Alley Kat Sorrentino’s Garlic Lager

Brewed by Alley Kat Brewing Company
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Edmonton, Canada

First, thanks to my buds up North who kindly sent me a bottle of this awhile back to drink. I’m going way against the grain on this one and state that...well...I really enjoyed it. Yeah, no shit. Maybe it’s my love of garlic that keeps me on track with this beer but it was really damned good.

The beer pours out a solid golden body, clear with a smaller 1/2" white cap. Wiggling it’s way out of the bottle was the clove of garlic, like a worm in Mescal begging to be free of it’s prison. The aroma was coffee, molasses, some dark fruit and...no damnit...it was freakin’ garlic!! Garlic and some garlic bread. Awesome! It tasted...like garlic! Garlic infused beer. Just...seriously loved it.

Bottle: Poured a deep bright color lager with a medium pure white bubbly head with average retention and no lacing and a big chunk of garlic at the bottom of the bottle. Aroma of garlic bread is totally dominant. Taste is also dominated by garlic which is kind of weird and unusual. Interesting experiment and not as gross as I would have thought but still not something I would drink often.

God help us all. Finally made it to bottles... just in case you didn’t get ill enough at the restaurant. Cutting that clove of garlic in half so it further infested my beer was inconsequential. Decent gold brew with some white head and sloppy lacing and a large chunk of garlic bobbing at the surface... peering out. Surprise, this smells of garlic - lightly buttered thick crusted garlic toast to be more precise. Well as it turns out this is kind of flavourless with soft garlic and grains. At least it doesn’t taste like it smells. Bleck and bland and more bleck. A good step towards fending off vampires. The better step came after I ground up the clove in my mouth and sucked the juice out from the pulp. Hide the pulp in your cheeks like snuff just to be safe.

"Garlic beer…….tastes as good as it sounds!!!! Standard looking beer clear gold with a white skiff floating on top, but unlike most beers this has a whole clove of garlic floating in it, Oh happy day!! Smells like garlic salt and that is all. The aroma is so strong and garlicky it burns my nose. This crap smells horrid for a beer but ok for garlic bread. I have to give it a 4 for aroma because it is what exactly what the brewer wanted so I won’t slam it, but I really want to. Beer tastes like…..that’s right you guessed it GARLIC!!!! but not nearly as powerful as the aroma. Beer its self seems empty no malt character at all. This was garlic bread in a blender. This is the latest in a long line of ill conceived idea’s from Alley Kat; Aaiieeeeeeeeee Caramba chili beer, Heatseeker coconut curry beer, Shamrock green beer, Raspberry Mead, Charlie Flints Original Lager and so on. Where do they come up with their idea’s, seriously. I got zero enjoyment out of this beer. No wait i did enjoy eating the clove of garlic then chasing Beercronics wife around trying to breath on her. UPDATE: 12 hours after consuming beer i still taste garlic. and this after mouth wash, brushing teeth twice and eating mini wheats."

341ml brown bottle. A clove of garlic sits ominously at the bottom of the bottle. Gold coloured. White head, creamy but small. Aroma is garlic, nothing else. the base beer seems to be a light lager (probably Charlie Flint’s), a little bit of that shows through, some light lager sweetness. Garlic notes are fairly strong, but surprisingly not as strong as they show in the aroma. Finish is dry with some lingering garlic. Light body, medium carbonation. Difficult to rate this as I’ve never had a garlic infused beer before. A strange experience.