Strawberry Cake
Finback Brewery - Glendale

On tap at Swillburger/The Playhouse in Rochester, NY.

This one pours a very murky and milky looking golden orange, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like slightly chalky and astringent lactose, with strawberry candy, cream, and astringent hop character.

Finback is usually some good stuff, but this is a rare miss for me. There is just way, way too much lactose here- it adds both an unpleasant sweetness and a slick astringent chalkiness. The strawberry is also very heavy-handed, but it at least tastes good, unlike the lactose. The vanilla is alright, and there's a decent hop flavor - but dial some of the other stuff back here, OK?

This is slick, creamy, and somewhat hard to drink. It's not super drinkable.

I didn't like this very much. It's just too much of many things.

 

 

 

 

Pint canned two weeks ago. Very murky golden brown, which makes sense as a combination of usual beer plus fermented strawberries. Aroma of strawberries and sweetness. Taste is a combination of substantial hop bitterness with strawberries plus the unfortunate sweetness of added lactose. It could be that there is a hot vanilla taste mixed in which I am blending with hops. Feel is rather smooth and watery. Overall, this was pretty good but I think it probably would be better without the lactose and cutting back on the vanilla.