East End S.W.I.L.L

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 3 | Flavor: 4 | Overall: 5

S6L3F2T4O9 From growler and poured into a big clear 24 oz heavy glass mug. I filled the growler yesterday at the EE brewery. Cloudy for a lager, makes this very interesting, optically. No head on the first pour and I don’t see any signs of visible carbonation. This brew looks somewhat like a darker wheat or hefe, but it is not quite plain cloudy light brown, there is an orange color appeal to it. It has a fairly sweet or mild floral aroma. Very little mouth carbonation and as I recall, there was not much pressure release when I undid the lid. Comes across as nearly flat on the palate. Taste has plenty of personality for a lager. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this was ale. It is really ale-ish. A lager an ale lover will love. Most macro lagers are designed to keep outttah yer face, this is not. It regularly lets you know that it is in your mouth. Quite strong and supposedly this is 6%, but I bet yer bippy it’s certainly more! How dare this be called a session brew, heheh. This beer is quite reminiscent of a dubbels I’ve had from EE. There is this gnawing provocative taste ever present during the session. More persona than most lager lovers will tolerate. Interestingly, I think I detect some higher alky macro-brew attributes, which could be good or bad, depending on your attitudes toward macro lagers. At times this ‘S.W.I.L.L’. is a little easier said, than done. The most ale-ish flavored lager I have had in some time. Lacks many of the common courtesies we have come to know with yer typical American lager. Mixed emotions on this one, primarily because I was expecting another smooth laid back EE session brew for some reason. Smooth, yes but not totally qualifying as a session-able brew, heheheh, I’m a little off my sharpness by now. Second pour generates some foamy head, much more than the first. There is a weird animosity of uncanny lager, but in a good way. In summary, moderately diverse when compared to any other ‘lager’ I‘ve tasted. Quite an impressionable brew fer sure. An ale like lager with plenty of that EE attitude in there. Overwhelming in some aspects. Finish leaves you wondering what happened. Overall, pretty strong, did I say that already?