Enterprise Brewery Knappstein Reserve Lager

Brewed by Enterprise Brewery (Knappstein Wines)
Style: Premium Lager
Clare, South Australia, Australia

Very fruity. Citrus and other fruit tones - ? melon. Medium body. Light finish. Nice use of hops.

Tasted 07/05/2007. Slickly packaged 330ml bottle from Clare Valley, Sth Australia. Cheers Jackie! Pours a brigt yellow-gold with a billowing white head that tries to linger before fading. Lychees, honey, fruity flowers and lemony herbs on the nose . Thorough malt profile, cleanly fermented, throws out just a little hop fruitiness but it’s not as overt as most NZ craft lagers. Weighty, sweet and clean. Creamy mouthfeel. Then... wow... a long steely bitterness releases late herbal hop flavours remind me of rosemary, mint and aniseed. No wonder so many people are scared of Sauvin, this beer really showcases it’s intensity. What at first seems like a Dortmunder Export gives way to an firmly bitter new world Pilsner. I’ll be interested to see what else comes out of these guys.

Looking at the other comments the quality is obviously very variable. If you want to know what Nelson Sauvin hops taste like, this is the beer. Also has some Pacific Hallertau in there as I understand it. More a Pilsner style - highly hopped, flavour and aroma.

Bottle at Chris_O bottlefest 2007. Pale gold colour with thin white head. Bit of eggy yeast. Bit thin, some citrus. Bad.

Mmmmm... fruity. I’m generally terrible at picking the prominent players in a fruit salad affair such as this, but I think I’ll have a stab at kiwi fruit. Plenty of body. Starts off a bit sweet, but finishes off solidly with some nice lasting bitterness.

A saggy old pale ale I sup upon typing this, brewed with those good time mates Willamette and Cascade, but it just doesn’t cut right now against a new, more stylish and chic friend I’d love to call my own. I downed a few bottles of this weeks ago - not satisfied at one - and I swear the flavour and bouquet still lingers strongly in my mind.
It pours a pale-yellow gold, not exactly bright but it twinkles lustrously off the lights. Carbonation is fine, very fine, well lagered, well conditioned. Head develops well off the pour, a nice, level, thick pad of white that holds arms and never lets go, daubing well as the beer recedes to empty. Ooooh, exotic is this aroma that wafts, sends me tizzy! All pear drops, grapefruit, rose petals, and a big whack of passionfruit, fresh-pulped. A little wheat softens it (I don’t know if wheat was even used, but I got an inkling?). A wine maker, I swear there is even notes of Riesling in there that tickles on end, a little spice perhaps. All fruit in the mouth, lagering has not reduced this or stricken this of any fruity esteric delight. The palate is light, very creamy and sultry. Passionfruit is dominant again here as does some grapefruit and pine notes play edging at US hop-like characteristics. Quite juicy it oddly seems supple and dry mid-palate before heating up again as it drifts into darkness. Cracked pepper, rose petal bite makes use of the saliva glands, giving a good edge to it, the swallow all fruit, slightly sweet and mildly vinous with a good linger of pine adding more fuel to the furnace. This is just all class, stylish from bottle to glass. Beautifully balanced, bountifully aromatic and equally flavoursome, a truly nice drop. A surprise, so extra points for that!!!
I need me a few pounds of Sauvin. (33cL, The Beer Store Morley)

Bottled at Chris_O Fest March 2007. A very, very pale straw coloured beer. The aroma is poor and farty. The taste is sweetish dull and has more sulphur charcteristics. Pretty poor really but I bet it’s a premium priced product.

A Sim rate (Bottle at chris_o’s): Sweet, wheaty, fruity, citric aroma. Smells like fresh cut grass or more like the synthetic smell of the grass scented perfume that Gap makes. Tastes quite clean and fresh.