Rahr Doesn't Roar with Blonde Lager
Written: Oct 15 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: fairly clean, drinkable when well chilled
Cons: skunky, heavy diacetyl flavor when warm
The Bottom Line: Rahr Blonde Lager turned out to be a not terribly impressive example of a Helles Lager. You can definitely do better.
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| scmrak's Full Review: Rahr & Sons Blonde Lager |
It'd be tough to survive as a locavore here in Houston. I haven't had much luck finding locally-grown food - next to zero luck, in fact. If you're a beer fan like me, however, there are plenty of breweries of all sizes within the state's boundaries - many within a four-hour drive of the Bayou City. At one end of the "small brewery" scale there's Shiner, brewers of the "bock" that's supplanted Lone Star as a long-necked Texas icon. At the other end are a host of microbreweries whose products rarely make it further away than the next state or two. Some such as Houston's St. Arnold and Real Ale Brewing in Blanco, are pretty good. Others fail to impress me so far, among them Austin's Independence Brewery. I'm always willing to give a new beer a try, though, so when I saw a display of beers from Rahr & Sons, a small Fort Worth brewery, I figured I'd give one or two a whirl.
Rahr & Sons (the name rhymes with "car") claims an illustrious brewing history that dates back 160 years to great-great-grandpa's brewery and malt house on the banks of the Manitowoc River in Wisconsin (this incarnation dates only to 2004). From a small brewery on South Main in Fort Worth (the shy, retiring little sister of Dallas), Rahr ships six varieties year-round plus seasonal (Oktoberfest and holiday) beers. A few specialty recipes are produced occasionally, including an IPA and "Pecker Wrecker," which is (according to Rahr) an Imperial Lager - now there's a variety you don't see often. My choice this time is the first beer Rahr ever released, Rahr & Sons Blonde Lager.
The type: Rahr Blonde lager is a Munich Helles (pale) lager (compare to Paulaner Premium and Spaten Premium Lagers). A helles should pour medium to light golden, with flavors dominated by malt sweetness, perhaps some minerality, subdued hops; but have no fruit or diacetyl character. The standard stats are in the range of 4.7-5.4% ABV and 16-22 IBUs.
Tasting notes:
The pour: pours a clear medium-gold with the faintest hint of red. A head of two fingers of ivory-tinted white foam reduces to a thin layer of bubbles after a few minutes; fair to good lace development
The nose: strong on pale malts with a light grassy hops note back.
On the tongue: the initial taste is sweet and malt-laden, with secondary grain flavors. There's a faintly bitter aftertaste, though the flavor is dominated by malt throughout. I detected a slightly skunky taste, and strong diacetyl flavors on warming. Mouthfeel is medium-bodied with light to medium carbonation; a smooth, clean, slightly sweet finish. I find it somewhat heavy for the type, despite Rahr's published ABV of 4.5%
Overall: nothing special. I don't find Rahr Blonde Lager to be a particularly impressive representative of the Munich helles type. Like some other Texas microbreweries, Rahr is rumored to have quality-control problems - this brew is drinkable, however, far different from the Independence Pale Ale I tried recently. If you buy, serve it ice cold and drink it fast - at a top-shelf price of $8-9 per six-pack, however, I'd give it a pass in favor of Real Ale's Fireman's #4 Blonde or the real thing imported from Munich.
My thanks to bruguru for adding this to the database.
Recommended:
No
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