Upstart Michigan nanobrewer's auburn-cleared red lager places honey-spiced citrus zest above leafy hops and pale malts. Flour-powdered cereal grains soak up lemony tangerine juicing, orange-rotted souring and red cherry sugaring.
Stylistically robust medium body (supposedly reminiscent of a California Common Ale) peaks with tart citric overtones and stone-fruited alacrity riding above grassy hop astringency. Lively grapefruit-juiced orange-tangerine-peach-apple tang picks up zesty lemon notions to its soft white-breaded spine.
Desultory canned version lacks Oktoberfest-seasoned amber lager flavor profile. Bland blue collar fare offers washed-out orange oiling to phenol-spiced apple, peach and tangerine murk. Dewy English yeast earthiness sweetened a tad by coarse cardboard graining. Popcorn finish roughed-up by deep metallic twang.
On tap at Taphouse Grill, middling amber lager needs deeper caramel malting, bitterer earthen hops and spicier fruiting to really take off. Nutty maple splurge and honeyed wheat bed turn to cardboard by musty citric-faded finish.
Indistinct German-styled altbier lacks sufficient conditioning to be stylistically up to snuff. Mushy flavor profile meshes toasted cereal graining with mildewed cherry, orange, apple and apricot fruiting over phenol hop-spiced astringency. Muted chestnut, praline and almond undertones in deep recess. Could pass for a decent red ale.
Mainstream Czech-styled session lager remains just a tad stronger than pale-bodied competition. Easygoing hop-toasted bread crusting and dewy rye persistence sedately affected by superfine sugar-glassed sweetness. Caramel nuttiness cannot overcome bland phenol spicing.
Stylistically shifty amber lager ‘brewed with grapes’ proves to be rather obtuse as advertised grape influence takes a backseat to brisk fruited malting of ancillary autumnal Octoberfest. Seasonal apple-peach-pumpkin-pied gourd spicing usurps barley-toasted almond pasting and leafy hop resin above metallic phenol whim, creating creamy frothed opening. But musty grape-stemmed earthiness, dinky red-yellow-green grape speck, and thin mineral-grained Scotch lick lose out to sterile Band-Aid astringency, leaving unrealized finish to flounder.