Petoskey Sparkle American Lager
Petoskey Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They fill it to the brim! Which is awesome. I think this is a good lager, perhaps my review is bias to stronger tasting ales. If you like lagers this is a good pick. It comes in cans. I paid $9.99 for a four-pack of pints.

16 ounce can into lager glass, no can dating. Pours crystal clear golden yellow color with a small dense white head with good retention, that reduces to a thin cap that lingers. Light spotty lacing clings on the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of wheat, cracker, biscuit, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast earthiness. A bit of a metallic off note as well, but not much. Okay aromas with good balance of pale malt and earthy/spicy hop notes; with poor strength. Taste of wheat, cracker, biscuit, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast earthiness. Moderate herbal/spicy bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of wheat, cracker, biscuit, pepper, and herbal/grassy earthiness on the finish for a short bit. Good balance and robustness of pale malt and earthy/spicy hop flavors; with a good malt/bitterness balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Very clean on lager flavors with zero yeast ester notes present. Good amount of dryness from bitterness as well. Medium carbonation and light-medium body; with a smooth, crisp, fairly sticky, and lightly grainy/bready mouthfeel that is good. Alcohol is very well hidden with zero warming present after the finish as expected of 4.1%. Overall this is a very solid pale lager style. All around solid robustness and balance of pale malt and earthy/spicy hop flavors; and very smooth and crisp to drink. This was hoppier than I expected, but not overdone. A fairly enjoyable offering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I picked up a can of Petoskey Brewing Company's Petoskey Sparkle American Lager last week for $2.59 at Boyne Country Provisions. It's been a little while since I've had a new beer from Petoskey Brewing Company and since this seems to be a newer release I thought I would give it a try, so lets see how it goes. No visible bottling date. Poured from a tall 16oz can into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks nice, it's got a clean old school look to it which goes nicely with the story on how they decided to rebrew this beer that was made at the original Petoskey Brewery a long time ago, I think it's a little eye catching. It poured a nice yellow color that took on a slight golden hue when held to the light with a finger and a half worth of bubbly white head that quickly died down to a thin ring that eventually faded away and it left hardly any spotty lacing behind. This is a nice looking beer and it's what I would expect from the style.

S- The aroma starts off with a medium amount of sweetness followed by the malts being the first to show up and they impart a grainy, pale malt, and slight sweet malt like aromas with some adjuncts like corn seeming to show up in the background. Up next comes a nice clean lager yeast flavor with no hop presence. This Lager had a nice aroma that was true to style.

T- The taste seems to be very similar to the aroma and it starts off with a lower amount of medium sweetness followed by the malts still being the first to show up and they impart the same aspects that they did in the aroma with the grainy pale malts seem to stick out the most and a little bit of those adjuncts still show up in the background. Up next comes a real slight cream flavor that goes right into some nice clean lager yeast flavor. On the finish there were no hop flavors and no bitterness with a grainy,.pale malt, and slight adjunct like aftertaste. This was a nice tasting Lager that was pretty true to style.

M- Smooth, clean, fairly crisp, on the slightly thicker side of being light bodied with a medium amount of carbonation. The mouthfeel was nice and it worked well with this beer.

Overall I thought this was a nice beer and a nice and pretty true to style example of an American Lager, while it's not packed full of flavor, it still has more flavor than the Macro Lagers and I think it does a good job of representing a craft version of this style. This beer had nice drinkability, it was smooth, clean, fairly crisp, not filling at all and the taste did a decent job at holding my attention, I would probably start to get bored with this beer after a couple, but if i wasn't too worried about taste I know I could drink more than a few of these and I think it makes for a nice warm weather and lawnmower beer. What I like the most about this beer was how true to style it was, it was just what I would expect from a craft version of a American Lager. What I liked the least about this beer was was nothing, but I do wish they could lower the price to the under $2 dollar mark, I think that would help improve sales a little and I wouldn't mind keeping some around in the fridge. I might buy this beer again when in the mood for a good American Lager and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the style. All in all I was happy with this beer, it didn't have any gimmicks or anything, it was just a straight forward and easy drinking American Lager and I appreciate it for that. This isn't my favorite beer from Petoskey Brewing Company, but it is one of the better American Lagers I've had and it's nice to see it in pint cans. Nice job guys, keep up the solid work.