Sweet Lenore
Apex Brewing

1L howler from Keg n Cork, purportedly one of only two places in the province to get a keg outside of the brewery for this one, which is a Kolsch made with lavender, raspberry & apricot, and is also the latest incarnation of their 'Nevermore' series.

This beer pours a very hazy, pale golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, rocky, and bubbly eggshell white head, which leaves some approaching ice cliff lace around the glass as it quickly wafts off.

It smells very floral, right off the bat, like the soap I used to have to use in my Mom's bathroom, with some spicy yeast, muddled fruity notes (sure, there could be raspberry, but I'm getting more of a stone fruit character here), grainy pale malt, and some bitter leafy, weedy, and herbal green hoppiness. The taste is bready and doughy pale malt, a fading earthy yeastiness, faint raspberry pie notes, watery apricot/peach, and more of that walking quickly through the perfume section at the indoor mall on the way home in winter time floral essence.

The bubbles are fairly understated in their simply-rendered frothiness, the body a decent medium weight, and genuinely smooth, with a small airy creaminess inching its way in from the outset. It finishes off-dry, the base Kolsch doing well to balance its inherent needs with those of the guest fruit and flowers.

Overall, this comes off rather well, as the easy-drinking German brew which doesn't kowtow to either the raspberry/apricot, nor the lavender to a great extent, but instead pulls them in like the Liebchen that they surely are. Try to get yourself some of this if you're lucky enough here in #beeralberta.