The Swill: Coney Island Lager
The Still: Shmaltz Brewing Company
Saratoga Springs, New York
http://www.shmaltz.com
The Drill: Lager, 22oz bottle, 5.5% ABV
The Spill: This unique lager pours honey brown with a white head. Rich malts escape the nose, complimented by a pleasant, light, cherry-hop note. The taste, fresh and cold from a glass, is sweet, and almost honey-like at the front, followed by a mellowing, smooth, lagery finish and the tiniest hoppy nip at the end. However, as the beer is given time to warm and breathe, the smile on the label's funhouse face turns to a sneer, and the deeper, more bitter notes of the beer take on a sinister affectation.
Says Bill: I've really enjoyed the stuff I've tried from Shmaltz. They put a lot into their beers. This one, for example, uses 8 different malts and 6 strains of hops. Also, their marketer, Melissa, was kind enough to leave a comment here the last time I reviewed one of their beers. Most lagers don't have this much character and complexity, and it's a perfect example of how a beer can mature and change in its surrounding environment.
Refill?: It's also a clear message to those nimrods at Coors that if your beer has to stay cold to be drunk, it must suck: 3.5 taps out of 5.