Totally Noche
Short's Brewing Company

 

 

 

Pours a darker brown color with a foamy tan head that disappears quickly. Aroma is sweet and spicy, cinnamon and cloves. Tastes lightly of Sweetness and spices followed by a clean, fruity finish. Creamy with a light amount of bitterness.

 

 

 

 

 

Taste: crisp, balanced hops and malt backbone, bread notes clean finish. Semi sweet dark bread nose. Mahogany/Brown hue, clear, foamy head with broken ring of sticky lace, Medium body. This easy drinker would pair well with many dishes. 37 IBUs

12 ounce bottle into lager glass, bottled on 5/31/2017. Pours fairly crystal clear deep reddish copper/light brown color with a 1 finger dense cream colored head with great retention, that reduces to a small cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings down the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big brown sugar, brown bread, toasted biscuit, nuttiness, light cocoa/coffee, pepper, and herbal/grassy earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of dark/bready/light roasted malt and moderate earthy hop notes; with great strength. Taste of big brown sugar, brown bread, toasted biscuit, nuttiness, light cocoa/coffee, pepper, and herbal/grassy earthiness. Light-moderate herbal/spicy hop and roasted bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of brown sugar, brown bread, toasted biscuit, nuttiness, cocoa, coffee, pepper, and herbal/grassy earthiness on the finish for a while. Great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/light roasted malt and moderate earthy hop flavors; with a nice malt/bitterness balance. Slight astringent hop/roast flavors after the finish, but not overwhelming. Light-moderate increasing dryness from hop/roast bitterness. Perfectly clean on lager flavors, with zero yeast notes present. Medium carbonation and body; with a very smooth, moderately crisp, bready/grainy/sticky, and slightly chalky balanced mouthfeel that is great. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 6%. Overall this is an excellent Vienna lager. All around great complexity, robustness, and balance of dark/bready/light roasted malt and moderate earthy hop flavors; very smooth, crisp, and easy to drink; even with the increasingly bitter/drying finish. This was just a little too bitter and roasty for the style, but otherwise spot on. A very enjoyable offering.

A little darker than I expect from a Vienna, also a touch sweeter. Straddles the line between a Vienna and a Munich Dunkel, IMHO. Still, a nice, rich lager that is satisfying, due to a rich maltiness and enough bitterness to keep it from being cloying.

 

I picked up a bottle of Short's Totally Noche in their Summer Variety pack. This one peaked my interest when I saw it was in the variety pack and I'm interested to see how it turns out, so lets see how it goes. 2017 Vintage. Poured from a brown 12oz bottle into a imperial pint glass.

A- The label looks good, it goes well with the name and it's eye catching. It poured a darker brown color that took on more of a lighter brown color when held to the light and it has a fingers worth of creamy light tan head that died down to a thin ring that stayed till the end and it left rings of patchy lacing behind. This is a good looking beer, I have no complaints.

S_ The aroma starts off with a medium amount of sweetness with the spices being the first to show up and they impart a cinnamon, coriander, clove and light chili pepper like aromas and it's followed by some sweetness with a fruity aroma showing up imparting dark fruity and cherry aroma and it leads into some clean lager yeast. Up next comes the malts which impart some grainy, caramel malt, roasted malt, nutty and bread crust like aroma. This beer has a pretty nice aroma, it's a little more balanced than I expected, but I liked it.

T- The taste seems to be similar to the aroma, but lighter on the spices and it starts off with a medium amount of sweetness with the spices being the first to show and they are lighter and just impart a generic spic flavor. Up next comes that clean lager yeast that goes into a fruity flavor, which is lighter this time and impart more of a general fruity flavor. Towards the end comes the malts which impart all the same aspects that they did in the aroma and they show up just as much with no single aspect sticking out the most. On the finish there's a pretty light amount of bitterness with a little more sweetness and it had a creamy and nutty aftertaste with some toasted malts showing up in the aftertaste. This is a nice tasting dark lager, but I wish the Mexican spices showed up more.

M- Smooth, a little creamy, pretty crisp, on the lighter side of being medium bodied with a higher amount of medium carbonation. The mouthfeel is good and it works well with this beer.

Overall I thought this was a nice beer and I thought it was a solid example of the style, it was a pretty good dark lager, but when it came to the mexican spice aspect it was lacking a little. I don't think I wouldn't buy this beer on it's own, but I wouldn't turn one down and I would recommend it to someone looking for more of black lager than mexican spice. This beer had ok drinkability, one is enough for me. What I like the most about this beer is the appearance and mouthfeel, they were both good and worked well with this beer. What I liked the least about this beer is the taste and drinkability, they both could use some work and I wish the mexican spices showed up more. All in all I liked this beer, but I didn't love it and I think if more mexican spices came through it would be a pretty good beer. It's not a favorite Short's beer and it's a solid example of the style. Nice jog buys, but a little more work and this could be a pretty good beer.

 

Had as part of the latest variety pack. This one was probably my favorite of the bunch. Pours a nice Brown with a collar of off white foam atop. Aromas and flavors of caramel, roast, some cocoa. Clean, crisp finish. Fone example of the style. Somehow this summer I've ended up drinking a few Vienna lagers, this and Negra Modelo are pretty much the winners.

 

Pours light brown. Short, foamy, light tan head that fades fast to a ring.

Smells caramel malt, roasty, light coffee add hints of fruit.

Tastes light roast malt, caramel malt, light earthiness and touch of molasses. Finish is Semi dry with light earthy linger. Medium body and fizzy medium carbonation.

My mom -in-law brought this one back from up north in a mixed 12pck. It poured a clear dark amber with thin white head that is not leaving any lace. The scent had hints of caramel malt. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to drink. Good caramel malt backdrop. The mouthfeel was lighter in body with good carbonation. Overall it's a decent beer.