Buzzards Bay Lager

Formerly brewed at Just Beer (fka Buzzards Bay Brewing)
Style: Dortmunder/Helles
Westport, Massachusetts USA

12oz Bottle - Downtown Liquors, Davis Square, MA. Snappy, wheat crisp aroma. A bit of fresh hops. Pours a brilliant rich sunshine golden, with a frothy well-lacing, ivory head. Flavor is delectable. Satisfying, toothy pils malt holds up to a snappy crisp edge of pils malt and a nice cool lagered quality. Crisp, clean, friendly, and fresh. This is a very well done lager. Some deeper wheat biscuit, honey, and grass notes rise from the bottom. Very enjoyable.

Pours pale gold into a shaker. White head quickly recedes to hug rim leaving spotted sheets. Sour caramel aromas. Malty and crisp with a sour lasting caramel finish.

My Bottom Line:
This eminently drinkable but uneventful Helles suggests a few blond cereals to go with its leafy, spicy hop subtleties, before moving into a dry and moderately bitter finish.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A sheet of foam covers the clear golden.
-The nose doesn’t offer much more than whispering pale malts.
-The body is healthy and super clean. Flavors are so timid though that watery passages feel too present (even for the style).
-Malts could have been crisper. Nonetheless, this is the kind of product big breweries could (should) easily brew.

Bottle.

August 2008 Beer of the Month Club
(Rating is from 9/2/08)

Overall Impression: Not a bad lager, but certainly isn’t anything special. I wish the Beer of the Month would pick some of the more interesting beers these brewery’s offer, instead of their standard lager.

Deep gold color, with a minimal lingering head, the beer is clear with the lightest of haze. Buttery and grassy aromas from the first pour. Second whiff produced more of a hay-like smell and some light malt. First impression of the taste, thin in body, slightly oily with a "green" or "young" taste similar to a freshly mowed lawn. There’s also a long astringent aftertaste. Not as crisp as I would expect from a lager.

Bottle. Pours a pale golden body with a white head. Cookie, grain, some mild malt sweet notes. A mild dry bitterness. Thin and sessionable.

12 oz bottle. Poured clear golden in color with a nice sized white head that left nice lacing on the glass. Aroma of earthy hops and wet grain. Tastes crisp and has a nice earthy hop character for what it is. Not bad.

Pours from the bottle a very clear golden color with a small white that sits a top while the carbonation renews it. The aroma is very strong of Hallertauer hops with a little malt undertone. The hops really shines through at first but as it fades, your left with a great smooth malty sweetness. Leaves great lacing on the glass. Pretty decent lager.