Bards Tale Dragons Gold

Brewed by Gordon Biersch Brewing Company
Style: Specialty Grain
Palo Alto, California USA

Consumed 8 months after production. Very clear amber with hints of ruby. Good appearance is where the ’goodness’ ends for this brew. Aroma is of sugary malts (this is a sourghum based concoction). No head and there was large bubbles lazily making their way to the top, so I figured the conditioning would not have much bite, but I was wrong. The carbonation had quite a bit of sting. mouthfeel was light to medium and left a slick palate. The tongue curling sweetness was followed by a tinny/metallic taste. Don’t think I’ll try this again...I bought a single 12 oz bottle from Binny’s and I’m glad I never got the sixer...

Bottle. Pours thin amber with an aroma of beans and corn with butter. Tastes like soy, dirt, and butter. Thin and lifeless on the tongue. Please, PLEASE- no more sorghum beers.

My first sorghum beer. The bottle says it was brewed on 7/25/06.. So this is what they’re drinking in China...the poor saps. Sorghum certainly ain’t barley and the difference is in the beer. Still I could understand a cult following for the sharp taste of sorghum. Not me though.

? Pours a clear gold, a bit on the fizzy side, briefly topped by an inch of white foam. A minute goes by, and there is only a thin film of the head left. Sweet aroma - a little fruity. The beer is mainly dry with a generic hop tang in the finish, but it it accompanied by this unusual flowery sweetness - similar to sugar and honey and appley fruit. Body just shy of medium, lightly carbonated. The hops make me want to call it crisp or clean or refreshing, but that unusual sweetness prevents me from doing so.

Pours a light clear gold with a thin to almsot no white head. No lace and low carbonation. Aroma is tre bark, lightly minty, spicy, doughy and yeasty. Cream of wheat flavor, more tree bark, pizza dough, and a harsh graininess towards the finish. Bland aftertaste and a wierd slick mouthfeel. Pretty bad- drain pour after about half a glass.

12 oz bottle from City Market in Burlington VT (December 2006) consumed from a Coors Banquet glass just out of the fridge. One of the modern wonders of the world is how we can re-make traditional products so that, having one or two crucial ingredients missing, we hardly notice the difference! Sugar-free sodas, fat-free mayonnaise, maple "flavored" syrup with no maple in it....these are miracles of modern science! So it is with bold anticipation that I take the plunge into the technological triumpth that is Bard’s Tale: it pours a thick, oily gold with just a touch of head....the nose is sickly, sickly sweet, I guess it bears a *faint* resemblance to a beer, maybe even a cream ale, but mostly it smells like caramel candy and cream soda.....the body is quite sweet also, but the thick carbonation and almost immediate hammerblow of metallic saltiness makes this taste in the end like a cheap soda gone wrong....undrinkable beyond three sips. So much for science.

Pour is a bright golden with a a white head. Aroma is musty with a little apple cider. Flavor is sweet but bitter with a tart finish. Not sure if i get the sorghum beers there is always something missing.

Bottle. Pours clear and golden with a quickly disappearing head. Aroma is sweet, almost apple scent. Taste is light, thin and sweet with a slightly bitter finish. Definitely a unique beer. Glad I tried it.