7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Pours deep amber into a shaker. Conglomerate white head recedes to hug rim. Caramel malt and light pine hop aromas. Upfront sharp caramel with a lingering bittersweet grapefruit finish. Well balanced and nice for a malty english pale ale. This was my first micro 15 years ago..hopefully doesn’t have the same gastrointestinal tendencies..
Tried
on 25 Jun 2006
at 18:29
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
2006 bottle consumed on 6/14/06. Frothy white head, per usual from Mercury, is well-retained and laces sporadically. The bright goldenrod liquid is full of bottle conditioned bubbles. Very slight yeast sediment lies on the bottom. The nose begins with damp, grassy, almost funky hops. Very lean malt has notes of biscuits and slight breadiness, but is otherwise quite clean, minimally sweet and allows the hops room to maneuver. Very grassy, dusty but in a very large quantity, the English hops make me think EKGs, though I see it is Brewers Gold (similar) and Glacier (hybrid?). Some yeast nuttiness gets in the way and cuts all sharpness, while a fluffy, aerated graininess is not overly expressive. Tons of hop apparency, but it’s those dusty, funky, old-grassy hops that really confound the nose and do not complement the otherwise clean malt. Thankfully, the flavor is more citric and sharply grassy, with less of the damp soil and wet flowers, or what have you. The attenuation is perfect, being just sweet enough, with honey and very light drops of caramel and then quickly tapering off with bitter, crisp, leafy, green hop notes. Light lemon and orange, with a full complement of engaging, not-overdone carbonation. Dry and straw-like as Zach8270 says, leading to a very refreshing, medium to medium-light body with plenty of hop appeal. No alcohol, high in flavor with a good twang and bite on end.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Jun 2006
at 20:57
6.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 7.5
Pours deep amber into a shaker. Microbubble head with nice staying power. Clean malt aromas. Upfront malt, light and flat with a light, dry, tingling bitter finish. It just sort of dissapears and leaves long malty bitter finish.
Tried
on 19 May 2006
at 20:31
5.9/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 5
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Pours hazy amber into a shaker. Bright white conglomerate head recedes fairly fast to leave lacing. Sock feet aromas. Flat and slightly caramel with a lasting grapefruit finish. I added a couple of notches overall because I like IPAs.
Tried
on 10 May 2006
at 20:27
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 8
Pours deep amber into a shaker. Conglomerate head gradually recedes with slight lacing. Grapefruit and grass notes. Full mouthfeel, but slightly flat with upfront roasted caramel which turns to a lasting spruce finish which turns back to a (not unpleasant) frat floor malt.
Tried
on 10 May 2006
at 20:07
7.4/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Pours mahogany into a shaker. Conglomerate head that retains with slight lacing. Caramel notes. Creamy with a bitter lasting finish.
Tried
on 18 Apr 2006
at 20:34
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Pours a light, cloudy amber into a shaker. Citrus, grass and spruce aromas. Persistent rim head with little lacing. Initial high hops yield to a mellow, lingering malt finish.
Tried
on 26 Feb 2006
at 18:13
8.9/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 10
Overall 8.5
On draught at NEBF, 10/29/05. A lucid/shiny and quite hazy beer with a brassy to polished white gold color and a firm white head that is well-retained. The aroma is fantastically hoppy, 100% saaz and wonderfully expressive. Spicy, yet damp and earthy at the same time due to the fresh yeast and soft, lightly grainy malts. The aroma promises good things, wonderful fresh hoppiness and full maltiness, if somewhat underwhelming on the expected lager yeast bite. It really dosent seem like a very distinct yeast from their house (ale) yeast. But that’s ok, call it a cream ale if you must. The flavor certainly does deliver the promised malt and hops, wonderfully wedded, with sweet dough/honey and green, spicy, sweaty, bordering dried-herbs-like notes. Full body for a lager, with only a light crispness on the end, though it’s by no means heavy or unsatisfying, I just wish they’d use a real lager yeast (and if I’m wrong, then it sure dosent taste like one). But the hops and the malt make up for any shortcomings on that end, with the fresh unpasteurized and unfiltered nature of the beer adding much lovely ambiance to the experience as well. Tightly controlled, small-bubbled carbonation peeks its way through the rich honey and grainy malt. The saaz hops flavor fits so well here it’s scary. Just a rich, hoppy lager, er cream ale. . .??
Tried
on 07 Nov 2005
at 16:28
4.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 4
Overall 4
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.
Tried
from Bottle
on 21 Oct 2005
at 13:16
8.1/10
—
Appearance 10
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 10
Overall 7.5
Draught pint at Bukowskis, Inman Square. Pours a very slightly hazed amber-beige with a substantial, off-white, foamy, well-retained head. Aroma has soft, flowery, lightly soily/nutty hops, fresh and aromatic, with light dough and hints of caramel. Flavor shows the flowery hops off well, with a riveting mouthfeel, low, natural carbonation, tiny bubbles and a tingly texture. Malt is complex and not overdone, while the hops are distinctly to-style. This calls itself a Bitter and actually stays true to the name. Not an Americanized bitter by any means. Light dough and sugars, a bit of dry biscuits and touch of toasty caramel. Fresh, flowery, leafy hops are only lightly bitter through the middle. Another solid effort from these guys.
Tried
from Can
on 30 Sep 2005
at 11:30