Grand River Town Hall Lager

Brewed by Grand River Brewing
Style: Premium Lager
Cambridge, Canada

500ml bottle BO 2/06/09 from Harry!!! Nose of grassy hay with a faint spearmint note. Hazy light copper with a medium off white head. Flavor is lightly bitter with some light caramel and white pepperiness. Not pale enough to compete with Bud, Miller, or Coors.

[609-20070913] Tap @ Victory Cafe (Toronto, ON). Distinct yeast aroma with a bit of fruity apple or hops. Clear, orange amber body with a medium-lasting foamy off-white head. More fruity apple juice yeast flavour with a smooth finish. Medium body is fairly grainy. Quite nicely put together.

Growler from the brewery - pours a shocking rusty copper hue with a medium white head. Beautiful, fresh aroma filled with bread dough, sweet malts and a good amount of hops. Nice yeastiness in there too. Flavour is brilliant - an expert mingling of hops and malt, with the malt providing a good body and the hops adding a nice refreshing bitter finish. Jesus, this is 3.9%?! You’d never know it to look, smell or taste, and really puts to rest the notion that "light beer" has to be light in colour, aroma and flavour. This blows all of them out of the water. I prefer the Galt Knife Old Style ever so slightly, but the two combined are without a doubt the best two lagers in Ontario, hands down. Terrific stuff.

Well, I gotta say, as far as "premium lagers" go, this and Creemore are probably the best I’ve ever had. Pours a fizzy gold yellow with no head. Aroma really grainy, big bread notes, a little bit of honey and lemon, ends on a strange note, kind of smells like an old basement. Flavour is grainey, bread, lemon zest, grass, a touch of hops and more lemon in the end. A bit of soapiness in the finish, but its actually not a bad thing....in a weird kind of way. Really good, will buy again.

Growler from brewery. Pours a slighly hazy yellow gold with small white head. Sweet malt aroma. Sweet malt flavour with a nice hoppy but smooth finish. Another really impressive offering from Grand River.

At the brewery-Deep orange/amber body, pours a frothed rocky bleached white cap. The lacing and retention are excellent. Fresh fruity aroma, green apples, green leafy hops, lots of sugary malts leading to a touch of orange peel. There’s quite the balance in the flavour of subtle, off-dry malts, some fruit (pear, apple), some biscuit, with hearty doses of basil and leafy hops. Very refreshing, assertive, while at the same time being respectively "light". Another gem from this brewery!

Growler fresh from the brewery. The pour produces a deep gold-amber, clear lager with a massive tight-pored frothy cap which lasts and laces the glass. Sturdy aromas of pale and toasted malt...some .light whisps of hay. Medium body, hard mineral mouth feel, malty-hop forward character. Rich malt mixture in the front gets balanced and lightly over taken by more aggressive bittering hops. Lightly dry finish...bready after taste. A lighter ABV session lager from this brewer that has substantially more flavor than most light lagers.... it is somewhat better balanced than the Galt Knife lager and the hop astringency in the finish does not wipe out the malty after taste expected in a fresh lager. A well made malty summer lager and I like it better than the other GRB lager. It also has that signature sharp bite to it as other GRB brews but not as intense. Perhaps the local water is just too hard for a smooth soft lager....then again a lager with sharp "bite" to it is a pleasant change.

Draught at the Victory Café. Pours a clear golden-orange with an average size diminishing white head. Aroma’s quite fruity with a nice amount of hops and caramel malt. Fruity, caramelly flavour along with hops (and again I’m pleasantly surprised by the amount of hops in this Lager) and a light bitter finish. Medium bodied. I was not expecting to like this as much as I did, another nice surprise from this brewery. Keep up the great work Grand River!