On tap, sessionable light body flows easy. Mild grain roast sedates soft-hopped lemon spritz. Corn-dried astringency underscores buttered biscuit backend. In 22-ounce aluminum cylinder, cotton-candied sourdough yeast and lemony orange zest register above its grassy-hopped vegetable garden. Many disparate elements (such as a latent dry Scotch tinge) rub against each other in this weird cornucopia.  

Bettering most in its moderate-bodied class, inviting lawnmower fodder keeps it simple. Silken sourdough yeast frontage is drier than Mayflower’s similarly-styled Pale Ale. Slim citric tease and minimal floral spicing caress buttered baked bread finish. A touch of honeycomb sweetens the delicate wheat spine. Elegant, yet approachable, and worthy of mass appeal.

Another fine English-styled ale by rural Connecticut brewery. This earthier Brit variation bests lighter, less bitter American-styled goldens. Well-balanced citric-spiced crystal malting, raw wood-smoked oats graining and twiggy bark-dried tinder crudity congruently integrated. Vegetal corn-husked celery, carrot and fennel astringency grazes buttery biscuit bottom.

Brisk ‘summer salad’ utilizing fresh-chopped herbs maintains fruity regalia. Tropical pineapple, mango, melon and peach tang inundates sharp lemony orange-peeled grapefruit bittering. Earthen dry-wooded oaken pining seeps into tea-bagged thyme-basil retreat. Ascending alcohol burn deepens ultimate complexity of richly balanced step up from usual moderate-bodied golden ale contenders.

Too tame and pallid to be offensive, unenthusiastic ‘session ale’ will please less finicky ale heads yearning for an inexpressive light-bodied refreshment. Peculiar earthen fungi yeast and cardboard-y vegetal nuance take away from muted orange-oiled sour-candied tartness to cracked wheat spine. Blasé.

Easy-plowing summertime poolside light-body maintains understated sweet-watered fizz and mild marzipan-caramel creaminess lost to phenolic astringency. Slick honeyed malt pungency becomes diacetyl, deadening gentle hop-fizzed lemon bitterness. Sunny beach fodder for softer, indiscriminate tastes.

Heady Belgian-styled golden-hazed medium body (brewed for Florida’s Gordash Beer Company in South Carolina) brings vanilla malt creaminess to fungi-soured Belgian yeast endurance. At midst, peppery Saaz hop bitterness and musty barnyard funk counter durable cotton-candied butterscotch rummage, wavered apple-apricot-pear fruiting and clove-coriander-spiced banana bubblegum whim. Delightful maraschino cherry ripeness, zippy cinnamon-gingerbread dalliance, and supple Cognac finish prove affirmative. Busy mix never falters. On tap at Plantation’s Hurricane Grill & Wings, sweeter honey-fruited thrust receives herbal twinge.

Post-Katrina hurricane relief came from flawed cumulous-headed golden ale, October ’05. Murky sourdough tongue, sulfuric waft, and dank gluten-free remnant override barleymalt retreat as innocuous cinnamon wisp fades.

Muted cherry-orange nose and phenol caramel malts initiate overtly foamy, puffy cumulous-headed lightweight, but simplistic grapefruit-hopped midst undermines potential. Brewery defunct: 2007.

Turbid copper busybody allows rapturous butterscotch creaminess to gain bruised orange density and overripe peach-grapefruit-apricot tang, maintaining sturdy medicinal thrust without sacrificing floral-spiced citric tonic. Peppery hops counter sugar malt saturation and corn whiskey sweetness mid-palate, amplifying complexity.

Lemony grapefruit souring counters candy malt sweetness of feathery pale-bodied mediocrity.