Well it's Saturday so you know what that means! Time for another #Beersaturday review post. Let's see what I had to drink this past week shall we? I give you a hint, they were all lagers. We'll start with a German style wheat Beer. Here we go.
Country Kolsch
Brewery: Midtown Brewing Co
Origin: Wellington ON, Canada
Style: Kolsch style wheat beer.
Abv: 4.5%
Marketing: The can was a beautiful glossy, pastel baby blue color with simple bold writing. It had a very minimalistic design with no additional info on the beer. I quite like the design of the can a lot, though I would have liked a bit more info about the beer. Sometimes less isn't more.
Color: This beer poured a hazy golden yellow color with a small flimsy head of foam.
Nose: The beer had a very nice aroma to it, with citrussy grapefruit coming through and some floral notes.
Taste: it was dry and bitter for me. The bitterness hit hard in the middle of the tongue and lasted for a long time. Some citrus and grapefruit coming through.
Texture: Very sharp carbonation with a light bubbly mouthfeel.
Impression: Overall this beer was decent beer to me. It was quite bitter but pleasant.
Lincoln Lager
Brewery: Bench Brewing Co
Origin: Beamsville ON, Canada
Style: Lager
Abv: 4.4%
Marketing: Proudly toted as "The beer from Wine country" this can had a yellow and white color scheme with black bold lettering. The design had small town imagery and overall I found it to be simple and effective.
It also displayed a few designations on the side: toting its carbon neutral company and zero water footprint badges. The company appears to be doing its part for the environment and for generations to come, so that's pretty cool and certainly welcome.
Color: This beer poured a slightly hazy bright yellow color, like straw in the sunlight. The head was flimsy and dissipated quickly until only a small amount of bubbles remained on the surface.
Nose: At first I noticed some cereal notes and citrus with a very mild skunkiness in the background. As I drank the beer the skunkiness became more pronounced to the point that it was all I was really smelling. The beer was definitely oxidized so it might have beer a little old.
Taste: A very mild sweetness upfront with a quick punch of bitterness in the finish. Some fruity flavors coming through - apples or apricot maybe (not exactly sure).
Texture: A mild but pleasant carbonation with a silkiness underneath.
Impression: Not a bad beer even despite the skunkiness. I could imagine this to be a "crisp and refreshing" beer if it wasn't old. Maybe I'm just being primed to think that way though...
I'd give it another go for sure.
Collective Lager
Brewery: Collective Arts Brewing
Origin: Hamilton ON, Canada
Style: Lager
Abv: 4.9%
Marketing: A simple can design that is both very busy and very minimalistic looking at the same time. It was sort of contradictory in a way for me. Light grey, black and silver color scheme with heiroglyphic ruins imagery. I'm not against the can but I find it boring.
Color: The beer poured a crystal clear, pale yellow color with a decent head of bubbles.
Nose: I noticed cereals comjng through in the nose and some skunkiness, but not too bad.
Taste: The beer was mildly sweet in the begining and then moved towards bekng tart and tangy with not a lot of bitterness in the finish. There was a distinct citrus lemon flavor coming through that was quite refreshing.
Texture: Tiny sharp bubbles prick the tongue, light bodied, and a watery sort of mouthfeel. Pleasant texture overall.
Impression: This was a good beer for me. It was light and refreshing something I could drink all day in the hot sun. In this case I drank it while cooking supper, which also worked!
Ah man it is great to have company in the Ontario #beerology region.
I have never been kind in my Bench reviews as I find them unanimously pissy and skunky. Eventually the might find a groove after so much meh beer maybe like Lake of Bays did.
Really digging the natural light in the photos and you pick some nice angles.
I may be in touch about a project I am working on with another #beerologist that might make us some good content, fiat to buy crypto and a few free beers. Stay tuned!
That's good to know ow about Bench. I thought that the skunkiness was just a one off bad can and was going to give them another shot but if you are saying that they are consistently like that then I'll probably avoid them.
Your project sounds interesting 👀
Both of those lagers look pretty decent, I'm not a huge lager drinker but they always looks appealing.
I generally stick to ales and prefer them as well, but I've been seeing a lot of lagers at the store that are new to me, so I figured I'd give them a go.
I would probably choose Country Kolsch for me 🙂
The color of this Lager in the last picture is phenomenal.
Nice. Yeah it was a pretty decent beer.
The sun was hitting it just right 😋👍
Always room in the fridge for a cold wheat beer 🍺
Looks like you picked a solid selection for a sunny day 👍
I do t drink a lot of wheat beers but this one was quite good.
This beer must be so nice
I love how it looks light
They were pretty decent beers 🍻 👌