Red Lodge Premium Lager
Red Lodge Ales

branded like an american lager from a bygone era, like this could be mistaken for hamms or something, borderline plagiarism, same colors and everything, wow. the beer is made with all montana ingredients, which is cool to talk about i guess, but the beer isnt very good, definitely drinks like macro swill, thin and cheap, metallic at the end and as it warms, adequate for a late night finisher when plenty of beer was already had, but im not sure this hits at the expected quality level, i like red lodge a lot, but this one seems to be trying to get away from craft, cheap beer flavored beer play i reckon. even ice cold this has some blemishes, to me a sort of aluminum vibe, more in taste than smell, and there is a slightly earthy aspect to the grain, like its not all gross adjuncts or anything, but it feels sort of intentionally reduced, no real flavor to the lager yeast, no hops to speak of, but not without balance i suppose, so its really about the malt, which hits like watered down pils, crackery and cereal-like, with some textural astringency there, more as it warms. slightly soapy to me, thin feeling, is there corn in this too? seems possible. i think the high carbonation is a great choice, this feels soda-like in that regard, but there just isnt any grain structure, and the metallic even chemical aftertaste is pretty rough. even a decent, near neutral lager would be a win, but this leans towards lousy in quality, a shame. its brisk and dry, its lively, and it has an appreciable pils malt element, but beyond that its not up to snuff, and i was disappointed by this, even if the yellow beer crowd may have found a craft alternative in it, these guys can do better, i am sure of it.

edit: slightly better the second time around, looks pretty too, holding nearly an inch of white head, good clarity, lots of bubbles, less thin and metallic to me now, somewhat more robust on the grain side, beer flavored beer with some refreshment value, improving rating slightly, still not up to their standard in my opinion...