Green Valley Brewing Wild Hop Lager

Bottle - do they really serve this on tap? Some sort of "Modern Marvels" date stamp code - don’t have the industrial engineer’s handbook with me to figure it out - the undetermined date and minute of manufacture remains an enigma. OK I really didn’t want to like this beer. I am pissed that A-B was not clearly marked on the bottle; feel hoodwinked again. But now that I have that out, I’ll give it a fair shot: Nice orange-gold body holds up an industrial five fingers plus head, more than the pint glass can hold. Aroma is first caramel, but fades quickly to typical pine/citrus/metallic hop. Taste a little hoppy (hardly wild!) and not bad at first, turns to slight skunky lager and pine oil not much later. Smooth and sorta dry finish, lingering malt aftertaste. It could be my imagination, but it seems this beer lost most of the original aroma and flavor in about five minutes! Palate is not bad. Now that I think about it, this beer would be the preferable alternative in one of the many places that only had other A-B drafts!.But a better alternative is to avoid those types of places altogether. A pretty good step up from the normal A-B factory output.

2.6.07 On tap at Andy’s. Didn’t know this was an A-B product until I got here. It was decent enough. Organic? Interesting.

So I knew up front that this was a Bud product, but when all you have to choose when buying a new single is this or some strawberry wheat that you just know will be a disaster, you’re going to give this a shot. I’ll say one thing, the label on this beer is downright perfect... I mean, it’s appetizing, it makes me thirsty, it gets me excited about drinking farmhouse ales while strolling down a hillside of freshly cut wheat. I’m not being funny here, I’m saying that AB has the money to come up with the perfect design, photo, color scheme and name for this beer... just look at it, all warm and pleasent, and the name is wild hop lager... it makes me think I’m going to drink some amazing dry-hopped harvest ale. But of course I know that won’t be the case, I know this is a bud product, so I don’t expect much. So what do I get? The nose is tinny honey, the flavor is apple with that honey, and the texture is nothing more than bubbling apple juice. Nothing close to a good beer, but it passes for drinkable. I still want to eat the label, though.

12oz bottle. pours amber with ok head. nice hoppy smells, slightly lemony and spicy. taste is smooth, body is light and crisp. the hop flavor was more muted than i expected. i wonder if the "wild" hops vary by batch. nothing special...ok to try

A simple but not spectacular taste. Color is nice, and it is very smooth with just a little bitterness. Not a great beer, but OK for a party or when you’re not in the mood for a seriously flavorful beer.

More of lager than hop aroma. Taste in thin and stringy and not hoppy, not even close to a pilsener. Not good.

Bottle sampled with Beerded one. Pours copper with a white head. Aroma of hops, caramel, and oranges. The flavor is orange peel, slightly bitter, caramel, very thin. Ok brew.

Bottle from Pat’s. Coppery ruby color with frothy off-white head. Aroma of caramel malt, hops, slight cabernet-like fruits. Medium to light palate heft, with flavors of caramel malt, slight hops, and some slight red grapes. Not bad, but there are just too mant great hop beers around to have this again.