Coney Island Albino Python

Shmaltz Brewing Company
Brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
San Francisco, California USA

Lovely spicy and faint hoppy nose. Cloudy white appearance that looks like a wheat beer. In the mouth there’s a mix on hops and spices that refresh the drinker on those hot summer days.

This beer is so weird! Pours a cloudy dull yellow with a lasting thick egg-white head and an enigmatic Ginger aroma. Weird! Tastes slightly salty with lots of ginger and maybe even nutmeg. Frothy and slightly creamy body, good carb. Pleasant enough beverage, but I have difficulty calling it beer.

Man, if there ever is another beer so full of medicinal qualities I’m not sure I can think of it because this one takes the cake. It like some kind of lemony/minty cough drop flavored beer and it smells exactly the way it tastes too, which sucks. I will say this about it though, it’s hard to forget the impression it left with me.

The beer pours out a bright lemony yellow color, cloudy with a 1" thick bright while head. The color looked near neon yellow, pretty cool but strange at the same time. Aroma was tire rubber, mint, menthol cough drops, and lightly sweet (honey I guess). After tasting it, I knew it would be a drain pour. Mint, ginger, rubber, honey, lemon, yeast...seriously, it tasted like some kind of Riccola cough drop melted and put into a beer. Just plain awful. Avoid at all costs.

Poured from bottle a hazy darker blonde with small white head of big bubbles. Aroma is light with hay and soft citrus. Flavor is mostly dry with a lemony tartness that is mildly bitter, a light grassiness, pepper, and ends with a soft touch of malt and honey. This beer did seem somewhat harsh at first and then grows on you...well at least me. I am not sure I would buy it again but I am glad I tried it.

22oz bottle shared by Woody Chandler. Thanks Woody. Poured a cloudy yellow with a semi-lasting head. The nose was freshly zested lemon, coriander, crackery pilsner malt, and floor cleaner. Upon first sipping it I thought we were drinking lemon Pledge, but as my palate became acclimated to it the appeal started to grow on me. The flavor was clean and lemony with slight bitterness, not unlike lemon meringue pie. Very crisp and refreshing on a hot balmy night. Not sure I ever need to have this one again but it was an experience I won’t soon forget.

Tap at Sheffields. Poured a cloudy gold with an off-white head. Aroma was a bit underwhelming but notes of hops, flower, fruits and malts present. Flavor began a bit fruity and then built to a malty finish. Hops were underlying throughout but lacked the bitterness,

Bottle. Poured a cloudy amber-gold with a small to average white head. Aroma of must, bread, with a huge dose of spice and pepper. Not a big fan of the aroma, but it was ok I guess. Flavor did not work for me either; just too much spice with not much else to provide a balance. A bit medicinal. Didn’t come close to finishing this one, but at least I can move on to something else.

Bomber emblazoned with a creepy-ass dude, a goth seductress and one phallic-as-hell snake. Hazy yellow with a subdued head. Aroma is extremely spicy with licorice dominating, maybe some soft citrus in the background. Flavor is all about the spice, with an almost minty character at the forefront. The adjunct spice overpowers the typical clove esters of a white. Refreshing mouthfeel, and a nice change of pace, but a little too unbalanced.