Translucent coppery one-off can’t escape miring Sleeman-related grain dankness. Yet heavier alcohol combustion and tangy orange-apricot stint best brewers’ traditional Cream Ale. Sweet malts turn frustratingly pungent though straw-to-cracked wheat spine holds up well against meager lemon drop snip. Too bad carbolic diacetyl finish gets oily. (Numeric appellation designates ancient recipe page.)
All posts by John Fortunato
SLEEMAN CREAM ALE
In cheap transparent bottle not unlike Miller Beer, pale-toned welterweight layers soft lemony-hopped toasted nut sputter and doughy dullness across corn sugared malt piquancy. But light buttery essence lacks discernible creaminess. Polite, simple, indistinct mediocrity gets nod over Genesee.
SLAVUTYCH PYVO PREMIUM LAGER
Pale-hued ivory-headed clear-watered pilsner links perky hops and musty barleymalts to sweet maple complacency. Ultimately, too simple to be effective.
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.