Grand River Plowmans Ale

Brewed by Grand River Brewing
Style: Amber Ale
Cambridge, Canada

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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On cask @ Volo. Pours a dark orange with minimal head. Aroma of sweet fruits, diaper, and sweet bready malt. Flavor of bready malt, English pale malts, toffee, jam, sweet dark fruits, raisin. Kind of odd with a tart palate. Somewhat drinkable but I just didn’t get this one. 6/4/6/3/11 [3.0/5]

500ml, srcrizz style. Copper amber color with a gray-white head. Toffee, peach and some bready malt. Thin watery body. Slightly sweet an sour with some earthy bitterness. Tastes kind of infected to me.

Growler
Appearance :Amber gold with golden fine top.
Nose :Sweet .candy like malt aroma, herbal aroma behind.
Flavour/Palate: Medium bodied, aromatic soft but thinish. Caramel with herbal strike with hint of green bitterness. Fruity finish. Not especially coherent.

Draught @ Bar Volo: Pours copper in colour, little white head. Smells almost cheesy, weird. Tastes like red grapefruit and caramel malts, quite a bit of flavour to be had, most of it from hops. Ok.

UPDATED: SEP 22, 2007 The beer smelled nice and hoppy, but I found that all the taste was middle-loaded (ie my first impression and the finish were both low on flavour. I also found this brew a little watery. Its not offensive, but not something I would order again by choice...their mild is amazing though!

Bottle from scrizz. Instead of us giving him beers for his birthdat, he gave them to us. It was almost a bizarro world tasting without the beer controller pouring my beer and telling me when to finish. Light buggy nose, some toffee/caramel, and some sharp fruity notes. Golden amber no real head. Somewhat tart with an earthy bitterness in the finish. I don’t get much else in this one. Not really my favorite.

Growler APPERANCE: This beer poured very well into my purchased Grand River Brewing glassware. Gorgeous cream coloured head lie afloat of the orange-copper brew, abundant with medium sized bubbles and good clarity. Lacing on the glass was impressive for about 10 minutes than dissipated. AROMA: Mild fruitiness (very few esters), a little too clean. Medium malt aroma, slightly sweet with a hint of toastiness. Hop aroma is very plesent and floaral. FLAVOUR / MOUTHFEEL: Body is thin, Medium to low mouthfeel and adequete carbination. Any maltiness is quickly dismissed as the harsh bitterness takes control (more aparent on the second mouthfull). Very green, raw hop bitterness lingers and lingers and lingers. No balance of malt to hop flavours. Hop flavour is very abundant and over-powering. Hard to detect any malt contributions. No complexity. OVERALL PERSONAL COMMENT: Excited to try this beer and at first it looked promising. I like hops in my beer (a lot) but in regards to the style of beer and when everything comes together nicely. This beer is strictly for HOP HEADS who don’t mind if there is no flavour balance. Nice to try but no interest in further pours at this point.

Bottle. Malt, grassy hops aroma. Sour hop taste. A bit acidic but passable. Never would’ve guessed this was an amber ale from what I was tasting... may need to try this one again.

Slow gusher, popped and left on the counter, a minute later it’s sitting in a pool with a small foam puff rising out of the lip. Bottle conditioned? Cool. Cloudy rust brown body with a fine-bubbled tan head. Infected nose, all isovaleric acid, cheesy, lactic, minerally, blood-like and metallic. Spoilage actually tastes like a poorly made biere de garde or saison, with some minerally, dusty yeast (the bad kind) taking over some of the malt sweetness. Pretty bad.

I smelt this smell b4. One small finger of bubbly head. Red to light veary little carbination. Amber in front o me with lots of carbination. Smell is a hoppy beer kinda like a west coast ipa smell. Taste starts of a toffyish or caramelish maltyness but not alot of taste to the malt because the hops dominat this beer and take over quickly. Earthyness taste stays on tounge long and its a earthy light citrus hop taste. Later the cramel or tofee malt show a bit again. Hop heads would really be into this one perhaps. More for the hop head then the malt lover. Not great but not horrid. Cheer’s!