E Figoun
Amarcord Birra Artigianale Italiana

 

A: Pours a glowing, slightly hazy gold with a thin, creamy white mousse.

S: Gentle, sweet aromas of green apple, lemon, cream, and honey fill the nose. For a beer of this style, the smell is surprisingly malty.

T: Opens sweet and malty with notes of heavy cream, vanilla, minerals, lemon, apple, honey, and biscuits. The finish is short and sweet with apple, honey, and cream notes.

M: Medium-bodied, slick, and oily. Carbonation is initially soft, but disappears quickly.

O: E Figoun seemed interesting at first, but the lack of forceful carbonation and the understated hopping combined to form what is easily one of the slickest, sweetest lagers I've ever tasted. Definitely not what I was looking for in a German pilsener.

Poured from the flip-top bottle to a slightly hazy golden yellow with thin white head and okay lacing. Aroma is a muted mix of hoppy apples, some floral and a hint of perfume. Mouthfeel is slightly tangy and biting, and the taste, while only subtly bringing out the fruit of the nose, is decent. Not an outstanding beer, but I found it to be enjoyable and very drinkable.

Doesn't really remind me, personally of a german pils, but other friends here picked that up. Poured with a decent white head and some lace. Color is a fairly clear gold. Aroma is bread, yeast, honey, spice, and herbs. Flavor's about the same. Body is a bit chalky and thin. Ok beer. Don't really think of it as a session.

Picked up a 500ml single from Wilburs in Ft. Collins, $5.
Very sticky swing top.

A: Cloudy blond color with a stark white head, fair amount of carbonation floating around in this one. Not much of a lager appearance. Looks more like a hefeweizen. Pretty fair lacing.

S: Light grains, a little bit of spicy hops, very mineral like, smells a lot like rocks, no other way to put it. Not a lot going on, really.

T: Mineral, almost metallic taste, underneath are some hints at minerals, a slight lemon zest tanginess, and not much else, this really doesn't remind me of much, but it isn't exactly tasty either. I'm not sure what they were really going for here. Really not offensive, but just, not that great.

M: Medium thickness, light carbonation, fairly dry as well, hits all the notes I suppose.

D: This is an okay beer, I don't think it quite falls into a pilsener categorization, it doesn't have the "clean" aspect to it. Seems a little muddled. I don't think they were originally shooting for a pils. Not really great, I think I got screwed outta $5 here.

Poured from a flip-top bottle into a DT tulip.

App: The beer looks very nice - a rich, hazy blond with a big, creamy head. Head dissipates rather quickly, but leaves minimal lacing.

Smell: VERY faint. Maybe some slight hay, with a little lemon zest hiding back there.

Taste: Mild. Not much going on here. Some slight honey character from the malt, and some of the citrus/ginger qualities you'd find in a saison. Some chalkiness like one would expect in a hefe, but to a much lesser degree. Again, a bit of subtle, bitter grass flavor toward the finish.

Mouthfeel: A bit chalky, but overall a nice body that is rather restrained, like a lighter hefe.

Drinkability: The beer goes down easy, although I think there are more interesting blondes and pilsners out there. Not bad, though.

Hinged cap bottle from Belmont Party.

Poured clear dark amber color with a large frothy white head that mostly lasted with good lacing. Medium malt, yeast and citrus hop aroma. Medium body with a smooth texture and soft carbonation. Medium sweet flavor with a medium sweet finish of short duration.

Drinkable average brew.

A: Straw colored brew with a slight haze and mild carbonation. Big foamy white head has good retention and leaves good lace.

S: Somewhat spicy. Pepper makes up most of the aroma, with a hint of pine and sweet malt syrup in the background.

T: Simple and straightforward. This is a well balanced brew that starts out with a biscuit malt quality. Bitterness provides good balance and the flavors of lemon and black pepper. Tart finish.

M: Light body feels watery. Carbonation is too high.

D: A decent beer overall. Not worth the premium price it commands, but a nice experience.

The appearance of this one is of a richly golden colored liquid, with a simple but pretty white head. The aroma's nice...a bit of pale malt, a touch of grain, and a little herbal hops. It's a clean and pleasant aroma. The taste is a little sweet, and there's a little metallic twang that's not pleasant. There's a little grain as well. Medium body and fairly clean finish, with a slight lingering hop bitterness. It's nothing particularly special, but it was also a little better than I'd hoped for. It reminds me of pale lagers at many brewpubs - they're there for the market, well made, but not really worth going out of your way to try.

I had this beer out of a bottle at a beer tasting, and was intrigued upon seeing it poured and taking my first sniff of the beer. It smelled similar to a belgian blonde, with notes of honey and lemon, but when I tasted it I was disappointed: the ABV is too low for a blonde, and the mouthfeel and taste are not complex. While this beer smells rich, I found the taste to be too simple.

I'd like to be able to review this beer better, since good Italian beers are in short supply. Definitely more interesting than the mass market beers from Italy, but not something I would choose over other European or domestic brews.

Bright honey with freshly-squeezed lemonade borders. Atop the beer sits three fingers of new parchment colored foam with an upper surface of variously sized pits. The head melts first at the edges, leaving an average amount of sea foam lace. Not a bad 'blonde lager' look.

E Figoun's nose reminds me of a macro lager with most of the nastiness removed and a wee bit more noble hoppiness. Ain't no way this is a German pilsener as I understand that style. At least the aroma is clean and fresh, even if it isn't any more than average in the grand scheme of things.

This is an 'American' macro lager if I've ever tasted one. The flavor profile is excruciatingly simple and consists of pale malt, possibly with a handful of flaked corn for sweetness, and a lackluster amount of Northern European hops. Do they even grow hops in Southern Europe?

If I didn't know better, I'd think I was drinking a slightly more full, slightly sweeter, slightly less bubbled Miller High Life. Cold MHL isn't bad beer in a pinch, but 500 ml of it isn't worth the $6.99 that I plunked down for this bottle. Then again, this beer is imported(!), so it must be worth more.

The best that can be said for this sucker is that it's inoffensive and it's easy to drink. Oh, and it comes in a nice, swing-top bottle. As far as good flavor or something even approaching the suggestion of a hint of complexity... not a chance. I feel like I haven't adequately described the flavor profile, but there's so little to go on. Grain (corn) and mildly grassy hops is about it.

In spite of a good-sized lid and a decent amount of persistence, the beer feels underbubbled. A little more sparkle might help. Then again it might not. The mouthfeel comes close to, without achieving, a watery thinness on the swallow.

Amarcord Birra Artigianale's Prima Donna is an average Euro pale lager. E Figoun doesn't make it to average unless one compares it to the best-selling lagers in America... which it uncannily resembles. If I had a desire to drink corny sweet lager (which I don't), my money would be more likely to go to one of the Miller products than to this wildly overpriced Italian knockoff. Bottom line: don't bother.

Golden yellow, beautiful head, white, compact.
In the smell a lot of malt, honey, biscuit. Somewhat a little "heavy".
The same for the taste, with some (but really few) how to balance. Very sweet.
In the aftertaste malt and honey are even stronger. Heavy.
Average to light body.

Cool swing top bottle and nice label. Clear, golden yellow sheen with a small, off-white head. Smells of wet hay, pepper, buttery biscuits, and light floral hops. Tastes kinda weird. Lean, grassy malt base with a peppery spice. Malt turns buttery and pepper taste reprises in the finish. Weird? Too old? The label dates are confusing. Light-medium bodied. Would like to try again, but when will I make it back to Italy?