Dancing Diamonds - Skeller Keller
Locust Lane Craft Brewery

Locust Lane Craft Brewery "Dancing Diamonds - Skeller Keller"
16 fl. oz. can, "CANNED ON 12/14/21 158 FTK 4" and sampled on 02/20/22

Notes via stream of consciousness: The Dancing Diamonds beers support charity. I don't know if they're all the same but this version goes towards pediatric cancer research and support services. It's poured a murky light brown colored body beneath a thumb's width of dense off-white foam. The head looks great but the body is a bit off-putting. The aroma is hoppy with citrusy and herbal notes over a bready malt base. There's a slight apple-like note to it as well but I don't think it's coming from yeast, I suspect it's actually hop based. I think it smells great. On to the taste... the hops are prominent with a spiciness and earthiness that's not found in the nose. The apple note remains though, and there's herbal character as well, and then a little bit of citrus. I honestly thought the citrus would be stronger but whatever. The malt is lightly sweet, bready, and toasty. I honestly can't tell if there's some caramel malt in there or not because of the spicy pop of the hops, and I have no clue as to what hops they've used to achieve it. I'm really lost as to what they were going for here. Is this supposed to be a German-style landbier? Or is this some kind of weird American amber lager that's simply called a kellerbier because it's unfiltered? I'll have to just go at it hedonistically. There's a decent amount of bitterness to it, and I think that amplifies the spiciness and earthiness of the hops. The herbal notes follow, backed by the malt. In my opinion it's out of balance in that sense. The citrus character and touch of apple lends it a pleasant side note but there's really not enough of it to compete with the spiciness or really add to the beer. The malt itself is OK but at the same time I don't feel it really works with the hops they've chosen. Perhaps if there were less hops it would work better but I think going with a more straightforward golden malt would have been a better choice overall. And what's going on with this malt? It tastes like 2-row with a little bit of carabrown thrown in but I doubt that's it. It just comes off as dull against the brightly spicy, earthy, and herbal hops. OK, let me wrap this up. In the mouth it's medium to medium-light in body and crisp. It's got some nice fine bubbles to it and yet it doesn't seem to be completely natural. The head held up really well and I still have a thin but solid surface covering and there are some really nice, wide splashes of lace left behind. If it wasn't so murky I'd score it higher. I wonder if there was more malt to it would that have balanced the hops? Of course that would be a completely different beer then wouldn't it? As it is I'm going to call it out of balance and overly bitter for a beer that I'm assuming was aimed more at the masses as it's a charity beer.
Review #7,793