Cedar Point Amber Ale
Geneva Lake Brewing Company

My first from Geneva Lake Brewing, a nice father-son story. And I suppose it is nice for a brewery to celebrate a resort area for mostly Chicagoans for well over a century. But, I'd like to taste another beer of theirs before I draw quick conclusions.

While Cedar Point Looks like a promising amber, its Smells seem almost average. Unfortunately, Tastes are below that and sit in my mouth the same. For only 26 IBU, Cedar Point has too much bitterness in the mix with malt... and almost a mess. Don't know what happened. (Not my job. Mine is to write... Enjoying ale is a perk of life, not work, for me. So the pros can figure out Cedar Point.)

I was going to have this with lunch, but the bitterness I knew would spoil the food's taste. (And my cooking needs all the help it can get.) So I drank the can on an empty stomach. All of which could have meant I'd give it a good rating, but I didn't. And I stick by it. Beer should go with food. Bitter beer does not. In fact, try this alliteration: bitter beer is boating beer. And given that boating is a key purpose of Lake Geneva, that too should stick.

 

8/3....brewery draft. Pours brownish amber, some foam remains sitting on top. Bready malgty, not in the nose. Pushy bitter. Some pine. Hazelnuts. Tasty hoppy amber.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Served from a can into a Trooper shaker pint glass.

Wait, this doesn't have anything to do with that shitty workplace-retreat comedy, does it? Anyway, this stuff pours a hazy amber topped by a finger of sandy foam. Small particulates populate my glass, hanging in suspension and drifting about all Brownian and whatnot. The nose comprises grapefruit peel, toffee, dry caramel, and a touch of pine resin. The taste leads with a strong impaling of blunt bitterness, which eventually gives way to some vague melange of grapefruit, pine, and years-old caramel sauce. The body is a light medium, with a light moderate carbonation and a drying finish. Overall, this is a mess of an amber, one that theyw anted to be hoppy, but weren't sure how to balance at all.