Switch Hitter India Pale Lager
Wild Rose Brewery & Taproom

 

 

 

Appearance - Pours a straw gold with three fingers of dense foamy white head.

Smell - leafy and floral hops, biscuity malts, papaya, mango, hint of lemon.

Taste - Starts of with the leafy and floral hops then quickly goes into the biscuity malts. The papaya, mango, and hint of lemon help to round out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes dry with a pleasant lingering bitterness.

Overall - A tasty and pleasant rendition of the American Pale lager. This brew displays the best of both worlds of an IPA and a lager.

650ml bottle poured into tulip 20/6/15

A clear golden liquid with steady streams of bubbles feeding a loose soapy foam that slowly falls to a thin film leaving lots of random lace

S butterscotch, caramel, bruised mango and papaya, melon, a little bread, not sure I'd guess it was a lager to be honest

T more tropical fruit but still lots of caramel, a little herbal, some rind, now I'd guess lager yeast, very different from the nose but just as good

M lighter side of medium, light bubbles, slick after the fact, a little rind lingers but fairly clean finish, no complaints here

O cascade on the nose more galaxy in the mouth, strange in this way, respectable beer that I wish I got to the week it was released

An odd hop combo but it works, not all that "lager" but that neither helps nor hinders really, easy enough to drink and worth s shot

 

Tasting notes: A rather tame but unobjectionable hop-forward lager. Typically cracker-like malt base seasoned with leafy green hops and a dollop of citrus and light tropical fruit. Was expected the Galaxy hops to be more punchy. There's a ghost of papaya and guava, overshadowed by grapefruit, orange, and lemon citrus. Uber dry and crisp. Tastes green and even a tad vegetal. Refreshing and certainly not awful ... I would not avoid this if I had another dance opportunity. Underwhelming though. Fucking love the label. Love it. Perhaps that yields a positive bias.

I'd say it's better for people starting out with crafts and wanting to get off the macro brews. No huge flavours, no huge hops or malts or bitterness. If you've had hop heavy beers and that's your thing, you won't want to go out of your way to get this. It's not a bad beer by any stretch, but if you're gonna spend the cash you can get much better beers.

So I'd say, for people starting out or people who don't like huge hops.

 

 

It doesn't have the maltiness of an IPA but does have enough bitterness to be interesting. Nicely balanced. A nice beer that I would definitely buy again.

Another pleasant find on the shelf of my local bottle shop. I really like the way this beer is meshed together. The fruit, hops and malt all tie together very nicely to create a refreshing alternative to your typical pale lager. The hop character is distinctive and rounds the bases (or wickets, whatever your preference.) This beer is further proof that Wild Rose is widening the gap on Big Rock when it comes to making well-crafted beer.

650ml bottle. I presume this is more or less the same deal as the 2014 Unity Brew, only now they're using Cascade and Galaxy instead of just Mosaic. Interesting ode on the label to the twin national sports of the countries that inspired this offering.

This beer pours a clear, bright medium golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and somewhat bubbly off-white head, which leaves some patchy and sudsy dissolving cloud lace around the glass as it slowly dissipates.

It smells of biscuity, crackery, and grainy pale malt, tangerine and lemon citrus, pine needles, a mild hard water flintiness, and further muddled tropical fruit notes. The taste is perky tropical fruit - papaya, gooseberries, and a touch of pineapple - over a solid grainy and semi-sweet pale malt, with the more domestic citrus and mountain trail pine bitterness settling onto the back burner.

The carbonation is rather involved in its mouth-expanding frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and generally smooth, with a small airy creaminess fighting back the noisy hop astringencies. It finishes just off-dry, the overall fruitiness sort of gelling into a singularity, as the malt trails off like it's already checked out.

A pretty tasty and enjoyable version of this not-yet recognized sub-style - though, IMHO, the IPA-esque hop treatment of a well-made base lager is certainly worthy of further exploration. This won't convince anyone with two beer brain cells to rub together that it's an actual IPA, and that's the point - it isn't supposed to be.