Lager blues

Oskar Blues is back on a lager kick, with two that are new to me.

With its plain packaging, Oskar's Lager looks like it's been around forever but it was added to their line-up only last year. "American Pale Lager" is as far as the description goes, and the inclusion of calorie and carbohydrate data tells you the audience at which it's pitched. It is insanely pale in the glass, the greenish-white of a perry rather than any lager. At 4.2% ABV there's no excuse for that. It's plenty fizzy too, big crackling bubbles failing to form a head. There's a strange match-head sulphur aroma and a faint malt sweetness in the foretaste, one which fades embarrassingly quickly leaving only the carbonic bite of all that fizz. This is exactly the sort of beer the American craft movement set itself against from day one. To see a leading light like Oskar Blues present one unironically is just confusing.

To wash the lack of taste out of my mouth, I turned to Slow Chill Vienna-Style Lager. The limpid copper colour was immediately pleasing and its aroma demonstrated the perfect combination of toasty biscuit malt and sharp green noble hopping. That had me expecting something wonderful in the taste but what followed was actually quite plain. The texture is good, making excellent use of 5% ABV to create something fully süffig, but that doesn't launch much flavour. There's a gentle roastiness and a spinachy bitter tang, but nothing especially strong or distinctive. Maybe this is another one where I should applaud an American brewery for being subtle in a European style, but it left me wanting more, of biscuity melanoidins in particular. You may appreciate it extra if your palate is more delicate than mine.

Not OB's best lagery work here. Neither are offensive or overambitious or difficult. I merely question the rationale of shipping them here from Colorado.