Thomas Hooker Munich-Style Golden Lager

Brewed by Thomas Hooker Brewing Company
Style: Dortmunder/Helles
Bloomfield, Connecticut USA

Golden color with large white head. Bready malt aroma, honey, lightly fruity, with a touch of earthy hops. The flavor is outstanding, perfectly balanced, chewy bready malts with just enough sweetness. Quite simply, an absolutely delicious Helles.

22 oz bottle, pilsner glass. A stunningly massive and creamy white head rests on an inspiring body that ranges from honey gold to pale straw in hue. Pleasant and clean straw malts reach out and embrace sappy grass hop aromas. A light honey sweetness pulls together with a firm, somewhat toasted, bready malts. Delicate lemongrass and perfume tones fill the remaining spaces. Honey and toasted bread malt notes play out fantastically in the flavor profile yeilding to a soft, grassy bitterness in the finish before taking reign once again in the aftertaste. The mouthfeel is a little fuller than average but the real story is in the texture. It’s almost creamy, but plenty wet and slick enough to slide right off the tounge and leave you both satisfied and thirsting for another sip. The carbonation is perhaps a <!-- i -->bit<!-- /i --> too much, but I could see it working just fine on a really hot day. I’d love to see what this would be like unfiltered, but that’s life for you. Seriously delicious. Who’d have thought I’d regret not picking up a case of the pale lager (dort...but still) while I had the chance. Frack.

Sun driven gold with a small loosened white cap that crumbles at a steamy pace. Slow rising bubbles within tend to keep a light skim always present. Light stringy lace. Soft aroma of sweet white bread grains and fresh doughy crusts. Slight grassy-like hopping. Nice taster! Lovely sweet bready malts with a buttered corn crispness and tender grassy induced spice and mild bitterness. Pale malt finish with drying breadyness and lighter transference of dull caramel. Gentle and firm well-rounded full-bodied, malt saturated feel. Tender carbonation; soft and chewyish. Solidly sweet with the white breads, but milded in tone enough for super extreme slopping down of this liquid. Nice addition of grass/spiced hops add an outstandingly fine balance. An excellent quaffer in which one bomber exceeds in its bounty and more then one is definately required and/or suitably easy to handle. Damn fine stuff!

This proves that the brewery not only produces awesome big beers, but can handle more subtle styles as well. Pours a dark golden/amber, with a massive head that leaves good lacing. Aroma is sweet munich malt, caramel, and light grassy hops. Mouthfeel is remarkably smooth, feels great on the palate. Starts off sweet with fruity notes of tart apples, mixed with sweet honey and some munich graininess. Turns pleasantly bitter with grassy and lightly spicy hop notes, and finishes crisp and a bit dry. Very well made, glad to have been able to try it.

This bomber came to me courtesy of BeerAdvocate spritdeus via a trade. After poring, the beer revealed a clear golden colored body, and a two inch tall foamy off white head. The aroma was clean with honey like pilsner malt, and faint florally grassy hops. The taste was malt driven, with a sweet honeysuckle flavor and very mild hop bitterness. The mouthfeel was creamy and soothing with a medium thick body. This style is supposed to be difficult to pull off as there is no way to hide any off flavors. And Troutbook is clearly at the top of their game, as they have brewed a beer that does not possess any off flavors that would need hiding.

Not bad at all. Malty but dry. Toast and honey. Very dry finish. No hop bitterness perceived, but definitely a clean crispiness. I’m not getting an overt grassiness, but something is saying grass. Maybe even a bit dusty, but in a pleasant way. You really can’t ask for much more in a beer. It’s flavorful, complex and quite pleasant to drink. The mouthfeel is wonderfully soft and smooth, almost soapy. I love those toasty German malts in there as well. The frightening thing is that this bottle is over a year old, so I think it’s safe to assume the beer could be even better fresh. This is a style I wish more brewers would make, because it can be oh so very good.

From a 22 oz. bomber with no freshness date. Poured a hazy dull orangey golden with a slightly fluffy, foamy head that settled into a thin sudsy lacing. Aromas of bread and a subtle grape, hints of toasted grain, softly spicy and herbal. Good carbonation and malty crisp, dryish, creamy smooth light bodied mouthfeel. Delicious Munich lager taste, light toasted barley and sweet bready caramel, a nice grape fruitiness, spicy, herbal hops that have a soft bitterness, and a dry grainy, biscuity finish. An excellent lager, tasty and balanced, easy drinkability, for me, one of Thomas Hooker’s better offerings.

Bottle. Sweet, grassy, doughy notes with a hint of yeast in the nose. Transparent honey gold color with a long-standing frothy off-white head. Bam. Nice roastiness hits your right off the bat. This smooths out into a very pleasant and enjoyable doughy middle. Finishes with a nice hop kick at the end. Great mouthfeel and is a very clean beer. Technically great. I wish it had a little more aroma. Still a great beer for a style I don’t typically enjoy.