brewing Company

 

20oz pint at the Grizzly Paw tap takeover event at the Underground in Edmonton.

This beer appears a clear, bright medium bronzed amber colour, with one fat finger of puffy, finely foamy, and mildly creamy ecru head, which leaves some disintegrating limestone wall lace around the glass as things evenly subside.

It smells of bready, doughy pale malt, a muddled citrus fruitiness, wet white saltine crackers, and soft earthy, leafy, grassy hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet, kind of pastry-like pale and caramel malt, sharp orange and lime juice citrus notes, ethereal yeast, of the rising bread sort, and weird leafy, almost minty and piney hops.

The carbonation is decently modulated via its murmuring frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, with an evolving creaminess as we work our way along. It finishes sweet, the heady malt and lingering fruitiness barely having to contend with any challenge from the hops.

For the purported substyle, this seems a tad misdirected, coming off much sweeter, as opposed to the sassy bitterness one might be expecting from the 'India Pale' moniker. Kind of cloying towards bottoms-up, actually, which is not how this camper prefers his lagers - keep 'em crisp, if ya wanna keep 'em comin'.