Hogshead Lake Lightning

Brewed by Hogshead Brewery
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Denver, Colorado USA

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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Half pint draft at Hogshead in Denver, Colorado. The pour is mostly clear yellow golden with a nice 1/2 inch white head that left behind nice lacing. The aroma is lightly sweet malt, a cracker crispness, and a grassy hay hop element. The taste is cracker malt nicely balanced with the grassy hop character. Very light amount of malt sweetness shows as the beer warms. The palate is light bodied, with nice bright carbonation and a crisp clean finish. Another super easy drinking beer from Hogshead.

On cask and dry-hopped with East Kent Goldings. Light bright yellow-orange, sudsy head. Brief citrus like smell, nice aroma. Flavor is just a solid English ale, malty yet a hint of hops, easy drinking, delicious. I wish I could be more nuanced and descriptive but this was just flat out a good session beer. Serving type: cask Reviewed on: 08-26-2012 02:55:50

(Draught) Pours a clear yellow body with small white head. Aroma of grain, earth, dough, and light citrus peel. Flavor of grain, light fruit, honey, and bread with a dry finish.

Semi-clear honey golden with a thin foamy head that leaves great lacing. Nice malty aroma with some honey and cereal grains, golden malts, and a nice easy going grassy presence with just a whisper of orange rind. The flavor is nice and biscuity with a firm gold malt and dry honey backbone, balancing grassy bitterness and slightly acidic hop/doughy yeast finish. Quite nice.

Draught at the brewery, on October 10, 2012
Hazy golden color, off-white to yellow head. Hoppy, malty, caramel taste. Medium mouthfeel, medium bitterness. Sweet, malty, caramel scent.

Cask at Hogshead (EKG version). Head varies greatly based on server pouring skill (some are flat with no head, some are frothy with a one-finger creamy head). Body is cloudy dark yellow to light amber. Aroma is lightly to moderately malty (toasted grain, wort), lightly to moderately hoppy (grapefruit, kumquat), lightly to moderately yeasty (dough/vitaminB). Flavor is moderately sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly bitter. Finish is lightly sweet, lightly to moderately acidic, lightly to moderately bitter. Light to medium body, watery texture, soft carbonation. So the rumor around the campfire is that the quality at this brewery is very inconsistent, and although both of my samples were not very good, the concept of this brewery is very cool (as with Prost)...trying to do things a little more traditionally old world than the vast majority of American brewpubs. This sample was doughy, raw/unfinished, and sharply acidic. The Black Gold seemed to suffer from being put on a little too soon as well, smelling slightly of wort and having an underattenuated/syrupy mouth experience. I expect there are some of the same issues going on here as at Prost...the newness of the brewery, struggling to serve customer demand (two of the five keg beers were out on my visit), etc. Hopefully in time the rough edges will get ironed out. Looking forward to the patio getting added too, that will help a lot with the small seating area. Beware also that this seems to be a very child-friendly place; on my visit there were no less than six occasionally-screaming toddlers at three separate tables running around...not my kinda scene for drinking beer, but if you’re a parent it’s undoubtedly awesome.

Tap @ brewery. A bit hazy, yellow orange appearance with a white head. Light citrus, a bit toasty, floral hoppy aroma. Quite soapy/floral hoppy, mildly toasty, a bit earthy flavor. Creamy and quite bitter. My least favorite here so far.

UPDATED: JUL 28, 2012 EKG / Challenger non-dry-hopped firkin:
hazed gold body, cascading and billowy on the pour with an active trail of effervescence rising from the bottom of the glass. bright noble hop nose is pith and rind of citrus, zesty and vibrant. extremely well structured real ale here, at 4.5% it’s marvelously dense and rich and has a fullness on the palate that’s suited for it’s size, and the bitterness, sweetness and acid all match as well. all maris otter malt is warm and toasty. English ale yeast gives it all a charming mustiness. overall quite delicious, the mouthfeel is especially enjoyable. the small amount of diacetyl is even so well-integrated as everything else. a wondrous beer. (4.3)

Simcoe dry-hopped firkin:
hugely floral simcoe nose, prickly, acidic citrus juice and musty flower petals. doughy marris otter malt is sticky, moderately sweet honey suculence. the body, of coruse, is hugely creamy from natural carbonation in the cask. medium-high acid with medium sweetness, soft bitterness and greenness and a mild English yeast mustiness and mineral note with a light cheese rind and buttered biscuit finish. incredible stuff. (4.0)

UPDATED: AUG 5, 2012 (Update - simcoe dry hopped cask - holy shit, it is amazing how cask conditioning and a hop variant can change a beer - original rating was a 3.3 - this cask version blows that out of the water - bready but dry - bright, citrusy hops - lovely dry yeast notes - sweetness from the tap version is totally absent - great stuff) Tap at the brewery - told this was about 4.5% - lightly hazy bright orange pour - frothy head - light body, but with a slightly bready texture - flavors of light honey sweetness up front, followed by some light buttered toast - then the beer dries out a bit and leaves quite a lovely snappy, floral finish, with just a lint note of mineral - good, but probably my least favorite of what I have had here.