Review - Kona Brewing Company's Longboard Lager
"Longboard Lager is a smooth refreshing lager fermented and aged for five weeks at cold temperatures to yield its exceptionally smooth flavor. A delicate, slightly spicy hop aroma compliments the malty body of this beer." -- Kona Brewing
Pours a pale straw yellow hue with an average sized very fizzy white head above a highly active body with excellent clarity and a lot of carbonation. Appearance of apple juice. As you would expect, the Longboard lager has a light malty aroma. The aroma was enhanced by soft green apple notes. A hop presence was not detectable, as expected. Despite being a lager, it does have a little bit of body with some faint malt sweetness up front, but a muddled dull sweetness appears at the finish with a unflattering chewiness. Lightly carbonated and very smooth, it washes down very easy. It was initially watery, but after a short period of time your mouth will feel chewy and dry. There wasn't any noticeable alcohol presence.
It's rather chilly while we are sampling this beer, but on a hotter day the Longboard Lager will drink like water (which is a good thing). In comparison to other mass produced lagers, this wouldn't be a fair match -- the Longboard would win without any effort. Lagers are harder to brew, but when brewed well -- can be very tasty.
Reviewed on August 13th, 2009.
