Mash Appeal
Oskar Blues Grill & Brew

I have a hard time with this beer,I have had many...many common/steam beers and none of them looked and/or tasted anything like this I have to say.Pours a deep amber/brown with a thinner tannish colored head atop.Grain and caramel in the nose with a very low hop profile.A somewhat thin feel with lower carbonation.Lightly sweet on the palate with caramel really standing out,some drying earth and toasted grain in the finish.Eh,not a huge fan of this beer and nothing close to the style I have had in the past,maybe I'am outta the loop?

12oz can, canned on 10/21/15, served in a milkshake pilsner glass.

Appearance: Dark brown on the table with a dense tan head. Held up to the light it has a clear dark ruby red color. Sheets and thick strands of persistent lacing.

Smell: Faint pine, a bit of molasses along with some other malt smell. Not a lot of aroma.

Taste: Unusual. Bready with a bit of dark rye/kvass flavor to it. A bit of piney hops from start to finish as a complement to the malt. Other flavors I noted included a hint of molasses, wood, and a tiny hint of sour.

Mouthfeel: A little watery but chewy at the same time. Light carbonation.

Overall / Drinkability: An unusual beer. I think it would be best when paired with food. By itself I find it interesting, but not something I would really want to sip and savor. Does remind me of some Kvass I've had from time to time, but with more carbonation. Tasty, good looking, but one per evening is enough.

12oz can poured into a pint glass
A: Surprisingly dark brown for the style with a thin head
S: Lots of malts, some oats, light hops
T: Matches the nose and is true to the style
M: Thin & crisp, a bit creamy from all the malt
O: Other than the color this is a nice collaboration and representation of an infrequently seen style

If you know someone who loves the smell & front taste of IPAs but hates the IPA finish. This is a good compromise. Good beer.

 

 

 

This is one is pretty, pours a deep ruby red, with about 2 fingers of lasting tan foam.
Smells of caramel, biscuits, a bit metallic, maybe some lemon.
Hats off for complexity here, bready malt and earthy hops front, followed by some light sweetness finishing with minerals and a light hops.
Mouthfeel is great, you could blindfold me and I'd swear I was drinking a porter.
Overall, unique, interesting complexity, somewhere between pilsner and porter to me.

Such inspiration, such poise, such curiosity- the taste that links the breweries of Oskar Blues and Great Lakes has a decidedly malty edge but with glimpses into the tart; into the fruit, into the dry sweetness that's remiss of Belgian dubbel and cola.

Pouring a bright but tawny reddish brown, the beer blooms with a gently off-white froth for the duration and entices the senses with its dark, nutty fruit, hints of cinnamon, caramel and cola fragrance. To taste, its the steely sweet malts that wash the palate and introduce notation of pecan, brittle, toasted caramel and grain.

With the middle palate looming, the sweetness steps back and reveals a malt underpinning of peanut skin, toasted barley, lightly scorched sugars and an essence of cracker-jacks candy snacks. Fruitiness of fig, date, white grape and green apple, round out the center with a quick rebuttal of cinnamon and stemmy hops. Bittered for balance, the beer's final impressions are of grassy, leafy cola.

Medium-bodied, there's a tackiness that accompanies the resilient hops as the beer only achieves tepid dryness- leaving the hops and peculiar fruit tartness to round the residual sweetness; concluding with a bittersweet, malty-dry finish and that pesky aftertaste of flat cola.

 

Canned 10/21/2015 enjoyed 1/8/2016 in a Mad Elf tulip/snifter.

Look - Starts light but color is darker with more volume. Tan head a little less than a finger leaves blotchy lacing.

Smell - Bubblegum. Hop. Chocolate. Fruit. Grass.

Taste - Chocolate. Char. Coffee.

Feel - Watery. Little carbonation.

Overall - Not too much to this beer. Decent enough flavor.

12 ounce can into lager glass; canned on 10/21/2015, "1.21 Bigawatts!" slogan. Pours crystal clear dark reddish brown color with a 1 finger dense and fluffy tan head with good retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings down the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of berry, plum, pear, apple, caramel, toasted biscuit, brown bread, light chocolate/nuttiness, herbal, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Nice and pleasant aromas with good balance and complexity of dark/bready malt and light-moderate fruity yeast ester notes; with solid strength. Taste of berry, plum, pear, apple, caramel, toasted biscuit, brown bread, light chocolate/nuttiness, herbal, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Light herbal/roasted bitterness and slight fruity tartness on the finish; with lingering notes of berry, plum, pear, apple, caramel, toasted biscuit, brown bread, light chocolate/nuttiness, and herbal/yeast earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Very nice complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready malt and light-moderate fruity yeast ester flavors; with a nice malt/bitterness balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderate creamy/bready, and lightly grainy/chalky mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with zero warming present after the finish as expected of 5%. Overall this is a very good Kentucky common style. All around good complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready malt and light-moderate fruity yeast ester flavors; and very smooth and easy to drink. A very enjoyable offering.

 

Nice brown color.
roasted malts present from the beginning, and especially on the nose.
No hops that I could pick out, watery taste and mouthfeel, that kinda disappears after it warms up.
I wanted and expected more from this beer based on the name, wanted it to be a bigger beer. 6-9%.
Was only 5% and crushable, while still retaining some decent flavors, I would drink again, but only at a festival, or something of that sort.

Oh man that red can mislead me this is nothing like what I was expecting, like a killer Old Chub or something, but it's a bland watery fizzy yellow drink and steam beers haven't impressed me all that much in the past in general.

 

On tap at the brewery taproom in Brevard.

Very dark red-brown body; clear with a very good head that is durable and leaves excellent lacing.

Aroma: dark and medium roasted malts with faint spicy hops.

Flavor: dominated by the edium and dark malts. Enough hops to cut the sweetness in the finish and aftertaste.

Medium body with near medium carbonation.

Overall: a nice, albeit forgettable, brown ale, Worth trying, nonetheless.

12oz can poured into a table glass. Pours a ruby-red/cola color with a quarter-finger head that very rapidly recedes with only the slightest traces of lacing. Nose is wheat, yeast, and just a hint of raspberries. Taste is actually relatively nondescript. A fair bit of malt, with much less sour than I anticipated. There's just a hint of funk in the background of a relatively monotone malt profile. This beer is thick, almost as thick as a porter. Overall, a very unusual beer - full of surprises. It doesn't smell like it looks, hardly tastes like it smells, and has a mouthfeel that is oddly dissonant with its low abv and hints of sour.
An interesting beer. A good-not-great beer. And an altogether odd beer at that.