Northern Reserve Special Light
Cold Spring Brewing Co.

Small thin slightly off white head quickly fades into a thin lacing above a clear golden copper colored beer.

Light almost sourish aroma with some hops notes, I think the malts give this beer is sourish aroma.

Weak light beer taste of lesser hops with some malt aspects sneaking in, weird this beer does not taste that good but it seems to have a decent balance between the hops and malts, just wish they had used better ingredients. As Papa John says "Better ingredients better beer" well he says something similar to that.

A light almost wet aftertaste with a light sour aspect coming through with this super light bodied beer.

This would suffice as a beer pong beer.

What can I say, I have to be pretty desperate to even crack open a light beer from any brewer, but let me just say, this is by far the most drinkable light I've had. The smell hinted at a brown ale pedigree and the combination of better than average (for a light lager) mouthfeel, bitterness, and balanced carbonation made this brew rather pleasant surprise. I have a feeling any serving vessel other than a can would negatively impact my rating of this beer, but I would pick this over any other light I've had before in a heartbeat.

 

My heartfelt thanks to Chaz for hunting down some elusive upper Midwestern CANned beers for in support of The CANQuest (TM)!

The CAN revealed nothing other than dietary information, so I proceeded directly to the Crack & Glug. It produced two fingers of very fizzy bone-white head with limited retention. Color was a solid golden-yellow with NE-quality clarity. The nose, however, really set me back on my heels. It had a sulfurous, boiled egg-like aroma that was almost gag inducing but I soldiered on. Mouthfeel was medium and it tasted both nutty and eggy on the tongue. I CANnot say that it was pleasant, but it was not entirely unpleasant, either. This is called damning with faint praise. The finish left me ready for something more recognizable as beer. This was definitely a one-and-done.

Pours a very clear golden in color, topped with a creamy-smooth off-white head which exhibits good lacing.

Nose is -- whoa: vanilla, almonds, corn/vegetal, grainy must . . . no notes of hop, whether of the aroma or bittering kind. This nose reminds me of the typical aroma of a beer produced under the Gluek family line during Cold Spring's production run of same*.

Once I get past the vanilla and off-flavors of the nose I get a lightly-sweet semi-malty flavor on the first sip. Not a bad first impression given the wild-n-wooly nose, and there's just a tiny, eensy-weensy touch of bitterness backing up this initial malt and corn sweetness. Light impression of 'seltzer' water, a bit of dry biscuit malt, and just that tiny bit of bitterness to let you know you're drinking a beer. Aftertaste is minimal-to-nil, and that is a major, major plus right here.

This one reminds me favorably of Blue Diamond -surprise! It comes from the same brewery.

Altogether this Northern is one of the better examples of an average Light lager -- read that sentence again and see if it makes sense to you. If it doesn't, take two cans in rapid succession and call me in the morning. Either that, or report to your nearest Beer Pong league, where this one will make for a night of championship swilling!

*It'd be interesting to know whether there is a substantial difference in recipe between the beers in this existing Northern family line and the now-defunct Gluek family line.

Can. Poured into a glass a clear golden color with a light white head that quickly dissappears, abosolutely zero head retention. Very light, bready light aroma with no real hops presence. Light mouthfeel. Starts off witha subtle sweetness and then transforms into a bland, semi skunk like note that is not that pleasant. It’s crazy to me, like I am sure it is crazy to the opposite of craft beer lovers, how anyone could want to drink this. It has a very bland, slightly sweet flavor that is just *blah*. Looks like apple juice with no head.

Pours 1 finger of white head that fizzles down very fast. Color is a clear golden orange. Looks like colored watered.

Aroma: Not a whole lot here. Grains and corn. This actually has a piss flavored aroma coming from it. Not very excited.

Taste: A lot of grains and corn again. Light grassy hops. Very bland. Has a metallic flavor of awesomeness.

Mouthfeel: Crisp and dry. Light bodied with a high amount of carbonation. Ends dry and bland.

Overall, not something I enjoyed at all. Very flavorless. Terrible mouthfeel. Bad stuff.

The beer pours a near clear color with a touch of pale gold. It has a thick frothy white head that slowly fades to lacing. The aroma is awful. It has little beer aroma. Instead, it has a healthy dose of adjunct, water, and lager yeast esters. It's light with a dry, musty scent. The taste is as bad as the aroma. It has a watery flavor with a light pilsner malt character that damn hard to detect. What is easy to detect is a musty, metallic character with some undesirable yeast esters. The mouthfeel is average. It is low bodied beer with good carbonation. This is a drain pour waiting to happen. I'm struggling to find anything good about it.