United Nations of Beer

Brooklyn Lager

by Ashley Cotter-Cairns
(UNOB HQ)

Brooklyn Lager
Brooklyn Brewery, NY, USA

It's not every day I get to review a New York beer. And it's not every day I get to sample a beer that stops me in my tracks with bags of character and quality. Brooklyn lager fulfils both of the above criteria.

Following recent encounters with seemingly dozens of fizzy red Canadian lagers, when I opened this beer and poured it, I must confess my heart sank just a fraction when I saw the colour.

I had my review half-written already: yet another fizzy red beer from North America. Ho hum. And then I tasted it.

Brooklyn lager is a missing link. If you like cold, fizzy, refeshing beers (especially in summertime, when New York City, or Montreal, if you can find this there, can be like hell on earth), but also love the taste of hops, you’ve just found the perfect bridging beer.

Brooklyn lager has a lot of the character of an IPA, while masquerading as a lager-style brew.

Obviously if there's the comparison to an IPA, then you are going to have to be a fan of bitter, dry-tasting beers to enjoy this fine lager. But again, the missing link aspect comes into play. This is hoppy without the intense dryness of most IPA-style brews.

The aftertaste is still very bitter, but you don't get that bottom-of-the-birdcage feeling in your mouth after a few seconds that IPAs at their dryest can create.

It's almost criminal to market this beer as mere "lager". It's just superb, refreshing and flavourful to the nth degree: but on the other hand, if you bought a six-pack expecting a fairly bland, blonde-style, middle of the road lager, then you'd be extremely disappointed. Mad, even.

And in New York in summer, a mad beerhead could cause a minor riot.

It might just convert a fizzy piss fan into a hops fan, though. If that happens to just one per cent of the populace, then Brooklyn lager will be doing a public service.

Quite simply the best lager I've ever had.