Welcome to the second night of our Cinco de Mayo tasting! For the next five nights, we will be tasting 25 different Lager beers from around the United States and the rest of the world, doing five beers a night!
So, please, go get your favorite beverage, sit down, kick back and enjoy as we do our tasting!
Our first beer is…
BEER: 805 Cerveza
BREWERY: Firestone Walker Brewing Company – Paso Robles, CA
ABV: 4.5%
MATT: 3/5
DANIELLE: 3/5
LOOK: Crystal clear and light gold
SCENT: A lot of lime and some salt
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Light lime and some hops.
FINAL REFLECTIONS: Not a bad start, but not a great one. This is another “brewed with lime” lager and they’re usually hit-and-miss. This one’s somewhere in between. The lime flavoring just isn’t doing much to prop up this lager which tastes a touch watered down. Even still, the carbonation is nice and it’s light and refreshing.
BEER: Omission Lager
BREWERY: Omission Brewing – Portland, OR
ABV: 4.6%
MATT: 2.5/5
DANIELLE: 2.25/5
LOOK: Gold and slightly hazy
SCENT: Slight wheat and that’s it
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Wheat and bitter hops on the tail end
FINAL REFLECTIONS: You’re not off to a good start when you’re advertising how you’ve “reduced the gluten” on the bottle. Just sayin’. We wanted to like this. Unfortunately, it’s bland, with not much flavor. There’s no complexity and feels like you’re drinking water off a dirty piece of cardboard at times. The bitter hops do nothing for it.
BEER: Dubs Golden Lager
BREWERY: Magnolia Brewing – San Francisco, CA
ABV: 4.4%
MATT: 3/5
DANIELLE: 3.25/5
LOOK: Light gold and slightly hazy
SCENT: Wheat, honey, corn, lime
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Light mouthfeel, wheat, corn
FINAL REFLECTIONS: A decent offering from Magnolia Brewing and a beer we’ve wanted to get to since we saw it sitting at our local retailers, Dubs offers a crisp, refreshing lager which is mostly light on the flavor despite the promises it makes on the nose.
BEER: California Lager
BREWERY: Anchor Brewing Company – San Francisco, CA
ABV: 4.9%
MATT: 3.75/5
DANIELLE: 3.5/5
LOOK: Gold and slightly hazy
SCENT: Hops, wheat, some lime
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Similar flavor profile to Corona with nice mixture of wheat, lime rind, and hops
FINAL REFLECTIONS: It’s strange how similar this is to Corona. The scent and flavoring are the same. It’s not a bad beer by any means and is probably the best Lager of the night so far. Of the four we’ve tasted so far, this has the most complexity, body, and flavor. I love the lime rind on the back end and the hops aren’t as aggressive as Corona’s. Good offering.
BEER: Cerveza Pacifico Clara
BREWERY: Grupo Modelo – Mexico
ABV: 4.4%
MATT: 3.75/5
DANIELLE: 3.5/5
LOOK: Gold and clear
SCENT: Deep wheat
MOUTHFEEL/TASTE: Light mouthfeel, slight lime flavor to it, wheat
FINAL REFLECTIONS: This is a nice, easygoing, drinkable Pilsner which comes across like a Lager. Nothing special but it isn’t bad at all. The wheat is right up front with a slight citrus flavoring for character.
FINAL THOUGHTS: This was our “Supermarket Lager” section of the tasting. We weren’t expecting greatness and, true to expectations, nothing really passed that bar. Still, there were a couple highlights in Anchor’s Lager and Pacifico at the end of this tasting. On to Night 3!
HEAR OUR FINAL THOUGHTS!:
TOMORROW: Join us for Night 3 of our Cinco De Mayo tasting as we countdown to the holiday!