Suede Smooth
Fonta Flora Brewery

Copenhagen 23/2 2020. 47,3 cl can from Mikkeller Web-hop. Fomta Flora's usual design with a little skyline and weird waves. In brown and orange.

Pours unclear, slightly dirty, golden yellow with a medium-sized white head. Settles as thin, almost transparent layer of foam unable to cover the surface of the beer. Crawling up the sides of the glass. Moderate lacing.

Aroma is intense, sweetish and rather spicy and herbal. Sweet pale malts intermingling with a grassy odor. Lemon grass, licorice, citrus and a touch of cumin.

Medium strong carbonation. Medium thick, oily, lightly tingling texture.

Flavor is medium sweet followed by a stronger, harsh bitterness. Aftertaste is bitter with a sour streak. Lingering. Finish is dry and spicy.

A bit on the herbal side for my taste buds. But well made.

Unfiltered lager, pale straw with two fingers of solid white head that retains and laces quite nicely. The filé (sassafras) gives this a very interesting black birch/gentian root/spearmint/vanilla flavor in the background while still having the more traditional lager character upfront. Could do without the hops, this would make a cool gruit

79/100

 

Pours a fairly clear yellow with fine head.

Smell is clean and crisp, slightly tart even. Plenty of floral notes and some mint and blood orange.

Taste is rich and bready. Perfumey notes of mint, basil and grapefruit. Well integrated bitterness and some herbal notes on the finish.

Mouthfeel is medium, smooth and well carbonated.

Overall, a pretty unique lager with very interesting herbal notes.

A: Pours a relatively clear pale golden yellow in color with moderate amounts of active visible carbonation rising from the bottom of the glass and faint bright yellow + apricot colored highlights. The beer has a two finger tall fizzy foamy bright white head that quickly reduces to medium to large sized patch of mottled very thin film covering a little less than 50% of the surface of the beer and a thin ring at the edges of the glass. Light amounts of lacing are observed.

S: Moderate herbal aromas of filé/sassafras over the top of light to moderate aromas of bready malts with minimal amounts of grainy sweetness and a light amount of earthy + floral hops.

T: Upfront there are just shy of moderate flavors of bready malts with a minimal amount of sweetness. That is followed by slightly stronger than moderate herbal (filé/sassafras) flavors. Finally there are slightly heavier than light flavors of earthy + floral hops which impart a light amount of lingering bitterness.

M: Light to medium bodied with moderate amounts of carbonation. Lightly crisp with a hint of dryness in the finish.

O: Easy to drink with well hidden alcohol and the addition of filé to a dry hopped pale lager is very interesting. Enjoyable and I think it grew on me as I continued to drink it. I might like to pick up a couple of more of these.