Lakefront New Grist Sorghum Beer

Brewed by Lakefront Brewery
Style: Specialty Grain
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

20-Mar-08 (12-oz bottle, Brewed July, 2007: Purchased 23-Dec-07 for $1.59 at the Pizza Port Bottle Shop in Carlsbad, CA) Possibly the most requested gluten-free beer at my store, it’s good to finally see some local distribution. Sweet, fruity nose combines the scents of apple cider, peach, apricot and grape with wine barrel oakiness. It smells too much like fruit juice though, so it’s good that the flavor is significantly different. Unfortunately, though still a bit fruity with light sweetness, the flavor is just plain weird and makes me wince. I’m strongly reminded of white wine barrels, but more accurately, this beer tastes like the brewer aged a cheap pale lager in a white wine barrel. There’s no noticeable contribution from hops, and I have to wonder if a nice hop profile wouldn’t help the flavor tremendously. Medium in carbonation, but the bubbles are large and rough on the palate. Without hops bitterness, the palate quickly becomes stale and begs for a toothbrush. Clear, pale-golden body is briefly capped by a small, white, very bubbly head that crackles as it rapidly dissipates. Overall, it has an fun, interesting nose, but the pale lager/white wine barrel combination just doesn’t work for me. For all the hype over this beer, usually praised by customers as the best sorghum-based beer on the market, I think Bard’s Tale is much more palatable.

12 oz bottle. Pours a very pale light yellow color with a fizzy white head the sounds and reminds me of soda. The white head that is produced withers and dies very fast not even leaving a lacing ring or anything to remember it by. The aroma is almost in two parts. The first part is real brief but it is there. It reminds me REALLY QUICK of a beer that I might drink. Then part two kicks in and it smells like apple vinegar. Not really what I want to think about when I go to take a sip. Now the weird part is that it is not a horrible tasting beverage. The flavor has it’s moments but it is sort of bland as a whole. The body is a bit thin but I’m not going to hold that against it. There is a slight warming sensation I get after my sip that shows up in the back of my throat. I would not make this a regular drinker but if there was no possible way to ever have real barley beer again, I guess this would do...let’s hope the world never come to that.

THOUGHTS: Odd aroma and flavor that was had to explain. At first I thought, not great, but if I couldn’t drink normal beer I guess I could get used to it, but definitely only in the summer. But then whoa, as the chill went just slightly away it became more difficult to drink. It was sort of like watered down cream soda or ginger ale. I don’t know what sorghum tastes or smells like, but if this is it it’s bad. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Poured a light to medium yellow with odd carbonation where there were large bubbles that rose occasionally along with tiny streams of bubbles. There was an extremely small, white head that went away almost before I could the glass down after the pour. The aroma was mostly sort of band-aid along with chemicals and a little citrus (lemon). The initial flavor was moderately sweet and lightly acidic and bitter; while the finish was lightly sweet, moderately to heavily acidic and moderately bitter with a thankfully short duration. The flavor started out just like a slightly odd pale ale then it was like medicine, chemicals, more medicine and some citrus. The light to medium body was sort of oily and syrupy at the same time, or really more like some sort of homemade mouthwash or gargle. It had tingly carbonation with a sot of metallic, moderate to heavy astringent finish that also dried out the throat without really being dry.

Slight taste of Budweiser apple. Overall, fairly bland beer with little going for it. Served at a colleague’s home. Left half unfinished.

My deepest apologies to those with celiac disease. this was truly an experience that I would not wish on anyone. Strong sorghum taste, and makes my mouth feel like I just rinsed it with hydrogen peroxide. Given the gluten free beer options that I have tried thus far I recommend drinking rum.

What the hell were the fellows at Lakefront thinking when they put this weird shit together? Were they simply trying to tap into the "wheat allergic" crowd? Looks like piss and tastes like a bland piece of white bread soaked in tap water.

Richmond Gathering. 12 oz bottle. Gold with a white head, lotsa floaties. Odd, wheatlike grainy. Whatever.

As a gluten intolerant person myself, i was fairly impressed with this beer. Gluten free beers may never be as good as a real beer with barley or wheat, but in the mean time this is a viable substitute.