Captain Lawrence Liquid Gold

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Pours a clear bright gold with a good white head. Aroma is slightly yeasty, herbal, citrus and other fruits. Mouthfeel is medium-bodied and pretty smooth, little carbonation. Flavor has a good malty sweetness, yeast, oranges, spices, and a mild bitterness in the finish. A very solid, enjoyable beer.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

A very clear yellow colored ale that had a clean flavor profile. It seemed as if there was little to no hop bitterness at all but the beer did not taste overly sweet. I noticed both spicy and fruity flavor characteristics on the palate but it had no complexity to it at all.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Pours from the growler'd bottle with a frothy, initially one-finger thick, pale, almost perfectly white colored head. The beer is a brilliantly clear, full gold color, that shows bright, yellow-gold highlights when held up to the light. Initially this smells of herbal, slightly lemon-like hops, but a deeper inspection reveals aromas of honey-like malt, grassy grain notes, soda-cracker aromatics and some light fermentation character. The fermentation character produces some fruit notes reminiscent of apples a distinct, yet subtle, note of metallic white-wine grape varietal and a sweet citrus aromatic. It also has a hint of phenolics, as well as a touch of ginger / peppery spice aromatics and a yeast-signature of earthy-spice note. Really the hops are the most noticeable note, but they in no way dominate the aromatic profile of this brew.

Fairly dry up front, but it does pick up some sweet malt notes reminiscent to honey and grain. Grassy, herbal hop notes are noticeable from the first and slowly morph into a biting, solid, mouth coating bitterness that lingers on in the finish. I should say that the bitterness is not any where near overwhelming, just the signature of an American brewer trying to put a personal signature into his interpretation of the style* (*whatever that means). The hop character towards the finish intermingles with spicy fermentation notes of pepper (also contributed by the carbonation, which has held up well), ginger and clove like turpenes. Light bodied enough to be quite drinkable, but it does have a soft body to it that is easily offset by the medium-light, yet persistent carbonation. As my palate gets used to the hop character a slightly tart fruit character becomes noticeable in the flavor; again notes of metallic white grapes (sauvignon Blanc, though more Chardonnay), a hint of pear and a touch of melon are noticeable especially towards the middle where the slight malt sweetness picks up a bit. The dry, grassy grain and soda cracker malt notes from the aroma are much subdued in the flavor, instead it has more of a sweet bready flavor. As the beer warms up a bit it picks up a touch more green/earthy spice character (if that makes any sense) and the complex fruitiness picks up a bit as well.

In a very rare occurrence for a bottle of this size, I am left wondering why I don't have more of this beer to continue drinking. This is a very solid brew, sort of a cross between a Pale Ale and a Belgian Blond; I like the fresh hop character here and the light, spicy / fruity yeast contribution works quite well. I really do like the more recent twist of including a significant hop presence in these characterful yeast driven styles (by both Belgian & American Brewers). I might have wished for a more rustic yeast and / or fermentation temperature regime, but that would most likely be pushing this beer out of reach of the average consumer & more than likely outside what the brewer was trying to accomplish. This beer is tasty enough that I wouldn't mind having this on tap as an every day beer, which is a soft way of saying this is quite tasty. If this beer had been less than 5% abv and still maintained the general flavor profile and balance, It would be perfection in a glass; it is a touch too strong to be that, but it still this is one damn good, more than the sum of its parts, just plain enjoyable brew.