Anzalone Special Beer
Anzalone Special Beer

 

Poured into a narrow glass - huge head that spills over the glass edge (not shaken, has been sitting in the fridge for several days). Head color is light tan with fine and medium bubbles, body color is copper, a little haze, despite the huge head only minor effervescence.

Smell is neutral malt, maybe some pilsen and light vienna qualities, but some adjunct qualities as well (corn?).

Taste comes around with more base malt quality, less adjunct, but there is a not a distinct quality but there is moderate sweetness, so I'll lean to vienna with adjunct. hops are light, pleasant, earthy.

Mouthfeel is a bit sharp, maybe overcarbonated, lingering presence on the tongue.

Overall a beer with promise - after the frothy over pour, the smell, aroma, mouthfeel are acceptable, however it does not appear to be a helles per se, but a lager with german base malts.

 

 

 

Pours a dark amber, with light white creamy Head,light Lacing. Smells of sweet Malts Roasted nuts and fresh bread. The Taste of this Beer is so much Like Kaier's That drinking it took me back to drinking Kaier's Back when I was 21. This beer is so Perfectly Balanced with sweet Malts and The right old time Bitterness it Just WOWED me. Taste of sweet Malts Nuts fresh sweet Breads and a Perfect Balance. As soon as I can get a case I will, bought a six pack at Wegmanns after being given a sample. This is the taste of the really Good Beers from Back in the day Makes the Modern Lagers look like trash. This Blows away Yuengling Lager with much more Flavor, After One you just have to have another. Mouth Feel is very Refreshing leaving a smooth taste. I give this an overall Of 5

Anzalone Special Beer "Anzalone Special Beer"
12 fl. oz. brown glass bottle without production code or freshness dating
$2 @ Weis Market #231, Conshohocken, PA

Notes via stream of consciousness. OK, I'm intrigued. Nice label. It looks Italian to me and I wonder if Anzalone is an Italian name. I'm assuming that the Indiana Jones looking character on the label is Doc Anzalone. And I'm guessing that this beer is based on a recipe from Kaier's Lager beer, at least that's what I think the label is saying. It's a mostly clear deep amber/copper in color beneath a short head of bright white. I'd call it limited head retention, and I don't see any lacing. Maybe I should have given it a rougher pour. Limited aroma of lightly grainy and slightly caramelish malt backed by floral and gently herbal hops. The flavor is much fuller than the aroma suggests, and it's remarkably smooth and well-balanced. I'd say it's done in the vein of a Vienna lager, that's the impression that I get of the malt, that it's at least partially Vienna malt. It's delicately toasty and fruity, and just a little bit sweet against its stiff bitterness. Herbal and floral hops round it out, and it finishes dry with some low level spicy and herbal hops lingering - but keep in mind, it's all very delicate in a way; it's superbly balanced, rounded, and polished. It makes me think of Yuengling Traditional Lager, except that this is much better, much more refined, and I wonder if that's the market they're going for as they seem to have just this one beer. And it's a great beer, I could easily see people going for this if it was accessible and cheap enough, but at the same time Budweiser wasn't trying to buy Yuengling for the recipe to their beer they wanted the name, they could easily make the beer, it's the name that counts. People, in general, are followers, not leaders. And that time is fading anyway. Once the old guys that drink Yuengling are gone I'm not sure the youth of the day will give it the time of day. So, what else to say about this beer? It did give me some minor lacing later on, and I'm thinking that the limited head retention has a lot to do with the carbonation, which is very fine-bubbled and moderate, leaving it remarkably smooth. The balance of malt, bitterness, and hop flavor wouldn't be right if it was any more carbonated and that's a trade-off I'll take. It's medium-light in body with a dextrinous edge; and that play between sweetness and bitterness is one of the things that really makes it work. It's a beer I could easily drink just as a beer, but at the same time it's got me thinking about how well it would pair with some different foods. Well worth trying.

 

 

Artwork: Not a label that will win any awards, that's for sure. It looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint by a person that just found out about the existence of computers. A rather boring background featuring the heavily pixelated image of the founder (wearing a hat) and the company's logo (a dog's head inside a wreath) barely visible near the bottom.

Appearance: Amber, with a nice head that stays put for a couple of minutes.

Nose: Very malty. Some smokiness and mild acidity.

Taste: Very flavorful. Lots of malts, a bit nutty, and with a sweet/sour aftertaste. A fairly unique flavor profile.

Mouthfeel: Relatively viscous for a lager. Not too carbonated.

Overall: A fairly interesting beer. Certainly more flavorful that most lagers but also much maltier than most. This is the only beer that the company makes. It's brewed on their behalf by Lancaster Brewing, based on a family recipe. It is only distributed in Eastern Pennsylvania, excluding Philadelphia proper.