Holiday Romance
Roaring Table Brewing Company

 

 

Murky golden pour with a white head, sporadic lacing. Country yeast with bright citrus, papaya, and pineapple floral hops. Taste has floral and earthy hops with lime, lemon curd, papaya and a kiss of kiwi, all met softly by rustic lager yeast. Feel is smooth with textures of soft grain, yeast and hops add a touch of juiciness. Nice summer lager

8/11/24 - (Can - Home) (Chicago, IL) Can Notes: Purchased at store temperature on May 30, 2024 at Beer on the Wall Park Ridge for $3.98 including tax. 16 oz canned 5/21/24. Country Lager, 5.1% ABV, Hops Mittelfruh, Saphir, Grungeist. Brewed and canned by Roaring Table Brewery, Lake Zurich, Illinois.

Pilsner, wheat, oat and a kiss of Munich malt make this rustic lager glow. Grungeist in the dry-hop shines with bright notes of hayfields lemon, and tea. Drink fresh - it was never meant to last!

Appearance: Poured about 2/3 of the can into a pilsner glass yielding a faint yellow straw looking like an unfiltered base, light steady carbonation, a bright white head leaving clumpy lacing and a creamy cover over the base. 3.75

Aroma: Traditional lager aroma of cracker, pepper and salt, light in strength. 3.25

Taste: Consistent with aroma in terms of the cracker pepper flavor, even lighter flavor. Some mineral water flavors emerge reaching the halfway pole. 3.0

Mouthfeel: Light and easy drinking, under the low ABV. Light flavors overall, faint gentle carbonation, cracker and mineral water finish. 3.5

Overall: This beer is OK, but lighter in flavor than I prefer for a "craft" lager. Was refrigerated all but a few days, so scoring as is as an OK beer but one and done. Perhaps the initial release with different hops and flavors than listed on my 2024 can was better. 3.0

 

Another direct purchase from my new fave brewery. Poured into my tall Becher.

L -- Bright, clear pale straw-gold with a dense and sudsy white head that falls quickly -- again, canned pour?

S -- Herbal, slightly piney and citrus nose.

T -- Herbal hops up front, folds into light citrus and graininess with white bread crusts in-between. Finish is light pine with some crisp bitterness that turns soft in the aftertaste.

M -- Soft to crisp with a light body.

O -- Sort of a cold-stored APA -- very hoppy and tasty without stunting the palate with big bitterness. Goes down nicely.

L - a delightfully "lively" beer in the glass, good head retention, lighest of lacing up top, good clarity, bubbles for days.
S - maybe its weak point as a so-called "country lager" (whatever that means) - it has some good crackery malt-lemon faint aroma notes, but the smell is not the strong point on this otherwise really good beer.
T - where the Romance picks up again: better bread-dough-cracker/hay-lemon(grass?) notes shine through on the palate - nice overall on the palate. Somewhere between a traditional Czech Lager and a German Pils? Really beguiling.
F - fantastic mouthfeel; just the right balance of carbonation, dryness, and lingering malt after-taste. Crispy saltines that fall off a cliff.
O - a very fine beer from a small brewery outside Chicago, very solid.

Canned 2/22/22; drank 3/2/22 @ the Yarchives.

See-through pale orange appearance.

A rough pour yielded nice noisy white head; frothy lace.

Fresh soap, peach & soft grass notes in the nose.

Medium mouthfeel.

Fresh soap, peach & dry wheat flavors.

Tasty, unique & easy to drink. I liked this a lot.

 

 

 

5 oz serving tasted in a sampler glass from draft on July 19, 2020.

poured from a 16oz can into a willi becher pint glass. pours a little on the hazier side for a lager with almost saison-like head. Floral, citrusy and earthy aromas abound. might not even be able to tell this is a lager if smelling blindly. the earthiness is bordering on hay and a touch of funk. very interesting. taste has more spice to it than the nose would indicate but it’s still got the floral and citrus notes on the finish. mouthfeel is lower on the carb but still decent. not quite as crisp as i would prefer but this is still a pretty tasty lager. “Country lager” (as per the can) is appropriate as the earth and hay flavors combine with the floral and spicy hops to create quite a unique flavor profile.