Summer Gold
Karl Strauss Brewing Company

 

 

On vacation in beautiful La Jolla, California, I popped into the Karl Strauss Brewpup location there. Great choice/
I had a few beers there, lets talk about the summer gold right now.
It is a nice clear, and golden color (suprise, suprise)
It smells fruitty and slightly acidic.
It tastes of barley, lemons and of some hops.
The MF is nice and leaves a clean and crisp after-taste.
Overall, this is a very refreshing and light pilsner and perfect in the SoCal weather or summer in places like New England.

Offered as the "Woodie Gold" I found the gold to be refreshing, crisp and extremely drinkable. If you like a nice light pilsener or blonde ale with good carbonation and a medium body that leaves your taste buds tingling, you'll love the Woodie Gold. I had it with a blue chicken sandwhich and french fries and felt you couldn't have ordered a more appropriate accompanyment to a typical American meal!

I would consider the Woodie a great sessions beer. In fact, I had four before my taste buds started to get numb and I lost an appreciation for the flavor. Some would call this a lawnmower or summer beer, and I'd agree that it would be perfect for a hot summer day. It's highly drinkable and should be lauded for it's refreshing, sweet qualities.

The color is a beautiful straw gold and the beer came served in a standard pint glass with a moderate white head, which was retained with mild success throughout the session. There was nothing special about the aroma, but I found the Woodie to impart a slight hop amidst a stronger malt flavor during the finish. In my experience, the Woodie is fairly representative of your average micro-brew pilsener or golden ale, which I consider a generous step above the watery "pilsener" foisted on the public by commercial breweries.

Not very much happening here.

Poured a light clear/yellow. Thin white head. Faint malt scent little to no hops.

Very sweet, very thin on the palate. Kind of a week watery finish.
This might be good on a hot summer day.

Overall, not that impressed, too sweet and a little watered down.

Cheers!

Sampled at LAX waiting on a plane.

Clear deep golden brew with a good white head.

Smell is malty and grains with out any noticeable hop scent.

Taste is lots of grain and fairly malty. Noticeable medium hopping level. Needs more hops in my opinion.

Pleasant mild brew that satisfies the masses. This has just enough grain, Hop and malt flavor to make it acceptable to the average BA that tries it.

Note: label reads "Woodie Gold"; packaging is otherwise identical to Summer Gold.

Karl Strauss Woodie Gold pours a golden yellow color into my pilsner glass. A 1/4" silky white head forms and quickly dissipates. Low amounts of carbonation. No lacing. The aroma is sweet and malty, but it's not overpowering; there's a pleasant grassy smell here as well. There's the slightest hint of a floral aroma from the hops.

Woodie Gold is one malty pilsener. The initial taste is very sweet and honeylike, nearly to the point where one would swear that there was some honey mixed in along the way. A grassy taste is evident after a little bit, as is a floral or herbal taste, along with a touch of bitterness. The mouthfeel is somewhat syrupy and quite "wet"; finishes moderately sweet, with a trace of lingering bitterness.

Overall, this beer is reasonably tasty, although it would be greatly improved if it was balanced better with slightly more hops. Woodie Gold is very sweet for an all-malt pilsner, and it's worth trying just to see how sweet a "regular" beer can be. It's a decent session beer, espeically on 100˚-plus days (like today)...

Presentation: 12 oz longneck bottle. No freshness info.

Appearance: Pours an orange gold flavor, with a thin head that fades to leave a slight lacing on the top of the beer.

Smell: Smells like spring - grain and freshcut grass. A slight sweet aroma blends in there as well.

Taste: Mainly a sweet maltiness, with just a little bit of hops showing up at the end.

Overall impression: This is certainly not a complex beer, but it is very drinkable for the summer season. All in all not a bad pilsner, but certainly not the best out there either.

Had these beer in a bottle at a restaurant in San Diego, CA. This was the only kind they had left from Karl Strauss there that night.

The beer poured without much head, but a very light colored one. The color is light golden. The smell was not strong, very mild. All flavors were quite mild, and the beer was overall sweet and had a hint of apple. There was almost no bitterness at all. The beer was drinkable and was a bit refreshing, even on the "gloomy" day. Very mild aftertaste that lasts a while.

Light gold color, medium white foamy head. Aroma is grainy and sweet. A lighter flavored pilsner. Light hops and light malts. Slightly sweet. Mild flavors. Light and refreshing this is a nice light summer brew. Finish is clean. Aftertaste is slightly hoppy, no bitterness

Originally sampled on 19 February 2002. I am writing my review from my notes. This is a good session beer for a hot day.Slightly sweet, it is another example of Karl Strauss' attempts to make various beer styles appeal to the mass market. They do a decent job, but not outstanding in my opinion. However, AFA brewpubs go, their food & beer combo is one of the better one

Summer Gold: a light and refreshing pils on tap at LAX. Deep golden color, with a slightly off-white head. Very nice lace. This was a sweet beer, with notes of honey/floral, with a long lasting aftertaste. As it warmed, there was a crisp hop bite that gave way to a lingering malt sweetness. Very light, easy to drink and refreshing.