Robot Rambo
Lost Grove Brewing

this robot series continues on, but they need to get on the quality, this is pretty rough. lost grove makes some nice beer, but when they miss, its generally by a country mile, and this is indeed a miss, sweet, sloppy, and hard to drink, one of the worst from them ive had, not competitive in this market, or probably any market, at all, super disappointing. pale yellow and very murky and gloomy and heavy looking from the tap, average white head on it and some lace, and no chunky sediment or anything, but no glow either, this is dense and quite unrefined even for this style space. the nose is sugary, almost a confectionary sugar thing, like this hardly seems fermented at all, its weird, its so sweet, candied, and where that can sometimes flatter new school hops, it really doesnt here, notes of green grape, not quite ripe peach, and lemon curd if i am being generous, if im not, i get old grass clippings rotting away in the hot summer garbage bin, corn syrup, and a little bit of fuel, its weird, its not bad, but its not cohesive, the sweetness throws it, and the grain seems almost floury, so starchy and almost gunky, even in the nose, and there is subtle oversaturated harshness here too. the flavor is worse, the sweetness dominates, but its also overly grainy, weird on the ferment, and takes more green vegetal character from the hops than anything desirable, although i still do get a little bit of concentrated lemon in here, and there are some pleasant hop flavors together in the middle here, but its a very short window surrounded by less enjoyable elements, including more residual sugar than is reasonable, a strange doughy yeast aspect, and what seems like some unmalted grain weight pulling this down, it also warms up poorly and gets increasingly green. maybe a decade ago this would have been passable, but the style is evolving fast and this is completely out of touch, and its not well made, or at least poorly enough handled to not be good, but it seems like beer quality not something to do with the establishment it was served in, although it could be old now? a definite regression in this series...

edit: i am pleased to report i had this from the pint can last night (sick art), and its a much much much much much better beer, freshness definitely back, less grainy, hop pungency is killer, neat almost candied fruity complexion, a totally different beer than i had on tap just a few weeks ago under the same name, and now i am quite convinced it was the bar not the beer, either way, these cans are great. notes of peach, coconut, and orange hard candy, dry overall though, or close to it, with fluffy earthy grain support and a creamy effervescence that was totally absent from the draft version. improving scores a lot here to mostly reflect the can experience but still acknowledge the less good draft experience at the same time, cant totally let that slide with how rough it was, but the original review certainly does not apply really at all to the can i had last night, thankfully. perhaps too harsh on lost grove, who i know is trying their best, and this can is more in line with what we have come to expect from the series, still not elite, but really solid hop profile and texture especially. massive score upgrades complete, but i cant quite delete the original review...

16oz can from Brewers Haven. Cloudy golden pour, thin layer of white foam. Faint, weak citrusy aroma. Taste follows with mild citrus notes that don't last long. Very light on the palate. Good summer quencher.