Peace Loving Decoy
Gigantic Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, crazy sweet and perfumey brew. This is so prickly in the mouth-- it must be the combination of the carbonation and the acidity. Yet the foam doesn't last very long in the tall glass. Light and sharp on the tongue.

This is almost tart, it's so acidic, with something like an amped-up Kolsch taste. A lot of citrusy flavors, lemon-lime, and lime peel. Moderately bitter, but that citrus rind taste never goes away.

An interesting variation on the lager style, but I find it kind of off-putting. As much as I like enthusiastic cabronation, this seems like a different kind of prickle that is just weird. From the 22 oz bottle.

A: The beer is clear light amber in color and has a moderate amount of carbonation. It poured with a half finger high off white head that died down, leaving a patch of lacy bubbles on the surface and a collar around the edge of the glass.
S: Light aromas of citrusy and fruity hops are present in the nose along with hints of caramel and toasted malts.
T: The taste is similar to the smell, except that the malts are a little bit stronger. Neither sweetness nor bitterness are perceptible.
M: It feels just about medium-bodied on the palate and has a bit less than a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: The citrusy and fruity nature of the hops used in this beer definitely makes it taste like an "Americanized" version of a Vienna Lager. It is very easy to drink compared to other beers in the style.

Serving type: bottle

Bomber poured into a tulip. A medium reddish bronze brew with three fingers of rather bubbly, sudsy off-white head. Cool notion for an oddball beer, an "Americanized" Vienna not lager (made with ale yeast, after all), I suppose. Alright.

Aroma is surprisingly fruity and hop-forward. Let the Americanization begin. Fresh pink grapefruit and sweet bubble gum nose, with a few tropical guava and pineapple notes to boot. Decent dose of brown sugar and bread crust. Taste is similarly hoppy, bitter and tangy ... Recalls mixed citrus iced tea melded with some cooked orchard fruit (apples, pears) and a peppery dry spice. Solid malt backbone does anchor this somewhere in Vienna territory, recalling lightly toasted biscuits and burnt caramel. Although the malts aren't shy it is the hops that are standing out to me, not in a bitterness sense but rather in the form of a vibrant fruitiness. Medium bodied, does make a chewy impression of sorts, with gentle to medium carbonation. Finishes with a dry toasty malt effect. It is perhaps here that the latter finally trump their hop counterpart.

Overall, pleasing enough and fairly unique. Not robustly bitter like a well-hopped red ale, but sweeter and more fruity than a continental lager.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A fine tasting, refreshing ale that lands somewhere between a Czech Pilsner and a rich pale ale with a lingering malty finish.

 

 

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor Store. Billed as an Americanization of the Vienna Lager style - like anyone was asking for such a thing.

This beer pours a slightly glassy, medium copper amber hue, with two fingers of puffy and very bubbly off-white head, which leaves some pockmarked limestone cliff lace around the glass as it gradually recedes.

It smells of semi-sweet, grainy pale malt, biscuity caramel, a touch of apple and underripe pear fruitiness, a bit of brown sugar, and understated leafy, earthy, and piney hops. The taste is more bready, kind of doughy, and sugary pale and caramel malt, wet English muffins, a touch of peppery tobacco, generic citrus flesh, and leafy, weedy, and somewhat grassy hops.

The bubbles are decently forceful in their solid frothiness, the body an adequate medium weight, and fairly smooth, until those Yankee Doodle Dandy hops turn their gaze inward. It finishes off-dry, the admittedly robust maltiness earning its, um, 'badges' (yeah, don't go there, I should know better), while those American hop esters never quite cross the Rubicon (or Delaware, for a more local flavour, I guess).

A tasty enough affair - the attempt at messing with a venerable, and apparently hard to make right old-school style notwithstanding - as the malt is still the star here, front and center. I'm guessing that the name has some sort of connection to these sentiments, but the baking 'za is smellin' fine, the wife's patience isn't, and thus, I'm out, with the rest of these 32 (American) ounces as my booty for the night.