Foliage
Nedloh Brewing Company

 

 

 

This beer was served on tap at Nedloh Brewing Company’s taproom in Bloomfield, New York. It arrived in a flared tasting glass and glowed a deep burnt sienna coloring. It held a tight half finger tall head of small to medium sized sandy bubbles that refused to leave one another alone. This retained well, leaving dripping wet edges of lacing around our glasses. A chill haze was appreciable, but no sediment accompanied it. Carbonation appeared to be medium. The aroma was surprisingly hoppy for the style, opening with big fruity nectars and grasses of base hoppiness. As the beer warmed, however, deeper notes of fig jam, apricot and red apple fruitiness, metallic ale yeastiness, soft lactic acidity, amber, pale, and tannic caramel maltiness, distant barnyard funk, cloven and chemical phenolic bitterness, dried autumn leafiness, beef broth, cooled cornbread, banana esters, and chlorine crept in to balance things out and nearly erase that initially fresh hop whiff. The taste approached with massively intense phenolic and fermented fruitiness bitterness, biting lemon and lactic acidity, subdued and dried citric and grassy hops, chocolate and amber malt toast and roast, old attic dustiness, moldy cloth, coiny metallics, powdery ale yeast, white flour, blackcurrant and gooseberry fruitiness, light sappy greenness, and spice of ginger, black pepper, and clove. The body was thinned, and the carbonation was actively present and contributory. Each sip gave fine slurp, smack, cream, and froth. The mouth was wetted, folding into itself with pucker and tannic astringency. The abv was appropriate, and the beer drank easily.

Overall, this was an enjoyable offering. We actually purchased a growler of this guy to take with us. We are trying to get some of our family members more and more into great craft beer, and felt this would be right up the lady’s father’s ally. He is a big fan of Sam Adams’ Winter Lager which skirts the line between a bock and a winter warmer. This beer, we felt, did the same. It certainly wasn’t as funky and bitter as we were expecting, especially in its final blend, but it did have a lot of great things going for it. Hoppiness was not entirely absent, which was surprising, and the spiced and phenolic bitterness through the flavoring were savory and well received. We thought any funky bitterness, however, was lost, or at least rather subdued, and feel that the final product would be better suited with more in-your-face punch and zing. This would make it less marketable, and we wouldn’t be bringing a growler home to a relatively new beer drinker, but it would certainly elevate their craft to the next level of boldness.

Balanced but not sour enough.