Bruce County Premium Lager
Neustadt Springs Brewery

 

So I was heading home from Sauble Beach when I finally decided to pickup some beer direct from the brewery, and lo and behold this beer is still being brewed. Time to bring this one out of retirement.

Appearance: This one produced two fingers worth of lace that modestly retained and laced slightly. The body boasts some solid carbonation, but the color is an awfully yellow gold color.

Smell: I'm mainly getting earthy hops from this one with a slight herbal and dried grass undertone. It didn't take much warming to come out, but the hops seem to really take over in a bit of a weird way.

Taste: This is a simple drinker, no question here. It starts with the taste straw like malt and sweet corn that then turns to a decent dusting of earthy hops. That's it, no bells, no whistles just an all around simple beer. That might not be your cup of tea, but it knows what it is and it does it right.

Mouthfeel: I can see how people might consider this watered down, but I don't feel that is the case as the flavor is apparent and not drowned out. Moist I suppose might better describe it. The hop kick is a bit strong and the aftertaste is barely present but the carbonation is also solid and there isn not much to complaint about.

Drinkability: This is where this beer shines, and really seems to be the intention behind the beer. This stuff can be guzzled down like water. It's light bodied, thirst quenching and easy going with just enough flavor to stay interesting. Maybe substituting for some milder, herbal hops would get the full 5 but solid on this front.

Final Thoughts: I think this beer would be better served if you treated it as a light lager. Now I don't know if the brewer was going for this, but all in all this is just a simple, light, easy drinker meant for hot summer days. Nothing here is going to wow you, but I'm pretty sure I'll pick up another six for hot weekends at the trailer.

This brew pours a small head of white mostly diminishing bubbles and a transparent straw yellow colored body. It had a mild malt-hop aroma and a mild flavor of hops with an intially tingly mouthfeel that soon died off. They say that "Bruce County Premium Lager reflects a time when life was simple" and this simple brew reflects that.

Bought 6 of these unlabelled from the brewery last year when it was on taste trials...l and had some at the hotel in Wiarton during the summer and recently after snowmobiling. I liked the draft version better...could be my imagination but I think it was better lagered...hard to tell as this beer is so subtle. Definately a good session beer with quality ingredients...you can tell that with just a sniff....smells of subtle bready malts and light herbal aroma hopping...pours a clear yellow straw color with a one finger white cap that leaves a lace as it goes down. Mildly naturally effervescent. Starts mellow and subdued then smooths out where the bready-nutty malts mingle with the subtle hops... finish is clean but a bit thin leaving a mild bisquit after tast. This is a unique beer in it's subtleness, do we need a lager tamed like this?...very mild and drinkable....great to quaff on the patio of a cottage country inn.