Brooklyn Mine-Mine

If you’re not familiar with the TV show – Brooklyn Nine-Nine, then the above pun may be lost on you. Anyway, I digress…

A recent trip to our local Weatherspoons had me perusing the drinks menu once again. You may remember before that I missed out on a chance to try the Brooklyn Lager in my local, as they were out of stock. Here, at the Spoons, I had another chance to get my hands on a bottle of this American brew. Success! They had a good supply of them!

As I proudly stood my lager on the table, some of my real ale drinking buddies were a little derisive that I would pick up a bottled lager by choice. In fact, shortly before this, they had poked fun at a Heineken drinker who felt our real ale was a bit “tasteless!”

I tried to explain that lager, as they knew it, was mostly watery, light and tasteless, but I knew this Brooklyn Lager would be different. If, in your mind, lager means Becks, Bud or Carling, then you are missing out on true beers and especially what true lager can be. Brooklyn Lager is worlds apart from these aforementioned lagers, and is certainly not watery or tasteless!

About the beer

Brooklyn Lager by the Brooklyn Brewery – classed as a Vienna beer

Brooklyn Lager is a great beer. It is full of flavour and would please any a real ale drinker I’d wager. Vienna style beers have been popular in Brooklyn for a long time, but this has a slight twist on the usual Vienna style. According to Brooklyn Brewery’s own web site, they “dry hop” the beer to create an American original. This dry hopping (explained later) gives the beer a great floral aroma. The beer is amber-gold in colour, balancing a strong malt flavour with a firm bitterness.

Alcohol: 5.2%

My rating: 7/10

 

Dry hopping is a technique where you add fresh or dried hops to a batch of fermented beer, leaving it to steep for several days. This gives the beer a fresh hoppy aroma, and depending on the hops you use, can really alter the scent coming off the beverage. Many breweries use this technique to lift their beers, but it’s a great thing to do at home (when using kit brews) as it can bring the ale to life.

As I said above, Brooklyn Lager can be found in Weatherspoons pubs but also other non-Spoons establishments. I understand it’s also available in Waitrose, and likely other supermarkets as well, so I hope you can get your hands on some.

If not, you could always hop across the Pond to the Big Apple and get it from the source!