NatureLand Organic Lager
Pacific Western Brewing Company

 

 

I've had three six-packs over the past year or two. It certainly is the best American Adjunct Lager I've had.

It has a decent (a finger, maybe two) creamy-to-soapy white head with lacing as it settles. The body is clear but slightly hazy pale yellow. The aroma has grapes apple, and a little grapefruit, as well as wheat and grains. It tastes tastes sweet with a hops edge to it. I taste more malt and grain in this (I doubt there is any corn used) than other adjunct lagers. It has a medium mouthfeel with ok carbonation. Very smooth but not necessarily thirst-quenching.

 

330ml bottle.

This beer pours a crystal clear pale golden colour, with one fat finger of thin foamy off-white head, which readily dissipates, leaving nothing in the way of persistent lace. It smells like a mix of barley malt and sickly corn mash, trapped in a small space, with a dash of sugary alcohol, and wisp of weedy hops. The taste is sweet cereal grain, the corn morphing into its somewhat more palatable breakfast table alter-ego, and unassuming, plain weedy, earthy hops. The carbonation is average, if a bit prickly, the body medium-light in weight, a subtle cloying note messing up the smoothness quotient. It finishes off-dry, the grain reverting a bit to its original corny nature.

Credit where credit is due - this is no pale, thin-ass lager. Unfortunately, it could use a lot more consistency, not to mention crispness, and less pithy, minor off-flavours.

355ml bottle poured into pint glass may 30 2010

A clear pale yellow with a fast falling finger of head that left no lace

S lots of grassy hops and some sweet grains to balance things out just a little

T much of what I smell but with some dry corn flakes

M rather thin upon entry but fluffs up in the mouth

D on a sunny day this may cure a craving but that's about it

take it or leave it, nothing offensive but nothing impressive either

Claims on the neck label to be ISO 9002 registered, which is the first thing I notice since once upon a time I too was ISO 9002 registered, albiet in a completely different line of work (mmmm, solder paste...). Label design however is quite lame, as is the name of the beer, but what caught my eye was the claim of organic lager.

Appearance is a nice clear gold colour, good carbonation which contributes to a high foamy white head on the pour, which slowly subsides. Sweet bready malt balanced out by floral hops on the nose, very clean and crisp aroma. Flavour contains a rich bready malt character that follows through to the end with a sweet finish, thinly layered by a light grassy/floral hop presence, which lends itself to a pleasant aftertaste as the sweetness of the malt diminishes. The mouthfeel has a nice creamy body to it for a lager, very smooth. Very impressive from what I was expecting, that label really throws me off (it would look much better over someone's couch than on a beer bottle), but the beer truly does speak for itself in the end. I think this beer deserves much better presentation for what it is, as it runs the risk of being completely overlooked, which would be a shame.

Here is a beer that falls between the cracks in the B.C.
marketplace. Pacific Western is known for low priced beer
that appeals to the budget minded drinker. This beer is higher
in price than their other beers and approachs the price level
of a micro but has none of the cache of a smaller batch brew.

I was pleasantly surprised at the taste of this Canadian style
lager. It was crisp, clean and had adequate hops and malt to
catch my attention. I would take this over a Molson product
anyday but I cannot see myself buying this over a micro product . Try this beer as a Summer refresher over hamburgers and salad but most potential buyers are probably
drinking a Molson Canadian; too bad.