A Year of Craft Beer, Vol. 67, Lakefront Brewery New Grist Sorghum Beer

I have been wanting to try this beer for some time as it was one of the first award winners in the Gluten Free realm, but I have never seen it for sale until I found the craft beer store on FKD recently.  I'm pretty happy to have found it but upset it has scored so low with the Beer Advocate gang.  I think they are comparing it too much to barley beer (real beer) and forgetting that it is gluten free.  I guess when you are on a gluten free diet like I am you really crave something better than cardboard.  Anything better, please!

So this is my next installment to Gluten Free Week and a pretty good one at that!  Beer Advocate has this mislabeled as a fruit/vegetable beer.  They are considering it a beer with fruit adjuncts and it really is not.  It is brewed with sorghum and rice as the malt and no other fruits, I think.

This beer pours a very light straw color, very clear and super crisp.  The head was nice at the beginning of larger white bubbles which faded to a thing ring only around one side of the tulip glass.  Very little lacing.

The aroma is kind of very faint and like honey and apples.  Mostly honey and then the tiniest of that skunk aroma that you get with Heineken or the like.  It's nice.

The flavour profile is pretty similar to that of the aroma.  It is pretty much like thin apple juice, honey and some skunkiness.  The skunk seems to come out more as it warms up.  The finish is very lightly hoppy if at all with some peppery notes.  Finishes sweet with only a bit of dry hop at the very very end.  I'm not getting the soapy flavor that many describe.  I bet this is much better on tap.

Mouthfeel is definitely thin and could use some work, but really, it's not that bad.  It's sweet, but not overly so because it is so thin.  There is a bit of that slimey feeling, but not as much as some others that I have had.  The carbonation is definitely lively, but not in a champagne way and the yeast style doesn't remind me of champagne either.

Overall, I would have to give this a 3.5 or better.  If I give redbridge a 3, this one gets higher.  It's just more pleasant.  Well done Lakefront!

Get out there and try all kinds of stuff, not just beer, but cider, Gluten Free stuff, wine, bourbon and something that I heard of called an "Incredible Hulk".  Live a little, put down that pizzwater and get off that couch and live life because it is way too short!

-Wiss