Left Hand Terra-ryezd

Brewed by Left Hand Brewing Co.
Style: Specialty Grain
Longmont, Colorado USA

Dark brown pour, thick, off-white head - aroma of chocolate and black malts, with a strong, spicy rye presence - the flavor is quite bitter, with a considerable roasty character that compliments it quite well - the rye comes on strong through the middle, but then chocolate and vanilla bean sweetness pop up momentarily, only for the spicy rye to come back in the finish - I sure do like rye, though, so that’s not a problem for me.

Pretty durn good. Thick and tasty dark lager, the rye was well done and overall this was a good drink. Thumbs up.

(bottle). Clear, dark brown color. Medium off white head. Light rye and hop flavors. Roasted malt/coffee flavor with light rye and hops. Avg duration. Smooth finish with light bitterness. Slick texture. Soft carbonation. Fair lacing.

Pours a clear brown with beige head. Aroma of roasted malts, bread, spice, rye, touch of hops. Similar taste, grainy. Dry finish. Medium carbonation.

Dirty dark brown in color. Rye nose. Rye flavors. Wait a minute.... maybe I don’t like rye. This beer doesn’t excite me. Everything about it wants me to pour it down the drain.

Pours a beige head with some fizzy legs and a brown, cola colored body. Aromas of roasted malt and a note of black pepper. Flavors of nice, toasted dark bread with some sweetness. Nice, oily body.

A solid pour into my 25cl tulip glass produces a very dense, tightly beaded, four-finger thic head that belies the relatively low alcohol of this beer. As the head slowly subsides it leaves lots of lacing on the sides of my glass. The head is a lightly browned, creamed-amber color. The beer is a dark, concentrated amber color that could be confused for black in a dark’ish bar; when held up to the light the beer shows a brilliantly clear, deep cranberry hue. A sniff of the aroma from the freshly popped bottle yielded a signature rye spiciness. A deeper inspection of the beer yields sweet, candied malt notes, spicy rye notes, toasted, almost burnt whole grain bread aromas, as well as a significant whole grain character that seems quite wholesome. Hop character contributes a nice sweet-citrus character and in combination with some of the caramelized malt a not of berries. After smelling this for a bit, I realize that much of the candied malt aromatics seem to be induced by citrus hop notes. This is a fairly complex smelling beer, it is only a mix of grain / malt and hop character (no fermentation character to speak of), but it remains quite interesting. I like that despite the ample hop notes, caramelized malt and toasted grain character the spicy rye notes are still able to be quite noticeable.

Thick and viscous feeling as this rolls across my tongue; in fact the texture from the rye is clearly evident, this is most definitely a sipping brew despite the moderate alcohol. Biting hops contribute a bitterness to the finish as well as an orange-zest, ruby red grapefruit and tangerine flavors to the middle of this beer. The hop character is ample, but mixes with a roasted malt character that reminds me of deeply toasted grain, a touch of bitter burnt grain, and even a touch of acidity from the burnt malt; at times the roast grain notes can almost hide the ample citrusy hop character. The hops have an almost bitter citrus oil component to it that turns to pine sap like flavors at times. The spicy rye flavors seem to get a bit lost trying to compete with the dark malt and, especially, the expressive hop notes.

Despite this being ten months old that hop character is still a bit too much in this beer. I do likely a nicely hopped beer from time to time, but here it gets in the way of noticing the nice spicy rye notes and the other malt complexity (the nose was actually more complex than the flavor ends up being). Even the roast malt and the hops seem to not do the best job of playing well together; the two can be just a bit cacophonous in the integration and aren’t nearly as harmonious as one might like. Having said that this is still a nice beer, as with other heavily rye-based beers, the texture can certainly take a bit of getting used to, but it makes for a chewy, hardy-seeming beer that is nice to sip upon.

On Tap at the Left Hand Brewing Company, Longmont 08/10/2008 Malt and grain aromas. Dark coloured smooth on the palate and malty with some bitterness and dryness in the finish.