This is my third Northwoods beer in a row, and it may be the last for a while. I'm not sure how many derivations of beers that they have, but I have had four of the ones that they import into Tennessee. While memorable for their can art, I can't say that they have been particularly memorable for the beer. I would kind of expect that the beer that manages to get distribution intrastate should be a cut above the rest. Instead, I often find that these beers are middling at best. Maybe a good lager will wake me up to what's really good coming out of New Hampshire.
This beer looks like a classic lager. It has a stark white head on top of a golden, clear beverage with tons of points of nucleation toward the bottom of the glass. This beer would make many of the domestic lagers blush with how much this looks like a lager more than they do. The aroma is a yeasty bread with possibly light lemons on it. I will admit, the presentation is quite enticing, and the relatively low ABV of a lager, 5% in this case, make me wonder if I will be spending the night drinking one of these after another. I hope it's that good.
First sip is a curious mix of yeast-filled lager and light lemon-scented dish soap. Maybe it's not all the way to dish soap, but that's what it reminds me of. Uncustomarily, I took a second sip. Forget I said anything about dish soap. I'm not going to change it, as that's what I tasted in the first sip, but I'm not tasting it on the second sip. Instead, it's relatively crisp and clean, but not like a dish soap clean. Who even said anything about dish soap? Why you saying so much about this? Just let the dish soap go. I never said anything about it. Why did you!?!
Tip-in is lemons on fresh dough with moderate carbonation sizzle. The middle turns the carbonation up to a ruckus while the yeast-filled dough continues to mix with lemons in the center, but it's quite drowned out by the carbonation. The finish is pretty terrible with bitterness slapping the yeast, a slight tartness, and even a hint of skunk.