Full Sail Limited Edition Lager (LTD 01)

Brewed by Full Sail Brewing Company
Style: Dunkel
Hood River, Oregon USA

Dark amber pour with quickly disappearing head. Watery malt nose. Sweet malt body with faint caramel and a bit of sourness floating around in there.

Bottle sampled on 2/13/07: Pours a clear copper bronze with a thin, spotty-lacing off-white head. Sweet, lightly caramel malty aroma has some toasty grainy notes and lager yeast. Body starts fairly full and slightly caramely sweet with some earthy pale malty notes and lager yeasty presence. True to style, but pretty bland.

Bonus bottle from DA, drunk on 4/25/07
A whiff of apples hits immediately as I open the bottle but seems fully passing. Despite a vigorous pour, the one-finger beige head didn’t stick around very long, nor was there any significant lace. An olivine-tinted mahogany body with milk chocolate hues as well, shows a medium-high to high clarity.
The Dunkel. I’ve never understood this style, perhaps never having had a truly great example. So it’s a dark, pale lager. I get that, it’s meant to be an easy-drinking session beer, low in abv and hop rates. Can’t say I’ve ever found one that didnt fit that description, but I guess what always confounds me is the supposed sessionable nature of a dark beer. Because no matter how low the hopping, alcohol and malt rates, it’s still a dark beer.....with dark flavors. Brown sugar, light roast, caramel, chocolate and/or toffee. Do these things sound quenching to you? Because they don’t sound it, nor taste like it, to me. Granted, the dunkel should be very well attenuated, with a crisp lager yeast presence on the end to help solve the problem that sweet just isnt refreshing. But even granting that, those flavors just dont do it for me, attenuated or not. So maybe I’ll never enjoy/fully appreciate a dunkel. Don’t know.
This one has about as good a flavor/aroma as I’ve seen, though the palate is a bit fizzy and thin, and the aroma somewhat weak in its strength. Prunes and anise seem deeply integrated in to the flavor and aroma, and dare I say it borders on being a touch phenolic. Mostly caramel and chocolate come through from the malt. Well attenuated, though with a slight stickiness to it. Crisp yeast is a bit lacking, though is stronger while still cold (obviously). Interesting. I don’t know, it’s a dunkel alright.

Copper color on the pour, head doesn’t stay around long and is pretty small. Sweet, malt, and some banana in the aroma. Flavor isn’t my cup of tea, it’s a little too sweet up front, but the hop bite at the end is refreshing.

12 Oz Bottle. Bottling 01. A munich-roasty caramel and banana lager aroma, cold and clean. Faint almonds and lime juice. Pours a bubbly even, nicely clear amber-orange, with a silky soft creamy head of ivory. Flavor a flattened malt sugar and lightly barnyardy grain texture. Moderately sweet, thus reasonably drinkable. Somewhere in the middle of the road, clean with a very restricted hop kiss for balance. Malt character and depth reigned in and could have gone more, but then it would have been a Marzen. A nicely drinkable, mildly flavored lager.

I liked the label concept of this Hood River lager. Pac-NW biting hops flavor for a true American lager body that was golden-copper-bronze. A good start for Full Sail. Small whitish head, not too impressive, but this is the real session for a real head. Minor roasty malt presence. Can’t put a finger on what makes this so good, but it sure as hell is! Keep drinking from the Gorge!

OMG I love this beer. This is just how I like dark lager. First, its a really nice red color with a med, firm creamy head. Pleasing aroma of toffee-caramel, hinting at crystal and munich malts. A light hop aroma is there too, some spice, flowers and grapefruit. Flavor so well rounded, smooth soft and creamy, with a big caramel malt presence, leading into a nicely hopped spicy, balanced finish. Everything about this beer is just how it should be. I want more, more and more. If I had this around, it would be my new regular drinker.

(Bottle 35,5 cl) Clear, orangey brown with an off-white head. Clean aroma of roasted malt. The body is medium with a very clean and smooth mouthfeel, flavours of roasted malt without much sweetness really. Dry, lightly hoppy finish. Not really a great beer by any means, but well crafted indeed. 280307