O’Brien Premium Lager

O’Brien Brewing
Brewed at Rebellion Brewing
Style: Pale Lager
Ballarat, Australia

Serve in Dimpled mug, Lager glass, Shaker

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330ml bottlw Bath Rd. Sweet hop malt aroma with smokeyness. Clear amber colour with poor head and lacing. Bitter malt flavour with stale aftertaste. Flat palate.

330ml bottle, served chilled. Had to try it eventually, so here’s to the first gluten free beer i’ve ever tried. Clear deep golden body, fast dying white head. Didn’t catch the aroma straightup, but as it warms it really starts to ’show its true colours’, so to speak; a somewhat sweet mouldy apple element to it, stale grog and burnt buttered corn. Medium body, low carbonation, a touch of bitterness towards the finish. Wish I didn’t spend so long sniffing this stuff, that buttery, apple-gone-bad flavour takes over, giving me the impression that if i don’t drink this fast enough i’m gonna smell like that and scare people off. Glad to see the market catering for different peoples, though this has got me wondering if beer without gluten really doesn’t work.

I had originally ordered this at the Peppermint Bay Retaurant in Tasmania after being told that they were out of the Dark Isle Leatherwood Porter. I took 2 sips and ordered a Knappstein Premium Lager insteaed. This was f*cking horrible! It poors a slightly-less-than-clear apple juice yellow with no head whatsoever. It tastes like apple juice and corn syrup mixed together. I have never abandoned a beer I ordered in a restaurant until now. Unless you are gluten intolerant, and even if you are gluten intolerant, really think twice before tucking into this stuff.

Bright gold colour with big creamy wite head. Corny/caramel aroma. Sickly sweet maly flavour. Hint of bitterness but bland. Another overuse of the word "Premium"

I think I am going to follow the trend, I don’t want to rag on a beer that has been a passionate pursuit of the brewer that is Gluten Intolerant. On merit, it is a pretty average beer which has some slight bubblegum flavours and a slightly rusty taste. The flavour is similar to the Haagen beer in some respects. Still could be worse, I could have a condition which renders me allergic to all beers other than empire lager (http://ratebeer.com/Beer/carlton-empire-lager Then I would be REALLY pissed (metaphorically, not literally since I wouldn’t be pissed since I wouldn’t drink the stuff).

There’s obviously a need for gluten-free beers, so kudos to these guys for meeting that market. That said, gluten intolerance is the only possible reason for drinking this. It’s one of the queerest fishes swimming in the beer ocean. It’s unappetising to look at: very pale with a faint haze and a negligible head. The sour-sweet aroma is strikingly unusual - crisp acidic apples, with some bubblegum and rusty pail loitering in the background. It’s almost ciderlike. Huh? The mouthfeel is quite chalky and finishes very dry. First sip and again, I’m thinking cider - only it has been diluted with about three parts sodawater to one-part water. There is some orange juice bite there but it’s fleeting and replaced by bubblegum and rusty pail - which I guess must be hops. I’ll say one thing - it’s a hell of a palate cleanser. It leaves barely a trace. (330ml bottle)

O’Brien Premium Lager (Gluten free) Run-of-mill appearance; amber – orange and no head whatsoever. Sweet cheap malts (??? mindful of the gluten free tag…have I read this wrong??) waft out of the glass, good lift. Bubble gum, confectionary like but I can’t help but be a little seduced. Almost has that sweet floral note that Red Oak does so well. Palate brings me down (not crashing!) to earth. Floral, confectionary notes disappear into a very dry and slightly fizzed up palate. Faint sweet notes on finish. Fairly unremarkable but the best gluten free I’ve had recently (a grand total of 2!). A: 2 N: 7 F: 2 P: 3 O: 9

bottled. picked this up at an organic store and expected this to be like most bio-beers - a bit porridgey and messy - but instead it had zero flavour of any description. apart from that of a good, metallic czech mineral water, that is. amazingly pale. quite a remarkable achievement in brewing

UPDATED: JUN 1, 2006 I was over at Sulev’s place. We have shared a number of beers over the years and he always was keen to try some newbies. Well the doctor told him about 18 months ago that he was gluten intolerant and had better lay of the good stuff. He has persisted well on a diet of good wine and the occasional spirit mixers but he often hankers for a beer. Well, he was pleased with the fact that there are some beers out there that won’t make him ill. Regrettably this makes you angry instead. It is a truly bad beer. The diacetyl is way too wacky with an overbearing bubblegum flavour that is sickly and cloying. A really poor effort even though I was truly hoping for something palatable.

I was expecting a gluten-free beer to be a bit odd, but nothing quite like this. It looks like a normal pale lager - pretty piss poor really. Smells strange, though, sort of like pizza dough (which is doubly strange considering it’s gluten free!). Tastes like soda water, which isn’t a good thing. Rather detached mouthfeel, also like soda water. Like mullet, I feel guilty about giving such a poor rating, but really it doesn’t justify any more.