Peer pressure

It's one of those beers I've seen around for ages and keep meaning to get to. In the pub era it would eventually have turned up as the best draft option on some random evening, but that's so much less likely to happen these days so it has stayed on the edge of my vision. Except it was in full view when I visited Rascals back in July, in their off licence fridge. Which means I finally got around to buying, and now trying, Lervig Orange Velvet.

It's a lactose-infused pale ale with vanilla and tangerine extract, which goes some way towards explaining why I've not been in a rush to try it. It seems innocent enough, however: pale and fuzzy looking, with only 5.5% ABV. The aroma is pretty sickly, vanilla and orange like a two-tone ice lolly, an effect some beer fans value, but not me. There's a hard and clashing bitterness rubbing up against this, thanks to the Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo hops. The smell doesn't bode well for the taste, then.

It does gel together a little better here, however. The meringue dessert thing is still present and it meets a herbal and savoury hop side, part classy Italian leaf salad; part urinal cake, and together it just about works. While sweet, it's not oppressively so, and the hops make a welcome and non-jarring contribution. Overall it's not bad at all. Perhaps I shouldn't have left it this long.