Tasting Notes: Brooklyn Lager
Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery
Location: New York, USA
ABV: 5.2%
Version: 355ml bottle
We haven't covered much lager here and with good reason. It's not the preferred tipple by any of us, although in the interests of balance I make the sacrifice, and most of them are so bland and dull it's difficult to find more than a sentence to describe the experience, never mind a whole paragraph or two. So with this in mind I approached this offering from the Brooklyn Brewery with an expectation of more of the same.
Their lager is the flagship beer from Brooklyn, brewed in the Vienna style but with added dry-hopping while it matures (I like breweries that give some background on their websites, very useful). The first surprise was the colour, a copper/amber colour rather than the washed out, insipid, pale straw of most lagers. Next surprise was the aroma, lightly citrus, floral, some apple and a hint of maltiness, all boding well for a hopefully above average flavour. And I wasn't disappointed with that either. Tangy from the start, notes of pear and apple, a touch of orange ending with a brisk hoppy and quite smooth finish. At times it reminded me of a subdued BrewDog Punk IPA, certainly bears a closer comparison with that than the vast majority of other products bearing the lager tag. Very enjoyable indeed, proof there is such a thing as decent lager worth drinking.
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Brooklyn is a classic -- we like to have a few bottles in at all times. There are loads of great lagers, though!
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A classic all right. I originally dismissed it as rubbish because it was so cheap. You could get it for €1 a bottle in places. I found out later (after the price went up) that suppliers got so much of it in that they had to sell it off to get rid of it. I was educated at The Bull & Castle in Dublin and tried it and I love the stuff. Definitely more a pale ale than a lager.
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