Coney Island Sword Swallower Steel Hop Lager

Shmaltz Brewing Company
Brewed at Olde Saratoga Brewing (Mendocino Brewing Co.)
Style: European Strong Lager
San Francisco, California USA

Bottle shared with Blankboy after everyone left after the tasting. Medium yellow, small white head. Nice aroma - sharp hops, light malt, toasty. Good taste - hops are quite nice over the light body. A good hoppy lager with a nice fresh malt taste.

Bottle:   Fiery golden, translucent, light carbonation, moderate sudsy white head, spotty lacing.   Soft alcohol nose, otherwise corn and/or rice like attributes.   Maybe its cornmeal I am smelling.   Grassy on the tongue, sweet straw but also a touch astringent.   Very mealy on the finish.   Moderate body and mouthfeel.   Not as crisp or clean as other examples.   Not bad, but does feel too alcoholic, astringent, and mealy.

Appearance: Pours a clear, effervescent, copper body with a thin, bubbly, white head. Smell: Citrusy, spicy nose laden with hops and lesser notes of pale malts, fresh dough, and light caramel sauce. Taste: Pale, caramel maltiness with a medium sweetness and a background hint of grain-packed bread. Juicy, oily tangerine taste. Peppery, spicy, citrusy hop character with a medium-high bitterness. Light touch of alcohol warmth. Long, bittersweet finish. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. Very slight stickiness to the mouthfeel. Drinkability: A classy, hopcentric lager, it paired rather nicely with a spicy pepperoni pizza and a few Tevo’d episodes of Cold Case. As part of the Coney Island series, it came in third for me after the Lager and Albino Python.

Bomber. Decent sweet hops on the nose for aroma. Golden body color with thin head. Sweet citrus hop, sugary and a medium bittering. Good refreshing brew on the palate.

A vigorous pour produces a finger and a half thick, light tan colored head. The beer is a brilliantly clear, copper color that shows a bright, concentrated gold color when held up to the light; this is clear beyond the usual clear too, this must have been heavily filtered. The aroma is quite hop focused and has a mix of citrus and spice notes to it. There is also a touch of sweet, caramelized malt to it. Aromas of candied orange zest mixes with unspecified holiday spice notes and a nutty, lightly toasted malt character.

Lightly sweet tasting, but there is ample hop character that tends to dry this beer out. A biting, herbal bitterness is evident from the get go and lingers through to the long finish of this beer. Light malt notes of toasted biscuits, and even a soft nuttiness peek through the aggressive hop character. The flavor is quite herbal, though in quite a clean way. This is not nearly as sweet tasting or hop-flavored (e.g. the citrus) as the aroma would have suggested. And despite having a medium body to it, the overall beer is perceived as fairly dry (thanks to the biting hop character). Very clean and lager like; the filtration helps with this too. As the beer warms up a bit some soft citrus notes start to become noticeable.

An interesting beer, I am not exactly sure what it is trying to be, but I don’t think it really does it for me regardless. There is nothing wrong with this beer, but the flavors just don’t quite work for my particular palate.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

22oz bottle. light orange, rocky,white head. Aroma of deep caramel, some cotton candy, hints of spicy rye. Herbal hop aroma is on the lighter side. Wonderful aroma. Clean caramel malt. Flavor is a full caramel malt, robust raw honey, and maybe a radish or some other vegatable. radish is just too spicy, a root veg of some kind, can not put a finger on it. Bold herbal bitterness lingers for a while. finishes with a bit of grapefruit towards the end. Could use a bit of balance, although still glad I’ve tried it.

Bottle from Wine Warehouse. Amber color with a medium quickly disappearing head. Nice floral, pine hop aroma with sweetness to balance. Taste is a slightly metallic take on the same. Medium body. Not bad.

Pours a clear, medium-golden color. A small, foamy white head leaves random spotting behind. The nose gives off notes of dry cereal grains, grassy hops, faint lemon zest, and a hint of resinous pine. Flavors are very crisp, with the neutral, grainy background allowing the strong, grassy hop punch to shine. The lemon note, however small it is, really adds a much needed bright element. Medium-plus bodied, well carbonated, and semi-dry. Reminiscent of a hoppy Bohemian Pils, this beer is surprisingly really good. Refreshing, and very drinkable on a hot summer day.