Super Snooty Beer Reviews: Narragansett Lager

Re-posted from my blog: Malted Musings.

As I track my beer blog, I realize that I’ve blogged about Narragansett beer probably more than any other beer. As such, I’ve decided to give the Rhode Island beer my coveted “Best Cheap Beer of the Movement” award, and then bestow it with the full “pro beer taster” treatment. Enjoy.

I poured this niche craft beer out in a chalice to fully experience all the aromatics. Smelling dankly sour and slightly sweet, this traditional American lager shines with a transparent/bright gold color and a frothy, happy thick head perching on top. At first taste I get a mouthful of bright carbonation; the taste then builds to a grainy sweet malting flavor which grows slowly to a more bright, slightly hoppy apex. After this the beer fades to a more earthy sweet malting that lingers on the palate with a faint hint of sour hopping. This is a light/medium beer which has a grainy sweet malting and just a hint oflight (maybe honeyed?) malting. A true summer beer, this brew has a simple grainy complexion that is served best cold.

I feel like this beer is almost too good for the Chimay chalice glass I poured it into! In all seriousness though, ‘Gansett has always been my go to party beer and really a great all-rounder that can shine in any number of circumstances (mowing the lawn, watching a movie, aimlessly wandering around the house on a lazy Saturday, etc). Besides that I’ve been super impressed with the efforts ‘Gansett has been making recently to reclaim their old brewery and turn out a surprising number of seasonals (like the Dels Shandy which killed it this summer for me) which are all pretty tasty and very affordable!

Speaking of which, be on the lookout for ‘Gansett’s newest offering coming in the next few weeks: their Lovecraft Honey Ale. Yeah, that HP Lovecraft: influential cosmic horror writer circa the 1920’s (as well as one of my favorite horror authors period). I swear these guys must have an direct avenue into my brain of “favorite things”, or maybe all of us New Englanders are just more or less on the same page. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and G+ for more malted musings and beer reviews of the dark and unspeakable!