Fernie Legendary Lager
Fernie Brewing Co.

Not a widely available beer even in BC, I had to grab a couple of these 1L bottles to see if it is truly "legendary." The little town of Fernie is a beautiful, picturesque place--surely the residents must know a good beer when they try one? Legendary Lager is an extremely pale looking beer in the glass, almost truly yellow. Super light straw colouring topped by a thin patchy bright white head. The beer is exceedingly clear and sparkles nicely. Slippery lacing. The aroma is...unique. I do get all the basic light biscuity profile playing with some German hoppiness, but also there is that vanilla note I noticed in their "Griz" pale ale. There are some refreshing fruit smells, perhaps light raspberry, along with honey and sweetish malt that gives off some ever-so-slight sour aromas too. It smells quite similar to a lot of imported big European continental lagers, except creamier and with less pronouced hop profile. Suffice to say that the aroma smells fresh and true to the style. The taste is a little more hoppy, definitely some German hops there, along with the unique malt quality which seems again very creamy and almost papery. The vanilla taste is there, almost like waffles, just like Fernie's Pale Ale. It is neither appetising nor off-putting, it simply adds an unexpected smoothness to the taste. Good balance for a continental style, favouring the malt in the finish. Most definitely there are some unexpected flavours in the taste, hard to define. The entire taste changes in a chameleon fashion: some sips make this taste bland and in need of some tweaking; other sips give some very good flavours that belong in a lager of this style, AND do it credit. All in all, the aftertaste is better than the taste up front or in the middle. The body of this beer was unexpected too--this feels more like an ale: it is thick, quite creamy, and low in carbonation for its style. Instead of the bubbly feel I was expecting, medium-bodied and quite syrupy malt rolled on the tongue. Due to this, I could drink it quite readily and with gusto. I am really undecided with this beer: some elements make me want to rate it quite low; others make me think this is all it should be and more for its particular style. You decide. I rather liked it.

(Served in an imperial pint glass)
A- Pale yellow body with a strong carbonation and a creamy white head that last pretty long.

S- a light soapy sponge cake aroma with a faint sweetness but for the most part a pretty clean.

T- very light maltyness that on first sip taste a bit like corn. With more sampling you can taste the light malt sweetness with low hop bitterness at the same time. All the hop taste is in bitterness with no aroma or floral hops at all. It has a bit of hop bitterness that hangs at the end instead of the typical crisp dry finish.


M- A medium light body that doesn't have the dry sting of typical American adjunct lagers. No hop astringency either.

D- This is a nice beer and I would consider this an American Helles rather than an adjunct lager. This is 100% malt and no adjuncts. It is a average brew but I would really like to see more depth in grain with even a hint of lightly roasted malt it would really bring this beer to life.

Startlingly clear yellow with a caky white topping. The aromas are of cracked, raw cereals. Big, chewy flavors of cream-drenched white bread are dry. Milk, burned butter and nutty flavors are begging for something to make it fresher and lighter on the palate. I'd love to see some hops aromatics in this case, or bitterness, or acidity... something to cleanse the weighty seriousness of the flavors.

Neat little lager poured from a tall, thin, bullet-like 1L flip-top bottle which notes that this is unpasteurized beer. Crystal clear, pale golden hue. Little in the way of head retention; in fact, it's gone almost as soon as it was poured. Moist cereal and freshly cut baguette form a bready, one-dimensional (but pleasant) aroma. Creamy, smooth, slick -- a great feel to it. It tastes balanced, but there's not a lot of hopping going on. The slickness makes me think it's got some quality ingredients in it.