Perfectly sessionable golden ale with polite lager-like cereal toasting, cracker-like pilsner malting and grassy hop mildness afforded clean-watered crisping. Lemon-limed carbolic fizz prickles the tongue. Delicate orange fruiting and wispy floral accents caress light mineral grain finish.
BOLD CITY KILLER WHALE CREAM ALE
Generic canned moderation stays mustily acrid. Faded yellow-fruited souring combines with wet-papered grain mildewing and buttery sourdough breading for drab dry-bodied dreck. Lemon-limed grassy hops and light German pilsner-like malts pick up slim orange pekoe tea herbage and barren lemongrass snip.
BOLD CITY MAD MANATEE INDIA PALE ALE
Nonchalant sessionable IPA (in a can) opens with acrid bark-dried pine bittering contrasting pithy grapefruit-lemon-orange tartness and sugar-spiced spruce sweetness -but fails to truly suffice. Mellow moderation lacks stylistically brisk citrus hop assertiveness.
BOLD CITY DUKE’S COLD NOSE BROWN ALE
Insufficient canned brown ale suffers a tad from a certain phenol hop aridity that interferes with the dark-roasted caramel creaming, toffee-candied brown chocolate sweetness and wavered coffee midst. Mild molasses milking seeps thru thin Graham Cracker spine.
CIGAR CITY FLORIDA CRACKER BELGIAN STYLE WHITE ALE
Snazzy chartreuse-yellowed witbier dupes hefeweizen-styled banana-clove-coriander sweetness to enhance sugar-spiced lemony orange tartness. On second passing, sweet orange-peeled pineapple, peach and mango illusions daintily dot the light doughy spine. On tap at Taphouse 15, French saison yeast aids white-peppered lemon lime spicing, mild vanilla sweetness and latent chamomile whim.
CIGAR CITY HOTTER THAN HELLES LAGER
Peaceful yellow-hazed light body in a can may be stylishly soft, but mild doughy wheat flouring, dry pale malting and biscuit-y cracker spine complement slender citric tropicalia quite well. Wispy lemon-limed mandarin orange, tangerine, mango, kiwi, passion fruit and pineapple tang remains delicate.
DU CLAW DIRTY LITTLE FREAK COCONUT CARAMEL CHOCOLATE BROWN ALE
Fabulous medium-bodied brown ale relies on toasted coconut uprising, milky black chocolate follow-up and creamy caramel malted sweetness. Subtle ashen hop char embitters mighty mocha mesh. Beneath prominent chocolate-fudged coconut resilience lies sugared almond, vanilla, cola and hazelnut whimsicality. A perfectly sweet dessert.
LOCAL OPTION OUTLAWGER LAGER
Stylishly robust yellow-cleared light lager brings German pilsner-like musty mineral graining, sour dough flouring and grassy hop neutrality to soured lemon pit musk. Despite extremely pale complexion, simple flavor profile deepens over time. Baked bread, buttered biscuit and honeyed wheat undertones stay delicate beneath the toasted grain surface.
BLUE MOUNTAIN SPOOKY
Bustling bourbon-barreled autumn ale loads lacquered pumpkin flesh atop generous ginger-spiced citrus spritz and distant vanilla-creamed cocoa nibs. But wavering bourbon sweetness never gains full effectiveness. Butternut squash, cucumber and zucchini illusions provide minor earthiness to contrast distant cinnamon-nutmeg wisps.
NEW HOLLAND BLUE SUNDAY SOUR ALE AGED IN OAK VINTAGE 2014
Easygoing vintage 2014 oak-aged sour ale tosses wild bacteria-cultured yeast at white-wined balsamic vinegaring and mild lemon-dropped orange peel bittering, picking up tart blueberry, pomegranate and raspberry rasp by leathery oaken cherry-vanilla midst. Lactic acidulated malts reinforce sour fruiting at the bone-dry finish.
SKA HIBERNAL VINIFERA STOUT
Well-integrated oak-aged stout complements dark-roasted mocha malt expectancy with tannic Bordeaux-wined Malbec grape juice and latent raisin-plum-prune swoon. Creamy brown chocolate sweetness overrides descending dried fruiting at cocoa-powdered finish. Hints of chewing tobacco, charred wood and anise add depth to fine purple grape-draped chocolate fondue alternative.
FIREMAN’S BREW GERMAN-STYLE DOUBLEBOCK BRUNETTE
Washed-out and stylistically anonymous doppelbock needs richer flavor profile and better definition. Instead, compromised smoked chocolate malting and flaccid caramel-tobacco roast play possum as dry-hopped astringency wavers. Black licorice hint seems out of place.
