Steelback Light (Link)

Bottle from the relaunched Steelback. Clear, bright golden with a large white head that shrinks pretty quickly. Aroma is light and faintly sweet, with grainy malts and some actual hints of hops. Flavour follows - light but pleasant maltiness to start, and a surprising tingle of hops in the finish. Not something I’d drink everyday, but for a light beer from a brewery with a history like Steelback’s, this is a pretty impressive effort.

710mL Tub can that I had to go through a lot to get. So my comic mis-adventures with Steelback continue. Episode VII: Link. Pours an empty, souless looking pale yellow, with a huge rocky, white head. Smells like, the sour broken dreams of a once quasi-successful juice-baron, which smells a lot like crappy pale malts and a stick of straw, oddly enough. Tastes like, a fermented version of D’Angelo apple juice, minus most of the flavour. Bland. Empty. Without redeeming quality. Nothing to even rate. Only an unpleasant chemical kick in the finish that simpy begs for an answer to the timeless rhetorical question: why? The marketing slogan makes little sense, as is the way of the Steelback. "A European style light lager..."? I thought light beers were a distinctly American thing? Maybe the confusion is an intentional deception? I can’t even marvel at the astounding crappiness of this one, because there is nothing here. Is the glass half empty, or half full? Neither, it’s full of a liquid that in and of itself is empty. Think about it. The most depressing thing about this beer, is that as it warms, the fading voice of a single hop bud can be heard, desperate for a rescue that just won’t come......

Bottle, part of the re-launch of 5 Steelback beers under new ownership. Light yellow, lots of long lasting bubbles, small white head (after initially being huge). Almost nothing in aroma - nothing offensive, nothing to score either - maybe some pale malt/grain there somewhere. Mouthfeel is very carbonated. Taste is slightly grainy, quite clean really, and really watery. Better than macro light beers by far, and again, nothing offensive at all in this beer, and it may actually be just a tad refreshing on a warm day, but there is not really much taste to rate either.

Frickin’ huge can (700ml!) courtesy of HogTownHarry. Pours a pale yellow with a huge honkin’ fluffy white head. This head’s too huge and it won’t go away. Aroma’s sugary sweet along with grain, light caramel malt and perfume. Mild, watery flavour, hard to gauge what’s there when you hardly taste anything -- I’m not getting the chemical or rancid-like flavours that others got, it’s just incredibly dull. Light bodied, highly carbonated. I’ve heard Steelback beer has improved lately and I believe it as this is not as offensive as most of the older ratings for this say it is. Still, no one will miss it.

[501-20070810] Tap @ TFOB (Toronto, ON). Light wheat aroma characteristics. Clear, light yellow body with a medium-lasting bubbly white head. More light wheat in the flavour, some floral. Light-medium body is bubbly on the tongue. Certainly not impressive but not offensive either. (4/2/4/2/7) 1.9

[1571B-20080804] 341mL bottle. Beery yeast grains aroma. Clear, light yellow orange body with quick foamy white bubbles. Beery yeast continues in the flavour with mostly corn grain. Light-medium body. Mildly offensive. (4/2/3/2/7) 1.8