Distinct agave-tequila aroma hits the nose as soon as bottle opens. Best with lemon twist. More full-bodied and hop-pepped than most Mexican brews.
Category Archives: Beers A-Z
CHRISTIAN MOERLEIN SELECT LIGHT
Soured yeast flow and doughy baked bread backup lack hop muster as pallid fizz mires flimsy wheat base to phenol finish.
(NOUVELLE) CLAIRE FONTAINE PALE ALE
Easygoing yellow-hazed pale ale maintains simple buttery-nosed pilsner appeal as pale-malted banana-orange-apricot dryness caresses barley-wheat mildness. Picture courtesy of www.ratebeer.com
(CLIPPER CITY) RED SKY AT NIGHT SAISON ALE
Savory up-front bruised orange souring gains noticeable alcohol riff as syrupy malt resilience counters engaging juniper bitterness of uncommonly rich summery Saison. Banana, grapefruit, and coriander illusions excel along the way.
COLD SPRING HONEY ALMOND LAGER
Brewed since 1874, northern Minnesota brew is classified as “smooth, creamy, full-bodied lager with sweet nutty flavor.” But its funky compost aroma, peach-y pertinence, and honeyed almond presence make strange bedfellows. A weird soured fruit-rotted finish consumes otherwise easy to drink, if unusual, lager.
COOPERS DARK ALE
Tepid brown-bodied middleweight suffers from lackluster up-front toasted hop thrust, fleeting dry prune souring, and astringent roasted chocolate malting to earthen nutty bottom. Meek cola sweetness hardly felt.
CORONA EXTRA PILSENER
The poor sister to Modelo Especial Pale Lager much like Busch is to Michelob. Typically light, watery, fizzy Mexican pils with agave splash mired by unobtrusive neutrality; skunked if warmed (so drink quickly!). Better canned version deletes dreary Tequila dash for richer grain husk and slight yellow fruit dalliance blue collar Americans favor. Try with lemon slice over seafood dinner.
(CRESTED BUTTE) WHITE BUFFALO PEACE ALE
Macho “White Buffalo” moniker probably taken from guitar rocker Ted Nugent, who may imbibe this when hunting season is over. Lackluster hops and faintly sweet grains need better briskness for that cool assumption, instead of staying watery, foamy, and indistinguishable. Brewery defunct: 2007.
CUGINO LIGHT LAGER
America’s first Italian-styled brew, a flaccid pale lager, suffers from musty sourness, cloy corn malts, and dank gluten finish. Scotch notes tingle caramelized wheat base. Brewery defunct: 2004.
(D’AUBEL) BIERE D’AUBEL
Pour slowly champagne cork-scented nickel-coppered apple blossom special. Dry-hopped seltzer fizz caresses vinous quince souring and sparkling cider essence to barley-wheat backdrop. Pacific mandarin orange, white peach and persimmons tartness stays distance. But dubious finish assumes pilsner-like blandness.
DE GROEN’S DARK LAGER
Astringent mocha scent turns acidic on the tongue, upsetting quickly fading roasted nuttiness of cola-flowing lager. Closer to weak, indistinct brown ale. Brewery defunct: 2006.
DE RANKE XX BITTER
Green-bottled, pearly bubble-headed, scurvy-scented, amber-hued Belgian bitter maintains plush carbolic fizz and hefty citric-herbal hop tartness to dirty-grained foundation, culminating with durable yeat-sweetened barnyard-dried orange peel finish. Expansive hop-embittered prevalence conveys earthy ashen slither after few sips.