Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

I was excited to taste this award-winning brew.  I must admit, I have never been a big fan of the style, but I just finished mowing the lawn and thought it would be the perfect time to try this summer classic.

The beer pours a hazy pale orange color.   It is clear enough to see my hand through the glass, but not clear enough to make out the find details.  The head was a slightly off white color, but faded quickly.  If this is common among the other bottles in the batch, I would tweek the recipe for some more specialty grains like carapils in small amounts to help with head retention.  It could also have been my glass too.  The beer has a definate hop aroma.  Not as heavy as an American Pale Ale, but definately present.  There is also a faint whiff of toffee or caramel.

The beer is smooth.  I mean really smooth.  From the first taste until the back of the tongue, it just slides down off your palate.  I could definately drink several of these, so big points on the drinkability scale.  There is just a hint of residual sweetness at the end, which if it was fermented out, would make the beer a bit more drinkable.  But, it is very solid as is.  The balance is nice on the beer as well, just enough hops to taste, but not overpowering.  There is also a bit of lemon or other citrus present, which I would guess is from the hops.

A solid beer.  Thanks for sharing, Sour Mash!

The good news is that Will gave me one of his cream ales weeks ago and I drank it.  Of course, my memory for this sort of this questionable, but luckily I wrote down some notes.  No excuse why it has taken me so long to type them up , though….

Cream ale’s are not exactly the kinda of ales I go for, so this one has definitely outside of my wheelhouse.  I drank this one while trying to referesh myself on the BJCP guidelines for the style, too. 

This one poured a straw to amber color and had great carbonation, which is appropriate for the style.

The aroma was very, very light.  There was a hint of malt and yeast, but it was extremely clean.

The taste was very smooth and it had almost no aftertaste at all.  I got a little bit of a corn flavor in there, but I imagine that wasn’t an ingredient in the kit.  It wasn’t an off-flavor, just a different malt characteristic.  The mouth feel of it was surprisingly full, too.

I finished the rest of the beer with some pizza, and that accentuated the malt.  It also brought out a little bit of sourness, which I enjoyed.

All and all, a very smooth and refreshing beer.  It is a great lawnmower beer, but it also got more complex with food.  I wanted a little more crispness from the beer, but I don’t know how you would do that without knowing more about the batch.  Perhaps moving to a San Fran (steam) lager yeast, or pushing down the FG a little more.

Great job, man.