5.2

Appearance - 6 | Aroma - 5 | Flavor - 5 | Texture - 6 | Overall - 5

Draught pint at Sunset Grill on 4/27/06
Bubbly white head tops a straw-golden body with very faint amber tints. Head is poorly retained, but leaves blotchy lacing. High clarity.
Traditional nose, that is, cascade-like hops, showing restrained bitterness, with light lemons and oranges. Some sweatiness in there as well, seems out of place, and the malt seems a little light. Very pale grains, base malts show some light dough and straightfoward barley character, with white sugariness. It almost smells like they use English or European hops to finish or dry hop, but I can’t be quite sure, as there could be some specialty grain mixing with the hops to provide that character. Regardless, the dominant factor is by far the American hop citrus. Aroma is of moderate strength.
The flavor is lightly grainy, with some husky barley notes, and light sugars combining quickly with orange rind, floral notes and a bit of cheesiness, unfortunately. Yeast nuttiness is apparent, definitely unpasteurized. Bitterness is moderate to style, creating a lemon-icing effect when taken with the malts. Carbonation is high, and the beer has a good amount of water, with a seemingly short boil time leading to light sugar flavors from the malt. I wouldn’t go as far as to say undermalted, but it is definitely approaching a well-hopped golden ale. Citrus and some sweatiness are carried on in to the finish. Texture is somewhat watery, no alcohol noted in flavor or aroma.
Bottle consumed on 10/5/06.
Light sourness emanates forth with dirty, somewhat oldish hop notes. Light butter and cake icing even. Don’t remember all of the off flavors from the draught sample, but this is just too unclean and uninspiring. Couldnt finish the bottle. Watery, forced carb texture goes nowhere.