Red Leaf Lager
Specklebelly's Brew Pub

475ml swing-top brown bottle poured in a pilsener glass. Cool looking bottles with just a neck label and pictures of wheat embossed in the glass.

Clear, dark gold in colour. Lots of carbonations streams feed a head that winds up around 1/8 inch after a big volumous off white head on the pour.

Fairly standard Canadian macro aroma. Grains with hints of adjuncts (petrol notes and corn) and a touch of caramel sweetness.

Taste is a little muddled. Instead of working together, the flavours seem kind of heaped on one another, piling up into a car crash finish. Grainy with strong petrol notes and perhaps some floral hops at the start. The caramel barges in shortly after and all the flavours have a battle royal through the carbonation rush into an abrupt finish that is both cloying sweet and a little skunky/herbal bitter. The caramel sweetness makes itself so obvious that I had to look again at the label to make sure I hadn't opened the honey brown by accident. Aftertaste is weak but a little bitter.

Medium bodied with a harsh, caustic mouthfeel and strong, annoying carbonation.

Hmm... I don't really know what to make of this. It's certainly different and an interesting take on the style, but I just don't think it works that well. It's not even clean, crisp or smooth. I'd take this recipe back to the drawing board and try to re-work it so that it's smoother and to lessen the petrol notes and cloying caramel sweetness.