Tennent's Original Export Lager
Tennent Caledonian Breweries

 

 

 

 

Tennent’s Lager pours into my glass crystal clear, slightly deeper than the color of ripe hay. The lager throws a two finger, rocky, bone white head that’s in no hurry to go anywhere.
On the nose, Tennent’s presents a pleasantly lagery aroma. Specifically, it starts off bready, sweet, and enticing, if maybe a little straightforward. Sweetness here is more sugars, and less adjunct oriented which in my opinion puts it ahead of most, more adjunct based lagers. Aromas build slightly towards the center, becoming more akin to fresh baked white bread with just the faintest whiff of something sulfury. All these aromas blend together well enough before dropping into a clean, crisp finish.
Taking my first sip, I’m greeted by a soft, smooth, rounded mouthfeel. Flavors of sweetness and fresh baked bread much like what I found in the nose. Center builds a little, giving me a very rounded mouthfeel. Rounded center seems to add to the overall refreshing quality of the beer which is something I look for in a lager. Slight sulfur quality seems more prominent on the tongue, skewing the overall flavor profile in a direction I like less than I did when discussing the beer’s aroma. Either way, it drops into a rounded finish that is overall at least decently satisfying.

 

 

 

Decanted from a 16.9 oz (500 ml) can into a custom taster pint; canned 07/31/19.
A: Pours a crystal clear, pale golden color with a three finger, fluffy white head, excellent retention, and rings upon rings of sticky Belgian lacing.
S: Aromas consistent with dry grasses and grains with a touch of citrusiness (lemon > lime) and honey suckle. Cocoa aroma late.
T: Semisweet. Flavors of grainy malt, cocoa, biscuit/cookie, honey, and cocoa. Light, light bitterness achieving just the right balance.
M: Light bodied with moderate to strong carbonation. Very smooth and creamy.
O: Okay. So far this is may favorite European Pale Lager (or American Adjunct, for that matter). Just sayin'

 

 

 

Pours a clear reddish-orange with a finger of thick off-white froth. Orange, lemon, straw and honey in the aroma. More honey, light fruits and a faint bitterness at fruition. Smooth as it gets, and damn tasty. Might say a wee bit underrated as well.

 

 

 

 

 

500ml can, another hard to pin down sideshow from the 'original' Tennent's offering pushed onto we North Americans more than a few years ago, now, yeeeeh?

This beer pours a clear, bright pale (I know) golden yellow colour, with two fingers of puffy, yet broadly foamy, and generally fizzy dirty white head, which leaves some stellar Bonsai tree forest lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of semi-sweet grainy, bready, and corny malt, a touch of less than tethered generic booziness, unloved yeast, and very weak earthy, dead leafy, and musty 'noble' hops. The taste is fairly replete with a sugary, bready and plainly grainy pale and corny malt sweetness, sidling yeast, stale apple and pear fruity measures, and more stupidly weak weedy, leafy, and morbidly floral so-called hop bitters.

The carbonation is damned-near nonexistent for this or any other style after that initial outburst, the body a so-so medium weight, and marketing committee smooth - yeah, but, well, y'know, not so much. It finishes too damned sweet, grainy, and hardly something that my palate might want to further pursue.

Overall, this is yer typical cheap-ass, hard to really get into swill from someone's local macro brewing concern - the stuff you slam before doing the same to your 'opponents' in the stands of your local derby, or whatever the hell it's called over there.