Autumn Fire - Fat Heads Brewery & Saloon

jampics2

Ohio

3.6/5  rDev -10.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

On tap @ Fat Heads. Served in a really cool branded 20oz Fat Heads mug during the Harvest party.

This beer looks nice in the mug, but the color is a little dull. It's a orange/red/amber mix, representing Autumn very well, but just looks a bit subdued. The beer is rather clear and has a nice head. There's some spotty lacing left on the mug.

The smell makes me really wonder where the smoke is. The brewery describes the beer as "a smoked lager in the Bamberger style". That doesn't mean much (to me) for lagers in particular as Schlenkerla and Spezial are both Bamberg natives and put out very different products. So, I guess the angle Fat Heads is going for is a lighter take on the style. There are notes of caramel malt, some mild noble hops, and just a touch of earthiness that I discover in the taste is indeed the smoke.

This is one of the most mild smoked beers I've ever had. In fact, it's like 95% lager mixed with 5% smoked beer by the standards of Schlenkerla. A touch of beechwood smoked malt add almost a burned leave earthiness to the mix (again, an interesting way to tie this back to an Autumn seasonal). The rest of the malt is relatively sweet and there's a touch more earthiness due to the noble hops.

The body is crisp and light (plus just a bit). The finish is clean with just a hint of lingering smoke. Because of the light smoked component, this is pretty drinkable. A fine angle for an Autumn beer and one I was actually pretty happy to have tried while waiting for the wet hop ale to go on tap.

Serving type: on-tap

10-09-2010 13:55:44 | More by jampics2