Z Street Vienna Lager

2005 bottle hot off the shelves consumed on 10/15/2005. Pours a dulled/drab brownish-beige with some very faint brassy/copper-red tinges. Head is initially medium-sized and dirty-white colored. Bubbly, and fully receding to spots of cover and a ring on the edge. Aroma has some nuts and dry grains. Slight bready, very odd, dry-to-dirty yeast presence, quite bland. Some spicy hops are faintly detectable. Low aroma strength. Flavor begins with a bit of simple, sweet, toffee malt. The flavor is wisked away by massively large bubbles, bursting all over the palate and giving a very aerated/bubbly feel. It’s not sharp and intense carbonation, quite the opposite, but it’s not enjoyable either. Texture is watery but has bits of dry, graininess. Flavor goes from decent to bad as it begins to warm. I don’t get any interesting, fresh or particularly flavorful hops. Just some basic, spiciness that is dry and very faint. Dismal complexity, with toasted graininess turning quickly to borderline bready astringency. I guess astringency is going much too far, but call it bland dryness then. Too watery a texture overall, weird carbonation, and poor flavors. The yeast is just horribly represented here, barely comes off as a crips drinking lager at all. Needs a LOT more maltiness as well. Hopefully it’s just Mercury struggling to get the recipe down pat. Interested to try the rest of the now-Mercury-brewed Z-Street stuff.