Minne Ale
Badger Hill Brewing Company

Had on tap. Dark gold with some surface lacing. Toasty pilsener malt with lemon, buttery biscuit and grass in the smell. Taste is much the same, but leans heavily into the bready theme with some honey too. Speaking of bready, the body is a little heavy for a kolsch, but drinks well anyway

L: bright gold filled with rapidly rising bubbles under a 1" frothy white cap with fair to poor retention

S: light fruit, citrus, malt and a trace of toast

T: lightly sweet with bread crumb, bread dough and light fruit. The beer is well balanced with medium hop and malt flavors and medium bitterness.

F: smooth with a medium to medium light body and medium to medium high carbonation

O: very refreshing and drinkable summer time beer

 

 

 

not as light as the imports i dont think, but super fresh, and with a fantastic pale malt flavor to it, more robust than what i am used to in kolsch, but still superbly drinkable. the malt has less of the classic german dusty bakery floury thing going on, and more of a fresh crackery complexion, also a bit of the classic pils malt. this beer is lacking in yeast and hops for me, and is a little one dimensional, not as nuanced as the better examples of the style, but its not supposed to be particularly yeasty or hoppy, so i dont miss that too much. as american as german i think but super well made and refreshing enough for warm weather but also something i could drink year round. probably better in a food context, grilled meat, chicken wings, that kind of thing. i had this one in a session between a sour beer and a smoked one, so maybe i was not quite in tune with the palate as i could have been to totally understand and appreciate all the micro subtlety of a beer this light, but i really enjoyed it, and it was a solid first impression for me of badger hill. increasingly popular in the twin cities...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An old axiom is that one can judge a brewery by its Pale Ale. I think you can apply that even more to blondes, pilsners and beers like kolsch. This beer is delicate and just plain well made. Like the ones I have had in Koln.

Kudos