Big River Grille Southern Flyer Light Lager

Brewed by Big River Grille & Brewing Works Chattanooga (Gordon Biersch)
Style: Pale Lager
Chattanooga, Tennessee USA

On Tap at Big River Grille, Nashville. Pours pale golden in colour, small head leaves some decent lacing. Not much aroma or taste. Easy drinking.

Yellow with a distinct lager-type smell. Crisp mouthfeel with an earthy flavor and a slight bit of hoppiness involved in the mix. Decent but nothing to go out of your way in order to sample. A basic fizzy yellow lager which can have its time and place but not usually on my dime. Serving type: on-tap Reviewed on: 02-13-2009 23:25:20

Draught, Seven Bridges
Bright gold. Clean. Slightly herbal aroma and palate. Good balance. Sweetish finish, refreshing.

Pale golden with little head. Very bland hay/straw aroma along the lines of a macro. Goes down easy enough. Sweet, very, could become cloying, the stickiness is annoying.

Appearance: Clear, effervescent, yellow body with a thin, fizzy, white head. Smell: Light, clean aroma with only a very, very mild note grain and earthy hops. Taste: A dry graininess with a hint of sweetness accompanies the very light pale malts. Faint kiss of earthy hops and bitterness. Finishes dry and clean. Mouthfeel: Light-bodied. Medium carbonation. Drinkability: Light lager removed from any flavors, and, being a ’lite’, it’s removed from any flavor. But, if you’re looking for a low alcohol drink that’s high on drinkability, then this may be your option.

During the five-plus years that I lived in Jacksonville, FL I only visited the Seven Bridges Brewpub once. I had one beer and I don’t even remember what it was so I have no way of knowing if they even brew it any more. Of course, I wasn’t anywhere near the beer geek that I am now, so what purpose would it have served me then to go and taste beers when such a thing wasn’t any part of my reality. Now is a totally different story though, and during my most recent trip to Jacksonville a few weeks ago, I made sure to make it to Seven Bridges and take a flight through their beers, tasting-pad in hand.
By now we should all be well aware of my critical lager palate and unfortunate disdain for bad lagers. I’ve had a few good lagers of various styles in the last couple years, but have yet to have any enjoyable light lager experience. So what should my first beer during my Seven Bridges flight be but their Southern Flyer Light Lager. Raising my tasting glass, I prepare to begin my journey of, ultimately, six different beers.
My Southern Flyer was appropriately a very light dried hay color. There is absolutely no discernable head before and after a couple small swirls to stir things up a bit while at the same time releasing her trapped nose. Surprisingly, her nose is replete with lemon zest and fresh grassy hops. This could actually be a good portend of things to come. My first quaff is clean, crisp, and bright with lemon and summer grass which fades into a sweet toasted malt finish. Adding yet another dimension to this light lager is the addition of a light chewy mouthfeel reminiscent of chewing on a piece of hay or straw. Soft and delicate, cereal grains add a solid and lightly sweet backdrop to Southern Flyer’s prominent citric lemon and grassy palate. As far as sample glasses go, she was over almost as soon as she began, but I was pleasantly pleased with the Southern Flyer Light Lager. A clean finish with lingering faint grassy esters concludes my very first good light lager experience.
I must say, this light lager had a more balanced body and colorful palate then some standard lagers I have tried. One thing about lagers and lighter beers is that it is nigh impossible to hide any mistake no matter how small. I would have to say that Seven Bridges has with their Southern Flyer the quintessential light lager which many only dream of accomplishing. A brew well done.

Ate at this place at Disney world recently. This was the worst offering I tried there. Golden lager, no hop presence. Very light pale malt taste.

Part of a sampler at Rock Bottom Atlanta. Very poor, boring beer. Flavor and aroma are bland.