Beaus Lug Tread Lagered Ale

Draught half-pint at The Manx in Ottawa, July 18 2007. Hazy bright gold with a nice lasting small white creamy head and more than a spot of lacing....fresh, grainy, lightly hoppy-grassy aroma offers faint pungent-farmy notes, honey and a light but distinctive noble hop character....rather sweet on the tongue but plenty of grassy hops keep things very drinkable, fairly crisp and dries out quite nicely at the finish, a nice light mineralic bite caps the experience....could be just a bit fuller and the sweetness is a tad overdone, but these are minor complaints; this is solid, whether pilsner/helles (what it tastes most like) or kolsch (what it’s listed as). Very odd experience....not the beer itself so much as getting to a computer and reading about it here. Did I have the same beer all of you did? I knew nothing about what this was at all when I saw it on the board at the Manx, and was hugely impressed. I’m sure it helps that the tap lines for both beers I tried were obviously very clean, and this was very, very fresh....but still, the ratings mystify me. At any rate, I’ll look for it again when I’m next in Ontario and see if this was just a fluke, a huge improvement in quality, or if perhaps my taste is just very different.

Robe blonde très claire surmontée d’une mousse blanche épaisse qui s’estompe. Arômes de soufre. Saveurs de soufre, de diacétyle et de céréales. Lagered ale... ?

Draft at Cafe Nostigica in Ottawa. Clean, crisp taste, not overly carbonated. Decent summer drink.

On Tap @ C’est What beer fest 2006. nice and crisp, like you would expect, a very nice malt backbone, similar to a good pils. solid beer, but i dont think it would hold up in a bottle. Rerate: bought 2 ceramic 750ml directly from the brewery, they had been bottled 30 minutes before i bought them, so this is pretty much as fresh as this beer gets! LOvely pour, a golden, but slightly amber pour. Lots of nice biscuity malty, and breadiness in the nose. Some nice hops, and more biscuit malt in the flavour, just a great lager, when this stuff is fresh, its outstanding!

Cask @ Volo Cask Days ’06. Cloudy yellow. Nose is orange, lemon, light malt. Smells like frozen orange juice concentrate. Flavor is orange juice concentrate, faint bready malt. Not much else. This is nothing like a kolsch. Some sort of fruit beer maybe, but certainly not a kolsch.

[067-20061021] Tap @ Black Tomato (Ottawa,ON). Apply wheat-breaddough beer aroma. Lightly cloudy, dark apple-coloured body with bubbly sides and a small quick creamy white head. Tastes a bit of grassy hops, breaded but light on the butter and not particularly expansive. Light-medium body with a nice bubbly feel, nothing overpowering. Togetherness is okay though a little astringent.

August 2007. Golden Tap Awards. Crisp pale yellow body with a good white head that fades (3+). Grassy hops have floral lightly "cheesy" notes of noble hops. (6+) Light bitterness throughout, mild pale malt support. More of the floral hop notes. (6+) Average palate. Quafffable, and technically well executed but on the mild side, and the hops are not to my personal taste. 6+/3+/6+/3/13 - 3.2 <P>October 2006. Draft @ The Black Tomato in Ottawa. Bright yellow body, small white head. Muted hops in the aroma, is mild and muted to start with and further muted by the cold temperature. Comes out slightly more as it warms. Light fruity notes in the flavour, pleasant mild noble hop flavour and bitterness. Average palateis slightly fuller than some. Pleasant-ish, strongly reminds me of some other beer I can’t place. Not to my tastes but sort of drinkable. 5/3/6/3/11 - 2.8

Draught @ beerbistro: Pours a vibrant yellow with a thin white head; very little lacing or head retention. Aroma is quite faint but seemed to me to be of a slightly off malt, almost like composted vegetables. Not that bad, but there’s a similarity there. Flavour is fine for what is visually a pale ale, and it does offer a lager-like crispness to it. Some complexity in sweet citrus fruits and a plum/peach tone. Not at all bad, but I question how it won the Golden Tap Award.