Strange Love
Rusty Rail Brewing Company

Got in a BIF from Ozzylizard. 16 ounce can into tulip glass, canned on 4/16/2021. Pours very hazy/cloudy golden orange color with a 1-2 finger dense and rocky white head. Fantastic head retention and thick soapy lacing on the glass. Aromas are of sweet lime juice/zest, with some vanilla/lactose/cracker sweetness, and a touch of lacto/herbal hops/yeast earthiness. A whiff of oxidation a mile in the back in the nose and after the finish. Taste is much more balanced: lime juice/zest, graham cracker, biscuit, vanilla, lactose, wood, pepper, pine, herbal, grass, yeast earthiness. Medium pine, herbal, woody, citrus zest bitterness on the finish. Medium-high carbonation and medium body. Balanced bready/grainy malts, creamy lactose, and sticky hop mouthfeel. Lingering hop dryness with no astringency. Smooth, fairly soft, minimally warming 8%. A well made experimental beer, did not have a lactic character in the flavors like I expected. No complaints other than the mild oxidation.

2023-04-29
16oz can served in a big snifter. Can appears to be dated 041621. Got it from @ozzylizard in NBS BIF #17.

Pours a clear amber with a moderately sized soapy looking head. Smell is very, very limey. Some sweetness, some tart, a lot of lime zest.

Taste is also very, very limey. Lime-ade. Moderate tartness, some sweetness. There's a earthy bitterness, too, which doesn't seem to belong.

Mouthfeel is light and clean. Overall, it's not bad. More a novelty than a beer to seek out. Still fun to try.

 

Strange Love from Rusty Rail. Purchased on 5 Aug 21 from Franklin Beer, Franklin, PA. $3.00 (Including tax) per 16 oz can ($0.188/oz). In the reefer at the store, stored at home at 42 degrees. Reviewed 10/8/21. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Stamped on side of can “04/16/21”. Don’t know if that’s the canned date, BB date, or just numbers. Served at 42 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. Final temperature 52.5 degrees.
Appearance – 4.
First pour – Straw (SRM 3), clear.
Body – Pale Gold (SRM 4), hazily opaque. When rear-lite, translucent.
Head – Large (Maximum five cm, aggressive center pour), Ivory, medium density, fair retention, rapidly diminishing to a seven to ten mm ragged crown and a rocky partial cap. There is an EKG tracing of foam remaining above the cap as the head retracts. Second pour produces a one cm head.
Lacing – Good. Badly torn curtains. See also above.
Aroma – 4 – Key lime pie, no malt, no yeast.
Flavor – 4 – Begins slightly bitter and very much like key lime pie and meringue. No malt. No yeast. No ethanol (8 % ABV, as marked on container) taste. No gastric warming initially, but it begins to gradually build. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Medium, approaching creamy, lively carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 A surprising good brew from what has been (In my experience) at best a slightly above-average brewery. It both smells and tastes like key lime pie with no ethanol until you try to stand up. I foresee many of these in my future.