Pedestrian Kind of Ales Over on Lamar Street
Written: Dec 16 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Balanced, light-bodied ale
Cons: Too balanced, too light
The Bottom Line: Eh? Lamar St. Pale Ale is okay. Bit of hops, good balance, but otherwise ordinary and dull.
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Pale Ale |
Health food markets might not strike some of you folks as prime stomping grounds for beer shopping, but some of them do pretty darn well. I've always been able to find nuggets of gold at the Whole Foods Markets, but I usually stick to craft brews I know and respect. I typically avoid organic beers because the ones I've tasted have never been anything to write home to mom about. I let my guard down last night and sprang for a six of the Lamar St. Pale Ale -- mostly because it's brewed by Goose Island, and I know them as one of the most respected names in Chicago when it comes to beer.
On retrospect, I should have stuck to my guns and gone for something with a bit more gusto. Not that there's anything wrong with Lamar St. -- it's just an average, ordinary pale ale that lacks guts and lacks glory.
A Tall Cool Pint of Lamar…
Now, without further ado, let's pull down a nice clean pint glass (there's no better presentation for a pale ale), and take it out for a test taste…
Appearance:
Bright golden yellow color (probably about a 3 or 4 on the SRM scale) with a slight chill haze and a nicely formed head of creamy white foam. An enticing pint!
Aroma:
Ahhhh!!! I love the smell of a freshly sliced grapefruit in the morning. It's not morning, and this isn't a grapefruit, but the smell's about the same -- the strongly citric note that raises the red, white, and blue flag, screaming out "Hey! American hops here!"
The grapefruit's unmistakable on first sniff, but it dissipates fairly quickly, yielding the olfactory field to a soft, caramel malt scent.
Flavor:
Clean, fresh malt. That's what I get on a first quaff. A bit of caramel, and a hint of soft toasty biscuit. Then it's back to grapefruit, but it's not the big bold grapefruit taste that you get on some of the more classic American pale ales, and though there's an unmistakably earthy hop bitterness hanging on my palate long after that last swallow, it's never a HUGE bitterness. There's also a noticeable creamy butter flavor that the most critical purists will write off as a diacetyl flaw, but that I see as bringing a fuller mouth feel to the beer and a more rounded overall character.
On the whole, this is an extremely well balanced beer, without the big hop signature that is usually a hallmark of the pale ales that rely on American hop varieties. That can be seen as a pro or a con. Like most beer enthusiasts, I prefer my hops to be as obnoxious and abrasive as a Rush Limbaugh radio program. Lamar St. Pale Ale isn't like that -- it's restrained and balanced, a smoothly drinkable beer that will appeal to a wider, more general marketplace.
Overall Impressions:
Not bad, but I've had better. A decent, but decidedly underwhelming pale ale whose signature promises a world of delicious hops, but whose lack of intensity and flavor cries out "sell out!" It's a light, mediocre beer of average density, for average beer drinkers. It's a definite step up from mainstream industrial lagers, but a pretty big step down from the state of the brewing art.
I'm glad I tried it once. I won't reach for another.
Until next time, see you in the beer store. As always, I'll be the guy looking for the bigger, bolder brews. Can I buy you a pint??
Recommended:
No
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