Pale-hued ivory-headed clear-watered pilsner links perky hops and musty barleymalts to sweet maple complacency. Ultimately, too simple to be effective.
Monthly Archives: January 2009
SLAVUTYCH TEMNE DARK LAGER
Acrid plum-wined butterscotch-malted dark lager. Raspy hop dryness counters hard-candied sweetness punctuating medicinal finish.
SLAVUTYCH MITSNE PREMIUM
Musty mocha malt sweetness, sugared fig piquancy, and mild citrus undertones provide dramatic setting. Astringent alcohol coarseness makes presence felt. Strangely, golden hue lighter than full-bodied creaminess and dense sour mash would indicate.
SLAVUTYCH EKCTPA PREMIUM LAGER
Mildly turbid pale lager with clean water foreground countering dirty grain undertow. Sparkly hop-spiced bitterness and lemon-limed sourness can’t save soapy finish from mediocrity, but easy drinking crispness beats indistinct tendencies.
(SKAGIT RIVER) SCULLER’S INDIA PALE ALE
Dramatic skeleton-labeled penny-coppered Halloween seasonal damn near competes with more chocolate-y hop-induced Ipswich I.P.A. (bettering similarly styled Maine brewpub stash quaffed on winter ’05 trip). Amazingly flamboyant floral bouquet, expansive orange peel bittering, and grapefruit-soured cider kick strengthen generous peach-apricot tang surrounding alcohol-bitten black currant dip. Sweet grain-malted finish softly settles in.
(SKAGIT RIVER) DUTCH GIRL LAGER
Sterling golden amber bitter provides juicy lemony orange tang to floral-spiced cherry-apple-grapefruit conflux as dry wheat husk folds into sedate perfumed hop comfort. Thanks to its fruity opulence, it’s an unconventional lager bordering on pale ale styling.
(SKA) TRUE BLONDE ALE
‘Vroom!’ states the label, but void blonde never gets out of low gear. Mired by meager wildflower honey souring and inaudible yellow fruit adjuncts, its grassy earthiness becomes grimy, interfering with ancillary floral accents.
SKA TEN PIN PORTER!
Dry espresso opening inundates cola nut-singed bitterness undermined by phenol carbolic fizz, vinous raisin turnoff, and astringent hop-charred finish. Needs thicker mocha semblance and deeper coffee roast.
(SKA) PINSTRIPE RED ALE
Spiced candy tongue tingles trite peppery hop bitterness and barren grain tease before acidic alcohol acridity disrupts citric quince stint. Mainstream bowling league fodder.
SKA E.S.B. SPECIAL ALE
Providing effective daytime relief, canned amber-hued white-headed medium-bodied bitter smuggles wheat-cracked oats-honeyed toasted barleymalts inside tingly floral hop spicing. Orange oil, cantaloupe, and melon illusions inform contagious vanilla Creamsickle motif, pillaging expectant bitterness.
SKA BUSTER NUT BROWN ALE
Mild tawny-hued auburn-highlighted dry body squanders almond-cashew nuttiness and brown-sugared hazenut liqueur reminder for wood burnt faux-pas. Mild lactose creaminess foiled by itinerant sour mocha malt edge, finishing oily.
SIXPOINT SWEET ACTION CREAM ALE
Initially, sour-fruited hefeweizen-pilsner-pale ale combo needed more pronounced Scotch malt thrust and less astringent nuttiness to hike wavering orange-lemon midst and floral-spiced backdrop. Second tasting a year hence, 10% alcohol level enlivened caramelized apple sweetness, broader floral bouquet and ascending piney-hopped grapefruit-apricot finish for much better result.