In anticipation of my upcoming trip to the States for my summer jollies i’ve taken the opportunity to try more american beers. As we will be visiting the Brooklyn Brewery for their Brewery Tour which is $8 and includes sampling their four perennial products; Brooklyn Lager, Brooklyn Brown, Brooklyn Pale Ale, and Brooklyn Pilsner. Plus you get to keep the glass pictured below
When you consider the price of admission, that is unbelievable value. You also have the choice to buy beer tokens after the tour for $5 for one or 5 drinks for $20.
There is a very good description on the Brooklyn Brewery Website Here
Anyway, on to the beer. Brooklyn Lager. We all know lager, don’t we, that homogenous mass produced stuff, that goes down well on a sunny day with a barbeque. Like fosters, stella, budweiser? You’d think that, but no. The flavour on this bad boy is like getting a slap on the face. My mind was expecting something totally different, it was a most pleasant surprise. At 5.2% it may be a bit heavy for a session beer, but it definitely was very nice, i’d imagine that it would be great with a nice spicy curry. The strong flavour profile may be too much for some. But I enjoyed it immensely.
As they say above, this truly is an original. I was amazed. Only recently finding the craft beer scene there are so many great products being made by our american cousins, that I don’t actually know why I was surprised. And what’s more its a very reasonably priced beer considering it flies across the atlantic. I paid €5.25 in the Brew Dock recently for this.
So onto the scoring. I think I may have found a new favourite for the incoming summer season, though we will see – there are many many beers to try.
So as before my scoring is based on two factors, giving a total score out of ten. Firstly for the product itself, and secondly the availability.
Given i’d very low expectations of this product, why I can’t really put my finger on, I am happy to say those expectations were foolish and I can’t wait to sample more of this brewery’s products. So the product itself scores 4/5
Availability, As expected this is available in most good craft pubs like against the grain, brew dock, Porterhouse etc, and most good independent off licenses. In the sense that if you wanted one, you wouldn’t have too far to go for it, O’Briens stock it, and i’m pretty sure i’ve seen it in Tesco too. So another 4/5 there.
So Brooklyn Lager scores 8/10
Irish Beer Snob 