Poured at 6°C from a 500ml bottle into a stemmed glass. Unfiltered straw with a faint haze, the head soft and slow to settle.
Hallertau Mittelfrüh over a munich / pils base, finishing at 5.0% with 24 IBU. The restraint in that grain bill is the reason the rest of it works.
Everything good about this happens after you swallow. Hallertau Mittelfrüh carries the middle, the finish arrives dry and stays dry, and the last mouthful tastes like the first. Very few lagers manage that.
The whole point of a beer at 5.0% is the second and third glass, and this survives both. There is no cloying edge, no fatigue in the finish, and the hop character stays legible right through. That is harder to achieve than a big beer, and it gets a fraction of the credit.
Whatever the decoction schedule costs them in time, it shows up in the malt. There is a depth to the grain here that no amount of specialty malt shortcuts its way to.
Against the rest of the lager shelf this holds its own comfortably. It is not the beer that will convert anybody to the style, but it is the one you reach for once the converting is done, and at $5.40 / 500ml it is honestly priced.
Bought at LCBO #104 (in stock at the time of writing). Do not serve it cold. 8°C or the malt disappears.
Best drunk fresh, in company, with nobody taking notes. We took notes anyway.
