James Page Boundary Waters Golden Lager

Formerly brewed at Stevens Point Brewery
Style: Pilsener
Stevens Point, Wisconsin USA

Hmmm... I wasn’t aware that Pilseners could be brewed using Ojibwe manoomin (wild rice). A decent enough drink, deep gold, slight head, musty earthy hop odor over sweet grasses. The flavor had a surprisingly fruity, apple & peach, kind of a twist. An earthy hop bitterness returns on the finish

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This smelled just like a field of grass. I was excited to try this because the other James Pages brews I have had are great. This one didn’t live up to the hype I gave it. Orangish color with a quickly diminishing bubbly head. This didn’t really have that smooth of a taste.

12 oz bottle. Deep solid gold, little head; grassy, herbal, very dry nose; body similarly dry, very herbal and woody, quite acerbic and a touch salty...finish thin, and again bone-dry. Interesting, like chewing on dry dry crusty bread; but not very drinkable.

Brilliant clear orange with small head. Roasted notes with a bready malt like quality on the nose. Rich in the mouth with a clean lingering roasted flavor of toast almost. bready flavors with faint hops and a strange malt richness. Not bad.

On-Tap: Color is a hazy deep yellow, perhaps much like a hazy sunset over a lake, but not really, no head was served with it but there was a tiny white ring and some tiny spotty lace. Smell is a nice sweet and lightly zesty surge to it. Lemony light, yeasty, and a hard dry bread dough-like backing. Seems like easy paddling ahead. Taste is lemon citrusy and some light yeasty hold in the middle with a slight hop twinge and finishes a bit dry, a bit thin, but relaxed and firm with maybe to much malts making it uneven. The oars aren’t doing there job right on this trip. Feel is lighter to medium bodied, light yeasty grain feel in the middle and throughout the swallow, leading to a light dryness. Maybe lost direction on where to go after making the turn at smell point. From the smell I thought for sure this would be at least a good voyage, but it comes up short of portaging to the next lake.

Autumn Brew Review 2004. Kind of a dark golden color with a medium head. I didn’t know ahead of time there was wild rice in it, but that might explain a few things... Kind of a weird hops taste, likely brought about by the wild rice. I’m not sure the flavors mesh well. Aroma was pretty weak. Watery.

Brown Coloring. Good head. Wild Rice Adds Interesting Flavors... Pretty Smooth. Nothing Fantastic, Good Local Drink-a-Few Beer.

In the bottle at the 2004 Crescent Moon Vintage Beer Tasting. Even though this was a better-than-ten-year-old bottle of beer, I don’t think that it could have been any better when fresh. Pretty watery. Not much color. Just nothing here. I suspect that this is more about the gimmick of wild rice growing in Minnesota and being linked to indigenous heritage and all that. Adjuncts are adjuncts. Pass on this, if it is still made.