Menabrea 1846

Brewed by Menabrea (Forst)
Style: Pale Lager
Biella, Italy

Serve in Dimpled mug, English pint, Lager glass, Shaker

Pours a slightly amber pale gold with a fluffy, 1 finger, white head that has good retention and leaves some lacing. Aroma is sweet corn, sweet cereal grain, and the dusty aroma of corn being harvested. Flavor is lightly grassy, somewhat floral and corny with a grassy and mineral finish. Palate is light bodied and dry with a light carbonation. Realy not very good, the fruity notes absolutely do not fit well.

Pale, sickly blond color with very foamy, etiolated head. Crisp Euro-hop (Saaz?) aroma with a light graininess translates into a similarly crisp hop and mild grain body. Pretty clean and not bad for the style. Quenching and vacuous.

Upon opening an obvious skunk character bursts out of my pint glass. Appears clear and filtered, with a short-lasting thin head and minor lacing. Upon closer inspection, the green bottle obviously did not help prevent any skunking, and who knows how long this particular specimen had been waiting in the fridge, just waiting for its latest victim. Getting past the skunky aroma, slight DMS; a definite cooked corn flavor perhaps evidence of high adjunct brewing. Body is very light, thin, crisp finish....a bit tart. Oh, if Europe had a Hamm’s...this would be it!

12oz bottle courtesy of Alesandro. Sub-standard Euro-Pils. Filtered yellow corn color. Sugary diacetyl-laced mess. Too sweet, the sugary sweetness overpowers any bitterness. The corny malt flavor is just not good.

Bottle. Pale golden with medium white head. Aroma with floral hopp notes, malt, bread. Taste bitter hopps after a while malt dominates, some bitterness in the finish. A very good pale lager

Pours a crystal clear golden yellow with a favourable white head. Big skunky smell, I want to smell it for just how perfect they got the skunk smell. If I didn’t have a beer in my hand, I would be going outside to scare off some rodent in my backyard. Taste is basically meaningless. Mildly flavoured cold water.

330 ml bottle from SAQ, served cold in a tulip glass. BB 02.02.2011.

App.: Clear pale golden with a decent white froth. Aroma: Some light floral, woodsy, sweetish-fruity hops, some light fruity-biscuity malts, oddly sweet smelling. Palate: Medium body, fairly low carbonation. Flav.: A lot of cardboard, not much else, blech.

Started off so-so and went down from there.

Bottle. Pours a pale golden body with a white head. Bread and grainy notes, some grass and dry earth tones. Some paper and a light floral note. Skunk y with some corn and typical pale lager taste. Eh.