Fort Collins Z Lager

Brewed by Fort Collins Brewery
Style: Smoked
Fort Collins, Colorado USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Stein

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Brew pours clear copper color with a nice big, fluffy off white head. Aroma is of bacon, wood, and barbecue. Flavor is right up there with the Schlenkerla’s from Germany. Profoundly smokey from start to finish. This is an excellent example of the style from a nice Colorado brewery. I will pick up a sixer of this next time I am in Boulder.

UPDATED: JUL 10, 2006 Origan rate: 2.9
</br> Pours a translusent brown/orange with almost no head. Aroma of salty smoked meat! The tastes is smokey and taste almost like smoked ham or salmon. A unique flavor I have never tasted in a beer. Not my favorite but has unique characteristics.
</br> Rerate:7/10/06: 3
</br> Still has a odd sweet smoked ham nose. Starts out moderetly sweet, followed by a hints of soy sauce, ends with a hint of smokey ham. Nice robust mouthfeel for a lagar with a nicely carbonated body. Interesting enough to have one in a great while.

An orange amber pour with a soapy head that dissipates after a few minutes. I have to preface this rating by saying I am stupid and managed to freeze the beer while I was trying to chill it. So this beer has been frozen and thawed out. I don’t know what effect that will have. The aroma isn’t very appealing. I smell the smoke but it isn’t wood smoke. The smoke flavor is more subtle than the aroma. Not bad. It gets points for trying the whole smoked thing. Thanks to pdee, who was my secret santa.

Orange-amber color with a pale tan head. Aroma of beechwood-smoked malt and toasty, toffee, sweet, warm malt. There is definitely a great balance between the malt sweetness and smokey phenolic. Bitterness is present but is in balance with little discernable hop flavor. The body is medium-medium/full. Enough smoke to enjoy but I did not feel I was drinking bacon (this is a good thing).

Aromas of smoke and burnt plastic, rubber. Any breadiness is subdued by some malty sugars, but they seem a little on the artificial side. In the mouth, this is a bit thinner than expected, with some acidic flavorings alongside the nice smokiness. Needs a bit more malty oomph, and smoother oilyness, without the acrid back of the throat medicinal drip. Still, quite good, but I recently had a truly delicious smoked lager that is too near to my mind to make this fair. That being said, I’d drink a lot of it. Man, I need to send pdee, Ringo and ecrvich a growler of the Arbor Batch 1000 Smoked lager for comparison. Smoked lagers are yummy. I like them. Thanks pdee.

Meaty smoke flavor, light nose of smoked malts with some licorice and smoked corn. Even palate, soothing mouth feel and medium bodied.

This beer was sampled at the Fort Collins brewery. It pours a clear ambery color with a thick creamy white head. Smoke, wood, salt, pork, smokey roastiness and hints of wood and malt are the predominant aromas. I mean there was a lot going on in the nose, but it was somewhat faint at times. The body is very light with mild carbonation, a good degree of malt and a very sweet finish. A nice smokey but drying aftertaste..light and pleasant.

12oz bottle Amber...forced head didn’t stick. Malty aroma hinty smoked bacon. Smoke a bit more noticeable in the flavor, but it ain’t hammy. Medium bodied, crisp beer. Malty, only subliminal hops...nice balanced finish...the smoke pushes it just beyond a malty session lager into something with intrigue..

Dark copper red. A good amount of smokiness in this - actually about the same amount in both the flavor and aroma. Very malty, but not overly sweet - more bready. Body was almost thick and full flavored - I thought this was very tasty.

Thanks to hey-kevin for the bottle. Has a large white head and adark amber coloring. The glass has lots of residual lacing. The aroma is malt, apple wood smoke and some must. The taste is funky metallic with a soybean finish. This is interesting for a lager, but I didn’t detect as much smoke as the other raters.