Upright The Clash Beer

Brewed by Upright Brewing
Style: Strong Pale Lager/Imperial Pils
Portland, Oregon USA

Serve in Dimpled mug, Footed Pilsner, Lager glass, Stein

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UPDATED: FEB 2, 2011
In short: A very sharp pilsner style beer that goes off the beaten path. A strange but very enjoyable session beer.
How: Bottle 750ml. Consumed fresh about one month after purchase. Bottle sent to me by mcberko, thanks a lot Matt
The look: Mostly clear yellow-blonde body (gets partially cloudy at the end of the bottle) topped by a HUGE white head with good retention leaving lots of lacings on the glass.
In long: Nose is full of yellowed grass, some lemongrass and with some hospital gloves style phenols. The well malted body is filled with pale pils malts with a dry plain salty crackers taste. Reminds me of salted Premium Plus™ crackers. I got a lot of salt/minerals (borderline metallic) sensation from this beer that just added to the astringency and didn’t feel out of place. Then comes the hops with a strong yellowed grass and citric character. Very sharp finish that is as citric and dry as it is bitter. The last 10% of the bottle was quite different from the rest. The doughy yeast changed everything. My bottle was stored for two weeks horizontally in a wine cellar but that wasn’t good enough. I recommend turning the bottle upside-down to spread the yeast before opening. There was some plastic/phenols from start to finish that lowers my overall score but by and large this is a wonderful session beer. The scores are pretty low for this so obviously I like it much more than most people. I’m probably wrong, I have low self esteem, and that’s all my fault..

Shibby-dibby-doo. A 750 ml. bottle purchased from Malt and Vine. It’s quite carbonated. In fact, I’m having to wait quite a while just to imbibe. This has a most excellent aroma. From the description, they say they didn’t use brettanomyces, but I’m getting a brett-like aroma. It has a wonderfully crisp hop aroma that reminds me of the Duvel Triple-Hop. Wow, this aroma is pungent, and pleasing. This has a diaphanous golden/yellow appearance. It’s looking pretty good, as well. It’s VERY crisp and effervescent, texture-wise. It’s quite different from what you would expect from your everyday pale lager. This has a pleasing hop flavor, with a grassy and dry finish. This does have a light honey flavor to it. It’s very good, almost to the point where I’d consider this a Saison. Ok, if you’re going to consider this a pale lager, then I’d say it’s the best.

Old rate. 750 ml bottle from Brewery Creek in Vancouver. Poured a very light golden, slight haze, massive amounts of creamy white foam. It took ages to settle out. Aroma was almost saison like with lemony notes, some grass, but the hops rode in to give it a much more lager like quality. Tasted very dry, crisp, grassy but admirably full palate. This is a very decent premium lager and one I’d love to drink more of. Can’t quite believe the Clash gave permission for the licensing though...weren’t they totally against crass commercialism?

Beer Bloggers Conference 2010 – Boulder, CO - The Night of Beers…
Golden yellow in color, clear with a thin head. Easy drinking lager. Smooth flavors nice malt and a good balance with the hops.

Hazy yellow pour with creamy white head and lace. Dry wheaty aroma and lemon. Wheat, dry lemon, and a medium bitter. Thin fizzy and watery. Decent drinker.

One of the more subdued offerings from Upright. Delicate with quite a few blonde characteristics to it. Dare I say plain.

750ml bottle, fairly fresh. Opening clean, with a loud hiss, the bottle brings forth a downright cloudy, light golden-straw liquid with an absolutely massive, billowing head of off-white froth. Tall and rocky, that foam takes ages to settle, and never fully goes away. Twenty minutes go by before it’s down to a centimeter level. Of course, tall, raging flares and jagged splotches mark the glass, resembling the waves from Hokusai’s masterpiece Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura. It’s an absolutely beautiful beer, but the first whiff brings worry, as there are initial notes of plastic or bandaid, suggesting infection. Though it did not gush those telltale signs of something gone afoul are unmistakable. I walk away for a while to see if it will blow off, and indeed it does. Having gained some clarity, the nose now reveals its true character, which is a harmonious blend of clean pilsner malt, golden wheat, cream, and peppery, lemony hops. Wildflowers bring spicy zest and vigor, as fresh spring water and mountain air lend an earthy, mineral-rich contingent. Nickel offers a sharp metallic element that slices through the softly sweet, doughy yeast. As more time goes on, the more I am glad I let this one sit. Flavors ring true, showing just a tiny bit of caramelized pils malt sweetness, with notes of raw bread dough and some lemon meringue. From the mid point on, biting, zesty, peppery hops take over. Bitter, bone dry grasses are accompanied by oily citrus rind and some lemon pith. Distinctly Belgian yeast is both doughy and earthy, hinting at a wide range of elements, from flour crackers to stone and metal. The palate, much like the flavor, quickly transitions from a very lightly sugared forefront to an absolutely bone dry, desert-like finish. Scratchy carbonation bounces from roof to tongue and back again, sizzling like a drop of water on a hot pan. This will be one polarizing brew. I can see two distinct sets of beer fanatics both loving and hating it. Me? I fall somewhere in the middle. I love the fully attenuated dryness and the play between the lemony hops and the clean pils malts. I don’t like, however, how temperamental the beer is overall, and I do ultimately feel that there is an infection setting in that will ultimately ruin the beer. As it stands, in the state at which I consumed it, I liked it a good deal. My recommendation, however, is to drink this puppy as soon as you can if you have a bottle, and to allot a good amount of time for it even though the gravity is fairly low.

Thanks to Hopscotch for supplying this bottle at a local tasting. A lager ah.. well I didn’t know what to make of this one, but anything that’s got The Clash on the label has to have some balls. This one didn’t disappoint. It had almost a honey lemon zest to it when I took a whiff. The color was on the lighter side, gold and yellow, but that didn’t really sway me in the slightest. The pour was foamy and bubbly with a good head retention. The flavors were a bit saison-ish, which, for me, made for a good drink. Could possibly be a good session beer.

bottle @PreJam Gathering-pours a foamy white head and hazy straw color. Aroma is lemon, light malt, yeast. Taste is slightly tart lemon, light malt, yeast-peppery. This was Saison-ish

Bottle… South Florida Throwdown 2010… Hazy straw-colored lager with a small, creamy, white head. Great retention. The aroma is very, very hoppy – a seeming potpourri of varietals. Sorachi Ace isn’t one of them, but I’m picking up lemon peel, green apple and white pepper. Light-bodied with prickly carbonation. Nicely bittered and refreshing. Low sweetness. Finishes bitter, coarse and dry. Different. Thanks go out to DA for the bottle!