451. Florida Beer Co – Florida Lager

Posted By kkozlen on Aug 10, 2012 | 0 comments

It’s just a lazy Saturday, and I’m digging into some of the beers that I picked up during my vacation to Florida last week.  I already had my last Cigar City Jai Alai.  When I found this one at the grocery store in Flordia, I wasn’t exactly sure how great it was going to be, but I thought I’d give it a shot. Besides, what’s better in hot weather than a nice clean lager, right?

Location: Poured into a curved pint glass from the bottle at my home in Bloomington, IL.

Numbers: 5.1% ABV, 22 IBUs, 5.8 SRM, 153 Calories

Ingredients: Malt: 2-row, Caramel, Carapils; Hops: Northern Brewer, German Tradition.

Appearance & Aroma: It’s orange in color and slightly hazy. When I poured it into the glass it had very little head, and it retained almost nothing but a very little ring of bubbles around the outside of the glass. The beer did appear, however, to have a decent amount of carbonation in it. The aroma was a bit like bread and crackers with a little bit of a fruity malt smell.

Taste & Feel: The body is pretty light and the mouthfeel is fairly crisp. The carbonation sharpness made it difficult to taste anything up front, but there seems to be a little bit of bready and cracker like flavors. In the middle, it was lightly fruity, and it finished with a little bit of breadiness and bitterness. The aftertaste was a bit like bread and wheat.

Food Pairing: This was light and crisp enough that it could go with almost anything. However, the cracker-like flavors, breadiness, fruitiness lended a little bit toward meals like salads.  I think this would go nicely with a summer salad that includes fruits like oranges and grapes.

Overall Impression: I wasn’t expecting much from a beer and brewery with such a generic name, especially from a lager (which usually doesn’t have much taste anyway).  It turned out to be pretty much what I expected – a light, crisp, very drinkable beer that was fairly average.  It was nice and crisp in the hot Florida sun, but the fruitiness that appeared as it got warmer wasn’t something I was looking for.  Overall, I’d say it was an OK beer – no major flaws, but not a lot of great flavor either.

My Rating: