McKenzie French Country Spring Beer

Tap at Malvern. Pours out a nice slightly hazly light copper/amber color with a small head. Citrus on the aroma with some yeast. Taste is refreshing with some spice, yeast citrus and light dry hop bitterness on the finish.

On tap at the Malvern location. Poured a medium and lightly hazy golden color with a small sized head. Aromas of pices, some grains, citrus, and yeasty. Tastes of spices, grains, bread, and citrus.

Draught @ Malvern Brew Pub: Aroma of Belgian yeast and spices. Poured gold in color with a medium-sized, rocky, off-white head that lasted throughout. Hazy. Sparkling. Good laving. Flavor of herbs and herbal hops. Medium body. Creamy texture. Average carbonation. Herbal finish. Not much to this beer.

Back out of retirement and on tap at the Malvern location. It looks like this has been changed up a bit with the abv at 6.8% and ibu’s at 30 now. Pours a hazy golden with a medium bubbly/creamy lacing off white head. Aroma of floral notes, honey, lots of citrus, bready and hints of spces. Flavor was bready, mixed spices, corriander, lots of citrus, honey, light grains and yeast. Very nice and refreshing beer. Even at 6.8% the abv is hidden and this one is even pushing into a very full flavored session beer category.

Date: 11/01/2006
Mode: Hand Bottled
Source: Tasting

hazy dark gold, frothy off white head, strands of lace, sweet fruity aroma, nice fruity flavor with great yeasty spicyness, light bitterness,

Aroma: 6/10; Appearance: 7/10; Flavor: 7/10; Palate: 6/10; Overall: 13/20
Rating: 3.3/5.0
Drinkability: 7/10
Score: **+/4

Hand-bottle courtesy of Dickinsonbeer, sampled in November 2006: Pours a clear golden with a thin-lacing wispy white head. Mild, lightly sweet, toasty pale malty aroma has a nice, bready yeasty balance. Starts sweet and biscuity malty with a nice balance of lightly bittering hops toward a drier, floral bittersweet finish. A true to style and enjoyable brew!

Draught pint on 10/6/06 with Dickinsonbeer. Malvern location.
Frothy white head rises up exuberantly atop a wonderfully conditioned (clear) amber-copper body with light marigold and peach tints. Retention is only moderate but light rings of lace are left behind.
Deep and earthy at first, the yeast and strisselspalts combine to give both a soily, mineral-like note that is then joined by some bready, moderately sweet malts. Like a rainy Spring day, some muted/wet herbal-grassiness is present on the end, as well as a fair amount of hop bitterness (moreso than expected). The malt is well-extracted and quite highly represented, as it should be for a biere de garde. Perhaps a little more fruitiness would give it more of a defining "biere de mars" character and the strisselspalt, while interesting, don’t quite provide as dry or lilacy an aroma as I would anticipate. Aroma strength is medium to medium-high, with no alcohol or brewing flaws perceived.
Sweet and chewy at first, with notes of thick, gooey white bread, almond paste, vanilla and light acids from the yeast, it certainly begins as more than a mouthfull. But it dries out significantly, with a very high amount of bittering hops for the style and plenty of tanginess and light grassiness. Minimally fruity, though some yellow fruits and black cherries do come to mind upon warming, I get more of an earthy, soily, damp-leaf effect from the hops. The mouthfeel shows medium amounts of fairly engaging carbonation matched by a softness from the malts. A bit too much acidity does build on the finish, however, be it from the hops or the yeast. Very drinkable though, and if I wasn’t so spoiled from trying McKenzie’s other (top-notch) Belgian styles, this might stand out more.

Poured a hazy golden color with a medium almost white head. Sweet and malty aroma with some citrus and yeasty notes. Light orange. The flavor was sweet and mildly fruity. Malty flavor overall with some yeasty spice on the finish.