Beaus Lug Tread Lagered Ale

Brewed by Beaus All Natural Brewing Co.
Style: Kölsch
Vankleek Hill, Canada

Serve in Kölsch/Altbier

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Draft at the Cottage and a Kitchen, August 25, 2006, with GRM. Golden lager with a thin white head. Sweet fruity aroma with notes of watermelon and light sulfur. In mouth, a rather sweet unbalanced kolsch, with lots of phenolics, nail polish remover, and an oily mouthfeel. A rather cloying offering. I will have to give it another chance when the second batch is available as this is the first batch by these courageous entrepeneurs (just consider what happened to OVBC, Harts, Masters, Abe and Roscoes, Copperhead...in the difficult eastern ON market!...Ottawa is a hard nut to crack!).

UPDATED: OCT 5, 2008 750 ml ceramic bottle courtesy of recent houseguests. Hazy pale golden beer with a thin white head. Aroma is of light pale malt, fairly crisp with a light crackery maltiness. A kiss of herbal/grassy hops and some minerally bitterness. It’s lightly yeasty as well, lending it a certain breadiness. Moderately creamy body with a softly hoppy finish. It’s substantially better than the last time I tried it and actually quite a nice take on the style. If they can sort out the consistency problems, this should be well-received.

My Bottom Line:
Surreptitious herbal hopping sneaks into clean straw flavors throughout this very drinkable but a tad underachieving Kölsch.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A ring of foam circles the clear pale blond.
-Some watery moments disappoint.
-The light hopping does provide bitterness in the finish, but it will never bother those who aren’t used to it. This is a very approachable ale for newbies.
-The slick cereal sweetness offers nice flavors, but these do not dwell in a compelling mouthfeel.
-This bottle was incredibly clean, so I guess they’ve solved the issues which plagued the first ratings for this beer. Great!
-I get the impression this is better on tap. Hope I can try it soon!

Bottle.

On tap at the Clock Tower in Ottawa as a guest tap. Fresh. Pale yellow with a good head.Significant candy sugar aroma. Watery. A faint bitterness offsetting the taste of sugar and water. Drinkable.

Objectively speaking: Clean and refreshing ale despite the fact that we drank it at a rather high temperature.
I like: Fun german grassy, herbal hops. Pleasant grainy, cerealic, hay-like malts. Well-assembled and clean.
I dislike: Lacking the classic Kolsch tall head and vigorous foam. Not as crisp as it could be. Certainly nothing to write home here.

UPDATED: AUG 19, 2007 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

On tap at Volo, Toronto
Aroma gentle grainy golden nose with slight touch of hops. Fresh.6+
Appearance golden with hint of amber. Medium fine white top.
Flavor and Palate : medium light bodied. Golden malt with medium intense hop feel. Sides are softer. Despite that still is fairly crisp with true Kolsch character. Now if malt was slightly rounder… 14-/20

Huge 750ml bottle courtesy of GregClow. Pours a slightly hazy bubbly yellow-gold with an average size frothy white head. Aroma of grain, yeast, light grassy hops, floral notes, some sugary sweetness and honey -- not too bad actually. Flavour’s sweet and grainy along with grassy hops, pale malt, biscuit and honey -- a little bit too sweet for my liking. Light, short bitter finish. Average bodied. Not bad, definitely one of the better Lagers available locally -- though not something I would choose to order, it’s still something I could easily drink.

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.

Big 600ml bottle, purchased as part of a 4-pack from the LCBO in Kingston for $15. Nice packaging, all eco-friendly, with tons of cool info all over it. Pours a bright clear golden with a frothy white head that shows decent enough retention and some early lace. Clean grainy aroma, no real yeast or fruit that I expect from a true Kolsch. Clean grainy palate, again nothing more, other than to say this was really a tasty pale malt profile. Crisp finish with moderate bittering hops and a slight grassy note in the finish. Truly a nice lager, but a Kolsch... not really.