Big Sky Montana Trout Slayer Ale

Brewed by Big Sky Brewing Company
Style: Wheat Ale
Missoula, Montana USA

Serve in Shaker, Weizen

Gold with a small white head. Aroma is weak and smells of hops and grain. Taste is of hops, grain and muddy water.

Faint buttery aroma. Copper colour with white head, not much retention. Taste is a little hoppy. You actually can’t taste the wheat. It’s more like a faint IPA than a wheat ale. Interesting.

Very sessionable for a wheat beer. Nice strong hop presence that complements the malt rather than competing with it. Nice moderately sweet taste and medium body.

Appearance: touch of suspended haze. The bottle cap popped with a very audible hiss. An airy fluffy pithy head fades rocky, splotchy, and scatters with airy lace.
Nose: straw and raw husked grains. Dry in the back – old bales of hay. Citric pith – white and dry. Overall raw and dry in a very enticing way.
Palate: straw, grains, earth, and bread. Of the fields and the harvest. Medium-light mouthfeel, weight, and balance of flavors. Sweetness in the middle. Dry and parched – lemon and white grapefruit pith. Essence of the farm, farm life, cowboys, and the broad wild sweeping plains.
Final Thoughts: this beer of all the beers I’ve had from Big Sky out of Missoula, Montana truly brings the whole postcard package for this particular state of the USofA. I still vividly remember the moment when I was moving out to Oregon and somewhere in Wisconsin the fields were vast and golden, the sky azure and never ending, the clouds white and careless, and the sun streamed down in beams of gold as if painted in haphazard inspiration. The Montana Trout Slayer Ale brings me back to this memory, and it is good.

Beer refrig. 12 oz. bottle poured to a shaker with a clear, golden hue, modest, white head foam that rushed rather quickly to form a ring & film, and left some spotty lacing. The aroma was light grain, a touch of caramel sweetness, but also some vegetal and butterscotch hints. The off notes didn’t seem to invade the flavor yet, and added to the initial aroma notes, moderate hop bitterness, a light but non watery texture, good carbonation, and a lightly dry & crisp finish. Past prime, but still quaffable.

Pours clear golden color with barely any head. Banana and clove esters in the aroma with some hints of apricot. Taste is very light and fruity with some alcohol tinge. More apricot flavors develop on the palate. All in all, a very nice crisp wheat that does not follow the usual wheaty trend.

bottle, bread, caramel, citrus, herbs, light sweetness, light body, average carbonation, long finish,

Aroma seems a little vacant. Appearance is pretty standard. Taste is better with some nice bitter hops showing through. The wheat doesn’t seem to add much flavor. Okay I suppose.