Canned 6/1/22, drunk 6/11/22. Clear brass. Large, well-retained, white head. Fruity as all hell for a lager, with floral notes and light cracker and biscuit. Mineral with no alcohol or flaw. In the mouth it's malty, well-attenuated with big floral and fruity notes. Nothing against fruity lagers, but this is so much flower and fruit with a strong biscuit malt. Dry, too much floral character. Feels like a rare miss. Needs more malt texture and sweetness. Way too much floral character.

Canned 5/4/22, drunk 5/27/22. Dark bronze-brass. Clear. Off-white head showing moderate retention. Soft, honey and powdered sugar with herbal, earthy hop notes and light mineral from the yeast. Clean. In the mouth it's soft and malty, pretty decently attenuated though sweeter than your average German or Czech-style pils. True to the style it's got that annoying powdered sugar, or marshmallow if you will, malt flavor that makes most of the French pilsners I've had seem pretty cheap and gives lagers a bad name. That said, this seems pretty intentional here - maybe it's just the yeast even. Whatever the case, it's not great, other than being true to style. Some decent herbal/earthy hop bitterness does help balance. Otherwise, very clean, richly-malted and well-done.

Pours deep gold into a shaker. White head with little retention recedes to skim surface. Light caramel and wet straw aromas. Soft with sweet caramel, hay and meadow upfront turning to mild earthy pith in the medium length finish.

Pours deep mahogany into a shaker. Mocha head with excellent retention recedes leaving trailing sheets. Bacon and fireplace aromas. Medium bodied with sweet fig, raisin and date upfront turning to burnt brown bread and chalky embers in the dry, lasting burnt sourdough, pith and peel finish.

Pours slightly hazy gold into a stein. Bright white head with medium retention recedes to mottle surface. Cracker, meadow and hay aromas. Medium bodied with meadow, straw, biscuit and hay upfront turning to earthy lemon peel in the dry, medium length finish.

Pours clear mahogany into a stem glass. Mocha head with excellent retention recedes leaving scant sheets. Sweet golden syrup, date and fig aromas. Soft with hot golden syrup and toasted raisin brown bread upfront turning to bitter, earthy pith and pine finish. A little hot.

Pours mahogany tinged black into a shaker. Mocha head with good retention recedes to coat surface. Dark chocolate, espresso and soy aromas. Medium bodied with dry, sweet dark pit fruit, milk chocolate and brown bread upfront turning to raisins and licorice in the lasting finish.

500mL bottle drunk 4/5/22. Clear, bright golden-blonde with a hint of warm copper-honey. Medium-sized, white head shows strong retention. White grape and rustic, hay-like grain atop a soft layer of honey and fresh pepper and herbs from the hops. Love that the white grape is augmented complemented by the natural white wine character of the motueka, as it does the same with the herbal/floral notes. Pretty great hop for a lager. Soft and malty, well-attenuated with hints of soft, floral pine and white grape from the hops. Strong peppery bitterness easily balances the honey and cracker-like malts. With warming the hops don't get overbearing, nor does the malt, though the stronger than average, or perhaps, pinier than average hops are a bit bitter. Cool to use a non-traditional hop here, but I think it would have been a more enjoyable beer with a little less boil time on them.

Brighton draught, 4/5/22. Clear, deep mahogany with dark magenta hues and a dark beige head showing strong retention. Smoked malt is moderate in the nose with pepper and heavy wood. Rich caramel/toffee is not too sweet but prominent, with light date and raisin in the background. Hints of vanilla and sourdough with strong pepper on the finish, though clean and with no alcohol. In the mouth it's somewhat strongly bitter with heavily drying smokiness and more sourdough-like malt character than I'd prefer. Almost astringent in its dryness with the balance off somewhat. Still soft at points, with appropriate honey and caramel maltiness and strongly woody smokiness. Just a bit too much sourdough/bitter/wood overdrying.