Matcha Lager
Ace Hill Beer Company

355 mL can from the LCBO; dated Jul 29 2021 and served barely chilled.

Pours a cloudy, pale straw yellow full of sandy sediment. There's a faint 'greenish' tinge - in the way that steeped green tea is 'green' - but without a pure white light source, I doubt most would notice. Situated atop is one finger of loose, soapy white foam that lasts for a couple of minutes, soon whittled down to a creamy collar and some wisps on the surface. It smells of wheaty grain and cereal, with matcha green tea and a faintly spicy note that I can't put my finger on. Hints of butteriness as it warms - not a great sign, but I suppose it's a fairly old can.

Luckily, it still tastes pretty normal to me - or at least, as normal as I'd expect an adjunct lager with green tea to taste. Cereal grain sweetness like puffed rice, backed by hints of of wheaty malt and low key lemony citrus. Matcha and green tea come through by mid-sip, lingering through the finish and into a mildly spicy, tea-leafy aftertaste that doesn't persist for too long. Light in body, feeling smooth and creamy on the tongue; the carbonation is soft, gently rolling across the palate. Super easy to drink, as you'd expect of any 4.5% lager.

Final Grade: 3.70, a decent B grade. Ace Hill's Matcha Lager is exactly that: the underlying lager is nothing to write home about, but the green tea infusion has been accomplished effectively, which is really all I want out of a gimmicky beer such as this. Also, it probably helps that I already enjoy green tea to begin with. I'd buy this again, but preferably from a batch that hasn't been sitting around so long - I'll keep an eye out for more this summer.

Pours a pale yellow colour with a 1cm head that dissipated quickly. Grainy on the nose, maybe some tea notes. I get full blast cinnamon on the taste (having never tasted matcha, perhaps it’s this and not cinnamon) with some herby notes in the background. Truthfully I actually enjoyed the taste, not knowing what to expect. Oct 8 2021

Pale hazy yellow. Tea, grain, herbal spice on the nose. Soft and flavourful. Nice gentle herbal spiciness. Simple an dtasty, this is one I'd lay hands on again.

355 ml can purchased from LCBO for $3.15 CDN. Served cold into a pint glass. Made with rice as well so this could be technically an Asian Rice Lager as well.

Appearance- hazy very pale straw coloured brew with a finger plus of head. Impressive staying power and nice curtain of lace.

Smell- Matcha, green tea and a faint general graininess otherwise. Not much else and not being a purveyor of many teas nor matcha, not much to add.

Taste- just like the nose, matcha making for a smooth and full flavour, some green tea here and there with a general grainy but light grain backdrop. Pretty tasty and quite smooth.

Mouthfeel- light bodied, but has creaminess, carbonation is alright too.

Overall- to me the matcha intensity makes it a gimmick beer, not something I’d want to drink on the regular, but with that said this is very well executed and is probably my favourite Ace Hill brew ever. However knowing the rest of their lineup, there is quite a bit of beer for people who don’t love beer, so in a sense the gimmick works here on me, but nonetheless is well enough made and definitely worth a try.