Centennial Single Hop Lager - Dave's BrewFarm

feloniousmonk

Minnesota

4.25/5  rDev 0%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Centennial Single Hop Lager. 6.4 %. I'll keep the other info for later.

Clear, amber-hued appearance, flush white head, long-lasting, and lace-leaving.

Aroma: floral hoppy notes first, followed by tropical fruit, citrus. Starts small and builds up beautifully. Ripens ad flowers as the minutes go, revealing more hop loveliness.

Taste: Warm, malty, toasty. Clean, medium-bodied, zesty. Bready malt, graham cracker-y, with fruit atop, with hops bursting aplenty. Fresh and drink-tastic, smooth-alicious, consumable- acious.

This is a slight adjustment for me, as I've never really had Centennials in a lager, that I know of. Ales, sure enough, there's may a single-hop ale, such as Bell's Two Hearted Ale. There's something different in an ale, more than we get from a lager.
Experiments like the BrewFarm single-hop lager series serve to blow the lid off the presumptions we have of lagers, when using hops with more flavors than those normally employed. The hops bring this, but the yeast and fermenting bring something else.

It certainly changes things for this non-lager-lover. I do prefer a fuller body, but the high hopping changes the game. Someone who swears they don't like lagers may have to change their tune when they sample the deliciousness in this. And this may be described ( see below) as a "pale lager", but the malts are not the same as a typical pale lager, it's much more flavorful and colorful than what we expect from a "pale lager."

I'll take a moment for the true story from Farmer D: "From the series of single hop lagers showcasing a single hop variety in a pale lager. Three separate additions of Centennial hops. Pils, Cara Red, Carmamel 20 malts."

Just what I was talking about cara red and caramel 20 aren't really the ingredients in a pale lager. And when does Centennial show up in the hop bill of the pale lager? This one is a freak all around, but the type that shows how crazy "normal" really is.

Serving type: growler

09-10-2012 07:55:59 | More by feloniousmonk