Enterprise Brewery Knappstein Reserve Lager

Brewed by Enterprise Brewery (Knappstein Wines)
Style: Premium Lager
Clare, South Australia, Australia

Serve in Lager glass

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UPDATED: JAN 8, 2007 Wow, it’s about time Australia produced a decent NZ-style lager, those Kiwi hops seem really well-suited to good, distinctive lagers, even though they can get a bit funky for my tastes. Very pale and very clear with pretty patchy head retention. Initial aroma is like LCPA if it were brewed in NZ - floral lychees and Nivea hand cream like LC with lemon pepper, kiwi fruit, an odd hint of treacle and some other raunchy NZ hop stuff. The aroma’s really strong actually... in both senses of the word. I don’t particularly see the sauvignon blanc comparison. I suppose it has a bit of a white grape aroma, but sav blancs don’t have that. Malt flavour is pretty limp, a touch sweet, thin and papery, lacking somewhat in both quality and quantity (esp. at the higher ABV) I’d say. It’s all drowned out in a mass of hop flavour anyway, which isn’t as impressive as the aroma. It’s kind of weedy and awkward, with a really awkward prickly, almost chemical note that I can’t really describe. At normal hopping levels it probably wouldn’t be an issue but the hop flavour is so obvious here that it gets quite rough. It’s not bitter, in fact the finish is quite weak, but there’s so much hop flavour that it more than balances the malt. It’s weird though, when you start drinking it this beer seems amazing, but the more you delve into it the less fun it becomes. Perhaps it’s the disproportionately large hop flavour, or the lack of quality malt, but by the end of a glass you aren’t exactly tearing off to the fridge to grab another bottle, and the more I drink it the more obvious its flaws become. That said, this is a really impressive beer, and quite unique in the Australian scene, especially considering its wide distribution. Top marks for doing something interesting - hopefully they’ll do some more quality lager styles too.
RR: Drank the last couple of bottles I had from the bottle itself and there was something decidedly dodgy about it. I suspect it is actually the hops, but it gave the impression of something much worse. Weird.

This beer offers very little aroma but over-delivers on the flavour. The taste is more complex than any other lager I’ve ever tasted

Pale straw colour. Citrus,grapefruit taste. Lots of flavour for a lager, maybe due to the sauvin hops.

Poured very clear pale amber with moderate white head that lasted a few minutes. Big aroma of sweet citrus that is great but has not much else. Taste of citrus nicely matched with bitter hopps with the hopps continuing to a very long bitter finish. Plenty of flavour here for a lager. Medium body with thin oily texture and soft carbonation. Overall a pleasant lager, but perhaps a touch too bitter.

Pale straw in colour with a lovely white head, Notes of grapefruit on the nose. The flavour is rather fruity and this beer grows on me the more I drink it. The beer has a lingering bitterness reminisent of a Kolsch

Pours a light yellow colour with a frothy white head. Aroma is fruity with some floral notes. Taste also fruits such as grapefruit and grape with some floral hops and yeast. Nice soft mouth feel. Long subtle bitter finish. Really surprising, liked this one a lot.

Brown bottle brought back from Australia by brother-in-law. Intringuing lager from Clave Valley more renown for it’s riesling than their beer. Best before 13 june 2012. Nice straw-wheat field colour with a white head. At first the smell is very nice, cat pee, some mango, New-Zealand unripe sauvignon grapes wine. I like this nose !!! The taste equal the nose with this ton of mango fruit, pineapple and this very distinctive Nelson Sauvin hops. Nice texture, good mouthfell. This beer is a regal. I would easy make this beer my back from work drink.

(Une dégustation offerte par rodenbach99. Merci!) Une robe jaune pâle. Une petite tête blanche. Un nez de malts pâles qui rencontre des houblons débordant de fleurs, d’ananas, de mangue et d’agrumes doux. Des saveurs bien goûteuses en fruits et en fleurs sucrées. Un malt légèrement mielleux. Une bouche de moyenne densité avec un pétillement normal et une texture huileuse. Une finale amère sur des notes florales et fruitées. Difficile à battre.

330 ml Bottle. Pours straw yellow, with small long lasting head. Floral and fruity citrus aroma - similar flavours - one of the most flavoursome lagers i’ve ever had - and very enjoyable.

bread, floral, dough, pale, clear, white foam, medium bitterness, medium body, oily feel, lively, bitter,

If this is truly a lager than it is the finest I have ever had. There are floral and citrus hops from the nose. I haven’t had Sauvin hops before. The beer is medium bitter and the hops bite has a funky, resiny note with some pine. There is a slight malt backing, but I don’t feel as if this beer is as well balanced as the hops are very astringently powerful and are overtaking the rest. This beer certainly has a high craft value and as a lager there is something very nice here. At the same time, it is still in a category that I mostly avoid. Cheers!