Chainsaws For Hands Rye & Ginger Sour
Town Square Brewing Co.

 

 

1L howler from the brewpub on Edmonton's deep, deep, deep (now I want Little Caesar's, dammit!) south side. On the chalkboard, I swear that the name looked like 'Chainsaws Farthands*' when I first glanced at it.

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium copper amber colour, with three fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and mostly just bubbly off-white head, which leaves some random streaky cloud form lace around the glass as it quickly blows off.

It smells of ginger ale, gritty and bready pale malt, a subtle rye graininess, some musky and sour yeasty esters, and very tame earthy, musty, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is mildly tart, Imma gonna say lactose, earthy ginger root, mixed cereal malt (barley and rye in more or less equal measure), more slightly phenolic yeastiness, a hint of generic citrus (it must be the cocktail association), and more understated leafy, herbal, and floral verdant hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-coveting frothiness, the body a decent middleweight, and generally smooth, as the ginger barely registers as a miscreant at this particular juncture. It finishes off-dry, the hospital soda-pop character melding with the grainy essence for good, not evil.

Overall - this indeed comes across as a pleasant simulacrum of that classic prairie boy mixed-drink. The only difference here, is that I have no desire to start a fistfight with the nearest friend of mine, which is not really a joke, believe you me!